HOLLYWOOD —This week there was no other daytime actress’s performance that could compare to Miss Susan Flannery’s as Stephanie Forrester on “The Bold and the Beautiful.” Susan took five of the most well written scripts in TV history and despite having an ensemble in almost every scene, she took the competition by storm. No one on any of the shows on American TV even came close to her perfected performance this week. Her incredible performance overall was filled with enough energy to power the homes and businesses west of the Mississippi river had any power failures occurred. Just when fans think they have seen the best performance out of the multi-Emmy winner actress, she surprises everyone except her boss, super-scribe and executive producer Bradley P. Bell with amazing shock and awe performances.

Early in the week, Stephanie who had previously had an argument with Beth Logan, threw her laced fabric with her three daughters’ (Brooke, Donna and Katie) photographs sewn into the fabric into the Forrester swimming pool. Beth, played by Robin Riker returned to Los Angeles the week earlier with husband Stephen, played brilliantly by Patrick Duffy to be cared for during the last days of her faltering emotional life. Beth suffered from Alzheimer’s and the once vibrant Logan matriarch found herself often confused and always combative and wanting to destroy her nemesis Stephanie, who had returned to the Forrester family’s Bel Air home.

Along with Stephanie in the home, so were her ex-husband Eric and his current wife Donna. Beth felt that Donna, Brooke and Katie were in jeopardy of Stephanie who has battled Beth Logan for close to 50 years and caused much harm to her family over the years. Susan Flannery’s outstanding scenes when Stephanie was trying to herd Beth away from the pool while getting her back to the mansion for her own safety, ultimately losing her temper and throwing the cloth Beth had been cradling into the pool was well played. The frustration Stephanie felt was seen on the actress’s face and finally having enough she left and went back to her guest-house on the estate leaving a confused Beth by the pool.

Beth went into the pool to get her cloth seeing the faces of her daughters on the water and having forgotten how to swim, she soon drowned. When Donna shortly thereafter found her mother, obviously fans knew she’d be in shock. Though Bradley Bell took it a step further and sensibly had Donna blame Eric’s ex-wife Stephanie for drowning her mother. Stephanie was in shock and the look of horror on her face when her daughter-in-law Brooke and her sisters refused to believe Stephanie’s version of events.

When the Logan family attacked her credibility and even suggested calling the police to return to arrest Stephanie, Susan Flannery turned on a dime and her character’s emotions soon turned to fury. “I have no reason to kill your mother,” Stephanie exclaimed. “If I killed anyone it would be you or your nutty sister [Brooke].” Soon Eric was chiding Stephanie that her own words were damaging her credibility. The Logans left the room in order to galvanize their hatred for the queen herself and Eric came to her defense and caused the end of his marriage to Donna. Stephanie faced off with a Beverly Hills detective and the Logan floozies like a queen.

Susan Flannery this past week played every emotion without pause. Sympathy turned to empathy, then rage, then sorrow and grief as Stephanie like any other person realized that her knee jerk reaction to throw the cloth into the pool was most probably the wrong thing to do to a dementia patient. However, frustration soon turned to a solemn and poignant joy as she realized her husband Eric is still in love with her and would give up his marriage to Donna in order to protect Stephanie from the Logan assault, which we know is coming.

Who else could play every human emotion in one week like Susan Flannery has? Not to forget that her off-screen leading man Bradley P. Bell wrote the best scenes of his career that aired this week and the gold standard also goes to him. He’s yet again reinvented and changed the dynamics within of the Forrester and Logan families forever. There will be emotional repercussions from this awful accident for years to come for our favorite Beverly Hills dysfunctional clan, the Forresters.

“The Bold and the Beautiful” airs weekdays on CBS. The series is the most watched show in the world.

 

Photographs are Courtesy: JPI Studios’ West Hollywood