steffy finn sheila mashup jpi days
Credit: Howard Wise/JPI

Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt.

It seems like almost as soon as The Bold & Beautiful‘s Finn was shot, the fans began to rise up in revolt. This was the twist? The show was killing off a fan favorite? No! This wasn’t a surprise anyone wanted! To be fair, supervising producer Casey Kasprzyk did tease the twist by saying fans would be upset, so we’d argue that he certainly delivered!

But Finn’s death didn’t just anger viewers, it also set off waves of denial. After the Friday cliffhanger in which he was shot, Monica Hubert tweeted, “I can’t imagine Finn dead. Maybe they kept him out of spoilers just because, and I heard there were no spoilers for next week’s Bold.”

Erika, meanwhile, had no time for theories. She was about as blunt as it comes.

“I won’t accept Finn being dead until [portrayer Tanner Novlan] himself confirms it on his social media,” she tweeted. “I’m a fan in denial.”

Hey, that’s fair enough. They’ve discussed him having died on the show, but what if that’s all just misdirection and the big twist had a twist? Heck, maybe Finn’s death wasn’t even the big event because he’s not dead! Jacqueline MacInnes Wood teased that there are plenty more twists coming, so why couldn’t that include Finn’s survival? Or at the very least, Novlan sticking around on the show!

Eager fans, naturally, have gotten to work throwing out theories on social media. Some pulled at what they thought were loose threads and others just flat out rewrote what happened with what they wish had happened.

So, being the dutiful daytime reporters that we are, we thought we’d gather a few of these fan ideas, throw them against the wall and see if we could spin any into sticking.

Finn’s In a Coma

Some fans are insisting that Finn isn’t dead but just in a coma, same as Steffy. Others just wish that was true.

BoldFan wrote that headwriter Bradley Bell “could have just put Finn in a coma” instead of killing him off and angering the fans.

That could still be the case, Kelly Caldwell suggested. “The way soap operas work,” she tweeted, “he could still be alive, but is taken to a hospital far, far away for his own protection.”

It’s not an idea without merit. Forrester’s got divisions all over the globe and Finn could be shipped off to be cared for near any number of them. That would open up the possibility that he’d eventually awake and connect with some distant Forrester family member or employee we forgot had moved overseas to, well, you decide. France? Australia?

But it may not be Steffy’s family who’s spirited Finn away. Has anyone noticed how odd Li’s been about the whole thing? On Friday’s episode, April 8, she was really acting weird. She won’t let anyone see her son’s body and insists she’s taking care of everything.

She could have sent him off to keep him safe from Sheila, the Forresters and pretty much everyone in Los Angeles who’s made his life hell, just like Stephanie once did with Felicia. The way soap operas work in general, and Bold & Beautiful in particular, you might be right, Kelly.

Benjamin Friego, on the other hand, falls into the Finn is definitely alive camp, tweeting that the character’s “not dead. They are pushing a Hope story now while ‘Steffen’ is in a coma.”

If this is just a vehicle for a Hope story, though, what story? Maybe both parents could be knocked out, leading Hope and Liam to take on their kids, only for Finn and Steffy to wake eventually and cause custody drama. That seems like a bit of a stretch, but it’s not impossible. Don’t believe us? See exhibit A) Hope: Baby Collector.

But perhaps we should drop the kid angle. Instead, Finn and Steffy could both be in a coma so Liam could be drawn back to his ailing ex. She’d wake first, think Finn was braindead and fall back in love with Liam. That would be when Finn could wake wanting his wife back, only to find her having moved on, causing him to turn towards a heartbroken Hope.

It would be a nice change from where we think they’re going with this story. After all, why have a triangle when you can have a quadrangle?

For a lot of fans, though, the coma was just the start. The next logical twist in the Finn saga would occur when he wakes up… with amnesia!

Finn Loses His Memory

This theory seems to be a fan favorite, at least when it comes to storylines fans wish Bold & Beautiful would tell instead of killing Finn.

Hanan spun quite the tale, suggesting on Twitter that a conspiracy is afoot, “as long as Bold & Beautiful/Tanner Novlan say nothing, Finn is still alive.” It’s all a fakeout that will lead to Finn having amnesia and needing blood. Sheila would then be exposed as not being his real mother, Steffy would be the one stuck in the coma and, to cap it all off, we’d get a few familiar faces back onscreen.

“They could give Taylor the opportunity to call Prince Omar to help her,” Hanan tweeted. “She would learn that Phoebe is alive.”

OK, wow, that scenario needed no spinning. In that story alone we counted four twists. It would definitely hold more surprises than Finn just dying!

Ambrosia took the amnesia/Sheila not being Finn’s mom idea a step farther — or maybe a step too far — after seeing Sheila kiss Finn goodbye.

She suggested that “what if the twist is Finn has amnesia and Sheila sleeps with him (once he’s better)? And we find out that they’re not really mother and son! Goodness, I hope not, but today was creepy.”

No. Just no. We’re not spinning that any further than it is. Let’s move on to the next.

Alien777 has an amnesia idea, not really of what could happen, but what they wish would have happened. And we’ll agree that the first part of the idea is certainly out of the question — Steffy was shot, not Sheila — but as for the rest… Well, check it out, because there could still be hope.

“Finn and Sheila end up in hospital,” Alien777’s writes, “she discovers he has amnesia, fakes their deaths and then brainwashes him into hating the Forresters to get revenge.”

It seems unlikely that Sheila’s faked her son’s death at this point, seeing as how she had that breakdown in her room, but if he does somehow survive, he could end up with amnesia. And seeing Sheila take advantage of that to turn him against the Forresters would make one heck of a storyline.

That way, she could have Finn take Hayes, have her family to herself and she wouldn’t have to worry about winning over or playing nice with her enemies anymore. It wouldn’t be the happy ending Kimberlin Brown might have wanted, but it would maybe be a happy(ish) ending for Sheila!

But, and we hate to say this, what if Finn really is dead? Well, the good news is, that doesn’t mean we don’t have to say goodbye to Novlan. Maybe those folks noting that he hasn’t announced he’s done with the show have a point. Just not the one they were thinking of.

Finn Has a Twin

Admit it. We were all thinking it. Heck, in the daytime world it’s hard not to think of twins pretty much the second someone’s killed.

Fan Mitzi Pursey certainly thought it, though she took a bit more of a jaded view of the whole situation. She noted that Finn’s really, truly dead, and seemed to suggest that Novlan is, indeed, moving on, but “If his new projects don’t work out, B&B will be bringing his twin brother back now that they killed Finn off.”

Others, though, seem less than enthused with the idea.

Sorry, it’s too late! The idea’s out in the world! We’ve already speculated on the Steffy twin theory, so it’s time to add her hubby to the mix too.

Maybe Finn’s dead and all the trauma causes Sheila to reveal that she couldn’t lose another child. Wait, what? Yes, she’d reveal, she actually had twin boys and only gave one of them up. The other she kept to raise herself, but tragedy befell him recently, leading him to die. That’s what really prompted her to finally seek out Finn.

Except her other son isn’t really dead! He’s the one who faked his own death to get away from mommy dearest, but now that Finn’s been killed, he shows up in town, convinced their mom had something to do with it and determined to expose her! Cue Novlan’s return as a whole new character!

What do you think? Are any of these theories possible or are they all just wishful thinking? Do you have any of your own? Sound off below!

Take a look at better times with our gallery of Steffy and Finn’s romance.