The Bold and the Beautiful just made the surprise move of bringing back a relatively insignificant character for a very significant story, but why? Well, they say timing is everything, and when something is timed just a little too conveniently on a soap, we have to ask questions.

Who Is Xander Avant?

As the cousin of Rick Forrester’s (Jacob Young) ex-wife Maya Avant (Karla Mosely), Xander (Adain Bradley) was able to quickly land a job at Forrester Creations when he arrived in Los Angeles, starting a romance with young Forrester intern Emma Barber (Nia Sioux). Things got dicey when his ex, Zoe Buckingham (Kiara Barnes), arrived in town.

They got even dicier when Xander and Zoe learned that her father, Dr. Reese Buckingman (Wayne Brady), sold Hope’s baby to Taylor (then played by Hunter Tylo) so Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) could adopt her and allowed Hope to believe Beth was dead.

For months before Thomas even returned to LA in the form of Matthew Atkinson, Xander and Zoe kept this secret. When Thomas eventually learned the truth and obsessively wanted Hope for himself (and therefore didn’t want her to reunite with her ex-husband and baby), he did his best to keep Xander and Zoe quiet longer. Of course, Emma overheard them argue and decided to take matters into her own hands.

That’s when she crazily drove off to tell Hope (Annika Noelle), with Thomas crazily following behind her. Emma’s car went over a cliff and Thomas did nothing to help, leaving Emma to die at the bottom of a ravine. Within weeks, Thomas, Zoe, and Xander’s role in the Baby Beth secret came to light. Xander was fired and left town, Thomas lost custody of his son, and Zoe somehow landed on her feet. She even nearly married Thomas.

Xander Is Back, But Why?

Flash forward nearly five years and Thomas has gone through some intense therapy, Hope has forgiven her his sins, and they are now in a loving relationship. Thomas even stunned Hope by proposing. While she’s definitely not ready for that step after just ending her longtime toxic relationship with Liam, she didn’t say never and Thomas is willing to wait.

Just as Hope and Thomas came to this understanding after defending their relationship to his family, Xander appeared out of nowhere looking for a new PCP. By coincidence, he chose Steffy’s husband Finn (Tanner Novlan). But, was it REALLY a coincidence?

Isn’t it odd that Xander returned right at this moment in Thomas and Hope’s romance? Isn’t it also odd that as soon as he seemed to suddenly realize his new doctor was married to Thomas’s sister he blurted out all these horrible things about Thomas without once mentioning he kept the Beth secret voluntarily for far longer than Thomas did?

Could Xander’s return and choice of doctors be a calculated plan to split up BOTH Thomas and Hope and Steffy and Finn in one fell swoop? If so, who would want to do that? Perhaps it’s the Little Puke who has been mysteriously off-screen for nearly two months but suddenly reappeared the same day (in soap time) as Xander?

The last time we saw Liam (Scott Clifton) he seemed to lose it after being firmly rejected by Steffy and Hope in the same week. His fragile ego clearly couldn’t handle the idea of these women wanting anything to do with him anymore so perhaps he decided to take matters into his own hands and stir up some trouble. That would certainly put a fascinating twist on this head-scratching return.

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