Finn has a little problem with not being able to read the room. In the Thursday, June 6 episode of The Bold and the Beautiful, he defended Hope for the Future, which didn’t please Steffy at all. Is this strike two for the struggling husband and wife? Baseball metaphor aside, there are other games to be played with the rest of the characters, namely the “What If” and the Denial games.

Consider This Strike Two

Finn (Tanner Novlan) walked in on Hope (Annika Noelle) and Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) fighting about Hope for the Future and the Logans being erased from Forrester Creations. Immediately, he took Hope’s side. Unfortunately for him, Steffy wasn’t having it. She basically told her doctor hubby to stay in his lane. And she kept giving him looks that could kill. She wanted him to shut up and let her do her co-CEO thing in peace.

Should we consider this strike two against Finn? Because the whole attending Sheila’s wedding won’t go away anytime soon. Actually, the whole Sheila (Kimberlin Brown) is Finn’s birth mom won’t go away anytime soon. And Steffy didn’t even see Finn administering his special brand of massage therapy to Hope. Although, it seemed all business when he treated her. It was anything but for Hope. It felt like she was feeling a type of way. Or at least starting to anyway.

Will a strike three come between Steffy and Finn sooner rather than later?

The “What If” Game

Li (Naomi Matsuda) expressed some hero worship for Bill (Don Diamont — who reacts to the paternity shocker here) as she told the story of how he rescued her after Sheila ran her off the road. She talked about him in such a soft, sweet way, saving her bitterness and anger for when she discussed Poppy (Romy Park). Her inclination during this whole paternity test business was to protect Bill from Poppy.

We can’t help but play the “what if” game with this story. What if the show had pursued a Bill and Li romance after the rescue? It seemed like the show was going there, but then it backed off. Even if a relationship hadn’t lasted, there would be so much drama with Bill being Luna’s (Lisa Yamada) dad if he had a stronger history with Li.

What if Li still loved Bill when Poppy got back to town? And then to learn your own sister had a child with the man you loved? That would go a long way to helping raise the stakes. As it is, we’re not sure where this story is going. Everybody looks pleased with the results. Even though Li still considers Poppy a golddigger, she knows her sister didn’t lie.

The Denial Game

So this happened. Ridge (Thorsten Kaye) asked Brooke (Katherine Kelly Lang) to run Forrester Creations with Steffy. Brooke ended up being the realistic one — she didn’t answer Ridge right away because she knew what would happen if she and Steffy worked together. She also felt it was a big job she wasn’t sure she wanted to handle. She felt flattered to be asked, however.

Ridge, on the other hand, was in complete denial. He looked perplexed when she questioned Steffy’s reaction to working side by side with her. He kind of brushed it off and speculated that, who knows, running FC together may bring them closer personally. Well, that won’t happen, with Hope currently harping on her Logans versus the Forresters rants. It’s fueling the flames of animosity and toxicity.