Off the bat, let me start by saying I actually like The Young and the Restless’ Audra (Zuleyka Silver). Yes, she can be a bit of a troublemaker and manipulative, and her track record notes she can’t be trusted. However, she keeps things interesting and she doesn’t back down to most of the power players in Genoa City. With that being said though, she left me completely dumbfounded by her dialogue with Nate (Sean Dominic) in The Young and the Restless episode airing on August 20.
After confiding in Nate that her new boss at Glissade is Victor (Eric Braeden), she starts venting about the position she finds herself in professionally. Then she utters the first shocking statement that had me look at her sideways. She questions to Nate, "Why can’t I have a career that isn’t tied to one of the all-powerful families of Genoa City?"
Almost immediately, I wanted Nate to ask Audra if she was unwell. I mean we’re talking about Genoa City here. All the big corporate players that she wants to be connected to are tied to a power family in town. Growing up watching the soap in the summers with my grandmother, all the business professionals worked for either Newman Enterprises, Jabot Cosmetics or Chancellor Industries.
Sure there were characters that didn’t work for the "Big Three," but these individuals were practicing law like Christine (Lauralee Bell) or practicing medicine like Olivia Winters (Tonya Lee Williams). So for Audra to behave as if she doesn’t know the town she lives in and the corporate world that exists here is baffling, especially when Newman, Jabot and Chancellor are still the "Big Three" and still family-owned businesses.
I guess Audra could look to Sharon’s (Sharon Case) Cassidy First Technology, but the company isn’t nearly as large as the others, and I have a feeling it will be swallowed up by Chancellor or Newman eventually anyway. Lauren’s Fenmore (Tracey E. Bregman) typically does business with Jabot and Lauren is friends with the Newmans. And Winters may be its own company, but Devon (Bryton James) has ties to the Abbotts, Newmans and Chancellors.
Moving beyond Audra’s first verbal flub, Nate went on to ask her what she was going to do with Victor holding all the cards in terms of her being forced to work with Kyle (Michael Mealor) and go up against Jabot? That’s when Audra responds with, "Tucker thought he had all the cards too." Thankfully, Nate aptly points out that Victor isn’t Tucker.
For Audra to think that Tucker and Victor are even in the same league borderlines delusional. The Great Victor Newman, aka The Mustache, is like Marvel’s Thanos with all the Infinity Stones. Those who challenge him one-on-one never win, and the seldom times someone has gotten the better of Victor, that person usually had collaborators acting like Avengers to help. Even in those rare occurrences, Victor manages to come out on top in the end. So Audra would be out of her depth if she thinks she can "handle" him.
It bears repeating that I like Audra. In addition to being the entertaining troublemaker, she’s smart and witty. However, I just wouldn’t be able to use her latest two remarks to prove the latter two attributes.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
