The Taylor Scene On The Bold And The Beautiful That Went Too Far
By Ava Barnes
Darla Einstein Forrester (Schae Harrison) had been a beloved part of the "Bold & the Beautiful" canvas for years. The ditzy secretary for the original Sally Spectra's (Darlene Conley) fashion house, she often found herself wrapped up in Sally's schemes, and never had a love interest of her own. Darla's life changed after a drunken one-night stand with Thorne Forrester (then Winsor Harmon), the husband of her best friend Macy Alexander-Sharpe (Bobbie Eakes) in 2003. Thorne and Macy's relationship fell apart, and in the wake of Macy's later death, Darla and Thorne married.
Thorne and Darla managed to find true love and settled down to raise their daughter, Ally. All of that came to an end in 2006, when Darla drove out to rescue Taylor's daughter Phoebe (MacKenzie Mauzy) after she called for help with a flat tire one rainy night. Taylor — drunk and alarmed by a call of her own from Phoebe — raced out to assist, too. Barreling over slick roads, battling foggy conditions, and oblivious to the fact that her friend had tumbled backward and into the middle of the highway, Taylor struck Darla while her former sister-in-law was changing Phoebe's flat tire.
It was a shocking death that is still debated by fans of the show on message boards such as World of B&B and the Soaps.com message board. Some fans feel that Taylor's actions were selfish and reckless; others see Darla's death as an accident. RedSteph at World of B&B described Taylor as "weak" due to her actions in this storyline. But other fans have been willing to defend her behavior. "[W]hy is Taylor the only one being harped on, when it applies to everyone involved in an accident where someone ended up dead?" asked Soaps.com message board user Please_listen, exemplifying reactions from many other fans.
