Bold & Beautiful’s Naomi Matsuda Brings Li Back To Life

It looks as if The Bold and the Beautiful‘s Sheila has at least a little bit less blood on her hands. While she’s still responsible for shooting Steffy and nearly killing Finn, it turns out Sheila’s attempts to keep Li quiet didn’t actually result in the doctor being permanently silenced. Which means that Naomi Matsuda is officially back after the show’s latest fake-out.

If we’re being honest, we had our suspicions where Li’s fate was concerned. Although we at first totally bought that she’d perished following that fiery car crash which saw her car plunge into the ocean, an incident or two left us wondering if perhaps Li would follow in son Finn’s footsteps with a miraculous resurrection.

The first clue came when we chatted Matsuda up on the red carpet at the Daytime Emmy awards (which you can see below). While reflecting on her time at Bold & Beautiful, the actress — who was up for a Supporting Actress statuette — said she was “grateful for the time that I have with them.” Although she quickly corrected that to “had,” she soon after made a similar slip when referring to Ted King, saying that he “plays” as opposed to “played” her husband, Jack.

But hey, slips of the tongue happen, right?

Then, however, the Bold & Beautiful writers just couldn’t help themselves. They had to drop big ol’ anvil-sized clues that Li was, in fact alive. “Have they found the body? Was there anything on the news?” Sheila asked Mike during the episode airing on July 4. “Do you think she was washed out to sea, or [eaten by] sharks…?”

“Go ahead, Mike, refer to Li as Finn’s mother again and see what happens.”

Credit: Howard Wise/JPI

That pretty much sealed the proverbial deal as far as we were concerned. After all, we’ve watched this show long enough to know how it operates. And talking about an absent or dead character right before they’re set to resurface is Bold & Beautiful 101. In Li’s case, she reappeared at the tail end of the July 21 episode, when Bill found her in the alley behind a restaurant (that wasn’t Il Giardino’s).

Check out our guide to all the Bold & Beautiful actors who have come and gone in recent months, check out this gallery.