Bold And Beautiful: The Best And Worst Of 2024

Love them or hate them, fans deserved a better ending to the tortured romance of Hope Logan and Thomas Forrester than Thomas just disappearing. B&B spent years on this couple’s evolution, from Thomas stalking Hope all the way up to their forbidden kiss in Italy which broke up her marriage to Liam. A genuine love affair followed, leading to a heartfelt marriage proposal from Thomas. Hope demurred, saying it was too soon after the end of her fifth marriage for her to tie the knot again, but she assured Thomas of her desire for a future together by wearing his engagement ring around her neck. When Thomas re-proposed and Hope reiterated she wasn’t ready, he stormed off like a child (letting Steffy get in his ear about how Hope was stringing him along), dumped her, and moved with their son to France. Thomas returned three months later, suddenly engaged to fellow employee Paris Buckingham. The speed of that betrothal was a head-scratcher, as was it happening off- screen. But what made this breakup really lousy was that Thomas failed to reciprocate any of the grace Hope had shown him for his many past indiscretions (the mannequin!), and slotting another woman into his life so quickly made it seem like Thomas wanted to hire a wife rather than fall for one. Watching him slink off to Paris — literally and figuratively — cheapened the years spent devoted to this passionate duo.

It’s always the quiet ones! Luna (Lisa Yamada) came on the scene as a meek Forrester intern in a chaste romance with RJ. But a misguided night of hazy sex with Zende (Luna thought he was RJ) after popping her mother’s hallucinogenic mints by mistake lead to a showdown with Poppy and a fierce Internet backlash re: consent. To B&B’s credit, they quickly pivoted to Luna being a psycho and had her fake a paternity test “proving” Bill was her dad. Luna’s bio dad was actually the homeless man who rescued Sheila, a musician named Tom who had fallen on hard times. Soon after that reveal Tom was poisoned and Hollis, who was on to the killer, was also murdered. Guess who? Turned out Luna wanted Bill to be in her life so badly that she killed her real father to keep him quiet and framed her mother for the crime. Even more twisted was that while Poppy sat in jail worrying about her daughter, Luna was back at the house they shared with Bill kissing her “father” on the lips. Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) confronted Luna about the smooch and was promptly locked in a cage Luna kept handy in her apartment — another shocking twist. Soap jails never hold killers for long (right, Sheila?) and based on the letters Luna keeps sending Bill from prison this one won’t either. 

Death is relative on soaps, but the plot device took a beating on B&B this year with multiple characters requiring funeral arrangements and then bouncing back with a big never mind. 2024 began with the Forrester family welcoming Eric home after a mystery disease landed him in a coma for weeks; he’d been miraculously cured at Christmastime when taken off the machine helping him breathe. Next came Sheila, who has already made multiple returns from the dead, getting fatally stabbed by Steffy after she broke into Steffy’s home with the intent to kill her. Just kidding, said B&B — the victim was actually her look-alike, Sugar! Then Taylor (Rebecca Budig) returned with the secret that she was dying of heart disease. Taylor fainted in front of Ridge (Thorsten Kaye), was taken to Dr. Buckingham’s office, and suddenly got re-diagnosed with “Broken Heart Syndrome,” which was magically cured by a chakra realignment where Ridge and Taylor touched each other’s hearts. The image of Ridge, who cheated on Taylor with Brooke like a thousand times, rebalancing Taylor’s chakras to keep her alive was perhaps the funniest moment of the B&B year, but we don't quite think that's what the show was going for. It's the trope of faux fatality we'd like to see six feet under in 2025, in favor of stories with real consequences to invest in.

These spouses endured an attempted murder, a violent cage match, and Hope’s repeated attempts to seduce Finn (Tanner Novlan) in the most un-soaplike way possible: Together. Sure, Finn had some accusatory moments when it looked like Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) had stabbed his birth mother Sheila, but the sun came out again at their beach house when the victim turned out to be Sheila’s lookalike Sugar. More violence ensued after Steffy spied Bill’s “daughter” Luna kissing him and followed Luna to her apartment to confront her. Luna, aka Finn’s cousin, offered Steffy iced tea and she woke up drugged and locked in a cage. Finn traced his wife’s steps, busted her out of the cage, and was rewarded with a heartfelt speech about how Steffy’s belief in their love helped her get through the ordeal because she had faith he would rescue her. That faith was tested when her stepsister started going after her husband. Hope would pop in to Finn’s office requesting chiropractic massages for her neck (which was awkward since he’s an ER doc) and confide in him re: her problems at Forrester Creations (also awkward since Steffy is co-CEO). Things escalated when Hope asked Finn if he would make her dreams come true (Button your blouse, he retorted) and then kissed him at a family party. Finn went straight to Steffy and told her everything, resulting in lots of drama at Forrester Creations but precious little for the still-devoted Dr. and Mrs. Finnegan.

If you had told us in 1992 that famed murderer/arsonist/kidnapper Sheila Carter (Kimberlin Brown) would be relegated to refilling water glasses at Il Giardino in 2024, we’d have found it more believable that a bear would eat her. Rewriting Sheila as Finn’s birth mother was a promising twist that provided believable problems for Finn and Steffy. Having Sheila swap problem drinker Brooke's non-alcoholic champagne for the real thing causing Brooke to kiss Deacon was a solid wrinkle for Brooke and Ridge. Sheila shooting Finn and Steffy in an alley upped the drama to 11 and led to Sheila faking her death by cutting off her toe and feeding it to a bear. But all of that happened before 2024. Earlier this year, we thought Sheila had broken into Steffy’s house and been stabbed to death in self defense, but it turned out that was Sheila’s lookalike Sugar. Sheila’s big event this year was marrying Deacon at Il Giardino in a simple ceremony conducted by the homeless man who found Sheila held captive by Sugar. The Sheila of today just doesn't capitalize on what makes Sheila, well, Sheila. She was once one of soaps' most exciting characters — and deserves to be again.

After languishing on the back burner for years, ole Dollar Bill (Don Diamont) rebounded this year when a 20-year-old one-night stand produced a 20-year-old daughter — or so we thought. Bill rekindled his romance with Poppy immediately and accepted her claim that he might be Luna’s father, to the point where he let Poppy’s sister Li conduct an at-home paternity test to prove it. When the test came back positive, Bill offered to instantly adopt Luna; his ex Katie urged caution. Katie was right —  Luna doctored the test and later killed Tom and Hollis to cover it up. (Suddenly Poppy’s “mint” popping didn’t seem so bad.) With Poppy a bust and Luna behind bars, Bill turned his attention to Katie and their newly returned son Will. Father and son shared entertaining scenes re: Will choosing to work at Forrester Creations instead of Spencer Publications because the models were hotter, which is the kind of humor B&B needs more of and Bill can do easily. Will is also one of the few people who holds Bill accountable for his affair with Brooke which broke up Bill and Katie’s marriage, a refreshing change from all the soap kids rooting for their parents to reunite. As the year ends, it looks like Bill is indeed trying to turn the clock back with Katie, which we support. Turn it back to when Bill had good story and keep it there!