The Bold and the Beautiful‘s Carter Walton (Lawrence Saint-Victor) and Steffy Forrester Finnegan (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) were thousands of miles apart when their respective marriages to Daphne Rose (Murielle Hilaire) and Finn (Tanner Novlan) imploded. Daphne walked out on Carter after finding out that she wouldn’t be able to give him a child. She didn’t trust that they could get past this. Finn made the extremely poor choice to keep from Steffy the fact that his mother, Sheila (Kimberlin Brown), who shot both of them years ago, had followed him to their special place, Monaco.
While the scenarios were very different, Carter and Steffy had in common the feeling that there was no longer any trust in their marriages. The two already had an extremely tight friendship as Steffy supported Carter and Daphne during their quest to become parents. Carter, being Forrester’s top lawyer, was well aware of Sheila’s past crimes. He and Steffy always got along great. (Now, they’re getting along even better!)
On Monday’s episode, a despondent Steffy was back in Los Angeles and she was unloading on Carter what had gone down in Monaco. MacInnes Wood played a somber finality to these scenes. It was clear that there was no coming back from Finn’s betrayal. She no longer felt safe with the man who would hide from her that he was slowly but surely letting his murderous mother back into their lives.
Along with her husband, Steffy has two children, Kelly and Hayes, to consider. She needs to protect them and herself. There’s no surer sign that a marriage is over than handing over the wedding rings. Steffy told Carter she’d left hers in Monaco after discovering her eight-toed mother-in-law on the beach and finding out that Finn knew he was there and didn’t share that information.
Saint-Lawrence’s Carter is a true friend to Steffy. He opted to listen to his friend’s predicament rather than just unload on her his own marital status.
“I need to be safe, so it’s over,” Steffy proclaimed with great sadness. “We’re over.”
Carter looked down at his own wedding ring at this moment. While it was still on his hand, he believed his union was equally kaput.
MacInnes Wood continued to open Steffy’s heart to Carter as she poured out her emotions about how devastating Finn’s betrayal was. Sheila hadn’t just shown up at Forrester Creations or her home. She came to Monaco where Steffy and Finn had had their miraculous reunion outside the church – you know, after she thought he’d been shot dead by Sheila.
“I keep replaying this moment,” Steffy said. “There was this shift. I saw it. I asked him if he was OK. Then, I realized what he was looking at. Sheila. She was right there. And my husband wasn’t going to protect me…he wasn’t going to be there for me.”
Steffy questioned Finn’s loyalty, faith, and commitment. “Those aren’t just words, Carter,” Steffy pointed out. “They’re actions.”
Even though Carter didn’t have a ton of dialogue as Steffy recounted her ordeal in Monaco, he was in full agreement with her. Saint-Lawrence didn’t need any words, initially, to convey what he was feeling. It was clear in his facial reactions and body language that Carter was not only supporting Steffy, but he fully related to what she was going through because of Daphne Rose rejecting him and their marriage.
Seeing through her own pain (Steffy’s a good egg in that way), she picked up on the fact that something was amiss with Carter. “What’s wrong? What’s going on?” Steffy asked.
“Daphne, she, ah, she left me,” a hesitant Carter revealed. He then took his wife’s rings out of his pocket. “She’s gone. It’s over.”
Next, Steffy and Carter sat next to each other, as their characters were looking out onto the same empty marital horizon. Now, it was time for Steffy to support Carter, as he had been there for her.
Carter felt safe to unload to Steffy about his feelings of rejection. “She just gives up. She just walks out,” he said with a mix of sadness and anger about what Daphne had done. “I believed in Daphne. I don’t believe in anything. I thought I found the person I could face anything with, but I was wrong.”
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Steffy and Carter both convincingly played that their respective unions were over and that they’d been abandoned by their mates. As the song lyrics by the Motels goes, “Take the ‘L’ out of ‘lover’ and it’s over.‘”
As Steffy grew hysterical, shouting to get her rage out of her, Carter took her in his arms, and said, “Got you,” making her feel safe in the process, something Finn had failed to do. Carter felt needed, which Daphne failed to make him feel.
A great deal of thought was put into the structure of this story – both unions breaking up at the same time was paramount to it working. The dialogue, scoring (music), and direction were all top-notch as were the performances by MacInnes Wood and by Saint-Victor.
Carter and Steffy’s infidelity is going to drive story for quite some time, we suspect. Daphne Rose and Finn’s respective heartfelt pleas to reunite have gotten their marriages to Carter and Steffy back on track (for now, at least).
Fandom will likely be divided as it often is as to whose “fault” it was with Steffy and Carter turning to each other – not to mention what did (or didn’t?) happen after they drank too much. But any jury would find the extenuating circumstances worthy of an acquittal.
So, now there’s a big secret on the story canvas, and the ramifications will play out for quite some time.
Viewers have been left with many questions: Will Steffy turn up pregnant? How will that play into Carter and Daphne Rose’s desire to become parents? What will Sheila do to leverage her daughter-in-law’s infidelity to her advantage if and when she discovers it? The naughty nurse/nanny has been known to make off with children who aren’t hers, after all, so there’s that to be concerned about, too.
Infidelity on soaps should never be taken lightly and it wasn’t in this case. MacInnes Wood and Saint-Victor were tasked with taking their characters to the lowest depths to support Steffy and Carter turning to each other, and they delivered poignantly and beautifully.
The Bold and the Beautiful, Weekdays, CBS