The Young & Restless Bungle That Has Us Shaking Our Heads — Plus, Victor Unleashes Chaos in Three, Two…
April 17 - 21
Credit: CBS screenshot, Howard Wise/JPI
Young & Restless has been bringing more drama but the stories still seem thin and the arcs can be startlingly short. Thoughts on the week:
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Do Better
It’s been nice to see Mariah and Tessa and baby Aria, and Sharon spending time bouncing her granddaughter on her knee — the shower was beautiful — but these characters are still lacking any kind of substantial story. They do seem to be inching toward Sharon and Chance dating, which is something, but I question if it will change the status quo.
More: What Y&R’s doing with Mariah and Tessa will backfire
The Argument
I liked Kyle slightly better when he thanked Billy for giving him a distraction at the end of their argument, but until then I was thinking, “What an insufferable ass,” which seems to happen more often than not with this character. Do they want viewers to dislike him?
As for Billy, it looks as though they’re going all in on him and Chelsea as a couple despite the pairing not being popular with fans. What were two of the more complex personalities on the soap are now bland as all get out. I hope it all goes sideways and they spiral back into their old messed-up selves. No more man pain specials though, please.
Relentless
Despite being busted, warned, and Nate himself declaring (more than once) that it’s done, Victoria clearly isn’t giving up on her quest to bed her trusted colleague. There’s been some discussion on social as to whether or not he might have a case for sexual harassment. At some point he may — he has asked her to stop — but in the last instance, when they ended up on the desk, he was the one to initiate the action. What do you think?
As for Victoria asking him to go on a business trip with her in the preview, I had to chuckle. Elena has her work cut out for her dealing with Victor’s daughter. Will she really bring J.T. back? I love the idea of Elena fighting back even if I suspect it will backfire.
More: Y&R cheating scandal set to explode — slaps ahead!
Bring It On
Wow, my heart kinda broke for ol’ Tucker this week… and yet I can totally understand why Ashley refuses to trust him and give him another chance. Will she keep toying with him so he’ll stay around? The preview suggests she will, as she’ll ask him to move in with her. Given that she lives in the Abbott mansion it should be quite the sh*t show. Bring it on!
More: End of the road?! Is Tucker leaving Y&R?
Crying Over You
Allison Lanier and Michael Graziadei are doing such a good job portraying Summer and Daniel’s grief. Summer has leaned into her anger, while Daniel has settled into a quieter, shocked sense of disbelief. The story of Diane’s incarceration has been bustling right along, with Michael deciding to represent her (I want to see Lauren’s reaction!) and Jack losing his cool completely as he demands that she be granted bail and put on house arrest.
More: Susan Walters celebrates big anniversay with Y&R alum
Of course the shocker of the week was Phyllis killing Jeremy in self-defense in the bathroom of the motel with a pair of scissors.
I didn’t see that coming, which is why I loved it. What I didn’t love was the preview showing Phyllis back in Genoa City next week. Rather than playing out this story arc of her having faked her death over weeks or months, she’s in Chancellor Park where anyone could see her and it’s just… disappointing. Just when you want to sink your teeth into a Young & Restless story it resolves too quickly (meanwhile the ones no one can stand or ever asked for go on interminably). It’s become a recurring issue.
Twitter user @CanadianMark_ observed, “Phyllis was dead for like 2 weeks. What a total waste of time this was. We’re going to go right back to everyone hating Phyllis like they did before for what she’s doing to Diane unprovoked.”
More: Stafford teases how James Hyde could return
Agent of Chaos
It’s not every day you get a scene where Victor Newman is blindsided and left speechless, but that’s exactly what happened when he started crabbing about Sally… and Adam dropped the bomb on him that she’s pregnant with his child and he’s still in love with her. Cue Victor getting heavily involved and confronting Nick, who was having none of it. I actually enjoyed the yelling scenes between them. I love that Nick stands up to his father now. That said, Nick is quite purposely refusing to see the writing on the wall. Sally’s heart is clearly with Adam no matter how hard she denies and tries to fight it. As for Victor, does he really care which of them is with Sally? No, he’d rather neither of them were, but he’s angling to get Nick to bow out because it furthers his agenda where Adam is concerned.
Victor doesn’t seem to care that Adam slept with the woman Nick was dating, lol. All of this self righteousness is his agenda to get Adam back. Victor is no stranger to hypocrisy and double standards. #YR. @YandR_CBS @YRInsider
— Nadine 🌷#TimeForShadamYr (@Rosannasfriend) April 21, 2023
Victor was left in a huff when Nick walked out on him, so you can be sure he’ll go about it from a different angle. Nikki’s remarks about Sally not needing the stress of having Victor on her case seemed foreshadow-y to me. Will the Mustache have a go at the redhead? I’m predicting he will, and thus cause more chaos in 3…2…
Odds and Ends
Now that Noah and Allie are back on the scene, anyone for an eventual love triangle involving… Elena?!
My official introduction of #Noele ™️😂and momma Sharon sensed the potential as well 😂 #YR pic.twitter.com/uWYU6FpsU4
— 𝐻𝑒𝓇𝑀𝓊𝓈𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈 💬 (@flutterpolitely) April 20, 2023
The number of times I have laughed about this since the gala…
So I guess everyone checked out of the Grand Phoenix and into the Athletic Club. #YR pic.twitter.com/WY1ONk5fim
— Na_Joy_Fish (@justMsFisher) April 21, 2023
This is just my opinion. Feel free to give your take on this week’s episodes of Young & Restless in the comment section.
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