Remember When: The Bold and the Beautiful's 38th anniversary (Part Four: 2002-2006)

In the 2000s, other O.G. Forrester kids got their due on The Bold and the Beautiful

This past Sunday was The Bold and the Beautiful's 38th anniversary – and up in here, we're celebrating all week long with a look back at 38 year-by-year highlights. We've gotten past Y2K now and have gotten into a span of time where B&B freshened its canvas with the addition of the Marone clan – and also the Kellys and Ramírezes, though they didn't last nearly as long. Thomas saw his first marriage (a green card affair), Brooke found another “destiny” besides Ridge, and Darla got mowed down by Taylor, who had become an alcoholic. And that doesn't even include the fashion battles involving Forrester Creations, Logan Designs, Spectra Fashions, and Jackie M! So log off of Napster and let's dive further into the new millennium, B&B style!

2002: Hit me with your best shot

It would have been impossible to predict that Sheila's surprising return would result in the death of one of B&B's most beloved characters. Sheila followed now-grown daughter Erica (really a renamed Mary Warwick) back to L.A. – when the psycho mom saw how fascinated Erica was with the Forresters, Sheila groomed the girl for a romance with Rick. Only problem was, Rick was already married to Amber, but there was never a complication Sheila couldn't work around. She got the former addict hooked on drugs and tried to kill her when that didn't see her plans to fruition. Once the apple cart did a somersault from Erica finding out who Sheila really was, Sheila pleaded her Rick/Erica case to Eric, who told Sheila to go to hell. Eric found Sheila's gun in his face, and Taylor had almost talked Sheila down when they were all startled by the arrival of Brooke. Taylor grabbed for Sheila's gun, and, in the struggle, the weapon discharged in Taylor's chest. Taylor died in Ridge's arms, Sheila went to jail, and B&B was never the same...until Taylor turned out to be alive after all. Again.

2003: Identity crisis on top of mid-life crisis

Ridge nearly sliced his head off during a confrontation with Stephanie's ex-squeeze Massimo Marone, setting off a chain of events that took a delicious year and a half to play out. The transfusion Ridge needed to unearth the fact that Ridge and Eric didn't have the same blood type, which meant Massimo, not Eric, was Ridge's father. Massimo was ready to shout it from the rooftops but was convinced by Stephanie to stay quiet. Of course, no good soap secret goes unrevealed, and over time, others got hipped to the hereditarial hoopla – Ridge himself, and then Bridget, who responded by catching feelings for her one-time father/half-brother. Eww. Poor Eric was the last to know, and Ridge got his own half-brother in the form of Nick; the new sibs went to war over Brooke before they could settle into their new relationship. It was pretty much the last B&B story to unspool in this leisurely fashion, and while the show tends to sweep this outcome under the rug these days, we haven't forgotten that Ridge – and, of course, Steffy and Thomas – aren't blood Forresters because of this twist.

2004: Electric chair

Thorne was sick of never fully being able to step out from brother Ridge's shadow. While the younger Forrester bro toiled downstairs in production at Forrester Creations, Ridge was upstairs getting all the glory for his designs. Thorne had also had to play second fiddle with Caroline and Brooke, both of whom preferred Ridge – and then there was the matter of Thorne's parents playing favorites with Ridge as well. Thorne was finally installed as president of Forrester, but when sketches were accidentally delivered to Spectra Fashions by Thorne's wife, Darla – who Ridge couldn't stop insulting – Thorne demanded that Eric and Stephanie choose which brother should leave the company...and, of course, Thorne was edged out. He went berserk, laid into his folks for picking Ridge – who wasn't even a real Forrester – and chucked a chair through a window. Thorne packed up his marbles and went to work at Spectra, but his family never quite treated him as a second-class citizen again...even if we hardly ever see him anymore.

2005: I know, but the hospital food is so good

By the time everyone discovered that Taylor's coffin had only been rented out by a wax dummy (placed there by Taylor's ex-husband/stalker Prince Omar), Stephanie was already in full Gangsta Granny mode. Her subtlety shorn along with her hair, Stephanie stepped in when Taylor wanted to resume her life with Ridge, despite Ridge living happily with Brooke. As Bridge's marriage had been invalidated because Taylor was still living, Stephanie shot her shot and pretended to have a heart attack so she could maneuver Tridge into a bedside wedding at the hospital. With the help of another meddling mother, Jackie Marone, Brooke discovered that Stephanie had shelled out to get hooked up to equipment sending out fake readings and yanked her oxygen tube, challenging Stephanie to keel over. Brooke and Jackie forced Stephanie to fess up to the fam, and they all turned their backs on their matriarch. For a little while, anyway.

2006: This girl's not golden

Stephanie kept upping her own ante re: anger, to the point Nick robbed the Forresters of their design house in retaliation for mom Jackie taking a two-story plunge while fighting with Stephanie. La Forrester turned to shrink Taylor to get to the source of her rage and unrepressed the memory that Stephanie's father had beaten her during childhood...while her mother, Ann, let it happen. Stephanie faced Ann after a decades-long separation but hit a wall when Ann accused her daughter of making the whole thing up. Stephanie had to settle for moving on without getting a resolution, but it wasn't long before Ann came to La-La – with younger daughter Pam in tow – and validated not only Stephanie's pain but also Stephanie's experience under her father's belt. There hasn't been as powerful a saga on B&B since, and that Ann was played by, of all people, Betty White – known far and wide for her comedic skills – in an unprecedented dramatic turn made the entire saga that much more satisfying.

You've just Remembered When with this mid-2000s coverage of The Bold and the Beautiful! What's your favorite story from this period of the show? Tell us in the comments! Tomorrow, it's into the age of MySpace and the early days of YouTube via putting a magnifying glass on 2007 and finishing up with 2011. Have your cathode ray tube computer monitors ready! (That's what “CRT” meant then.)

Watch The Bold and the Beautiful weekdays on CBS or stream the show on Paramount Plus.