There’s tension in the air on The Bold and the Beautiful. With the decision to table Hope for the Future, Ridge (Thorsten Kaye) faces backlash from Zende (Delon De Metz), who questions the favoritism at Forrester Creations.
As a novice B&B fan, imagine my surprise to find Zende Forrester Dominguez show up at the fashion showdown a few weeks ago. This was the first time I’d seen him on the show, though I was aware of the cadre of Forrester family members who aren’t (currently) part of the day-to-day show.
As a fashion designer himself, Zende wanted to be at the fashion showdown to support his grandfather, Eric (John McCook) and his uncle, Ridge. But now that funding for Hope for the Future is being channeled into Eric’s new line, Zende is being pushed to the side and he’s not happy.
What’s more is that he’s unhappy that RJ (Joshua Hoffman), someone who had no interest in design whatsoever, is now at the top of the food chain because he’s working with Eric.
His accusation that nepotism is the guiding principle at Forrester Creations isn’t far off base. After all, with the addition of RJ to the team, all of Ridge’s children now hold high-level positions at the company.
Zende’s mother no longer works at the company and that means the only person who would be able to directly advocate for Zende is his grandfather. But there’s an optics problem; Zende thinks Eric picked RJ, who had zero design experience, instead of him. Now Zende feels like he’s adrift at the family business even though he’s a talented designer and he’s also a Forrester.
Ridge needed to hear this message. He’s been running the show for a long time and he’s not seeing that his immediate family seems to have a very big advantage over everyone else. Not only that, but his position at the company is a direct result of nepotism — he’s Eric Forrester’s son, yes, but he’s not Eric’s only child. There are others. Ridge took over and rose to the top, riding his father’s coattails the whole time.
It’s important to note that Zende is missing a big piece of the puzzle. He doesn’t know why Eric came to RJ in the first place. He doesn’t know that Eric swore RJ to secrecy about his health, forcing the young man to keep the secret from Ridge. RJ rightly worries that Zende will be upset when he realizes what’s going on with Eric’s health, and without that key piece of information he’s reacting to something that’s bigger than he can possibly imagine.
At the end of the day, though, Zende’s accusation about nepotism at Forrester Creations isn’t wrong and hopefully it unleashes a wave of changes at the company.
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.
