Credit: Howard Wise/JPI (4); Nick Sined/JPI

This week, Bold & Beautiful did what it does better than any other modern soap by sweeping us off to a gorgeous location for some fun and romance in the sun. Meanwhile, it also did a few other things that weren’t quite so awesome, including making both Bill and Katie look like the worst parents ever. Read on and I’ll explain…

Welcome Home, Will

Anyone who was watching Young & Restless when Joshua Morrow debuted as Nick three decades ago had to have gotten a sense of deja vu when his son, Crew Morrow, showed up on Thursday’s Bold & Beautiful. Talk about the apple not falling far from the tree! And while there doesn’t seem to be an awful lot for Will to do at the moment, given as the only kinda-sorta age appropriate female on the canvas is his newly-introduced half-sister, that could change if, as is becoming more obvious by the day, Bill isn’t Luna’s dad.

More: First impressions of the new Will

Meanwhile, Will’s return was borderline ridiculous. From Poppy’s over-the-top scream (proving Romy Park could have a real future in horror movies) to the fact that neither she nor Luna apparently did a Google search on Will or, you know, looked at the pictures of him scattered around the house.

Stay In Your Lane, Lady!

Bill and Katie have been saying for weeks that they needed to figure out exactly how to tell Will about the Poppy/Luna situation. Yet during Katie and Will’s conversation, it became clear they hadn’t bothered to inform Will than his dad had no roomies. And Bill had plenty of time to make sure that his new family members knew what Will looked like so that when his son walked in they wouldn’t… well, scream in horror.

But Katie was far too busy revisiting the whole “Poppy drugged her own daughter” mess. I’d hoped we’d moved far past the “special mints” ridiculousness, but instead we’re doubling down, with Katie acting as if Poppy had Luna doing lines of crack off RJ’s abs. At one point, Bill’s ex literally declared, “He moved a drug addict into the house?”

And what was with Katie saying she didn’t know if Poppy was “a free spirit, hopping from concert to concert, or if you’re really a manipulative murderer!” I mean, are those the only options? As for the on-going charges that Poppy is and always has been a gold digger, can we just stop? Because that makes absolutely no sense. She and Luna lived a low-rent lifestyle, and Poppy could have reached out to Bill at any point over the years if she’d wanted to snag a rich dude.

Not for nothing, Katie, but you were basically a girl from the wrong side of the tracks when you hooked up with Bill, an older, wealthy man. Does that make you a gold digger? #AskingForAFriend

Whose Job Is It Anyway?

Why was Zende in charge of taking photos of Brooke’s modeling session and working with the social media team? Doesn’t that seem like something RJ, whom we’ve been repeatedly told spent the past few years taking photos and using social media as an influencer, would have been better suited for?

And why, exactly, was Finn there to watch the woman his wife detests strut her stuff in lingerie? Sure, Steffy being there made sense, given that — opposed to the campaign or not — she’s co-CEO. But it seemed as if the only reason for Finn’s presence was so that Brooke could once again lecture her daughter about making googly eyes at Steffy’s husband. Maybe Finn was hanging out at Forrester because the show only has one hospital office set, and his mom was using it that day.

And Away We Go!

I’m all for Brooke empowering women by proving that age is just a number, although I kinda wish that she was supported by other models, maybe of all shapes, sizes and ages. Imagine what a powerful message that would send, both in the fictional fashion world of Bold & Beautiful and to the show’s very real viewers.

More: Check out behind-the-scenes shots from Monaco!

Without even meaning to, I think Ridge came up with the perfect slogan for the campaign. While looking at his true love, he dubbed her, “Forever sexy. Forever beautiful. Forever Brooke.” I mean, how amazing an ad campaign would that be? As for the footage shot on location it was, of course, stunning. But it’s also kinda pointless. Shouldn’t a big, splashy location shoot involve some kind of drama?

To Whom It May Concern

Sometimes, the writers simply can’t help themselves. Why let something be a surprise when they can telegraph the plot point in advance? That’s exactly what they did where the backpack full of letters was concerned. Of course, they had to have Sheila discuss the missing backpack and it’s potential link to the killer just before Luna discovered the oh-so-incriminating letters.

More: Why The View is saying farewell

Upon finding the backpack, it took Luna about 12 seconds to go from “Wait, is this dude my dad?” to “Wait, did you kill this dude who claimed to be my dad?” So much for that unbreakable mother/daughter bond they’ve supposedly had all these years.

It amuses me, in a weird way, that the show is going out of its way not to say that Poppy slept with Bill and Tom within, best case scenario, a day or two of one another. But like everything else with this storyline, it’s all being made up as they go along, with little to no care about continuity.

Random Thoughts

• I hate that Bill and Justin patched things up off screen. This show does that far too often, from Katie and Carter ending their relationship to this.

• If Tom knew where Poppy was over the years — and given that she received his letters, that would seem to be the case — why didn’t he show up on her doorstep?

• I’ve never really gotten this show’s obsession with odd guest stars like Tom Arnold. I mean, did anybody really tune in to see him play the Forrester jet’s pilot? Then again, it got them some mainstream publicity, and that’s never a bad thing.

• I had to laugh when RJ said that Poppy has “a dark side.” Based on what, exactly? She has been nothing but loving and supportive where he and Luna are concerned. And RJ knows full well that the “drug” incident was an accident. So again… what is his talk about her dark side based on? Oh, right, the writers want to make it look like Poppy’s a killer… thus assuring that she’s not.