The Bold and the Beautiful Pairing That’s Just *Guaranteed* to Outrage Fans

The show wouldn’t really put together Hope and Thomas… would it?

You ain’t slick, The Bold and the Beautiful. We see what you’re up to.

First, the show had Liam make the most colossal of all possible mistakes and confuse a mannequin for his wife, Hope — to the point that he reacted to the dummy’s make-out session with Thomas by sleeping with former missus Steffy. (D’oh!)

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Then, the show had Hope react to the revelation of Thomas’ condition with characteristic compassion — to the point that she seemed to forget all about the misdeeds and bad behaviors that preceded the bump on his head that extra-warped his mind.

You Can See It Coming a Mile Away

Now, the stage is set for two things to happen: 1. Liam’s one-night stand with Steffy is bound to come out, and 2. Hope, reeling, is likely to lean on Thomas, if for no other reason than to reassure him that she trusts him and sees him as a harmless confidant. One thing will lead to another, and she’ll remember the attraction that she felt to him back when she accepted his marriage proposal in Mexico (and Kim Matula and Adam Gregory were playing the sometime stepsiblings).

“Excuse you, this is a private cabana!”

Credit: Sean Smith/JPI

Cue Fans’ Heads Exploding in 3, 2…

We don’t have to suspect the way that the audience will react to a Hope/Thomas reunion, we know the way they’ll react. Gasps will be uttered. Shoes will be thrown at TVs. Angry tweets will be sent. And as much as we love a good redemption arc, we get it — because Thomas ain’t been redeemed.

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The character’s brain bleed might explain why he suddenly cast himself in the Andrew McCarthy role in Mannequin. But it in no way, shape or form absolves him of guilt when it comes to Emma’s untimely demise, his manipulation of son Douglas and fiancée Zoe, his willingness to let Hope believe that her daughter was dead (and allow his own sister to raise the baby) or his attempts to blackmail the object of his obsession into bed.

Viewers haven’t forgotten that, and they won’t, not simply because they were told that he did a lot of work on himself while he was off the canvas and returned with a face full of sexy scruff.

“No one can say that I haven’t grown… a goatee. But that counts, right?”

Credit: Howard Wise/JPI

Flirting With Disaster

We get that, with a dating pool that’s really more the size of a puddle, The Bold and the Beautiful only has so many permutations of couples that it can go through. But Thomas and Hope… that’s just a no.

Is there a stronger word than “no”? Because if there is, the notion is that.

Even the thought of Thomas and Hope becoming a couple causes viewers to shudder the way that she used to when he touched her. For Pam’s sake (!), the dude used his little boy as a bargaining chip in hopes of coercing a woman who had no desire to be physical with him to have sex. That right there is the kind of sick [bleep] that ordinarily gets a character relegated to waiting tables at Il Giardino (like psycho Sheila Carter) or at least transferred to Forrester International (and what had Thorne ever done to anybody?).

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We get that Hope is the type to forgive and forget, and we love that about her. We also get that characters have to be allowed to move past their misdeeds for the story to keep rolling merrily along. But Thomas’ sins are too great, his offenses too heinous. Not too much so to continue being a vital part of the canvas, mind you; we wouldn’t get rid of him or portrayer Matthew Atkinson for all the lemon bars in the break room. We just mean that Thomas’ rap sheet is too long and egregious for him to get involved with Hope.

At least not now.

Thomas’ Last Chance

There is, however, one way that Thomas could redeem himself in our eyes and prove himself worthy of Hope in the long run. The very long run.

Oh, we can hear you balking already — and we understand. Totally. We’d balk, too, except that we know what’s coming up in the paragraphs ahead. So read on, then judge us mad if you must.

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To ever be considered a viable contender for Hope’s love, Thomas would have to swear her off as a romantic possibility (which heavens to Spectra, in the real world, she’d most definitely already be). Act as a real friend to her while going on with his life. Establish a new normal that’s actually normal.

In other words, The Bold and the Beautiful needs to show us, not tell us that he’s changed. 

The Turning Point

After some time has passed, and we’ve gotten used to Thomas and Hope being platonic pals, the sudser could introduce him to a new woman… or reintroduce him to an old flame, perhaps even Adrienne Frantz’s much-missed Amber. She’d be back in L.A. looking to wipe the slate clean and prove to the Forresters that she’s learned from her mistakes. In short order, she would find two champions: Thomas and Quinn, who have been doing much the same thing. They’d be hypocrites to suggest that a tiger can’t change its stripes when that’s exactly what they’re attempting to do themselves.

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Hope, at this point still just a buddy to Thomas, would try to encourage his new relationship… but keep seeing red flags where there aren’t any. Soon, Amber would realize what Hope didn’t yet: that she had fallen for the man that Thomas had become. Underscoring just how major a transformation Amber herself had undergone, she’d step aside, thus paving the way for Hope to admit her new feelings for Thomas.

No need to issue an alert: Amber will have changed.

Credit: John Paschal/JPI

Ah, but at that point, would he return her affections? Or would his heart actually have been stolen by Amber? And could the reformed vixen really give up the man into whom her long-ago boy toy had grown?

What do you think, Bold & Beautiful fans? If the show took its sweet time, rebuilt the character of Thomas from the ground up and made him earn our as well as Hope’s forgiveness, could you imagine ever rooting for them to be together? Maybe we’d even have to add Hope/Thomas/Amber to our below photo gallery of the show’s all-time greatest triangles.