A big character was killed off ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ months ago — but she’s actually alive

Sheila Carter has nine toes, but she apparently has nine lives, too.

The iconic TV villain, played by Kimberlin Brown, bid adieu to fans of "The Bold and the Beautiful" in February when she was killed off the show in dramatic fashion. But the love-to-hate-her character just made a miraculous return, much to viewers' delight.

As "B&B" fans eagerly wait to hear how Sheila defied death once again, we’re recapping the dramatic saga, starting with some exciting recent developments.

Wait, Sheila Carter is alive on 'The Bold and the Beautiful'?!

For months, viewers have been clinging on to hope that Sheila faked her death somehow. After all, it wouldn't be the first time.

Fans finally got the proof they've been looking for in the April 29 episode of the CBS soap opera when Sheila's fiancé, Deacon Sharpe (Sean Kanan), and her son Dr. John “Finn” Finnegan (Tanner Novlan) discovered her body in an abandoned building.

The next day, Sheila opened her eyes, and Finn and Deacon were overjoyed to see that she was alive. However, she was chained to the floor, so it's unclear what sort of ordeal she's been through.

Brown confirmed her return to the show in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

“It definitely has made my year,” the actor said. “She was my happy place."

Brown also said she didn't find out that she'd be returning to "The Bold and the Beautiful" until "three or four weeks" after Sheila died.

“I was trying to plan for my next stages in life and figure out what I was going to do and I got a phone call from Brad (Bell, the show’s executive producer and head writer). It was an awesome phone call to receive, especially after the last meeting that we had previous telling me that he was going to kill me off. It was wonderful,” she said.

Brown said she believes that the fans helped convince Bell to bring her back to the show.

“Brad listened to the audience. I do believe that,” she said. “My fans and the viewers of this show are the reason, if not the biggest reason, that I’m back. I had so many people making so much noise on my behalf, and I’m very thankful for the noise that they made. I can’t even put it into words because it leaves me speechless.”

Fans echoed that sentiment on X, and one shared the following reaction: “Fans got power, man. Showrunners gotta listen or the show’s toast. Short, sweet, Sheila’s back in the game.”

So, how is Sheila Carter alive after she previously died on 'The Bold and the Beautiful'?

As fans have been theorizing, the “Sheila” that was initially killed in February wasn’t the real Sheila. Viewers of “The Bold and the Beautiful” will recall that Sheila only had nine toes since she cut off one of them while faking her death in 2022.

When Deacon went to witness Sheila’s cremation, however, the body he saw had 10 toes. Since then, he has been convinced (rightfully so) that the body in the crematorium wasn’t Sheila’s.

Finn dismissed Deacon’s theory as far-fetched at first, but changed his tune when Deacon gave him more believable proof.

In an episode that aired the week of April 15, Deacon searched through Sheila’s laptop for clues and stumbled upon a few messages between her and a person she called Sugar.

While talking with Lauren Fenmore Baldwin (Tracey E. Bregman), a character on both "The Bold and the Beautiful" and "The Young and the Restless" whom Sheila terrorized over the years, Deacon learned that Sugar was a prison warden Sheila once knew and manipulated to get cosmetic surgery to look just like her.

Afterward, Sheila arranged to have Sugar serve time in a psychiatric hospital in her place. Eventually, Sugar broke out but ended up in prison. Naturally, she's had it out for Sheila for years.

It's unclear how Sugar escaped from prison this time, but Brown told Entertainment Weekly that she was thrilled to hear how she'd be returning to the show.

“I mean, this is brilliant,” she said. “What a brilliant way to bring me back — I don’t know what (Bell) would have come up with otherwise.”

How did Sheila Carter (really Sugar) die on 'The Bold and the Beautiful'?

In an ironic twist of fate, Sheila (actually Sugar) died at the hands of her nemesis, Steffy Forrester (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood), whom she had actually intended to kill.

In an episode of "The Bold and the Beautiful" that aired the week of Feb. 26, Sugar snuck into Steffy's home. When the power went out, Steffy got nervous and suspected that Sheila was up to no good. She then saw a cloaked figure and instinctively knew it was her.

Wielding a large kitchen knife, Steffy stabbed Sugar as she approached her. She was later pronounced dead when the paramedics arrived, and Steffy insisted that she acted in self-defense (the police later confirmed this).

The two women have a lot of history: Sheila is the biological mother of Steffy's husband, Finn, and has been terrorizing the Forrester family for decades. In 2023, Sheila accidentally shot her son in an alley scuffle with Steffy (whom she then shot intentionally).

Finn "died," but it was later revealed that his adoptive mother, Li Finnegan (Naomi Matsuda), nursed him back to health. Since this traumatic experience, Steffy has been especially alert and tried to keep Sheila away from her husband and children. Sheila also ended up in jail while she awaited trial for shooting Steffy and Finn.

When charges against Sheila were dropped by the court, however, Sheila could roam around freely, and that dynamic caused strain on Finn and Steffy's marriage. Earlier this year, Steffy confronted Sheila at her apartment, and they got into a physical altercation. Steffy was also vocal about wanting Sheila dead.

What have viewers said about Sheila Carter's 'death'?

Sheila has been wreaking havoc on the characters of “The Bold and the Beautiful” and “The Young and the Restless” for decades, and she’s always managed to escape death. However, Brown insisted that her character’s number was really up this time around in February while talking with TV Insider, calling her departure “bittersweet.”

Even so, fans of the show weren’t convinced that the villain had really died after Steffy killed her in February.

“They want us to think Sheila is dead? That b---- wouldn’t die if you chopped off her head,” one wrote on X.

Many viewers took to social media to share memes to convey their suspicions about Sheila’s death, including this one of Arnold Schwarzenegger saying “I’ll be back” in “The Terminator.”

“The fact that everyone keeps saying dead is letting me know shelia is coming back,” another fan wrote on X.

Early on, many viewers suspected that Sugar was actually the one who was killed.

"It’s definitely Sugar, not Sheila that died," one person wrote on X.

Now that Sheila is back, many fans are feeling pretty vindicated and a lot of them aren't surprised.

"Um…duh. Anyone who’s been watching this show for at least 10 years knew that Sheila Carter wasn’t dead. She never dies. She’s freaking immortal," one wrote.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com