Rick's butterfly effect

In Los Angeles, the Butterfly effect is real, and it manifested itself in a hissy fit that changed addresses and altered lives forever -- or at least for this week. Everyone seemed to be moving, and Liam got sick of sitting still. Grab your bowls and get the dish on how Rick's conniption led to Brooke's place becoming a boarding house, Ridge's larvae infesting the mansion, Nicole's heartbreak, and Wyatt's impromptu proposal to Steffy this week on the Bold and the Beautiful.

They say that pride goeth before the fall, but they don't say what goes after that. For Rick, it was Maya's portrait, his martini glasses, his ties, and his bloomers. Yes, bloomers. I'm convinced that's what he wears after the tantrum he threw. All of those things, plus Rick's family, wound up going straight out to the curb for the moving truck when Rick lost the battle of the dueling portraits.

Rick usually gets what he wants from his daddy. All he has to do is whine about how unfair his life was as a child and how Ridge gets everything even though Ridge isn't a Forrester. Rick stomped out of the mansion and refused to live there until Maya's portrait was back on the wall. He conveniently left the portrait behind so that Eric would pity him, put it back on the wall, and beg him to come back home.

Cue the Jeopardy theme music. Do-de-do-de-do-de-doom...Do-de-do-de-do-de-det-te-do....

It took Rick about a night to realize that Eric wasn't chasing him. Eric wasn't calling to see if everything was okay. Heck, Eric hadn't even checked to see if Rick and his family were in a hotel or on Skid Row for the night. The ultimatum hadn't worked, and Rick headed back to the mansion to reclaim his home.

When Rick returned, the house was bustling with movers, and he learned that he was a day late and a house short. Ridge and Caroline had moved in overnight, leaving their cramped Venice loft for the sprawling Beverly Hill's estate. In a few more hours, Steffy would also take up residence in the home.

When Brooke heard about it, she had the nerve to wonder if Ridge had considered that Rick wanted to raise his child in the Forrester mansion. Why doesn't she consider that Ridge wants to raise his child there instead? Besides, why Rick would want to raise his child in a home he claims time and time again he hadn't been welcome in is beyond me. Even Bridget told him he was revising history on that one, but still, why wouldn't Rick want to raise his child in Brooke's home instead?

Or maybe Rick should raise the kid at boarding school, where he'd been content to live off-screen during childhood. What's wrong with the live-in motel where the Avants reside? There's even a mini putting green there for the child's entertainment. Why does it have to be the Forrester mansion, and why is Maya's portrait nonnegotiable?

The truth is, it doesn't have to be the mansion, and it doesn't have to be Maya's portrait. What it has to be is Eric siding with Rick over Ridge once again. Whenever Ridge is around, Rick has to make sure Ridge knows that he's not a real Forrester, Eric is not his father, and Eric will always choose Rick. Rick can never share anyone or anything with Ridge. The brothers apparently can't even be at the office at the same time without mouths and guns shooting off.

Eric spends his years siding with one brother and then the other. It's got to be exhausting. At least this time, he recognized that Rick has lived a sheltered life and could use some time on his own. It would have been nice if Eric had conveyed that sentiment to Brooke, who couldn't wait to bring Rick back into her coddling arms. And Brooke's excited to have another grandbaby that she'll never pay attention to -- not to mention her two MIA sons, R.J. and Jack.

Thanks to Rick's ego malfunction, Maya and Nicole have to move with him to Brooke's house. As it stands, Thomas and Eric have guesthouses on the estate, and Caroline, Ridge, Steffy, and Zende will live in the main house. I'm not sure whether Thorsten Kaye's Ridge actually fits in the Forrester mansion, but it is nice to see legacy characters inhabiting the place. I prefer it over the strangers the alley cat Rick dragged in.

Without a doubt, putting Stephanie's portrait back up was the right thing to do. It was either that or a neutral painting of Pam's Tiny. Let's be thankful that Ridge didn't insist upon putting his half-naked portrait of Caroline on the wall in place of Maya's. The old goat Eric might have enjoyed that due to his penchant for young blondes, but should he have let Ridge's brood move in?

Eric wants peace, and he might be able to get it if Rick would learn that he can have his place in the family without shoving Ridge out of his. Eric would probably let them all live in the house if they could do so in harmony. It's probably the spirit in which Rick inhabits the house that bothers Eric. Rick has turned the place into a house of strangers, and Ridge is right -- his siblings do not visit.

Bridget assured Maya that their family and associates didn't have negative feelings about Maya being transgender. Perhaps they do not, but that doesn't mean they don't have negative feelings about Maya and Rick as a couple. It doesn't mean they approve of the way Rick handled things in the past. Instead of blaming things on Maya's gender or Ridge, I wonder when the couple will look inward for the solution to the family bickering. Bridget tried to get her stubborn brother do to so last week, to no avail.

Was Ridge spiteful in snapping up the house the way he did? Was it a grand plan to get the house all along? I can't tell. Ridge has been gone for months, and he came back totally different. He doesn't even have a beef with Thomas anymore. He wasn't even fazed that Thomas had been with Caroline at the hospital or that the ER doctor had "boo-booed" out the baby's gender on accident. Then again, Caroline didn't mention that it had happened in front of Thomas.

Though the reason for the musical houses game is unclear, Rick's bratty behavior caused a shift in the real estate that, in turn, caused major shifts in relationships. It spelled doom for Zende and Nicole and sprung a new opportunity for Wyatt. Zende broke up with Nicole, and Wyatt proposed to Steffy.

Brooke was all too happy to have her empty house filled again. She might second-guess herself once she comes downstairs and shrieks at the new artwork above her mantel. Maya's likeness has to go somewhere, doesn't it? Or maybe a startled jump in the middle of the night upon finding Julius and his putting green in her kitchen will cause her to rethink the living situation at her house. One thing Brooke won't have to worry about is hormonal teens making out in her guesthouse.

Zende was on the reservation list to check into the Brooke Motel, but he politely declined with the excuse that it would give Uncle Ridge the wrong impression. It was a flimsy excuse. Ridge doesn't give a flip where Zende lives and probably expects Zende to want to be near Nicole.

The truth is, Zende wants out. As weird as his whole family is, his girlfriend gestating for his uncle is just Pluto-out-there, and he can't handle it. He's used to siblings dating. It's fine that Ridge married Rick's wife -- after all, Caroline's his aunt either way. He can live with Thomas, who kissed Nicole. He can deal with cousins fighting each other, killing each other, and electrocuting each other. The transgender Maya marrying his uncle isn't a problem, but all be damned if Nicole is a surrogate for his uncle.

Let's be honest. Zende's a virile young man, and Sasha must have heated those frozen hormones up. He'll probably rush to the mansion and thank Ridge for the house invasion that made the timing ripe for Zende to dump Nicole without still having to squeeze by her big belly on the way to the bathroom. He's been looking at slim Sasha and can't come to grips with Nicole's changing body. That's got to be what his real problem is.

Zende set out to explain it as gently as he could with apple cider and candles in Brooke's kitchen. What's up with special occasions unfolding in the kitchens? Didn't these two have their first date in the kitchen? Thomas almost wowed Ivy out of her panties with a romantic interlude in the kitchen. Brooke wanted a big night with Katie and Bill, which she set up in the kitchen. I don't get all the romantic bonding beside a humming dishwasher and with the aroma of fresh Mop & Glo in the air.

And since when is a breakup a special occasion for roses, candles, and sparkling drink? Zende's going to give poor Nicole romantic setting PSTD. I feel sorry for the next guy who sets up a romantic kitchen for her. She'll probably run out in tears.

The couple toasted to how brave and wonderful Nicole is to make the choice -- but it was a choice Zende wouldn't have made. He can't deal with Rick cooing over his girlfriend's belly. Well, Zende didn't have a problem with Uncle Rick cooing over Zende's photos, now, did Zende? And Zende doesn't have a problem working with Sasha and letting Sasha grind herself on him even after Nicole expressed her insecurities about it, now, does he? But he can't wait another few months for the pregnancy to end.

I guess Zende's fear is that it won't end with the pregnancy, and Nicole, Rick, Maya, and the baby will forever be entangled. I hope he knows he'll be forever entangled either way because Rick and Maya are his uncle and aunt. While he stand on the corner of What's Awkward and Weird Street, I hope he realizes it will be hella awkward for him to be at Easter dinner with Sasha while the pregnant Nicole is there with Rick and Maya. And did you catch how resentfully Zende said Maya's name Friday? Wasn't lost on me. What did she do to him?

According to the preview for next week, Nicole is certain Zende won't be alone. Her words are accompanied by a shot of Sasha slipping into Zende's room. I'd much rather Zende hook up with Valerie from work than put Nicole through this with Sasha -- especially during pregnancy. He will quickly become my least favorite character if he breaks up with Nicole over how wrong the pregnancy situation feels to him but then believes it's right to pick up with Nicole's best friend.

One person who has no qualms picking up with a loved one's exes is Wyatt. He is two for two now in hooking up with Liam's fiances. As I said before, Rick's hissy fit caused vacancies at the mansion, and Steffy reserved one. Wyatt wants her at his place instead, and he popped the question to her as she busily packed a box full of her things to take from his house.

Uhm, wasn't Steffy supposed to be packing at the cliff house? Why is she packing boxes at Wyatt's? Liam hasn't even changed clothes at Quinn's cabin, but Steffy has a box-load of items at Wyatt's house already? How much stuff did she bring over there in the last couple of weeks? What is in there? A dozen California Freedom bikinis and waxing strips?

Wyatt presented Steffy with a nice emerald-cut ruby that just happened to be in his pocket. It's a nice ring, but there's no vacancy on Steffy's ring finger. Yeah. She's still wearing Liam's ring. I'm curious as to how this answer will go. If she agrees to marry him, does he take Liam's ring off for her like Liam did Quinn's blue nail polish? What if Liam's ring is stuck on the finger? "Uh, yeah, let me just -- " he says, yanking it. "Ouch, Wyatt!" Steffy squeals. He responds, "Okay. It's fine. You'll just wear both."

I predict a candlelight and apple cider talk in the kitchen for Wyatt's future. However, I doubt he'll listen. He takes each rejection from Liam's exes as a cue to try harder. I wonder if Wyatt's feelings for Steffy are real or if he's rebounding from his last relationship with Ivy. Is Ivy gone, by the way? I had assumed her trip home was temporary, but the plot seems to have strayed very far from where it started -- with her unrequited feelings for Liam.

Next week's preview shows Quinn saying she will have to kill Liam. I'm going out on a limb here, but short of Quinn finding a drug that can lobotomize Liam of his Liamness and make him permanently Adam, I think Quinn might decide to stage Liam's death to make Steffy let Liam go. If the hunch is true, then it means Steffy turns down Wyatt's proposal, and Wyatt gripes to Quinn about it.

It's not probable that Quinn literally kills Liam. She's running around, buying mauve tops for herself and gazing into the soft eyes of the wooly-bearded Adam. She's in love with her own Frankenstein. She'd be content with keeping him in that bedroom forever if she could, but she's gotta take her pet for a walk every now and then and teach him to sit and stay.

Liam's growing restless. Too many people keep cropping up at the house, from Deacon to Wyatt. Liam heard Steffy's "hello" on the phone this week, and his brain keeps whirling like a skip on a Lionel Richie record -- "Is it me you're looking for?"

Pretty soon, Liam's going to figure out that it really is he that Eve's co-worker is looking for. Whether Steffy grows so impatient about Quinn's unfinished work at the office that she goes to the cabin herself, or Deacon figures out it's easier for him to get Bill to pay for information on Liam than it is to Photoshop Quinn into Hope and Liam's wedding photos, something's finally got to give.

The things Deacon will do for money...He dropped by the cabin -- an hour away from the city -- to invite Quinn for a bite to eat. He was dumbfounded and amused to learn she still had pet Liam in his cabin cage. It wasn't funny to him, though, when he figured out Quinn had slept with Liam and thought she was in love. Deacon had believed that if anyone could melt Quinn's heart, it would have been him.

Deacon warned Quinn that she was living in a fantasy to believe that Liam won't have her thrown through every cell in prison once he came to himself. Deacon declared that she was no Eve, and Liam and Adam were the one-and-the-same twerp no matter how she spun it to herself.

Quinn decided Deacon had returned out of jealousy, but he quickly corrected that it was out of liquidity. He needed money, and Quinn decided he'd earn it by solving a little problem for her. Liam was having a hard time believing his name was Adam John Smith. He was crushed to learn he'd been a nomad of a child, shuffled from foster home to foster home. He only had Eve to cling to, and he needed tangible photos and memorabilia. Quinn told Deacon to produce photos if he expected a penny from her.

The photos would come from items on the Internet. Quinn instructed Deacon to doctor them and remove from them things that would jog Liam's memory. I can't wait to see how these pictures turn out. I'm imagining a cruise line ad with Quinn and Liam's faces superimposed over vacationer's bodies. Maybe a Halloween photo of Quinn on her broom and Adam the cat beside her.

While Deacon went to figure out how to accomplish the task, Adam and Eve bonded more, and Liam told Eve that he loved her. Quinn's heart melted, and she said that she loved him, too -- though I'm not sure if she was saying it to Liam, Adam, or both. Liam might not be in his right mind, but Quinn has definitely lost hers. Her love can't be real.

Real love doesn't keep a man in Liam's condition away from medical assistance. Liam told Quinn that he wasn't getting better, and he isn't. Did you see him straining all cockeyed-like when he answered Quinn's phone for Steffy this week? If he needs this much sleep and still can't walk around, he's in need of a CT scan, MRI, head x-ray, and any other screening I don't know about. He could have a blood clot like Steffy did in Cabo. Anything could be going on. Quinn can't love him and play roulette with his life.

Here's what some of our faithful posters from our message board think about the predicament:

• Wow I hope the writers do not drag out this Adam/Eve ridiculousness for additional weeks. It's already become tediously boring. Keeping Liam stashed away in the Cabin in the Woods for possibly another month sounds so unexciting. If that's the plan, can the writers liven things up at least? Throw in a bear attack or something should Liam venture past the front door. Anything but watching his eye twitch for the next few weeks. LOL. --Juwalker

• This entire storyline is ridiculous. Wyatt is in love with Ivy...she says she still loves Liam and now Wyatt can't live without Steffy. Meanwhile Liam hits his head in the bathroom of the plane...ends up in Australia...comes back and passes out...is taken away by Quinn, and he just sleeps for weeks with a look of total confusion on his face...and thinks he is married to Quinn. What is her end game here??? --Darl

I'm not sure that Wyatt is still in love with Ivy or even remembers that she once stopped the pizza man dead in his tracks with her lingerie. Wyatt's romantic attention span floats like a feather in a windstorm. I can no longer feel sorry for him. He gets what he deserves for once again -- for a third time -- trying to go from zero to married in two seconds. I agree that Liam's kidnapping is giving viewers cabin fever. Liam needs to get up and moving to avoid plot atrophy.

As for what the end games are for these plots? With Ridge going from hating the air that Thomas breathes to welcoming a chance to live together and with Zende going from staunch supporter to deserter in the blink of an eye, who knows what the end games are?

The living situations are set for some interesting dynamics, and with Caroline being happy that Steffy's moving in -- that, to me, spells problems for the baby secret. Even if we can't predict where things are headed for our Los Angeles favorites, there's one thing we can be sure of -- whatever happens, it's gonna be bold and beautiful, baby!

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