Bold & Beautiful viewers fall into a few different categories when it comes to the controversial relationship between Thomas and Hope. Some love “Thope”, some loathe the pairing, and others are just observing and trying to figure out if Thomas has genuinely healed or if he’s still obsessed. We may have the answer to that question.\
Typically, Bold & Beautiful drops clues like anvils when they want the audience to know something, but the writers have definitely been cagier when it comes to this current storyline. However, that doesn’t mean they’re not dropping hints… and we’ve picked up on a few that could point to the truth about Thomas.
After disappearing for a time after the CPS call debacle, and then resurfacing with the announcement that he’d been receiving therapy, Thomas was able to slowly but surely convince his family that he had put his nefarious former ways behind him for good. Hope, who needed to trust in his transformation in order to work with him to save the Hope For the Future line, soon got on board as well.
She became so convinced that he was a changed man that she actually began sleeping with him. This horrified her mother, Brooke — and we all knew she was going to be the toughest cookie to crumble — but even she seems to be willing to entertain the idea of “Thope” at this point, if for no other reason than to appease Ridge. That, and she really doesn’t have a lot of choice in the matter.
Liam, of course, will never believe Thomas is reformed, but that’s to be expected and therefore isn’t a big factor in whether or not we believe it.
But just as we were settling into the idea of Hope and Thomas possibly having a future together supported by family members on both sides, two things happened simultaneously. As Thomas was on bended knee proposing to his lady love, Xander Avant turned up in Finn’s office and told him his brother-in-law was a murderer.
As Hope turned down his proposal, and Steffy filled her brother in on Xander’s accusations, Bold & Beautiful fans watched carefully to see what Thomas’ reactions to these daunting developments would be. On the surface, he reacted as a truly reformed person should — he was understanding toward Hope and went to Finn’s office to address Xander’s accusations in a reasonable way. He kept his cool even when Finn bellowed that he would never allow him to be with Hope. Ever.
So, there was no anvil dropped to show us that Thomas was heading to the dark side again, or to indicate that he’d never actually left his former self behind. But on closer inspection, there are hints that Thomas may be back on the slippery slope of obsession, and that those issuing warnings may not be so out of pocket at all.
Finn interpreted Thomas coming to his office to confront him as a sign that he hadn’t changed and told him so. But what Thomas did after his visit to the hospital was also telling.
Thomas paid his sister a visit to have a heart-to-heart, with the goal being to get her to convince her husband to back off. He then did the only thing he could do where Hope was concerned, which was to “confess” to being involved in Emma’s death.
Again, on the surface, these seem like reasonable actions to take, but they are in fact problematic because they were manipulative.
Thomas told Steffy exactly what she needed to hear in order for her to go to Finn and insist he drop it, and he told Hope what happened the night Emma died but left out the part where he stood at the roadside and relished in the young woman’s fate. He really didn’t take accountability for not calling for help either. Thomas’ version of coming clean to Hope could actually be seen as him taking a calculated risk — he painted himself as more innocent than he actually was, and omitted any detail that might make it seem unforgiveable in Hope’s eyes. It felt as though he was doing damage control as opposed to truly taking ownership of his actions.
Now, self-preservation is just human nature, so we could write off Thomas trying to “manage” this situation as such, but then he said something that was also concerning. Rather than acknowledging that he had worked hard with his therapist to become a better man for himself, he credited Hope for the change in him.
So all this time folks lauded the hard work he pyt in to get better and now he’s attributing his improvement to Hope? Who the hell thinks this is good writing? Are ppl ignoring and skipping over how problematic this sounds n looks? #BoldandBeautiful
— StraightTalker (@NuhProblem) January 16, 2024
Why is this so concerning? Again, it’s manipulative. It’s something one would say to flatter a person and soften them up whilst asking for their forgiveness. Also, it makes it seem like everything is about Hope. The very definition of obsessive.
At the very least, Thomas is back to manipulating, which is a clue that he may be obsessing again. Still not buying it? Let’s look at his reaction to Hope turning down his marriage proposal.
On the surface, it seemed sweet and understanding, but would a healed, not obsessed person, really tell someone they would “wait for as long as it takes”? What about insisting she wear the ring around her neck?
His intensity surrounding his relationship with Hope is giving ‘person hyper-focused on achieving their goal and doing whatever it takes to deal with anything or anyone who gets in the way’. Heck, he’s even openly stated that he won’t allow anyone to come between him and Hope. It all sounds concerning to us.
