Soap Hub Performer of the Week for The Young and the Restless: Courtney Hope

For months, characters have been threatening to expose Sally Spectra’s past from her time in Los Angeles (and on The Bold and the Beautiful). Rather than let anyone else tell Jack the truth about the mistakes she made in tinsel town, Sally decided to come clean about her lapses in judgment.

Courtney Hope — Performer of the Week

Sally not only broke Jack’s (Peter Bergman) heart (he really feels for the redhead), but ours, too, as she explained a time in her life that she’d rather forget, but one that so many are determined to threaten to expose.

Soap Hub is bestowing Performer of the Week for YR honors on Courtney Hope for the scenes in which Sally made herself totally vulnerable to Jack.

There was a lot of backstory to unpack so, Sally began in the middle by recounting Theo (Tyler Johnson) coming back to town a while ago and revealing the news about Kyle’s (Michael Mealor) affair with Tara Locke (Elizabeth Leiner).

Sally hastened to add that she only held onto this information to counter the dirt that Summer (Hunter King) had dug up on her during her trip to Los Angeles. Reliving the worst time of her life, Sally shared with Jack that her ex-Wyatt (Darin Brooks) had dumped her – not once, but twice. It’s worth noting that these are facts that Flo (Katrina Bowden) didn’t share with Summer when the two women had lunch and formed a bond over their common enemy.

Courtney played Sally’s reluctance to even form the words as to what she’d done in L.A. to Jack, but form them she did. Sally came clean, hoping Jack would understand and not hold her past against her. Kudos to three-time Daytime Emmy-winning Bergman, who chose to play Jack having sympathy and understanding for Sally. And how could he not? Hope played Sally with such raw vulnerability, it was easy to not only see her side of things but to empathize with her, too.

“Something inside me snapped,” Sally said. “So, I pretended to be deathly ill in hopes that Wyatt would be by my side in my time of need.”

Sally went on to say that her plan to “miraculously recover” and tell Wyatt she was “better” hit a snag when Flo learned the truth so, Sally “lost it” and held Flo against her will in order to do damage control with Wyatt.

“I know now that what I did was terribly wrong,” Sally added. “I was fighting the feeling of being abandoned again.”

“The way your parents abandoned you when you were young,” responded Jack, who knows a thing or two about a parent walking out on a child.

Jack also has committed his share of sins over the years including adultery, lying, and walking out of the room after nemesis Victor (Eric Braeden) collapsed, leaving the mustached mogul to die.

Still, this was a lot for Jack to process, but Sally hastened to add that she has turned her life around and she begged Jack for understanding.

There’s no question that Sally certainly handled things badly in Los Angeles. She left town to start over; only people didn’t want to give her that chance. The thing she feared the most was Jack finding out and rejecting her.

We can’t see how he will in light of the great vulnerability Sally showed in these recent scenes. Brava to Hope for making Sally a character we root for despite her past. The Young and the Restless (YR) airs weekdays on CBS. Check your local listings for airtimes.