With the storyline about Eric Forrester’s ‘ailing health’ ending, The Bold and the Beautiful is giving the baby swap storyline from a few years ago a sequel. At the end of one of the most recent episodes, Hot Doc and Steffy’s hubby, Finn, gets a new patient, Xander Avant.
For longtime viewers, you’ll know who Xander Avant is as he was involved in the Baby Swap storyline. But for those new viewers, this post will be a bit of an explainer as to who this is. Twitter was ablaze the other day, asking who this guy was as the Bold and the Beautiful hashtag was trending.
So, let’s get into it. What we’re going to do first is go over Xander Avant’s connection to the Forresters. This will be outside what he told Finn. We also want to stress that the baby swap predates Finn, though he is aware of what happened as he has been aware of Thomas’ involvement.
Who Is Xander Avant?
Alexander ‘Xander’ Avant has indirect ties to the Forresters. His older cousin, Maya Avant, married Rick Forrester, Brooke Logan and Eric’s son. His other cousin, Maya’s sister, Nicole, was married to Zende Forrester Dominguez.
Xander is Maya and Nicole’s paternal cousin through their father, Julius Avant, who has a brother living in London. Moreover, Maya and Nicole’s half-sister, Sasha Thompson, was also involved with Zende. That is a story for another day.
So, Xander also has an indirect connection to Paris Buckingham. He dated her sister, Zoe Buckingham, who was an established character when he showed up. Before his first appearance, they had broken up over her behaviour, and they had once shared a cat, who later died.
Taylor’s Involvement
Before returning to Xander Avant, we should mention that Taylor also had a role in the swap. However, her role was unintentional. She had become romantically involved with Reese during this time. She told him Steffy was looking to adopt a little sister for Kelly, and he miraculously devised a solution. We can’t remember whether this is the story or not, as it was forever ago. Anyway, she handed over more than $200k as an “adoption fee”, which was a cover for him as he had some serious gambling debts that needed paying off, hence why he swapped Beth with a stillborn.
Taylor’s role went unacknowledged. It was Liam who was looking over ‘Phoebe’s’ adoption paperwork and found that there were inconsistencies.
Role At Forrester Creations And The Baby Swap
Xander was employed as an intern at Forrester Creations alongside Zoe and Emma Barber (more on her later). He ended up dating Emma, much to the disdain of his ex. It was during this time that Hope and Liam were mourning the supposed death of their infant daughter, Beth.
At some point during this fiasco, Xander found out that Zoe was well aware that her father, Reese Buckingham, had switched baby Beth with a stillborn baby. He wanted to go to Hope and Liam with the information. However, Zoe, along with Flo Fulton (later Logan), was being threatened by Thomas.
Thomas, at some point, discovered that the baby his sister, Steffy, had adopted was Hope and Liam’s thought-to-be deceased daughter. The alleged death of Beth had destroyed the couple’s marriage.
Hope believed that Beth’s ‘death’ meant that she was unable to have more children. Years earlier, when she was married to Liam’s brother, Wyatt, she had miscarried a baby when she tripped down the stairs. Furthermore, this led her to leave Los Angeles for Milan.
When the marriage broke down, she told him to go back to Steffy and play happy families with her, Kelly, and ‘Phoebe’, the child who would end up being revealed to be Beth.
How Thomas Became Involved
Let’s back up to Xander Avant’s hatred for Thomas Forrester.
Thomas and a young Douglas return to Los Angeles after the death of Caroline Spencer, Douglas’ birth mother. Caroline, who was Liam and Wyatt’s cousin, had died of a blood clot. Douglas, who was only five then, became incredibly close to Hope, and she became like a surrogate mother to him.
It was no secret that Thomas had always been in love with Hope. However, he saw his chance to be with her when her marriage to Liam broke down, and she was overcome with the grief of losing Beth.
In Thomas’s mind, Steffy would be better off not knowing the truth about the swap, and she would have her family back together. Meanwhile, he and Douglas would feel the void for Hope. He also dismissed her pain of losing Beth, saying she would have another child someday.
Emma Barber Discovers The Truth
Emma Barber, the niece of Justin Barber, who was Bill Spencer’s right-hand man at the time, discovered what was happening and threatened to tell Hope and Liam what she knew. She jumped in her car with Thomas hot on her heels. He managed to run her off the road into a ditch, where he left her to die.
While there was no evidence on Thomas’ car, Xander was always sure he had something to do with it.
Ridge went to the police to ask about Emma’s crash, and the detective said they’d closed the case as there wasn’t enough evidence to suggest foul play. When he and Brooke discovered Xander and Zoe’s involvement in the baby swap, they fired them from Forrester.
Liam And Hope Discover The Truth About Beth
Eventually, though, Zoe was rehired. Xander hightailed it back to London with his tail tucked between his legs.
When Douglas overheard his father saying baby Phoebe was baby Beth, he told Liam despite Thomas threatening him. He manipulated Hope into marrying him by using Douglas. At the wedding, ‘Phoebe’ crawls over to Hope and calls her ‘mama.’
Realising Douglas was right, Liam went to tell Hope, but Thomas had kidnapped her. A fight breaks out, and Liam manages to restrain Thomas long enough to tell Hope about Beth’s survival.
Why Is Xander Avant Back Now?
We need to address the obvious since the sequel storyline has just started. Why is Xander Avant back now when he should have come forward years ago? Since this is a soap opera, Beth has aged up drastically. She is now seven years old. All the younger characters have been aged up at some point.
Also, why is Xander suddenly Finn’s patient? He could’ve been Li’s patient, as she’s a doctor, or even Bridget’s.
Could Xander have gotten the balls to fight back finally?
A slew of spoilers, courtesy of Soaps She Knows, have hinted that Finn fears for Hope as the accusations start flying.
