Credit: CBS screenshot, Howard Wise/JPI

This week, Bold & Beautiful left me longing for Stephanie Forrester to rise from her grave and wander around slapping people. So many folks were in need of slapping for so many reasons. With that in mind, fire up your slapping hand — mine tends to be my right — and let’s dive in. 

Destiny, Thwarted

Despite the scene being kinda bitchy, I enjoyed watching Taylor and Steffy speculate that Brooke and Ridge’s lates reunion was destined — see what I did there? — to be short-lived. But this whole story would be so much more interesting if Taylor was out there dating as opposed to simply sitting around waiting for Ridge. Imagine if by the time Ridge got around to swapping one of his ex wives for the other, the brunette had not only realized there are plenty of fish in the sea, but managed to hook one! (And if that fish happened to be a shark named Bill, all the better, as that would cause the dressmaker’s head to explode!

More: Behind the scenes with the Holiday Touchdown cast!

But no, I’m sure Taylor will simply continue to haunt the hallways of Forrester Creations, waiting for Brooke to realize she’s backed the wrong horse, ditch Ridge and throw in with Hope. Although frankly, if I was Hope I might not be all that eager to welcome my mom to my team. I’m still ticked that Brooke ran straight to Ridge rather than give Hope and Carter a chance to sell her on their motivations.

Not Love, Actually

I can’t with Carter and Hope’s instalove. Forget Stephanie, I want no less than Cher to march up to the Forrester COO, slap him and shout, “Snap out of it!” I mean, I guess his behavior is sort of in character. The dude has never had the best grasp on what love is or means. But he and Hope are so far over the top in their sudden devotion to one another that I’m beginning to wonder if maybe Steffy and Ridge are right, and Brooke’s daughter is using some kind of hypnosis or magic to cast a spell over Carter.

More: Did Luna ‘steal’ Hope’s storyline? 

There’s at least one writer on staff — and maybe more — who loves to slip in little references to plot inconsistencies. This week, it was whoever had Steffy point out to Hope that only a month or two ago, Carter was all in on the idea of cutting her fashion line. Viewers have been taking to social media to point this out for weeks, so when Steffy threw that out there, I could hear some of y’all shouting at the screen, “See! I didn’t imagine it! Y’all aren’t going to gaslight me!”

Take Not Only A Seat, But The Seat

I’ve championed this show’s production values on about a billion occasions, and Friday’s final moments were a great example of what this soap does better than anyone else. Did we all sort of know that the week was heading toward Carter marching into the big office and taking over? Sure. Yet thanks to everything from the staging to the always-fantastic music, the moment when Carter walked behind that desk to sit in the big chair was downright thrilling.

More: Crew Morrow (Will) has landed a new job!

Interestingly, Young & Restless does exactly the opposite. Nearly every story on the show revolves around who’s going to sit in the CEO chair, but there is absolutely no sense of drama involved. We don’t care who’s running Jabot/Glissade/Newman Media/Whatever The Heck Sharon’s Company Is Now Being Called. How can we care when they change CEO’s more often than hotels change their sheets? But Carter taking over Forrester Creations is not only a huge moment, it’s a game changer. I honestly can’t wait to see what happens next, and isn’t that what soaps are supposed to be all about?

That said, Carter needs to pick a lane and stay in it. He keeps bouncing back and forth between insisting he didn’t do this for his girlfriend and declaring “I did it for Hope” before adding, as an afterthought, “… er, and the other underdogs. Yeah, that’s the ticket.” And when Carter, clearly reveling in his newfound power, told Ridge, “I don’t want to lose my lead designer,” I laughed while thinking, “Too soon, dude. Too soon!”

Staffing Issues

There are so many things wrong with everything happening at Il Giardino. I mean, I get the pizza is supposedly to die for (ha!), but would it just makes no sense that Will would be friendly with Sheila, given… I mean, I don’t even need to explain that, right? Yet not only do Electra and her new boo love the place, I bet they even leave the reformed psycho a good tip. Will just seems the type, right?

The scenes between Remy and Sheila were… interesting. Are we supposed to think that perhaps she will teach the budding young psycho a few of her tricks? Or, with this being the “new and improved” Sheila, might Remy have to blackmail her into being naughty?

Luna… Remy… Sheila… that’s a lot of unhinged folks wandering around the tiny town of Los Angeles, population 20 or so.

Random Thoughts

• It amused me that Carter took Ridge and Steffy to task for not giving Brooke, a member of the executive team, an office. Then again, he doesn’t seem to have one either, like half the big wigs at Forrester!

• Can we talk about the outfit Hope slipped into for Friday’s episode? Is this really what an unemployed mom would be wearing around her house… I’m sorry, cabin? One of our editors suggested this could be the inspiration for Hope’s next line. “Villain chic,” they dubbed it.