Leather jackets, Vespers, and conspiracies: The Young and the Restless Two Scoops for the week of September 1-5

The Young and the Restless gave us business machinations, heartbreak, and, most importantly, romance over the last week!

The Young and the Restless, favorites shine as drama heats up!

Audra Charles is nothing if not calculating. When schemes don’t work, she’ll fall back on honesty. Dressing contritely, she approached Nate at Crimson Lights, the locale of so many important storylines on Y&R.

She confessed to Nate that yes, she had conspired with Victor. However, she noted that she never would have slept with Kyle. And if Kyle were going to sleep with her, well, then, Claire would be better off without him, right? Even when Audra is coming clean, she manages to spin things in her favor. (How does she do that?) Alas, her plan (scheme?) to be honest failed to win Nate back. Huh. Maybe it is better to lie? It’s not. Wait. Maybe. No, no, it’s not. Don’t lie.

Cane’s AI

We need a scorecard to keep up with Cane and machinations. He’s not going to use AI to take over all these companies in Genoa City. Instead, he’s going to focus on the relationship with his kids. Can we please, please bring Charlie and Mattie back to the canvas? They’re mentioned regularly. We’ve said this before, but, as Phyllis pointed out, Charlie and Mattie will forgive their dad as he’s a billionaire and can make their lives much better. We’d also like to find out what the deal is with Sam. Viewers stick through regime after regime, but when new writers come on, they don’t always acknowledge what has come before.

Who was who in Genoa City

We have a list of characters who need to come back on-screen for some updates. There’s Sam. Also, Nina and Phillip III. They should both be there for Christine and Danny’s upcoming wedding. It’s good that Noah’s on his way back to Genoa City in the form of Lucas Adams, best known as Tripp on Days of our Lives. But what about Allie, Kemo’s daughter? Jack lamented letting Keemo fall out of his life. He felt he had a new chance with Allie. Now? Allie is living thousands of miles away from her family.

Through the eyes of love

Y&R has a big emphasis on business, some say to a fault. However, it’d be wrong to say that the show doesn’t focus on romance. After being lavished with gifts for her birthday, Nikki decided to get the man she loved (duh, Victor!) a gift. When in doubt, buy the person you love something you know that they’re going to love and something you know that they’re going to use. What other perfect gift could there be for Victor than a black leather jacket!

What Nikki and Victor are missing is help around the house. For years, they had Miguel, who’s a tough act to follow. Now that Victor and Nikki have a front door at their home, it’d be great if they had someone to answer it!

We loved seeing the flashbacks of Victor and Nikki dancing in their old ranch, which looks very much like their new ranch. The script references to how they’re not living in the same house (the new ranch is on a different part of the estate) are welcome because they’re accurate. But if we can get accurate script references to Victor and Nikki’s home, we’d like to see continuity across the board. (E.g., Nina having two sons – not one.)

Cane and mouse

Cane’s done a lot of verbal back and forth with Genoa City power players since his return. We’ve seen him go up against both Victor and Jack. Our vote for his best scene partner among the key personnel is Michael Baldwin. Watching these two go back and forth when Cane eventually offered Michael a job was like watching a tennis match.

There was some terrific dialogue in these scenes. We loved Michael calling Cane out on the tragedies that unfolded in France. Cane asked Michael when he was going to get out from under Victor’s foot? (We confess that we initially heard a word other than “foot,” but it was foot.)

It appeared that Michael had won until Cane texted him a starting salary. Still, Michael surprised us when he went to surrogate dad Victor to warn him about Cane’s plans. Surprise, surprise! Victor let Michael conclude on his own that he could serve as Victor's double agent.

But is there anything to be a double agent over? Cane has sworn up and down to Lily that he’s abandoned his plans. Yet, he’s hinted to others that he’s not done yet. Doesn’t Cane know that if he takes over companies and hurts people, Lily will never want to see him again? That his kids will feel betrayed? Aren’t those the last things that Cane wants?

All about Claire

Claire’s transformation from Jordan’s killer accomplice to Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm left us wondering. Once she realized that she’d been kidnapped at birth, it felt like a light switch was flicked, and Claire was ready to put behind her wicked ways in the past. All was forgiven! Okey-dokey!

She was only welcomed back into Nikki’s work life, but she recently got a promotion! It wasn’t so much Claire turning so sweetly and so quickly from evil to good that had us confused. Why did Claire’s family so easily believe that she had turned a leaf? Was it guilt that they didn’t know she was out there? We understand Victor giving Claire a pass because he felt that they had similar upbringings. But why did everyone else?

Actually, Summer didn’t. She was on alert with good cause. She wasn’t championing sending Claire off to jail, but she wasn’t comfortable with him being around Harrison unsupervised. And she’s gone from the canvas. Let’s add Summer to the list of people who need to make a return appearance to Genoa City.

In the meantime, Claire needs to be monitored! Get a few Vespers in that young woman, and she gets mighty assertive!

Comings and goings

In addition to the previously mentioned Lucas Adams, Y&R has also hired familiar faces Tamara Braun, Roger Howarth, and Matt Cohen. Will Braun and Howarth play a married couple? What crime will Cohen’s lawman character be investigating? Why couldn’t Chance have been spared if a crime was coming up that needed a lawman? We didn’t get much emotional impact from Chance’s death. We saw Jill’s reaction to it. (Jess Walton can’t be on our screens enough.) But what about reactions from Nina, Phillip III, and Abby?

The Y&R landscape is going to look quite different with all these new characters. We’re eagerly anticipating who they’re going to play. Will they be tied to characters currently on the screen?

Nice guys finish last

Kyle may have dodged a bullet by Claire turning him down. The man stood up to her domineering grandfather, defended Claire when Summer had concerns about her, risked his relationship to expose Audra, and threw together a beautiful romantic proposal.

And Claire said no because Kyle didn’t tell her some difficult news when she was going through the ordeal of losing her father. But maybe Kyle got lucky. Claire is practically threatening Audra with physical harm when she sees her out and about in Genoa City. And why is Claire getting drunk with Nathan? How would she feel if Kyle were to go out and get plastered with another woman?

If it weren’t for Holden’s impressive arm strength, Claire might have physically attacked Audra (or the other way around), and either or both of them could have ended up in jail!

Succeeding Succession

Y&R has lots of business stories going on. Alliances are still forming among the major players, but one group that seems unbeatable is the Newmans. When Victor summons his children to show up in his office, you know things are going to get serious. Victor’s kids complement each other well. Adam brings both a Harvard degree and a ruthless business edge to situations. Nick is compassionate and logical. He’s 100% accurate when he says that using Cane’s AI program – or Victor’s AI program if/when he gets a hold of it – is unethical and illegal.

If Cane’s going to use an immorally gained fortune and illegal software to bring down all these companies in Genoa City, what’s he truly going to win in the end? As the saying from the good book has posed, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”

Catch all-new episodes of The Young and the Restless weekdays on CBS and Paramount Plus.