For those who felt Carter and Hope’s sudden attraction on Bold & Beautiful came out of the blue, watching them say, “I love you” to each other a week or so later was extra-jarring. What the heck is really going on here?!

Given this is Bold & Beautiful, which has a penchant for turning folks on a dime to build the next big plot, this could just be the direction they abruptly decided to go with the characters… and go hard they have. However, looking deeper, there may be a bigger theme at work that could deliver an emotional impact down the road.

Relationships have always been complicated for Hope due to her mother’s reputation. Stephanie branding Brooke as “The Slut From the Valley” kinda stuck… and she sure didn’t help her own case by bedding and having a baby with her son-in-law at the time, Deacon, sleeping with three different Forrester men, or falling for her sister’s husband when she had post-partum depression.

Brooke certainly isn’t the only female character to have had a string of relationships or to have been in love triangles, but she seems to need a man by her side and that’s led her to make some questionable choices.

From the time Hope first embarked on romances of her own to the present time, Brooke’s reputation has played a central role in how she defined herself and in her decision-making. From struggling with her sexuality back in the day, to delving into it more recently, whether or not she was “like her mother” has been a constant thought, not just in the back of her own mind, but often in the minds (and mouths) of others.

Hope not only created an identity around being virtuous and “not like her mother”, but an entire fashion line as well. This worked well for her… until it didn’t. When she found herself attracted to a man she shouldn’t have been, and acted upon it, her carefully cultivated world began to crack open. Throwing herself into a love affair with Thomas, realizing how good sex could be, and processing her pain surrounding Liam’s flip-flopping, were revolutionary… but with all of this came confusion.

Hope wanted a one-woman man, but didn’t want to settle down into a married life with Thomas. She then moved onto obsessing about sex with another one-woman man, Finn, who was unavailable. With that came shame. On top of the shame she’d already been made to feel over her mother, and breaking up her family, and romancing Thomas.

Carter, then, was a revelation. The answer to everything. Attractive and sexy, yet loyal and focused solely on her. Perfect. What’s not to love?

The problem? There’s been a quick succession of men for Hope amid confused thoughts and emotions without taking time to process. Yup, we think the bigger story here could be Hope’s identity crisis. Hence, the intensity around the loss of her fashion line, which she could be clinging to as the last vestige of that personna she held to so tightly for so many years. Also hinting at this being the story within the story is Ridge’s remark to Brooke about her daughter’s choices, and Brooke’s recent concerns about Hope’s inappropriate behavior with Finn.

Maybe we’re reaching, but we’d love to see this turn out to be a deeper story about Hope’s evolution as a woman, rather than a contrived, crackpot plot about insta-love and in-fighting at Forrester Creations. Remember when Steffy had her big epiphany and decided to stay single instead of reconciling with Liam for the umpteenth time? We want a moment like that for Hope too. As it stands, this story doesn’t seem to be working for the audience at all.