Brooke’s talk with Deacon doesn’t go as planned on The Bold and the Beautiful, but she’s not expecting to find Hope and Thomas together when she gets back to the office, either. She warns Hope against being with Thomas, but is her warning valid?
Hope and Thomas are getting hot and heavy in the design office. She locks the door and tells him that she needs to forget everything. “Of course,” he says. “Whatever you need. I love you, Hope.”
Brooke tells Deacon that their daughter came to them with tears in her eyes because she’s so upset.
Li accuses Luna of running to RJ for help, but she’s surprised when RJ says he already contacted Finn to get his support. It’s RJ’s turn to be surprised when Li doesn’t back down, instead telling Luna that she knows what she needs to do. She needs to leave Forrester Creations. RJ praises Luna’s work and says she’s a valuable member of the team. Luna says she needs to talk to her aunt alone to sort this all out. He leaves, and Li tells her to start packing before things “get even worse.”
Hope and Thomas continue their design office romp. Nothing will slow them down.
Sheila tries to convey her love for Deacon, and Deacon agrees that his love for Sheila is real. He tells Brooke to look him in the eye as someone who knows him better than anyone. He really loves her. Brooke can’t help but see that he’s not kidding about his feelings for Sheila. Brooke thinks Deacon has lost his mind having feelings for someone like Sheila. He’s aware that he’s putting all of his relationships on the line and he’s tried to break away from her, but they understand each other better than anyone else can. Deacon vows that Sheila will never be a threat to anyone anymore.
Li says she should have known Luna would show up, and despite Luna’s protests that no one knows who she is, Li says this is exactly what her sister did to her. She thinks Luna is there at Finn’s family’s business to take advantage of them, but Luna says she’s living her dream there and she won’t let Li take it away from her.
Soon Thomas is tearing his shirt off, and Hope stops him long enough to have him tell her that he loves her and that he is fully committed to her. He undresses her and she starts pushing things off the desk. They move to the couch, where she kisses him in her designer lingerie.
Ridge can’t believe that Deacon can keep his family safe from Sheila. Deacon says that Sheila has changed because of the love he feels for her. She’s never felt safe or secure before, but now she has those things and she’s not a threat anymore.
Li doesn’t think Luna is capable of understanding anything, but Luna sees things all too clearly. Li kept her and her mom from seeing Finn when he was shot, and she’s always pushed them away, but she won’t allow Li to do that anymore.
Sheila thanks Deacon for his love and support after he stood up for her in front of Ridge and Brooke. He tells her to get used to it because he’s not going to stop.
After their round of afternoon delight in the design office, they’re getting dressed when Brooke arrives. She finds the door locked. Hope lets her in and Brooke discovers Thomas buttoning his shirt. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Brooke says, shaking her head.
Luna doesn’t want to be disrespectful but she’s not leaving her internship. RJ doesn’t want her to leave, but more importantly she doesn’t want to leave. She tells her aunt that she isn’t afraid of her. Li leaves, but not before issuing a threat that she tried to give her a chance to make this all go away. RJ walks in and hugs Luna for standing up to her aunt. Luna thanks him for helping her find the courage to do it. She loves being there at Forrester Creations, and she loves RJ, too.
Hope tells Brooke to skip the lecture. Brooke says she just got back from talking to Deacon and Sheila. She asks Thomas to leave. Brooke wasn’t expecting her day to end up like this. Hope tells her not to link her being with Thomas and her father with Sheila. Brooke doesn’t think she can get through to Deacon, but hopefully she can still get through to Hope about being with Thomas. Hope insists that she’s been upfront about where their relationship stands and Thomas knows everything, but she loves how much he loves her. Brooke stands up for him, but Brooke persists and asks what happens if he can’t sort out his feelings for her if she doesn’t feel the same way.
Brooke says Thomas is dangerous, just as Thomas is thinking about making love to Hope even though she said she doesn’t love him the same way.
It’s strange that Brooke now seems more shaken by seeing Hope and Thomas together again than what’s happening with Deacon. The harder that she pushes Hope to leave Thomas, the more it seems she’s actually pushing Hope closer to him.
The question remains, though, about how well Hope’s message to Thomas is getting through to him. He says he understands that she doesn’t love him the same way he loves her. In the flashback he replays making love to her even when she says she doesn’t love him back, but he’s still smiling. This isn’t surprising, because at the end of the day he’s still with her and in his mind that’s all that matters.
Given Hope and Thomas’ complex past, it’s hard to imagine that he’s as “okay” with what Hope is doing as he says he is. For her part, Hope loves that he loves her so much, but she’s not willing to reciprocate and that’s going to become a problem sooner or later, particularly when she decides to pull away from him and move on.
There are a lot of B&B fans hoping that THOPE works out, and that the lovers finally get to have their happy ending. But the more they’re together physically without them being on the same page emotionally, the harder that’s going to be in the long run.
The Bold and the Beautiful airs weekdays on CBS and the following day on Paramount Plus. Check your local listings to see when it comes on where you are.
