The Cane Mutiny: The Young and the Restless Two Scoops for the week of June 23, 2025

Now that the secret of Dumas is out, there's so much more to come on The Young and the Restless. We're just not sure if Cane is going to get what he wants after he'd gone to all the trouble to get everyone to visit him in France.

The Young and the Restless: Raising Cane

After months of build-up as to the identity of Aristotle Dumas – or, as Victor Newman said on more than one occasion, “whatever his name is” – we now know what Dumas’s name is; it’s Cane Ashby, Lily’s former husband, previously played by Daniel Goddard, and now, played by Billy Flynn.

Y&R dropped clues as to who Dumas could be for a while. Was it Ashley? She seemed quite interested in why Dumas would get into a work situation with Billy, who didn’t have a great track record in the business world. What a surprise it would have been if Aristotle (both that name and Ashley begin with “A”) had turned out to be Billy’s sister. Or was it Tucker McCall? No, it wasn’t him either. Victor, who is always two steps ahead of everyone, shot down Chelsea’s revelation theory that Dumas was Tucker McCall by revealing he was in prison. The late Katherine’s son certainly checked a lot of boxes when it came to being Dumas, but Chelsea was wrong.

No, Dumas is Cane, which is why he chose to reveal himself first to Lily, his ex-wife. He wants Chancellor Industries back so he can give it to her. Why go with chocolates, flowers, or jewelry when a multi-million (billion?) dollar company could do even better? Alas, she doesn’t appear to want it or want anything to do with Cane. He has an uphill battle ahead if he wants to win her back.

What’s next? No…seriously, what is next? There’s constant talk of some impending doom via either the boardroom or a physical threat. It’s been a week since Cane’s reveal and…we’re still waiting.

Well, many of our characters have already made up their minds on that front. Kyle wants out. He sees no value in having a competition between Jabot and upstart Vibrante perfumes involving Cane/Dumas as Cane is a former Jabot employee. His choice would be open to too much criticism. On social media, it’s called “being dragged.”

Billy wasn’t too impressed when he first saw Cane come into the party, but now, he’s thinking there is something to be mined for sticking around. Phyllis made a big play, too. All Dumas, er, Cane, that is, has to do is get Chancellor Industries away from Victor, and then, Phyllis can show Cane what she can do! But Victor doesn’t want to sell.

Money makes the soap world go around

We applaud the effort Y&R made in assembling as many power players in one set as the show did for Cane’s party. There were more folks assembled at Cane’s chateau (well, outside his chateau, we’ll get back to the “chateau” part later) than there were at Nikki’s birthday party!

However, budgets being what they are in soaps today, the show cut back to more realistic numbers of characters as episodes continued into the week. Sharon, Kyle, Phyllis, and Audra turned in early one night, and the next day, Kyle and Audra were back in the mix.

On the subject of Cane’s wealth (he’s a billionaire now), why aren’t we seeing the insides of his lavish chateau? The show may not have a budget for a huge new set that would serve as Cane's chateau. Kudos to the production design team for creating the maze of shrubbery and the lavish box cars for this tale. But why are guests staying in train cars that run on the smaller side and not in Dumas's, er, Cane’s chateau? Did the storm damage the property?

Now that Dumas’s identity is known a lot of people – characters, viewers, etc. – are wondering where they go from here. It’s a great question. Well, Cane’s interested in staying alive. Cane invited Chance to attend the gala not as Jill’s grandson or a businessman, but rather in his capacity as a lawman.

Cane fears that someone is going to try to kill him. What? If Cane is afraid of being murdered, he should not invite a bunch of people he’s got a past with to his home (or at least the grounds of his home) and risk offending them by pretending to be someone else.

Knives out

Also, Damian discovered some super-sharp knives on board Cane’s train. There they were in an unlocked case, available for anyone to take and, you know, try to stab someone! If Cane is worried about his safety, he would remove all sharp objects from his train and his unseen chateau.

Cane can’t see Damian as someone who wants to kill him. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be alone with him in the train car. Sure, Cane fired Damian, and then he advised him not to take a job with Lily. If Cane is fearful of his life, he might want to avoid putting himself in a vulnerable position.

It’d also be a great idea to hire some security. Maybe some truly big dudes who have muscles on top of muscles and can see over the shrubs in the maze of shrubbery. Those icy, glares from Carter are VERY effective unless, of course, the person he’s snubbing is out to kill his boss. Speaking of Carter, let’s hope he comes with Cane back to Genoa City if that’s where he lands. (We spied Cane at Crimson Lights with Holden in next week’s previews, so it appears he’s heading back there.)

A billionaire like Cane should have not only an attorney (Amanda) on call and an assistant (Carter), but also a butler, a bodyguard, a chauffeur, a second-in-command in terms of business, and a loyal talk-to as he’s on the outs with most of the people he once knew. But Holden might have that covered.

Speaking of Holden

Remember Lucinda on As the World Turns? The woman had an entire staff at her beck and call. Cane’s potentially richer than Lucinda was so he should have a bunch of people working for him. Yes, we know budgets are tight. But if someone on a soap is wealthy, we need to see it – not just hear about it.

On the positive side, it’s clear that there’s unfinished business between Cane and Lily. They were the loves of each other’s lives, and now, there’s a chance they could get back together. Then again, Christel Khalil (Lily) said in an interview that it’s like Flynn’s Cane is a brand new character. Maybe they’re starting from scratch?

The Kane Mutiny

And not for nothing but is there any connection between Cane Ashby and Damian Kane? Yeah, we know they’re spelled differently and one’s a first name and the other is a surname. But it has the potential to be confusing. (“Cane fried Kane!”) Victor will clear all this up if anyone has a question. He often uses first and last names “Cane Ashby,” “Jack Abbott”, and “Billy Boy” (wait…). We can count on Victor to continue this practice if anyone gets confused about Cane Ashby and Damian Kane.

The smiles we left behind

Back in Genoa City, Y&R acknowledged Nate and Victoria’s short romance and breakup, and also Nate’s medical career. Genoa City has plenty of power players in the business world, and they just gained another one in Cane. Now is a perfect time for Nate to make another switch, back to medicine. Look at how easily Nate went into medical mode when it came to giving a prognosis for Cole.

Once Nate gets his medical license back, he’ll have plenty of clients if he tackles panic attacks. First, Damian had one over in France. Then, Claire had one back in Genoa City. Sharon almost had one in the train car. Lily, Holden, and Phyllis (!) seem adept at calming folks down. They could give Nate some tips.

Speaking of Cole, now we know what’s ailing the man. He has Legionnaires disease. What’s less clear is why both Victoria and Claire came back to Genoa City. Why couldn’t one of them have stayed to keep Cole company and act as a patient advocate? And, if Vicki came back to check on Johnny and Katie, let’s hope that we see her doing that.

Dinner is served

At least got to see Esther. Someday, we’d love to view Esther where she belongs. Where’s that? Back in her maid’s outfit answering the door at the late Katherine Chancellor's mansion, of course! Y&R has made recent investments in sprucing up the Abbott manse and redoing the OG Newman ranch. Ideally, we’d see Katherine’s home get the same treatment.

Who could live there? Well, there’s always her grandson, Devon. He could move in there with Abby and their son, Dominic. Jill could stay there when she comes to Genoa City. Ditto for Nina.

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