The Bold and the Beautiful recap (Sept. 29): Deacon proposes to Sheila

Deacon keeps on surprising us on The Bold and the Beautiful. The restaurateur was the one who ensured Sheila’s freedom after Ridge and Bill tried to take her down for a murder she committed decades ago. Now, when he asked her to stay, he didn’t just mean in town or to not leave him again. No, he pulled out all the stops, setting up a romantic dinner for two at Il Giardino.

The beautiful setting complete with fairy lights, gorgeous roses, and a spread full of Sheila’s favorite foods was truly a sight to behold. It seems Deacon’s talk with the judge about the lengths he went for his lady love and what that meant about his feelings for her, seems to have provided some clarity for him on what he wants in life.

Sheila and Deacon have been on and off for two years now. Their break-ups have been largely due to Deacon’s inability to be public about their relationship. To be fair, there were times in the story this was because Sheila was a fugitive but, for the most part, a big hang up of his has been what his daughter, Hope, would think about his romantic entanglement.

For her part, Sheila’s respected his feelings on the matter. Even in today’s episode, she reminded him about his concern over losing Hope and what going public could mean for his business. To be honest, while Deacon’s worry over his daughter is valid, what Il Giardino has to do with it hasn’t been explained since his financing for the restaurant isn’t dependent on someone who despises Sheila (as far as I know).

In any case, Deacon didn’t just want to show Sheila a nice time, proving to her that there is someone who values her and loves her. He also wanted to offer her his heart in the form of a proposal which was a shock not just to Sheila, but I’m sure the audience as well.

Deacon asks Sheila to marry him on The Bold and the Beautiful

Personally, thanks to spoilers for the week of Oct. 2, I figured Deacon was the one who was going to make an impulsive decision regarding marriage. None of the other unmarried couples on the show are in a place for the question to be popped. We’ve spent the week watching Sheila process the fact that Deacon kept her from going to prison for life and made it possible to potentially one day have a relationship with her son, Finn.

Deacon’s proposal speech was very romantic and centered on the love Sheila has brought into his life since they first started developing a bond. He likes that there’s a risk to their connection and that she’s filled his world with her presence when he’d previously been lonely. They joke and they laugh but they’re also there for one another and there’s a passion to their connection that he hasn’t been able to quit and he doesn’t want to because they’re it for each other.

The episode ended before Sheila gives him an answer, but I suspect she’s going to say yes. Sheila’s always wanted a partner who values her and accepts her for who she is. That’s Deacon and he knows all the wrong she’s done and loves her anyway. Not to mention, she loves him, too. Their family members aren’t going to be happy about this but they’ve got bigger fish to fry anyway.

Taylor finds out Thomas and Hope are sleeping together

For instance, after Taylor got through telling Brooke and Ridge that she’d spoken to Finn about how to handle getting Sheila out of his life aka making it clear in no uncertain terms that he doesn’t love her and doesn’t see her as his mother, she turned her sights to Thomas.

The smile slipped right off her face when Bridge informed her that Thomas’ relationship with Hope had progressed past a kiss and that the two have been intimate. In a move that made me roll my eyes, Brooke agreed with Ridge that there wasn’t anything they could do about it because the pair are consenting adults. It was one of those moments where Brooke is saying one thing in Ridge’s face but doing another behind his back.

Brooke has been trying to sever the connection between her daughter and Tridge’s son since Hope let her know that she’d begun desiring him. When she caught them in his bedroom, she went toe-to-toe with Hope over it, trying to get her to cut off the sexual nature of their relationship and focus on winning her now ex-husband, Liam, back. She’s also said more than once that she thinks Thomas is somehow manipulating Hope into this newfound intimacy which makes no sense.

Taylor was shook by what Bridge were telling her. And she reminded them that Thomas could slip back into a very dark and dangerous mindset if he’s not careful. She left the main office at Forrester Creations to go find him and, in private, Brooke told Ridge she hopes Taylor doesn’t go blaming Hope for any of this.

I think Taylor would be right to blame Hope for some portion of this. Yes, at the top of the episode Hope checked in with Thomas yet again to make sure they were on the same page that despite the dinner date their son, Douglas, put them on, they still weren’t an item. They sleep together, that’s it. Honestly, if you have to keep checking in to make sure someone you’re not in love, who you know is in love with you, doesn’t get any big ideas about you being a couple one day despite being intimate together, you should leave that person alone.

Hope, however, is hearing what she wants to hear from Thomas which is that he’s fine not being in a romantic relationship though he feels strongly about her, and that he enjoys being intimate with her. Taylor walked in on the two in the middle of a kiss, and she was awkward about it but also said she was glad that she interrupted them.

After sending Hope on her way, Taylor spoke firmly but kindly to Thomas as she tried to gauge where his head was at with this situation. She thinks it’s a bad idea, but he believes he can handle things if he and Hope’s relationship doesn’t grow into love on her end and it fizzles out. He acknowledged that he’d be hurt but thinks he’d be okay.

Taylor dug deeper asking if any boundaries were set to which Thomas said yes, but she caught on that they were ones established by Hope and there weren’t any on his end. The conversation was staying on track until Taylor made the frustrating choice of turning the discussion into Thomas learning from her own mistakes regarding Ridge and Brooke.

I don’t think that was necessary as this is clearly a different situation. At least all parties involved in that triangle had stakes in the outcome. Ridge loved both of them and they loved Ridge, he just had to decide who he wanted to spend his life with in the long run. Hope is struggling to even give Thomas a chance outside of the bedroom. So, no, she’s not like Brooke, she’s worse.

At least when Brooke makes poor decisions, it’s often out of love or because she had a past connection with someone else that had the potential to lead to a romance. Hope is risking Thomas’ mental well being because she desires him sexually and refuses to deal with the possibility that her actions could have major consequences for him, herself, and their son.

Thomas used to be obsessed with her. She knows he’s in love with her and that he’s done so much work on himself to be a better person and father. Hope even admires that about him, but she won’t put Thomas before her own needs even though she’s aware he’s susceptible to her because of his feelings.

What makes matters worse is that when she left the design office to go to the main one, she walked in huffing like a child about to have a tantrum because yet another person knows about her relationship with Thomas. If she can’t admit that she has feelings for him, gets angry when people find out about them, and is convinced she likely will never fall in love with him, then she needs to cut this man loose so he can find real love. Anything else is simply selfish.

I’m looking forward to next week on The Bold and the Beautiful. There’s bound to be fallout from today’s episode. If you missed what happened, you can stream the soap on Paramount+.