Hope doll, Thomas B&B

Image: CBS

The Bold and the Beautiful viewers’ reactions span from ridiculous to horrified.

When The Bold and the Beautiful’s headwriter and executive producer, Brad Bell, teased back in August that the show would be incorporating a storyline for the mannequins, most of us imagined the dolls talking to one another after hours at Forrester Creations or something along that line, and when Thomas stole a box from the office, our minds went to some sort of sabotage of Zende’s new designs… So to say we weren’t prepared for Thomas cohabitating with a talking Hope blow-up doll would be, well, beyond accurate.

Bell had previously teased, “We have a storyline coming up that actually involves a doll as a character and not just a stand-in,” and elaborated, “They can make dolls the spitting image of someone, so the dolls are just getting started on The Bold and the Beautiful.” Okay, so it’s possible we should have seen this coming, but fans were also taken by surprise and the reactions, as you’d expect, spanned from those who were delighted to those who were downright horrified.

After a really long storyline arc featuring Thomas obsessing over Hope, many were relieved to see a bearded and seemingly reformed version of the Forrester heir when the show reconvened after the production shutdown. For them, Thomas sweating it out over velvet-voiced coaxing from a Hope blow-up doll while holed-up in Vinny’s apartment, was an unwelcome, and rather huge, step backward.

Others found the twist highly amusing and heartily approve, in fact, they can’t wait to see how far the powers that be will take things with Thomas and the amazingly life-like mannequin.

Another contingent feels the plot development is simply ridiculous. Instagram user lisa_mdavis4 commented, “The Thomas story line is absolutely stupid like come on it’s so far fetched I almost want to stop watching it’s just so stupid makes no sense to me!!!!!” Though The Bold and the Beautiful has certainly had its moments, such as Hope’s head appearing in Liam’s drink in Mexico, Bill’s wailing head on Steffy’s baby, the floating head of Darla, and the ghost in Douglas’ bedroom, many still thought the talking blow-up doll concept was just too much.

All-in-all, the reveal of Thomas peering into the box and seeing a Hope mannequin was laugh out loud funny, and it’s perfect that this is going down in October just as we come up on Halloween because it’s undeniably creepy, but whether it’s a hit or a miss from here on out remains to be seen, and probably will have a lot to do with how far they decide to take things and for how long.

What was your reaction to Thomas shacking up with a Hope mannequin? Let us know after peeking at 20 (other) crazy things that only happened on soaps in the photo gallery below. Get your free daily soap-opera fix for The Bold and the Beautiful — and all of the other daytime dramas — delivered straight to your email inbox by signing up for Soaps.com’s newsletter.