Bold & Beautiful Just Teased a Game-Changing Twist — But Will It Really Be Brave Enough to Go There?
Hope Stephanie gets the show in the afterlife, ’cause this is must-see TV.
After the December 28 episode of The Bold and the Beautiful, our jaws hurt from the reveal that Bill was hooking up with Sheila. (More on that shocker here.) But as the pain subsided, we reconsidered another major development, one that was much quieter but in the long run, perhaps more significant: Brooke and Taylor’s newfound closeness.
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Does It Mean What We Think It Does?
First, the frenemies-turned-friends laughed about what their on-again/off-again mother-in-law Stephanie’s reaction would be to Brooke declaring that she didn’t need a man. Then, there was Brooke and Taylor’s embrace, and their shared observation that they never guessed how good it would feel to be in one another’s arms. As the scene ended, they gazed into one another’s eyes in a way that, if it was any other twosome, we’d be wondering if they’d kiss.
Then it hit us: Why couldn’t they kiss? Why couldn’t Brooke and Taylor discover later in life, as many people do, that they are attracted to the same as well as the opposite gender? Or the same instead of the opposite gender? At the time that the characters would have been growing up, LGBTQ+ people largely remained hidden in the closet. So it might not ever have occurred to Brooke and Taylor that they had an option to men, never mind one that they’d actually prefer.
“You couldn’t have figured this out before you slept with every man in my family?”
Credit: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
A Bold Move, at Least for This Show
If the soap did decide to turn Brooke and Taylor from enemies to friends to, finally, lovers, the impact would be… sheesh, immeasurable. For starters, Ridge’s head would explode. He wouldn’t know what to do with himself if he didn’t have on standby his go-to exes waiting in the wings to forgive his latest misstep. On top of that, imagine what a formidable team Brooke and Taylor would make. Yes, they’d fight about their children, but when they weren’t, they could steer Forrester Creations in new and more inclusive directions. (How a drama about the fashion industry has never had a single gay designer, we’ll never understand!)
“Is this why they say there’s a thin line between love and hate?”
Credit: CBS screenshot
Get With the Times, Man!
What’s more, introducing to the mix a same-sex couple — and one comprised of two beloved characters — would diminish the long-held impression that the show is operating from the yellowed pages of a 1950s playbook. We’ve often laughed at the way Bold & Beautiful acts like parents must remain together to raise a happy, healthy child and that everyone must at all times be married or, wow, they might as well crawl under a rock.
A Brooke/Taylor pairing could change that perception of the show as being painfully old-fashioned. Anytime it’s flirted with a modern twist — the reveal that Maya was transgender (before she was banished to Nowheresville), Eric’s suggestion Quinn meet her sexual needs outside of their bedroom (before that storyline was traded for more of Donna and her honey bear) — headlines have followed. Attention has been paid.
Yes, there’s a segment of the audience that only wants the lather, rinse, repeat of the same old triangles and psychos. But if the soap ever hopes to attract any new viewers, it’s going to have to try some new things, and a Brooke/Taylor pairing could be but the first of many.
While we wait to see whether the show will “go there,” review where it’s been with a photo gallery full of highlights of Brooke and Taylor’s decades as rivals.
