Wednesday, February 20, 2008, Episode #5253

Eric tells Stephanie that he won't let her control him.

On the Forrester jet, Eric and Stephanie continue to argue about his deception. Eric asserts that he doesn't want to be married to her if it means being dominated and controlled by her, wondering if she's even capable of changing. "Shame on you," Stephanie scolds over his attempt to blame his betrayal on her. She calls Eric's little charade pathetic, but he points out that she's the one who resorted to blackmail to get her husband back. Stephanie seems surprised when Eric admits that Donna told him about the blackmail plot. Eric points out that he and Donna trust each other. "You cannot win somebody's heart through blackmail," Eric defends, explaining how Donna has faith in him in a way that Stephanie never did in all their years of marriage. Stephanie scoffs that it must have been easy for him to take Storm's side when he found out Storm shot her. Eric fires back that it was hard to walk away from this family, since he always planned to spend the rest of his life with her. But she never treated him as an equal, so he was forced to find someone who could, and that prompted her to resort to threatening and blackmailing the Logans to get him back.

Stephanie wants Donna to face the consequences of her actions.

Stephanie argues that this wasn't about the Logans and it wasn't blackmail, either. It was simply a deal where both sides benefited, but Donna couldn't hold up her end of the deal, so now Storm is going to prison. "He's not going to prison!" Eric challenges, but Stephanie says he has nothing to say about it. She points to the photo in the paper as proof that he needs her to save him from himself. Eric urges her not to send a young man to jail for revenge, but Stephanie reminds Eric that he betrayed her, guessing that he and Donna had quite a laugh over their attempts to pool the wool over her eyes and sneak around behind her back to have sex. Eric insists that his relationship with Donna isn't about sex. Stephanie thinks he might believe that if he says it often enough and argues that she has listened to what he's said about her controlling ways, and she has tried to change. It's just that he refuses to see it. Eric asks where this "new Stephanie" was when she set the events that led to Brooke's rape into motion, or when she decided that Storm should go to jail for the rest of his life. Stephanie retorts that Storm pulled the trigger and is going where he belongs, while Donna didn't keep her part of the deal.

Katie worries that Eric can't keep Stephanie away forever.

At Brooke's house, Katie and Donna continue to wonder whether Eric managed to get Stephanie off to Tahiti before she saw the photo, since that's the only thing that might keep Storm out of jail. Donna wants to hope that Eric got to Stephanie in time, but Katie points out that Eric can't keep his wife in a tropical paradise forever. Donna suggests that they claim the photo was doctored, but Katie tells her not to grasp at straws. Tired of sitting around idle any longer, Katie decides to find Brooke and come up with an idea to keep Stephanie from ruining their brother's life. As Katie bolts out the door, Donna sighs, "Oh, Storm, what have I done?"

Ridge finds out about his mother's blackmail plot.

As Ridge enters her office, Brooke asks where he was, since he missed an entire meeting. Ridge explains that he got tied up visiting his parents. Brooke asks what happened. "Donna happened," Ridge fires back. Brooke reminds him that Donna broke things off with Eric, so Ridge shows her the photo in the paper. A horrified Brooke mutters Storm's name. When Ridge asks what her brother has to do with this, Brooke explains how Stephanie blackmailed her family by threatening to turn Storm in for the shooting unless Donna left Eric. She asks Ridge if he can believe that his mother would do something like that, but an annoyed Ridge states that he can't believe that Brooke never told him that her brother shot his mother. Brooke asks how she was supposed to tell him something like that, but Ridge thinks she could have found a way, since she should have known she could trust him with that information. The person she couldn't trust, Brooke argues, is Stephanie; she tells Ridge how she came to Stephanie asking for leniency for Storm as a show of faith after what happened with the rape, but Stephanie refused - that is, until she found a way to benefit by using her shooter's identity to break up Eric and Donna. "She's doing the same thing that Stephanie always does: manipulate and get revenge," Brooke charges.

Brooke and Katie ask Ridge to talk to his mother.

Just as Brooke makes that last statement, Katie enters the office. Katie tells Ridge that her family needs him more than ever, pleading for him to dissuade his mother from sending Storm to jail. When Ridge suggests that his mother's doing the right thing by turning Storm in, Brooke reminds him that blackmail is illegal. So is attempted murder, Ridge counters, still fuming over Brooke's keeping him in the dark. Katie points out that the victim kept him in the dark as well, surmising that Stephanie would have kept the secret from everyone had it kept Eric and Donna apart. Ridge agrees his mother apparently wasn't thinking, since he thinks Stephanie was crazy to leave the psycho who shot her on the streets at all. Brooke tells him that Storm is getting help, but Ridge has a hard time believing that and fears that Storm could snap again at any moment. Brooke insists that Storm can't get the help he needs in prison, but Ridge thinks a judge should decide that. Katie pleads with Ridge to see that prison won't help Storm or any of them. Ridge points out that he likely can't tell his mother anything right now, since Eric is whisking Stephanie off to Tahiti as they speak. Brooke scoffs that Eric's plan will only buy them some time and begs Ridge to speak to his mother, but Ridge apologizes that he can't. "Storm has gotta go to jail," he contends.