Soap Hub Performer Of The Week For B&B: Annika Noelle

Clearly, the pressure is getting to Hope Logan Spencer these days on The Bold and the Beautiful. The bad news is she’s got some feelings for Thomas that she’s suppressing. The good news is that her portrayer, Annika Noelle, is getting to sink her teeth into some meaty material.

Annika Noelle – Performer of the Week

Years ago, B&B wisely set up a dynamic where Taylor’s daughter Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) was going to act more like Brooke, and Brooke’s daughter Hope was going to behave a bit more like Taylor. As a result, Hope doesn’t like the fact she’s got feelings towards another man — Thomas — when she wants to feel only loyal to husband Liam. When Hope came upon her mother in a teddy alone with Ridge (Thorsten Kaye), she exploded not because of what her mother was doing but because of her own issues.

Fueled with this backstory and dynamic, Noelle dug deep and let Hope release her fury at her mother. “When is it going to stop?” Hope rhetorically asked after pointing out that she spied Brooke wearing a nightie, flirting, giggling with Ridge in a room filled with candles.

“I have eyes mom, and I’ve seen this play out time and time again because this is what you do,” an exasperated Hope screamed. Tapping into her inner Stephanie Forrester (Susan Flannery), Hope continued her rage by saying, “You just jump from man to man and the more inappropriate the better!”

Brooke (Katherine Kelly Lang) didn’t need Taylor’s (Krista Allen) psychiatric degree to realize that Hope was doing a great deal of projecting. “I have not made your mistakes,” Hope shouted as if she was trying to convince herself that she wouldn’t go down that path. She added she was nothing like her mother.

Brooke insisted that nothing was going on between her and Ridge but clearly, something was going on with Hope. “Are you having feelings for another man? Is it Thomas?” Brooke queried. This only prompted Noelle to raise Hope’s intensity.

Hope maintained that she and Liam were doing just fine. Brooke admitted she’s made mistakes in the past but that wasn’t the case in this instance. Hope calmed down and accepted her mother’s explanation that (this time) she wasn’t out to seduce Ridge. Brooke was working on getting Hope to open up about what was really wrong.

Before they could get deep into the matter, Liam (Scott Clifton) entered. Hope charged into his arms, hoping that if she stayed there long enough any feelings she may be having for Thomas would go away.

One thing’s for sure — the old scheming Thomas appears to have disappeared. Matthew Atkinson is expert at tapping into his character’s devious side but Thomas is showing no signs of reverting back to his old self — at least not yet. That’s making it harder for Hope to explain away her feelings. It’d be easy for her dismiss the lying, manipulative Thomas but the good guy who appears to have truly turned over a new leaf? That’s going to be a bit of a challenge.

“Just because you have a crazy thought doesn’t mean you have to act on it,” Hope advised Thomas. The question remains is will she be able to take her own words of wisdom? We’re confident that no matter what happens, Annika Noelle will continue to bring new, complex levels to her role as Hope.

The Bold and the Beautiful airs weekdays on CBS. For an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.

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