Why The Young and the Restless Needs to Bring Back Elizabeth Leiner as Tara Locke Now 

The Young and the Restless character Harrison Newman-Abbott is a resilient child. In fact, he's possibly too resilient. He's had six (!) parental figures in his very short life, and it's only logical that he's missing the most important one of them all. We're talking about his biological mother, Tara, played by Elizabeth Leiner.

The Young and the Restless, Back to Tara

Leiner made her debut on the show in March 2021 as Kyle's (Michael Mealor) ex-flame, the woman he had an affair with and bore his son, Harrison. The only problem was that Tara was married to Ashland Locke (Richard Burgi; Robert Newman), so there was built-in tension.

Kyle and Tara's love for one another took a backseat to the concerns that Ashland would seek revenge against them. Kyle was involved with Summer (Hunter King; Allison Lanier), so a Kyle/Tara love match was never in the cards. Maybe it should be.

Tara was rushed off the screen after Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) exposed that Tara was stealing from her own company. As crimes go in Genoa City, that has to be on the tame side. Whatever price Tara had to pay, even if it included an unlikely jail sentence, she should be out of prison by now (if she even went there).

Why hasn't Tara come back to town to reclaim her son? Harrison (Redding Munsell) has had little to no emotional response that he's had two fathers -- Kyle, Ashland -- and three mothers or mother figures -- Tara, Summer, and Claire -- in his short life.

The little guy has "Newman" in his name because Summer adopted him, but she's been living in Italy for several months now. Harrison occasionally vacationing with her isn't providing him with the long-term, hands-on love and concern that the little guy needs and deserves.

Tara Time

Now is a perfect time for Tara to come back. For starters, we need her opinion on the redone Abbott living room. (We kid, but you know she'll have something to say about it!) Leiner plays Tara with a soft, patrician, almost mesmerizing quality.

She doesn't get overly emotional or excited, and that's part of her charm. She lets people react to her. Imagine if Tara were to come back and question Kyle about his choices since she left. He split from Summer and took up with Claire -- a woman who kidnapped her grandmother, Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott, and hooked her up to an IV filled with vodka!

Tara could take that info to any judge in the land and likely get at least partial custody. That's what Y&R could use right now -- a nice, heated custody battle. Paging Michael Baldwin (Christian LeBlanc) and Christine (AKA Cricket) Blaire (Lauralee Bell).

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And who knows? Maybe sparks could fly again between Kyle and Claire. How might Claire (Hayley Erin) react to Kyle moving on with another love? The options are many. Will it happen? Stay tuned to find out!

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

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