Surprise! Bold & Beautiful Introduces a ‘New’ Sheila
We should’ve seen it coming. The signs were all there. For ages, it’s seemed as if The Bold and the Beautiful was repositioning Sheila Carter as a hard-luck heroine. And now that she’s engaged to “daddy” Deacon Sharpe, the “new” Sheila is in full effect.
Never mind that on The Young and the Restless, the madwoman stole Lauren Fenmore’s husband and son, and tried to kill her and her own mother. Never mind that on The Bold and the Beautiful, she shot Taylor Hayes, Brooke Logan, Stephanie Forrester, Steffy Forrester and her own son, Finn Finnegan. The show appears to want us to root for her now, to feel for her, to buy that all she’s ever really wanted was love.
Are you buying it? Heaven knows Kimberlin Brown sells the material. But the writing demands that we excuse countless crimes — #JusticeForLanceDay — and a pattern of behavior that indicates that Sheila would squander a 200th chance, never mind a second one. She isn’t just broken, she’s dangerously broken.
“Know how ya know I like you? I haven’t shot you. Yet.”
Regrets, She’s Had a Few
If the character wasn’t so far off her rocker that she can no longer even see the chair, she’d cut her losses, walk the straight and narrow, keep a low profile and live happily ever after with Deacon. But she has so many screws loose, it’s a wonder that she’s held together at all. Even after attempting to murder Finn’s wife in cold blood, Sheila still thinks that she has a shot at a relationship with her son. She still thinks that she deserves a shot.
Simply put, she doesn’t. She is a 2-year-old who acts out when she isn’t given the candy that she wants. The tantrum — or, in Sheila’s case, the rampage — doesn’t prove the sincerity of her desires, it proves her inability to accept the consequences of her actions. Her perspective isn’t just skewed, it’s altogether missing. She is a walking id, thinking only of herself at all times.
“Wait… If she marries ‘Daddy,’ does that make her ‘Mommy’?”
‘I Do’ or ‘I’m Doomed’?
Yet when Sheila’s engagement to Deacon ends — and it must, right? And badly! — The Bold and the Beautiful will expect us to feel sorry for the would-be bride. Will you? Or will you be munching popcorn and reveling in the spectacle of karma catching up to the maniac who left the Forresters’ original nanny a paraplegic, poisoned Stephanie, imprisoned James Warwick, weaponized daughter Mary, knocked Brooke off the wagon…
Need we go on? Perhaps finally we’ll be headed for the whodunit of the ages, the murder mystery that lays Sheila to rest — at least temporarily. (If only the good die young, she probably won’t ever kick the bucket!)
