Hope’s behavior of late on The Bold and the Beautiful has us wondering if she’s completely unhinged, or if this is par for the course.
What’s going on with Hope (Annika Noelle) lately? Sure, being fired from Forrester Creations and having her line cancelled were huge blows, but now her judgement really seems to be clouded by revenge and it looks like she’s willing to take anyone and everyone down with her in her fight against Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood).
Hope had been struggling in her marriage to Liam (Scott Clifton) just over a year ago, leading her to kiss and eventually fall into a relationship with Thomas (Matthew Atkinson), effectively ending her marriage (Liam shouldered a lot of blame here, too). When Thomas started pressuring her to get married, though, Hope froze up and Thomas got discouraged so he went to Paris and fell in love with Paris (Diamond White), to whom he’s now engaged.
Reeling from Thomas’ departure (despite being unable to commit to him), Hope started falling for Finn (Tanner Novlan) even though she knew he was forbidden fruit. She ended up getting drunk and kissing him at a Forrester party, leading to increased tension with Steffy and a warning that she’d be fired if she stepped across the line again. That’s how we arrived where we are now, with Hope being escorted from the building because it looked like she pounced on Finn while wearing lingerie when in fact she was waiting for her new man — Carter (Lawrence Saint-Victor) — to show up.
Carter revealed that he has feelings for Hope and now he’s her knight in shining armor, championing her line and her job because he doesn’t believe she’s been treated fairly by Steffy. All of a sudden, Hope is all-in with this new relationship, even telling him that she loves him (though he said it first, she was quick to reply in kind).
In the November 21 episode of The Bold and the Beautiful, Carter got the LLC paperwork signed by Steffy and Ridge (Thorsten Kaye), effectively tricking them into giving him control of the company. But when Carter expressed doubt about this plan, Hope encouraged him to keep going instead of telling him to back off.
This is probably our biggest indicator that something isn’t right with Hope. If Hope truly loves Carter, she’d express gratitude for his desire to protect her, but she’d tell him he can’t put himself at risk. If he submits those papers, he stands to be sued (or even worse) for effectively stealing the company out from under the Forresters.
You’d think that Hope would tell him not to do anything that makes him uncomfortable and instead figure out a way to get revenge that doesn’t involve putting him in danger. But no, Hope went as far as to encourage him to do it, because she wants revenge no matter what.
This has us wondering if she really loves Carter or is she just using him to get what she wants. And if that’s the case, can we look back at her other relationships and say the same thing? Was she using Thomas for sex, ignoring his feelings for her? Was Finn a temporary salve to her broken heart, or was she going after him to get back at Steffy?
It looks like Hope is using men as a stepladder to get what she wants, which seems to be revenge against Steffy. It’s hard to tell whether she genuinely cares about Carter or if she’s simply using him as a means to her end; if she loved him, she’d tell him not to get involved and she’s doing the exact opposite.
We don’t know how things are going to play out between Hope and Carter and their revenge tour, but we’ll be watching to see what happens next.
The Bold and the Beautiful airs weekdays on CBS and the following day on Paramount Plus. Check your local listings to see when it comes on where you are.
