Bold & Beautiful just put the pieces in place for a huge cheating scandal to explode… and the fallout will be so widespread it will be all anyone can talk about!

Thomas blindsided Hope by returning to Forrester Creations out of the blue one day, with not only Douglas, but a new fiancée in tow. The blonde assumed he had come back to pick up where they left off, but was shell-shocked to learn that he had proposed to someone else in the City of Lights.

Hope was dumbfounded to discover that Thomas planned to marry unlucky in love Paris Buckingham and that Douglas was already calling her “mom”. It was a slap in the face that left her pleading with the dashing designer to come to his senses and get back to having sex with her. She also called him out for moving on too fast, which is legit, but a tad hypocritical given Hope has been spending her days fantasizing about Finn and not Thomas.

Soaps, however, are going to soap, and Bold & Beautiful is no exception. Hope was informed by Thomas that he fully intends to marry Paris and build a future with her. Which will leave the fashionista even more off-center than she has already been on the heels of his sudden departure, her father’s marriage to a back-from-the-dead psychopath, and her growing feelings for Steffy’s Husband™.

If our hunch is correct, it’s all a set up for something regrettable, but very soapy, to go down.

Despite Steffy’s warnings to both Finn and Hope to stay away from each other, and Brooke ordering her daughter to stop having feelings for Steffy’s Husband™ or else, they’ve shown no signs of doing any such thing. Last we saw them, Hope called Finn about Beth’s illness and he came running, leaving her gushing over his medical super-powers and ripping his clothes off in her daydreams.

Who else would Hope turn to in her turmoil over Thomas’ engagement but her good pal, Dr. Finnegan?

Now, Finn isn’t Thomas’ biggest fan, so he’ll be none too happy to diss the designer (who happens to be his brother-in-law) and to let Hope cry on his shoulder. We’re sure she’ll get a huge migraine from it all, which will require the doc to lay his magic hands on her yet again.

It’s as clear as day that we’re headed for a huge cheating scandal. Commisseration is among the number one causes of soap opera cheating, and there’s only so much fantasizing a character can do in their mind before the writers make it actually occur.
Given that Thomas is back, and the startling nature of his return, the fallout from a Hope/Finn hookup will be even more far-reaching than it would have been had he stayed away. No one but Brooke (and Deacon and Sheila) knows that Hope has already been playing doctor with Steffy’s Husband™ in her fantasies, so folks are going to assume it was Thomas’ shocking return that threw her for such a loop that she landed on Finn’s lap.

There will be blame to spare and the fallout will be epic as the scandal will affect so many lives, not to mention working relationships, on the canvas. Thomas’ relationship with Paris may suffer if he isn’t really over Hope and gets jealous, plus he’ll have to deal with his sister’s heartbreak on his conscience.

Who else will be pulled in? Brooke, Ridge, Li, Deacon, and everyone who works with Steffy and Hope at Forrester. Extended family members will have opinions, Sheila will be thrilled beyond words, and God knows Liam will be at Steffy’s door within minutes of finding out. It will be chaos, we tell ya’!

Of course, this could all be leading to a cheating scandal of another sort, if Hope were to get Thomas back into the sack whilst he was still engaged to Paris, but that would be lower level drama and we don’t think the writers established such a steamy connection between Hope and Dr. Feelgood for nothing.