A Critic’s Review of Young and the Restless: Family Ties and Whiplash Behavior

Every fan of The Young and the Restless has their own opinion — and we at Soap Hub are no different. All week long, we watched the show…good, bad, and everything else. We’re always optimistic, but sometimes we don’t get quite what we want. Here’s a review of Y&R’s week that was, including three women whose names all begin with A’s. Namely, Amanda, Ashley, and Audra, three very strong and complicated women.

What I’m Feeling This Week: A is for Amanda, Ashley, and Audra

Amanda Sinclair, Ashley Abbott, and Audra Charles (love her last name) were women who made a mark on Y&R this week. All three are flawed and fabulous women. One minute, they’re formidable, and the next, they fall flat on their behinds. But they’re always fun to watch.

Amanda Sinclair

Amanda (Mishael Morgan) returned in grand fashion to the halls of Chancellor-Winters, where she threw subtle digs and insults at abandon, mostly targeted towards Devon (Bryton James), who famously cheated on her with Abby (Melissa Ordway). She reconnected with Billy (Jason Thompson) and made proclamations and declarations in the name of Jill Abbott (Jess Walton). While I’m still leaning toward Devon’s resistance to the CW name change, I love how Amanda’s presence instantly spiced things up.

In fact, she threw them a hair off their game and then headed over to Society to deliciously confront Devon’s significant other. Yes, it was great to see Mishael Morgan back in Genoa City again. The actress is doing well outside of daytime, so I’m grateful for this drive-by and hope she’ll continue to mess with the men and women who are very close to waging an all-out family versus family war at CW.

Ashley Abbott

Ashley (Eileen Davidson) is responsible for my suffering from a serious bout of whiplash. Suddenly, she changed her mind. Sure, this is a woman’s prerogative, but completely doing a 180 on the night her marriage to Tucker went bust? What is going on?

She’s back to being the cool, calm, collected Ashley who’s not on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Here’s the score: she’s no longer seeing Tucker’s (Trevor St. John) violent exit from that Parisian restaurant in her head. But she does seem to be talking to voices in her head. And now she tells Traci that the “friend” she saw in Paris after her sister departed was a therapist. This person helped bring a come to Jesus moment with this particularly traumatic event.

Now she’s telling Tucker with no issue that she was wrong and he was right. That his version of events reigns supreme. Don’t forget about her pointed and loaded comments she made to Audra (Zuleyka Silver). She’s acting like Ashley, but with a twist. There’s something a little off about her interactions. Again, I ask, what is going on? I really hope the show pulls the trigger and lets us know soon.

Audra Charles

Audra’s own whiplash behavior has to do with Tucker. What is it about this man? I don’t get it. But I don’t have to. She’s back to being all in, 100% with the new head of Glissade. Was it a week or two ago when she tried to lure Nate (Sean Dominic) into taking over his new acquisition with her? Is her sudden flip genuine, or is she fooling us all? I hope it’s the latter. Because planning a trip to Paris for work and play doesn’t feel right.

On top of all of this, she uncharacteristically let her insecurities show all over the place. Ashley clearly poses a threat to her selfishly constructed universe. And she’s taking Tucker’s side in her conversations with Nate. She immediately blames him for his conversation with Tucker during Friday’s episode. Meanwhile, it was Tucker who moped over to Nate and let him know in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t a worthy adversary to him. Yikes. It looks like everybody’s insecure flags are flying.

I sincerely hope Audra isn’t falling for Tucker’s words and manipulations. That she’s setting him up for a MONSTER fall from his so-called pedestal. Better yet, let Audra and Ashley team up to take him down for good. Maybe they can enlist Amanda’s considerable legal skills to make it happen.

Other Y&R Thoughts

Victor and Claire: I still don’t know if Victor (Eric Braeden) is on the up and up when it comes to wanting Claire (Hayley Erin) to be a part of the Newmans. I do know that I like Victor and Claire scenes and hope more will come in the future, especially if Michael (Christian Le Blanc) succeeds in getting Claire released from the psychiatric facility.

Delusional Tendencies: Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) keeps saying that she isn’t the one competing. She may not be the only one competing, but she’s totally and continually upped the stakes in this triangle, pitting herself and Christine (Lauralee Bell) for Danny’s (Michael Damian) affections. Those waterworks, when talking about the brutal year she had, were classic Phyllis. She’s the one who made her bed and then had to lie in it…alone. I’m convinced that she and Tucker are working together to gaslight the entire planet.

Nobody’s a winner: Christine and Danny aren’t faring any better in this triangle. Christine takes the bait all the time and seems to relish her conversations with Phyllis. And Danny blames everybody but himself. Ugh.

Burning Soap Questions

• Where is this Kyle (Michael Mealor) and Diane (Susan Walters) Jabot drama headed?
• Why didn’t Jordan (Colleen Zenk) hide out in Seth’s (Brian Gaskill) car trunk to get on the Newman Ranch property? I don’t trust Victor’s security team enough for them to check everywhere they need to check when someone needs to get on their property.
• Are Chance (Conner Floyd) and Nate really going to team up?
• When coming up with big ideas to speak to the pulse of their audiences, why do Genoa City’s finest business minds brainstorm things like podcasts and music festivals? Think bigger picture, people!
• Do Adam’s (Mark Grossman) ears ever burn from being talked about so much?
• Is Tucker (St. John talks about his movie here) really jealous of Audra and Nate?
• When are we getting the next Nikki/Jordan Smackdown?

Finally, I am very much looking forward to the return of Lily Winters. When Christel Khalil starts airing again, she’ll have multiple opportunities for drama, including the CW struggles as well as the impending end of her Daniel situation-ship. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait too much longer.

The Young and the Restless airs weekdays on CBS. For an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.