The Bold and the Beautiful
Li Finnegan Returns to Bold and the Beautiful as Steffy Forrester’s Secret Unravels Finn’s Marriage
Li Finnegan returns to Bold and the Beautiful for three episodes this week while Steffy Forrester hides a pregnancy by Carter Walton from Finn.
NAOMI MATSUDA IS BACK AS LI FINNEGAN WHILE FINN PRAISES A WIFE WHO IS LYING TO HIM
TL;DR: Naomi Matsuda returns as Dr. Li Finnegan for three episodes, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and every scene lands while Steffy is hiding a pregnancy by Carter Walton from Finn. Mom is back at the exact moment her son cannot see what is right in front of him.
Naomi Matsuda Walks Back Into a Hospital Office Full of Lies
Li Finnegan returns to Bold and the Beautiful this week, and the timing could not be crueler. Naomi Matsuda is back as Finn’s adoptive mother for three episodes, Monday, September 14, Wednesday, September 16 and Thursday, September 17, sharing tender mother-son scenes with Tanner Novlan’s John Finnegan. On Monday, Finn told his mom that his family always comes first and that Sheila Carter is finally out of their lives for good. He said it in his hospital office with a straight face. Across town, his wife was telling another man that the baby she is carrying is his.
Matsuda has played Li since August 2021 and earned a Daytime Emmy nomination for the role in 2022. Li is the woman who raised Sheila’s son and spent years standing between him and his birth mother. In August she blamed herself for the Monaco mess after leaving her laptop open with Finn’s travel plans, the slip that let Sheila book the seat beside him. Now she is back, and the Monday spoiler rundowns called her scenes poignant. Poignant is one word for it, and ironic is another.
Think Li already smells something on Steffy? Tell the editor at amber@soapoperamagazine.com.
The Secret Finn Cannot See From Across the Desk
Here is what Finn does not know. Steffy Forrester Finnegan is pregnant, and the baby is not his. One drunken August night in the Forrester office, right after the Monaco blowup that had her convinced her marriage was over, she and Carter Walton ended up on the couch. They agreed to bury it. Then two pregnancy tests came back positive, and on Monday Steffy told Carter there was zero chance the child was Finn’s, because her husband had been practically living at the hospital.
Carter is not a free man either. His wife Daphne Rose Walton learned in July that she cannot conceive, a diagnosis delivered by none other than Dr. Li Finnegan. Daphne has spent the weeks since dreaming about a surrogate and gushing over Steffy and Finn’s picture-perfect marriage. Spoilers for Thursday have Carter floating a suggestion Daphne cannot believe, and the smart money says he is about to pitch Steffy as their surrogate to explain the bump away. We flagged the doctor’s return in our comings and goings rundown, but nobody has put those two facts side by side until now.
Why Is Li Finnegan Back on The Bold and the Beautiful This Week?
Li Finnegan is back because the writers need the one character who can read Finn’s blind spots, and because her three episodes bracket the week Steffy comes within a breath of confessing. The Wednesday teaser has Finn struggling to ease Steffy’s pain while Carter makes a passionate plea, and Li airs that same day. Reading between the lines, the mother who watched Sheila play her son for years is being planted in the room while Finn misreads guilt as stress. Follow the thread: Li diagnosed Daphne in July, Carter is about to offer Daphne a surrogate, and the surrogate is carrying Carter’s baby. One doctor connects every piece of this, and she does not know it yet.
What Mom Sees That Finn Misses
Finn is not stupid. He is a doctor, and he spent Monday raving to Li about how blessed he is to have Steffy. That is the tell. A man that loud about his marriage is usually the last one in the room to notice it wobbling, and Li has stood in enough of these rooms to know the sound. Don’t be surprised if her Wednesday and Thursday scenes have her asking the questions Finn refuses to ask himself.
Friday raises the stakes again. Steffy gets caught off guard and Finn turns to Taylor Hayes for support, which means he is confiding in his mother-in-law the same week he confided in his mother. Two women, two very different radars, and one secret sitting between them. If I know these writers, Li Finnegan will be the one who says the quiet part first, and the paternity question will eventually land on the desk of the doctor who already has Daphne’s chart. Sheila, for once, is not the problem in Finn’s house, and that may be the most poignant part of all.
Does Li figure it out before Finn does? Cast your verdict in the comments right here.
Catch every twist in our Bold and the Beautiful spoilers coverage.
Li Has Seen This Movie Before and Finn Has Not
Our take: the show brought Naomi Matsuda back for three episodes because a secret this big needs a witness who is not sleeping with anyone in the story. Li is loyal to Finn and suspicious of everyone else, and she is trained to notice symptoms. That is a dangerous combination for Steffy.
Pick a side. Team Steffy says a woman who thought her marriage was over made one mistake and deserves a way out. Team Finn says he is being played by the person he praised to his mother’s face. Argue it out with the rest of us on our Facebook page.
QUICK ANSWERS
When does Naomi Matsuda return as Li on Bold and the Beautiful? Naomi Matsuda airs as Dr. Li Finnegan on Monday, September 14, Wednesday, September 16 and Thursday, September 17, 2026. Her scenes are with Tanner Novlan’s Finn and focus on family, the Monaco fallout and the state of his marriage. She remains a recurring player, so more dates can be added at any time.
Does Finn know Steffy is pregnant with Carter’s baby? No. As of the September 14 episode, Steffy has told only Carter, and she said there is no chance the child is Finn’s. Finn believes his marriage is stronger than ever. Spoilers say Steffy comes close to confessing this week before Carter proposes a plan to keep the truth buried.
Is Li Finnegan Finn’s real mother? Li Finnegan is Finn’s adoptive mother and raised him from infancy. His biological mother is Sheila Carter, a fact the show revealed in August 2021. Li has spent years trying to keep Sheila away from Finn and his son Hayes, which is why his family-first speech this week means so much to her.
