Drawing your own conclusions

Deacon told Brooke about Ridge's designing disability. Liam started to tell Hope that he just missed her in Paris. And no one could tell the extent of Quinn's never-ending nefariousness! See if B&B is drawing attention or drawing blanks with Two Scoops' Mike

Has your week been bold and beautiful? Did you honeymoon on a yacht before coming home to rock the boat? Did your weapon of choice shift from guns to pencils? Did your party serve more secrets than snacks? These and more situations faced the Forrester-Logan-Spencer clan this week!

Wow, Scoopers, my comment cup runneth over. I've never seen you guys this animated; it seems the Hott wedding really has you Hott and Bothered. Myself, I think this was an infinitely better week for B&B, but there was a lot of exposition, backtracking, repeated information, and convenient plot devices. There was also a big party that apparently called for everyone at Forrester Creations and Spencer Publications to take the day off, because no one was running either company. Let's scoop about it!

First, the Monte Carlo not-remote continued as newlyweds Hope and Wyatt frolicked about the Stella Maris. As I said last week, that yacht could have been docked anywhere. And the sun was still beaming, despite the fact that Liam was supposed to meet Hope at 3:00, it was already hours later when Liam and Ivy were at Forrester International, and there was a wedding after that. It should have been dark already as Hope and Wyatt expressed rather cloying surprise that they were married.

Across the miles, both Hope and Liam had flashbacks to their relationship; good thing Wyatt can't read Hope's mind. It was kind of neat to see Lope as they met back in 2010 (wow, has Kim Matula blossomed since then!), but Hope recalling how she told Liam to meet her in Paris for their wedding, then returning to the present to show her on her honeymoon with Wyatt, just pointed up how flaky she's been. I guess Liam's been paid in full at this point for all his flakiness regarding Steffy.

Bill, on the other hand, visited his hurting son and notified him that there was to be a party for Hope and Wyatt and that Liam had better suck it up and show his face there to congratulate Wyatt. "There needs to be peace in this family," Papa Spencer insisted. Since when does Bill care about that? Maybe since he suddenly has a need to prove himself to Brooke; it's the only thing that makes sense. Otherwise, how can Bill tell Liam to move on when he's not moving on from Brooke himself?

Bill laid it on thick, too, telling Brooke, "Hope's become an exceptional young lady." He can say that after tormenting the girl for two years? And why is it that Hope was a "nutcase" who wasn't good enough for Spencer heir Liam, but she's okay for Spencer heir Wyatt? I guess Bill's just got it that bad for Brooke. I about fell out of my chair when he confessed, "You make me want to be a better man." That's the same line of bull he pulled on Katie over and over again!

Brooke knows better than to fall for it, but, eventually, she was worn down by all that testosterone and agreed to marry her habibi. I don't know about you guys, but I'm not feeling Brill anymore. Not that I ever really did -- their relationship was doomed from the beginning because it was built on betrayal and deception. Plus, Bill again says he's changing, but past attempts indicate he is pathologically incapable of it. That's fine, but Bill, let's not be hypocrites about it.

Meanwhile, Aly and Ivy were suddenly at Liam's house, and they were all talking about what happened in Paris as if they weren't already in the know. That's called exposition, and Wednesday's episode was full of information that had already been conveyed in Tuesday's episode; it's as if the show backtracked a day. And Aly really needs to knock off the hero worship. However, she did ask the most intelligent question of the week: how exactly did Ivy get pushed into the Seine?

Liam's had enough experience with Quinn's machinations that he should have suspected her immediately. But he was too busy wondering how things had gone so wrong after he and Wyatt had just made peace. And that's a valid point: Wyatt befriended his brother, only to bust moves on Hope again in the same week. "What I don't understand," Liam admitted, "is how she could marry him so quickly." Indeed, Liam speaks for us all. It's as if the writers are actually aware of it.

Ivy seems to be crushing on Liam, and talked smack about Hope when she first arrived, but now she wants Liam to tell Hope about crossing wires in Paris so they'll reunite. That's about as consistent as the fact that Aly was also crushing on Liam when she first arrived, only to set sail on the Good Ship Lope. Liam admitted that maybe Bill was right in saying he should move on. I think Hope does need to know the truth, but at this point, Lope/Hyatt needs to be over. Hope's married to Wyatt; just leave it already.

I have noticed that the show seems to go up several IQ points whenever the grownups get the spotlight. Deacon couldn't believe Quinn pulled a gun on him over suspecting her of killing Ricardo and showed an unprecedented strength as he went up against her, demanding that she stay away from Hope and insisting that Quinn went to murderous lengths to acquire the HFTF diamond for her son. I knew he was never in any real danger, though, which diluted the scene; predictably, she put the gun down.

But she never would have picked it up if she wasn't guilty as hell. So here's what I don't get: Deacon knows that Quinn was seconds away from killing Liam, and he just about got a bullet in his own head. Wouldn't you quietly excuse yourself and then make a beeline for the nearest police station? Not Deacon: he stuck around and let himself get roped into her latest scheme to break up Brooke and Bill. The only reason I didn't completely object is because Quinn and Deacon's conversation about it was so fascinating.

Quinn suggested that their "lack of stable partnerships" made them who they are, and that she had hated Bill for years until she realized her antagonism belied the opposite feeling. And I have to admit, Quinn's idea to use Brooke's fear of Bill's temper to pull her away from him is damn near brilliant and the soundest plot device I've seen on the show in a long time. Quinn wanted to set things up so Bill would lose it in front of Brooke again -- with Bill's history, that wouldn't take much!

But then, Quinn seemed to shift gears and decided she needed Ridge's help for Operation Break Brill. She sashayed into Forrester Creations, where security guard Charlie just sat there as Quinn pushed past Pam into Ridge's office! It doesn't matter that Charlie ended up ushering Quinn out; it's his job to keep people from getting in. That was such a bizarre moment -- and why was he hanging around with Pam, Oliver, and Aly, making up medieval stories? Don't they all have work to do?

Quinn tried to work Ridge by "making amends" for her "real world damage," in this case, setting off the chain of events that led to Ridge falling out of the helicopter. But Ridge wasn't buying it, which I loved. He gruffly dismissed Quinn and ordered her out, yet she managed to stuff some of Ridge's discarded drawings into her purse without Charlie hearing any crumpled paper, despite standing right outside the door. And when Quinn saw Ridge's scribbling, she reasoned that he couldn't design anymore.

I think I've mentioned this before, but it's worth repeating: how is it that Ridge suffered some kind of brain damage, falling into the Persian Gulf, and the only manifestation is that he can't draw? His not being healed instantly is certainly more realistic, but the damage should be more widespread. Ridge then met Katie for lunch, again bitching about how Brooke shouldn't be with Bill. Katie, I think it's time to take off that dirty string and rethink your relationship with this guy. Seriously.

Quinn has become so much of a cartoon that she and Deacon remind me of Russian spies Boris and Natasha from the old Bullwinkle show. Nevertheless, they managed to overhear Ridge insisting to Katie that they keep his handicap secret. Later, Ridge added that if Brooke knew, everyone would know. Really? Twenty-seven years of being around his Logan, and he thinks she'd blab about something that important? But this was just one secret that got invited to Hope and Wyatt's party.

The other, of course, was Liam's presence in Paris, and both secrets seemed poised to pop like the cork on Bill's giant champagne bottle. There was good soap in these sequences, with some genuine suspense as Deacon spilled the beans about Ridge's disability to Brooke in the usually not-seen Logan kitchen -- which was interesting, because for a moment, it looked like Ridge was going to beat him to it; he would have, had he acted on Katie's insistence that the truth would end Brooke and Bill forever.

Actually, all the Deacon/Brooke scenes were kick-ass this week, especially Deacon recalling why Brooke named their daughter Hope and his observation that Brooke kept him at arm's length because she hated herself for their affair, which filled in a 12-year gap. We even got an old school Breacon flashback! Now that's how you do flashbacks, y'all! Then, Deacon told Brooke that Ridge couldn't draw, a fact she confirmed when confronting Ridge about it resulted in silence. Boom! Not a bad reveal.

Another interesting twist happened when Bill publicly put Liam on the spot about congratulating Wyatt and Hope, only for Wyatt to save him by changing the subject. Too bad Wyatt also took the opportunity to flaunt his marriage to Hope in Liam's face -- but Wyatt has proven to be backhanded that way. Still, Liam never actually did any congratulating, which was at least different. And Ivy nearly spilling to Hope about Paris herself was an intriguing tease.

The party also brought a strained conversation between Quinn and Brooke, who had just referred to Ms. Fuller as Hope's "black widow" mother-in-law, and some surprisingly biting banter between Maya and Carter. "Be nice -- if that's possible," Carter snarked to his former fiance. And Maya's still trying to bait Rick, this time in Caroline's absence, but Rick isn't having any of it. "Just because things didn't work out with you and Carter, doesn't mean the rest of us aren't happy with who we're with." Meow!

Less interesting was Liam finally sneaking upstairs to catch Hope alone. To begin with, Wyatt should have smelled a rat when Aly, who has been his biggest detractor and is known the world over for supporting Hope's relationship with Liam, suddenly wanted to know everything about Wyatt's wedding. And I really think Ivy needs to get her own storyline; it seems that all she's been brought on to do is talk about Liam and Hope. The whole cast already does that!

Hope was surprised to find Liam in her room, and she was surprising in that she actually displayed anger toward him. "You really don't get to tell me who to marry," she sniffed after telling him how she'd waited for him at the Eiffel Tower. What, for three minutes? Had she been there until dark, I could understand her being pissed. And Liam took way too long to tell her he had been in Paris; this lack of full explanation made for our Friday cliffhanger. Not nearly as dramatic as Ridge's reveal!

How will this double disclosure affect our legion of partygoers? Will Hope waffle back to Liam? And will Brooke show her Middle East traveling companion her middle finger? Share your thoughts below this column in the Comments section, post a message on the Soap Central message boards, or simply click here to submit Feedback. Your comments could wind up in a future column, like these! Check it out!

• "I was gasping at the unreality of Liam, Ivy, and Quinn managing to get on a commercial and international flight so quickly and easily. Using a Forrester jet can get everybody up in the air in a hurry, but it takes extra hours to go commercially. I guess I'm addicted to watching every day...wondering what crazy behavior will be next, but one of these days I will come to my senses and stop wasting my time... " -- Maurine

•"I was very displeased with the wedding of Hope and Wyatt. How can a brother move in on his brother's girl like that? And why can't Hope see that he is just like his mom? I guess she has forgotten about him stealing the diamond, and that mom of his Quinn needs to be in jail..." -- JoAnn

•"Wyatt and Hope belong together! Kim Matula and Darin Brooks have better and more chemistry than she and Scott Clifton do! Clifton and JMW have amazing chemistry and Liam [and] Steffy were made for each other...Hope marrying Wyatt is no different than when Liam immediately turned to Steffy after he found that note in Italy that he thought Hope wrote..." -- Rebekah

•"Is Hope schizophrenic? How can one woman put a time limit for her fiancé to meet her...and when the coach turned into a pumpkin she turned to Wyatt? This is the way one makes a life commitment decision?...there is so much BS on this show that insults viewers..." -- Gail

•"At this point I can't take B&B seriously because every other week we're repeating the same thing." -- Camille

•"I thought [last week's column] was spot on! We just need peace from the triangle for about a year or two!" -- B&B Universe

So many Points to Ponder this week, it's hard to have to choose between them:

Deacon swilled champagne at the party, and before that, he told Quinn he needed a cocktail. Isn't he a recovering alcoholic? If he's relapsed from A.A., fine, but the show should acknowledge it... Katie tried to comfort Ridge by telling him that designing is not who he is. Does she know Ridge at all? That's been his most salient characteristic for 27 years! Then, when Deacon asked Brooke if she had seen any of Ridge's designs lately, she answered, "Yeah, I think so." She thinks so? Either she has, or she hasn't...

Everyone was cool with Quinn being at this "family party." Yet Liam, Wyatt, Bill, Hope, and Deacon all know Quinn tried to kill Liam -- wouldn't one of them have an issue with an attempted murderer eating the hors d'oeuvres? More to the point, when did Wyatt tell Hope that Quinn was "out" of the sanitarium? Hope acted as if she's known all along; maybe Wyatt told her on the way home, but her non-reaction was strange... Ridge was unusually bitchy, but accurate, when he said, "What Brooke does today may not inform what she does tomorrow..." And the sun shone bright in both Los Angeles and Monte Carlo, which is unlikely, because there's a 9-hour time difference between the two locales...

Bill would have a gigantic photo of himself on his yacht... "I've never heard of anyone falling in," Aly said of the River Seine. Has she Googled centuries' worth of information to come to this conclusion? Then, Liam not only seemed to recall Hope's wedding, which he wasn't around for, but Hope had a flashback of leaving the Eiffel Tower with Wyatt, which was never shown in the original episode... Brooke insisted that Wyatt call her "Mom," which is surprising, considering she made her preference for Liam clear before her daughter switched grooms!

Next week, we'll do it all again, Scoopers. Keep watching, be alert, and most of all, be bold!

What are your thoughts on ? What did you think of this week's Two Scoops? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.