The Bold & Beautiful Plot Hole That Has Everybody Talking
Tuesday, May 2nd, 2023
While a lot of Bold & Beautiful viewers are going, “Wait, wasn’t Finn’s father introduced as a doctor?” — he wasn’t — we’re focused on an altogether different question: Why on earth would Jack visit babymama Sheila in prison?
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Not to put too fine a point on it, but the attorney despises the merry murderess. Yes, once upon a time, he was drawn to her, back when now-ex-wife Li was more focused on her career than him, and Sheila had yet to reveal her homicidal tendencies. But why would he go see her in prison now just because she asked him to?
The soap seems to have decided that Sheila 2.0 (3.0?) is the ultimate seductress, a femme fatale that lonely men find irresistible. That only works, though, if said lonely men are idiots who don’t realize that the world is full of single women who have never weaponized bees to kill a dude.
“All the bees call me honey.”
Credit: Howard Wise/JPI
If Bold & Beautiful wants to give Jack a love interest, one is ready and waiting for him; it would just take a tweaking of this story proposal. But if the show wants to give Jack Sheila as a love interest… ? The prospect boggles the mind. It would mean him, basically, saying, “Hey, no big deal that you tanked my marriage! We’ll call it bygones that you shot my daughter-in-law in cold blood. And our son, albeit by accident. And we’ll just pretend that you never tried to kill your mother and Lauren Fenmore, and pushed Brooke off the wagon.”
Were Jack to say all that, we’d have no other option but to conclude that maybe he’s actually made for — and as crazy as — Sheila. And we’ve gotten the impression that Jack is scuzzy and spineless before, sure. But never crazy. What do you think?
Climb the oft-forgotten branches of Sheila’s family tree in the below photo gallery.
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Image: Howard Wise/JPI (4), Gilles Toucas/CBS
1/15
<p>Since being introduced on <em>The Young and the Restless</em> in 1990, Sheila Carter has done it all, from stealing both husbands <em>and</em> babies to treating anyone and everyone who displeases her as a moving target. And though the card-carrying psycho has been arrested, institutionalized and even (cough) killed, she’s still around. Why? Kimberlin Brown thinks that she knows. “A lot of other daytime villains are gone because there was really no sympathy for the horrible things they were doing,” <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/the-bold-and-the-beautiful/news/609411/bold-beautiful-kimberlin-brown-interview-why-sheila-does-bad-things-needs-love/" target="_blank">she told Soaps.com</a> in 2021, “whereas in my mind, the story I’ve always tried to tell is that everything she does she does for love.” Sure, Jan.</p>
2/15
<p>By the time Sheila moved from Michigan to Genoa City, father Gregory Carter was already deceased. But the villainess’ portrayer believes that his impact on her has been long-lasting. <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/the-bold-and-the-beautiful/news/659419/why-is-sheila-crazy-on-bold-beautiful/" target="_blank">Explaining to Soaps.com</a> the backstory that she made up decades ago, Brown theorized in character that “something terrible happened in my past. Absolutely terrible. I’m sure it had something to do with both of my parents as well.” Whatever it was, it transformed Sheila into the seemingly unstoppable madwoman that we’ve come to know and have nightmares about.</p>
Image: CBS screenshot
3/15
<p>Sheila’s relationship with mom Molly Carter was… hmm. “Strained” doesn’t really begin to describe it. And in the end, “strained” wouldn’t have described it at all, because when she learned that Sheila had taken Lauren Fenmore’s baby and replaced it with an ill-fated black-market newborn, all to hold on to Scott Grainger — the spouse that she’d <em>also</em> swiped from Lauren! — Molly vowed to reveal the bad seed’s misdeeds. In response, Sheila stuck Mom’s head in the oven and later tried to cook her goose by burning her to a crisp at her own farmhouse.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI (3)
4/15
<p>In 2010, <em>The Young and the Restless</em> revealed that Sheila had a sibling… who was every bit as bat-bleep-crazy as she was. Wiggy Sarah Smythe, having traveled to South America to undergo enough plastic surgery to turn her into a dead ringer for Lauren, showed up in Genoa City hell-bent on avenging Sheila’s “murder” by destroying her nemesis’ life. But since she wore telltale lipstick that was <em>way</em> redder than Lauren ever would — <em>and</em> had hatched a plan that was as full of holes as a slice of Swiss cheese — the malevolent lookalike succeeded only in getting killed, not even.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
5/15
<p>The daughter of Sheila and “Terrible Tom” Fisher, Daisy Carter spent her years in Genoa City working toward a singular goal: earning the title of Worst Person Ever. To that end, when not gleefully adding cashews and almonds to Aunt Sarah’s already-nutty-enough plot to terrorize Lauren, Daisy raped Daniel Romalotti, managed to score a Get Out of Jail Free card — just like Mom, eh? — and even managed to coerce the object of her obsession into marrying her to be close to the baby that had resulted from the sexual assault that she’d committed.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI (2)
6/15
<p>Bless his heart, Ryder Callahan had something that his twin Daisy did not: a conscience. So although he, too, helped Aunt Sarah torment Lauren, he felt bad about it. Super sexily bad. As a result, Sheila’s son attracted the amorous attention of half brother Kevin Fisher’s wife, Jana Hawkes, which, in turn, made the guys not just siblings but sibling rivals.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
7/15
<p>Apparently, at some point while she wasn’t appearing on either <em>The Young and the Restless</em> or<em> The Bold and the Beautiful</em>, Sheila had a fling with married man Jack Finnegan and let the resulting child — Finn — be adopted by his actual dad and clueless wife Li. Sheila then sat on this secret for years and years <em>and</em> years before finally choosing the day of Finn’s wedding to her former granddaughter-in-law Steffy Forrester to not only reveal their relation but become, as she is wont to do, utterly fixated on it.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
8/15
<p>Conceived during a drunken tryst, Fertile Myrtle Sheila’s daughter with her onetime shrink/prisoner James Warwick was born Mary but grew up being called Erica Lovejoy. Only after she’d made tracks to Los Angeles, where she attempted to pull a Mom and steal Rick Forrester from then-wife Amber Moore, did Erica learn her true identity and catch on to the fact that perhaps Sheila wasn’t ever going to receive that coveted Parent of the Year nomination. (Once Mama’s murdered a man with bees to protect her secrets, the only award for which she’s really in line is Inmate of the Month.)</p>
Image: Jesse Grant/JPI
9/15
<p>In a 2003 crime spree on <em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em>, Sheila delighted in revealing to ex-lover Massimo Marone that their brief affair had resulted in the birth of a daughter, Diana Carter — and then stealing away with the tot. Where has Diana been for the last couple of decades? Where is she now? We’ve never been told. It also bears asking: Wouldn’t a former nurse like Sheila have <em>some</em> awareness that such a thing exists as birth control? Or has she always just hoped to keep popping out and/or abducting kids until she finally finds one that’s crazy enough to like her?</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
10/15
<p>We fear for Lucy Romalotti. We really do. It isn’t like Sheila not to try to force a relationship with a relative. So once she remembers that daughter Daisy has a daughter of her own — being raised by dad Daniel and his ex, Heather Stevens — we suspect that the grandmother from hell will skedaddle over to <em>The Young and the Restless</em> to make her “devotion” known. But at least for the moment — enjoy it while it lasts, Lucy! — the only grandkid in whom Sheila seems to be interested is…</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
11/15
<p>Never mind that Sheila accidentally shot Finn and deliberately shot Steffy; the pistol-packing wackjob still thinks not only that she deserves to be trusted around the couple’s son, Hayes, but that one day maybe she’ll get to babysit the boy. We, on the other hand, suspect that that’s about as likely to happen as Forrester Creations is to put out a line of designer snap dresses. Even if Finn weakens — hey, he’s not exactly one of our great thinkers — Sheila would still have to get past someone who absolutely hates her…</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI (3)
12/15
<p>The namesake of grandma Stephanie Forrester — years ago, the enemy at the top of Sheila’s hit list — Steffy has more reasons to despise her monster-in-law than we even have room for (and this is the Internet!). Besides “murdering” Steffy’s mom Taylor, shooting her nana and shacking up with her old flame Bill Spencer, Sheila gunned down Hayes’ mother. In cold blood. That just ain’t the kinda thing you forgive or forget… even if it was done, as Brown might say, out of love.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
13/15
<p>What is it about Sheila and dumb doctors? She’s got a halfwit son in Finn now, and her original obsession back on <em>The Young and the Restless</em> in the ’90s was Lauren’s — and her own eventual — husband, Scott. He was so lunkheaded that, before he passed away, he actually urged Lauren to put behind her all of the times that Sheila had tried to kill her and move on. Dude, no. Just no.</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
14/15
<p>When Sheila first crossed over to <em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em>, she worked her wiles on Forrester Creations boss Eric — to the point that she got him to put a ring on it. But nothing in her huge bag of tricks could get him to <em>keep</em> a ring on it, not after Lauren visited L.A., and Sheila’s litany of sins came to light. Decades later, it dawned on her anew that she liked Eric. But his then-wife Quinn Fuller proved more difficult to displace than even Stephanie had been!</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
15/15
