The Bold and the Beautiful recap (Jan. 20): Brooke makes a move to save Bill

Steffy, Taylor, Katie, Wyatt, and Liam tried to get through to Bill on The Bold and the Beautiful to no avail. Not only had he expressed his love for Sheila verbally but also physically. The two are tied together emotionally in a way that none of them have been able to break.

So, on Jan. 20’s episode, when Brooke went to go see him, it wasn’t so much a last ditch effort but the show leading us to believe that the family had broken out the big guns to handle this problem. Considering how the episode ended, it was clear Brooke thought she’d gotten Bill to see reason, but that seems misleading when put into context of everything we’ve seen so far.

Here’s the recap of events.

The Bold and the Beautiful recap (Jan. 20)

Liam and Hope filled Brooke in on what she’d missed. It was a brief summary of Bill’s descent into the madness the families believe he’s gotten himself tangled in. She couldn’t believe that he’d blackmailed Taylor and bought a judge for Sheila of all people. And she agreed that Taylor’s desire to turn herself in doesn’t make much sense given the circumstances.

Brooke sympathized with Taylor’s position, telling her daughter and son-in-law that she’d been in touch with her new friend and had listened to her anguish over the entire situation. Deciding enough is enough, she latched onto Liam’s belief that the one person who has the best chance of getting through to Bill is her and carried herself to Spencer Mansion.

Shill were there together and Brooke wasted no time launching into her own push for Bill to drop Sheila like a sack of potatoes and come to his senses. She reminded him that it wasn’t too long ago that he’d professed his love for her and now she’s supposed to believe that he’s deeply in love with Sheila Carter? That the two loves are comparable in anyway? Brooke refused to do it.

Sheila gave her usual spiel about Bill having been abandoned by the women who claimed to love him, but Brooke paid as much attention to Sheila as Katie had done when she tried to get through to Bill. Sure, she had some fierce words for her enemy, but she chose to focus on her ex-husband and get him to see that he’s better than this.

When Bill said, “You’re right,” tears fell from Brooke’s eyes in elation. But there wasn’t anything in his expression to suggest that he’d “seen the light.” Sheila looked taken aback, but she might not be for long since Bill still needs to elaborate on what Brooke is right about. After all, he’s done a lot for Sheila, if all it took was an impassioned speech from his ex-wife who still doesn’t want a life with him to change his mind, this would be an incredibly lackluster storyline.

We’ll have to wait until next week for his answer, but that’s not the only moment that left me waiting with baited breath to see where the story goes from here. After Brooke left the cabin, Liam and Hope continued to talk about the predicament Bill has put him in. Liam also dived into the horror of the night that his father had been shot.

He said that if Taylor hadn’t confessed, he would have gone on believing that he’d been the one to nearly kill his father. Instead, he’d learned he’d done no such thing and that he’d hit his head. Sometimes though he can’t shake the feeling of having been the one there, watching his father by the window before he shot him.

Given Taylor’s confession, he can only chalk those images in his head up to his imagination running away from him during a period in his life where he hated Bill. The trip down memory lane, however, gave me pause and now I’m curious if The Bold and the Beautiful is about to rewrite history or reveal an ace card that’s been lying in wait for years.

Until next time, Bold fans. Stay beautiful!

New episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful are available to stream on Paramount+.