Steffy Who? Bold & Beautiful Kept Fans From Missing Jacqueline MacInnes Wood With Two Big Stories — Plus, the Soap’s ‘Forgotten’ History

Credit: Howard Wise/JPI (3)

This week, The Bold and the Beautiful proved that you don’t need a lot of money to have a good time… all you need is a Quarter (as fans have dubbed Quinn and Carter). They started the week hot-and-heavy before segueing into “this can never happen again” dialogue… followed immediately, of course, by another romp. Having never heard that loose ships sink ships, Quinn had to tell someone about the “mindblowing” sex, although her choice of confidante was questionable. Why? We’ll get to that in a moment… 

Say What?

Let’s just be honest, shall we? The Bold and the Beautiful is not what you’d call “the thinking man’s soap opera.” It’s not where you go for complex storylines or wordplay-filled dialogue. It’s job is to keep you entertained for 30-minutes a day by any means necessary. It’s also designed to be incredibly easy to access so that should a non-viewer read a story (or even a tweet) about a hot new couple or fun plot twist, they can flick on the TV and dive right in.

Questions? The dialogue will fill in the blanks for you. Repeatedly. And unlike shows on which it helps to know the history, that doesn’t much matter here because, frankly, the characters don’t remember it, either. For example, this week, Zoe asked Carter he was behaving differently saying, “You were one way before Quinn went over to your loft and you’re another way now.”

Except… yeah, no. He’d made it clear he didn’t want anything to do with Zoe then and he was still giving off that same vibe. She also said she missed “the way we would just look at each other here in the office.” But of course, the only person she ever really made goo-goo eyes at was Zende.

More: The exit story we want to see for Zoe

Then there was Brooke, advising Eric on how to fix his marriage. “Set up a romantic evening,” she suggested. “You’re the master, Eric. Do something so that you can get swept away.” Meanwhile, the Twitterverse shouted, pretty much in unison, “Brooke would never in a million years say that of the woman she hates with the passion of a thousand fiery suns!”

Moving Right Along

Frustrating as this style of storytelling can be, it’s something Bold & Beautiful fans know to expect… even as they complain about it. Why does it work? In a way because the show never, ever forgets its primary objective is to always be setting up the next cliffhanger or payoff. When a plot point or character has served its purpose, it is backburnered until needed again. Just ask Zende.

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For weeks, Bold & Beautiful made it clear that Zende, not Carter, was the guy Zoe wanted. The Buckingham sisters were set up as bitter rivals with the soft-spoken designer playing Ridge to their Taylor and Brooke. Then in a whiplash-inducing twist, Zoe became overnight besties with Quinn, who slept with Carter… essentially pushing Zende and Paris right out of the picture.

And it’s worth noting that much of what’s unfurling on screen probably wouldn’t be taking place had the show not had to deal with the absence of Jacqueline MacInnes Wood’s Steffy during the actresses’ maternity leave. For nearly the entire previous year, Bold & Beautiful had been playing the Finn/Steffy/Liam/Hope/Thomas story to the exclusion of almost every other character on the canvas. How to deal with the (temporary) absence of a major player?

By practicing the fine art of distraction.

Prime Suspect

Unfortunately, the absence of not only Steffy but hubby-to-be/babydaddy Finn is ridiculously noticeable when it comes to this week’s other big story. Baker seems to have focused his entire investigation on first Thomas and now Liam, completely ignoring that Steffy and Finn have at least as much motive when it comes to Vinny’s supposed murder.

I’ve long speculated about Finn having a heretofore unseen dark side, and this would have been the perfect opportunity to explore that possibility, with or without Steffy on the canvas. I’m still hoping that at some point, we’re going to get a big twist (someone else killed Vinny!) or even two (Bill frames Thomas to save Liam!).

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Random Thoughts

• Speaking of poor, dead Vinny, how funny was that tribute video Thomas made to his “lifelong pal”… which only included pics from the past two years. Not a single shot of them as kids, no pictures of Vinny’s family or other friends. Also, wouldn’t the media have a field day with a member of the prominent Forrester family putting out a “tribute” video about a known drug dealer who was arrested for having switched Steffy’s paternity test results? I always want soaps to write their rich characters as rich characters, and that includes having them deal with paparazzi and tabloid reporters being up in their business.

• Why would Quinn loudly discuss her affair in the living room where there was absolutely no reason to expect privacy. Again, I want rich people to be written like rich folks. How fun would it have been if we cut to two maids discussing the literal affairs of their employers? That kind of upstairs/downstairs stuff would not only be a blast, but it would also serve as a great way to introduce some much-needed “have nots” into the story.

• Meanwhile, I’m not sure Shauna was the best person for Quinn to tell. It wasn’t all that long ago that Quinn feared her best friend might be going after Eric. Why provide her with ammunition? But again, that goes to my previous point about characters having about as much use for history as I have for brunch in restaurants that don’t serve booze.

• So are we just never again going to mention what Zoe did to derail Paris’ date with Zende? On the one hand, I’m perfectly happy to never discuss Fartgate again, but if that’s the route we’re going, then what was the point of that whole mess?

That’s my take on this week’s action… now let’s hear yours. But before heading to the comments section with your thoughts, why not peruse this pic-filled gallery in which we celebrate Mother’s Day by honoring some of your favorite soaps stars, whether they’re new moms, moms-to-be or daughters of awesome moms. (By the way, consider this a reminder to get your mom something special!)