Soap Hub Performer Of The Week For B&B: Scott Clifton

Rather than play his disappointment and fury over his wife’s betrayal against the backdrop of beautiful Rome, Liam Spencer opted to wait until he and Hope were back in their home in Los Angeles. It’s a wonder Liam’s anger didn’t cause the cabin to implode — Clifton left nothing on the table as Liam let Hope have it and have it good!

Scott Clifton: B&B Performer of the Week

Liam (Scott Clifton) had time to mull over how he was going to handle Hope kissing Thomas (Matthew Atkinson) as he flew back to the United States and as he waited for Hope to show up. He decided to let her hang herself with both her own words and her silence. Liam engaged in chitchat with Hope about her trip but it was clear in Clifton’s tone that Liam was grilling his wife. “Did you go sightseeing?” Liam inquired. “Alone. Or were you…with someone?”

Hope had to have known on some level that Liam was baiting her in the hopes that she’d confess. But she just couldn’t bring herself to come clean. Liam dropped plenty of hints but Hope wouldn’t nibble.

“You can’t say it…you can’t say it…” Liam lamented when Hope wouldn’t state that she walked around Italy with Thomas, the one man Liam worried would come between them. (Kudos must go also to Annika Noelle, who is no stranger to Soap Hub’s Performer of the Week for B&B feature, for her performances in these scenes.)

“Just tell me what you did,” Liam insisted. “It’s okay. I’ll help you. We can do this together. ‘I…Come on, Hope. I…kissed…SAY IT!…'” As Hope attempted to speak, Liam berated his wife with “What? What?” as if he were talking to a child who had tested her parent’s last nerve.

The drama continued the next day with a direct pickup of the confrontation between husband and wife. In this episode, Clifton raised his character’s anger level. “You made me see it!” he blasted his lying spouse. Liam wasn’t just angry at Hope; he chastised himself for not listening to Steffy’s (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) warning him that Hope had feelings for Thomas.

“How? How…could you do that?” Liam asked. And Clifton made to ask this not as a rhetorical question; instead, he really wanted an answer. How could Hope kiss the man who refused to let them know that their baby was alive after she was kidnapped and presumed dead?

The dialogue left no doubt in Hope’s mind that Liam witnessed the smooch. Clifton chose to take a break in the middle of one of the lines in an effort to show that Liam couldn’t bring himself to say the words. “I had to watch you take his…you take his face in your hands,” Liam recapped barely getting the words out. “I had to watch you lean in. You chose that moment. You initiated it. Not Thomas. And I gotta live with it!”

Hope begged her husband not to end their marriage over one kiss. “That I know of,” a defeated Liam offered. Hope pointed out to Liam that she has forgiven him in the past for his extramarital transgressions (Hi, Steffy!) and it was clear that her words did not fall upon deaf ears. But Liam saw the bigger picture. He noted that Thomas isn’t the issue — Hope is.

A defeated Liam said he couldn’t accept Hope’s apology and that he was tired. Saying he’d come back later for some of his stuff, he told Hope he was leaving and that he wanted a divorce.

It was one thing for Liam to lock lips with Steffy in Rome; the dude was still in shock upon seeing his wife’s betrayal. However, we were gob-smacked to see Liam (Scott Clifton) later go in for another kiss with Steffy at her cliff house. It certainly appears that Hope’s not the only person who needs to ask questions about their actions. Clifton ended a series of episodes with a “What did I just do?” look on his face. Has he learned a lesson? Stay tuned.

Honorable mention: Krista Allen brought both intelligence and emotion to her role as Taylor Hayes when learned that Ridge and Brooke were back on board the Destiny train. We expected nothing less from the world-renowned psychiatrist. She managed to both contain herself and let loose with her frustration that Ridge has, once again in her opinion, made the wrong decision for himself. Brava!

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

The best place for true soap fans to be is our Facebook groups. Have you joined? If you love soap spoilers, gossip, and fans as dedicated as yourself, check out Days of our Lives Fans, General Hospital Exclusive, The Young and the Restless Fans, and The Bold and the Beautiful Fans.