7She’s known him her whole
life, and for him to know
that Phoebe is Beth and not
speak up or say anything
about it? It’s an earth-shat-
tering moment, and her
whole [life] is turned upside
down.”
Realizing he has been
exposed, Thomas flees,
which frees Liam to reunite
mother and daughter. “It’s
a beautiful moment,” relays
Noelle of the reunion. “It
proves to be very cathartic.
For Hope, she was almost
in shock and denial because
you’re thinking to yourself,
‘Is this really happening
after so long? Is this moment
true?’ It has been seven
months building up to this
moment, so there’s just so
much emotion involved —
and when Hope holds her
baby in her arms, it’s also
a powerful feeling to know
that her maternal instincts
were right all along.”
Cuddling with her baby
gives Hope a sense of peace
she hasn’t experienced in
a long time. “She’s still
processing all of this, obvi-
ously,” Noelle notes. “But
now, Hope realizes that she
should have listened to her
gut. She always had that
connection with Phoebe,
even when she didn’t under-
stand it. She was suffering
and trying to recover. She
was lost in her grief anddespair and depression. She
wasn’t acting rashly. But
this one thing that everyone
else felt was irrational, the
whole thing with Thomas,
everyone knew that and saw
that but her, and that’s disap-
pointing. That is something
she’s going to have to deal
with. She should have never
discounted her feelings.
She should have listened to
herself and trusted herself
because she wasn’t as lost
as she thought she was.”Noelle was thrilled to
finally play the reunion.
“This has been the most dif-
ficult thing I’ve ever had
to take on as an actor,”
she explains. “Having
to sustain grief for essen-
tially half a year has been
difficult because neurologi-
cally speaking, your brain
doesn’t know if you’re pre-
tending or if you’re not, so it
has been quite an emotional
roller coaster. At this point,
I am a little emotionally
exhausted, but I’m hoping
the fans think the payoff is
worth it.”
That’s a sentiment that
Clifton echoes, adding, “We
just recently had our big
B&B fan event and I had
just shot these scenes right
before it and the fans were
going, ‘When is this story
going to be over? I can’t take
it anymore!’ and all I could
do was assure them with a
smile on my face, saying,
‘It’s coming. We promise,
and it’s gonna be good!’ ”“It’s a beautiful
moment.”S
O
A
P
O
P
E
R
A
D
IG
E
S
Emotional T
Overload:Reunited, And It Feels So Good: