The Bold and the Beautiful recap (May 25): Liam confronts Hope

Hope may have left a stalled creative session with Thomas to go confront her husband, Liam, on The Bold and the Beautiful, but she found herself on the receiving end of an accusation she wasn’t prepared for thanks to Liam’s conversation with Steffy.

Last episode, Steffy dropped the bombshell that Hope has feelings for Thomas and it shook Liam. Today he tried to deny what he was hearing, but Steffy wouldn’t have it. She explained that what he’s been noticing between Thope is Hope’s attraction to Thomas. Steffy bore witness to this herself when she saw Hope gazing at Thomas and rubbing his hands. She said she knows what a woman looks like when she’s interested in someone.

Liam countered this by stating that he has done nothing but tell everyone in his life how much he trusts Hope and how committed she is to their family and marriage. He wanted to believe that Steffy misread what she’d seen, but he stopped in his tracks when he noted that he and Hope have been more connected than ever. It was in that moment that he decided he needed to go home and to talk to his wife.

What happened today on The Bold and the Beautiful?

As mentioned earlier, Hope had her own desire to speak to Liam. She couldn’t concentrate while working with Thomas so they ended up cutting their late night short despite the fact that she wanted to figure out what wasn’t sparking their fire with their latest design. She told Thomas that she’s tired of having to defend her choices to Liam. He’s not supporting her in the way she’d like, and she’s not a fan of his constant blaming of Thomas.

For his part, Thomas did say that he understands where Liam is coming from and that he’s only being protective because of all that’s happened in the past that Thomas had a hand in. But Hope doesn’t think Thomas should have to keep explaining himself or proving himself to Liam when he’s changed and is a better man. Feeling empowered and ready to get her husband on board this train that she has no intention on turning around, Hope went to the cabin to see Liam.

What she found was him sitting, tumbler in hand, looking maudlin, but this didn’t deter Hope from the talk she wanted to have. She toned it down a bit, but she did tell Liam that she’s capable of making her own decisions and that she’s not the teenage girl he met all those years ago. Hope has dreams and goals that she wants to accomplish, and she doesn’t want Liam to make that difficult for her because he doesn’t trust Thomas and he’s feeling insecure.

Liam heard her, but it was clear that his mind was still stuck on what Steffy told him. He let Hope know he was with Steffy earlier which seemed to provide Hope with the opportunity to once again remind Liam of his track record when it comes to his ex-wife and mother of his eldest child, but she doesn’t say anything about that relationship or the amount of time he spends with Steffy. Liam, however, didn’t rise to the bait.

He simply said that Steffy is married and that she has a family with Finn that she adores, completely negating the argument Hope was trying to make. His words also showed that that’s not true for Thomas who, until recently, was concentrated on having a romantic relationship with Hope.

When Hope began to talk about Thomas being dependable and how much he’s changed, Liam looked to be understanding Steffy’s point from earlier. He told Hope that Steffy told him that he has nothing to worry about with Thomas and for a moment she thought that meant that Steffy had gotten through to Liam, but that obviously wasn’t the case.

Hope was floored when he revealed that Steffy’s of the mind that Thomas isn’t the issue because it’s not his feelings rocking the boat, it’s Hope’s. The episode ended before she could respond but she looked caught. Of course, we can expect her to spin a tale to get out of this one, but Hope is definitely in the hot seat.

Though we should all prepare for Hope to deny, deny, deny, Steffy isn’t the only one aware of her feelings. Brooke spent her one-on-one with Taylor not answering the question she’d been asked multiple times in different ways by her friend. Why would Hope feel the need to say some truly awful things about Thomas in order to appease her? We know, and she knows, it’s because Hope said that she has feelings for Thomas. Taylor hasn’t been let in on that knowledge so she was once more left in the dark about it, though that wasn’t from a lacking of trying to get some light shed on this whole mess.

Not wanting their relationship to fracture because of this, Brooke asked Taylor if they could drop the conversation entirely. She said she felt bad that Thomas overheard them and that so did Hope hence her profuse apology. Brooke also acknowledged that her concern stems from not wanting her daughter and Liam’s marriage to get derailed but, as Taylor kept saying, that’s not going to happen because of Thomas.

As the audience saw, the lead designer even tried to get Hope to see things from Liam’s perspective. He’s trying to be a friend to her and that’s it. Unfortunately, though, we could see him slip if he finds out about Hope’s less than platonic feelings. He was thinking about their family once Hope left to go home, and while that could be innocent, Thomas also knows Hope has been acting weird lately and something is clearly going on with her marriage.

However, it should be acknowledged that all this hullabaloo really does stem from Hope’s actions as Brooke and Liam both know. Now that that’s coming to the forefront perhaps we’ll see some progress in this storyline. Today’s episode also had Taylor cluing into the fact that if Brooke could mask her true feelings about Thomas then perhaps that means she’s hiding how she feels about Ridge. She asked her point blank if anything has happened between the two and Brooke said no.

Again, the audience knows this isn’t true. If Braylor’s friendship doesn’t survive it’s looking like it’s going to be due to Brooke refusing to be upfront and truthful for the sake of keeping the peace. Until next time, Bold fans. Stay beautiful!

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