Tanner Novlan as Dr. John Finnegan. Bill Inoshita/CBS
The Bold and the Beautiful is going there with the long-running soap opera’s latest plot twist.
During the Monday, February 3, episode of the CBS series, a paternity test confirms Finn (Tanner Novlan) slept with Poppy (Romy Park) and he is Luna’s (Lisa Yamada) dad. This means, yes, Finn slept with his aunt (to be clear, Poppy is his adoptive mother’s sister) and his cousin is also his daughter!
“This is definitely messy,” Novlan exclusively told Us Weekly on Monday with a laugh. “What’s so great about Finn is he is an original character, so anytime I get to see the writers go deeper into his past, and navigate where Finn really came from, is always interesting to me. He’s not beholden to any story lines over the years. I get to play an original character in that way. This was a shocking and exciting twist, for sure.”
There’s been questions about who Luna’s father was since she and Poppy came to Los Angeles in 2023.
“I remember last year, there were some scenes where I was like, ‘Are we …?’ and then it didn’t seem to go that way,” Novlan told Us regarding previous hints about the paternity bombshell. “We get the scripts a couple weeks or a week beforehand. I’m rolling it out with everybody, which is what makes our medium so exciting because I get to sit and turn the pages and be like, ‘What? OK, this is cool,’ and collaborate with the writers and see where they’re taking Finn.”
The actor believes that the revelation offers more insight into Finn’s previous actions and dedication to his family, which includes wife Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood).
“I was surprised. But then again, going back to that time where Finn is at, that’s where we get to be creative. I mean, obviously he was in a tough mental space,” Novlan said of Finn’s night with Poppy. “We get to kind of fantasize about where he was at in his life at that time. … I understand Finn even more now, learning that this is in his past.”
“Steffy and Kelly and Hayes are literally his entire world, and I see why,” Novlan continued. “The dude had a pretty troubled childhood, you know, he didn’t know who his birth mother was and now we find out that he had this night with his aunt — there’s a lot of trauma to unpack, and so it even solidifies more why he wanted to create a perfect family for himself. He is one to try and do better than what his circumstances were. Even though Li is his mother and raised him. Thank God for Li!”
When asked who is going to take the news harder — Steffy or Li (Naomi Matsuda) — Novlan admitted “it’s going to be close.”
Lisa Yamada as Luna. Bill Inoshita/CBS
“It’s that push [and] pull for him in the sense of, it is his daughter, and he feels a real responsibility, as Finn does, being a doctor, even though he didn’t know what could have been different with Luna, but also the most important thing in his life is to protect this family that he’s created, and so that plus that equals drama, and that’s what we live for,” he said.
So does that mean fans of Steffy and Finn — a.k.a Sinn — should be worried?
“The Sinn fans are absolutely incredible, and I really like Sinn’s relationship. They’re true soulmates. I mean, he took a bullet for her, and she has been there for him through thick and thin,” Novlan told Us. “They really have a solid relationship, but there’s all these external issues, like, pushing and pushing. And so you ask yourself the question of, ‘Man, how long do you stay with someone, even though you love them, with all the external stressors around their life and drama?’”
Either way, Novlan isn’t expecting things to get romantic between FInn and Poppy ever again.
“I don’t think so, not that I’ve seen yet. I think he was young and I’m not sure you know where Poppy is on it, but I think he’s really embarrassed by it,” he told Us. “It’s something that happened when he was young, and he knows it’s wrong and was wrong, and now it’s reared its head years later in the worst way, I think that’s the trauma of it for him. It’s a mistake he made long ago that he’s tried to forget about, but it’s coming back to haunt him.”
Similar to how he has attempted to make amends with his birth mother, Sheila (Kimberlin Brown), Finn’s relationship with Luna will be important for him to try to establish.
“He feels a responsibility for Luna being his daughter and the trauma that she went through, and he really wishes he could fix it. And Finn is a doctor and a healer, as we’ve seen with Sheila,” he said.
Just like Sheila, however, Luna — who has murdered two characters, including the man she thought was her father, in her time — has tried to kill Steffy in the past.
“He’s prone to giving people second chances, but then she tried to kill his wife, you know?” Novlan said. “And so I’m not sure how he’s going to be able to navigate that with wanting to keep his family and his true love, Steffy, and his kids, safe and together. He hasn’t forgotten that Luna has issues. So it’s gonna be interesting to see how he navigates that because we all know Steffy’s gonna draw a hard line in the sand.”
The Bold and the Beautiful airs on CBS weekdays at 1:30 p.m. ET.