Saving the best for last? (Soaps.com)

B&B Breakdown for week of December 22.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed some time off with friends and family. The Forresters somehow found a way to enjoy the day and get through their grief over losing Phoebe, so lets get straight to the action on B&B…

A Christmas Without Phoebe
I thought the holiday scenes were well done and managed to spread some holiday cheer even though Phoebe’s death was looming over everyone. They managed to capture the holiday spirit and continue traditions (i.e. Eric playing the piano) while still paying attention to the story. Ridge was appropriately subdued; Stephanie put her differences with Brooke aside and welcomed her to the holiday festivities; Eric stood by Rick; Taylor continued to deal with her grief; Bridget cleared Rick of any wrongdoing; and Hope made a star for the tree in Phoebe’s honor.

Rick confronting Ridge at the party was nicely done. He was quiet, apologetic and sincere. It had even more impact as a noticeably angered Ridge remained silent while Rick thanked him for not pressing charges against him. And the scene between Rick and Taylor at Phoebe’s gravesite was equally as effective. Again, subtle and quiet is more powerful and Kyle Lowder does that better than loud and obvious in my opinion.

Third Time’s the Charm?
Since they’ve been off screen so much, we haven’t had a chance to watch Katie and Nick’s relationship grow. They went from finding out she’s pregnant to moving in together to getting engaged. We’ve seen them have sex, but that’s about it, so it’s hard to get excited about their engagement, especially since he mentioned his past failed marriages, which were to her sister and niece. And are Nick and Bridget even divorced yet? In my opinion, Katie and Nick’s scenes were just an unnecessary interruption from the real drama going on over at the Forrester mansion.