It’s been a while now on The Young and the Restless since Ashley (Eileen Davidson) first started displaying signs of dissociative identity disorder, and her multiple personalities sparked fear in the Abbott family (everyone besides Abby [Melissa Ordway] who still remains out of the loop).
By far, Ashley’s most terrifying personality is Ms. Abbott. When Ashley takes on her persona, the brilliant chemist and businesswoman becomes abrasive, rather insulting and laser-focused on doing what’s best for Ashley regardless of who may be hurt in the process. Unfortunately, Ms. Abbott believes the best way to protect Ashley in the near future is killing Tucker (Trevor St. John).
Despite Tucker and Ashely not having been together since their big fight in Paris months ago, and Tucker placing all his attention on Audra (Zuleyka Silver) and Glissade these days, Ms. Abbott still views Tucker as a threat to Ashley. As such, she wants to kill Tucker so he can never hurt Ashley again.
Furthermore, Ms. Abbott wants to frame Audra for his murder. Thankfully for Tucker and Audra, Ms. Abbott hasn’t been able to take over Ashley’s mind long enough to enact her plan so far, but it appears things will soon change.
We can imagine a scenario in which Ashley lures Tucker somewhere remote such as the Abbott Cabin on the outskirts of town. Perhaps she says she’s in duress and needs his help. Meanwhile, Alan (Christopher Cousins) and Traci (Beth Maitland) become concerned Ashley has gone missing and can’t find her. Then, one way or another, Traci and Alan catch wind that Ashley is headed to the cabin and race to find her.
As Traci and Alan arrive at the cabin, they find a scene where Ashley has a gun on Tucker. Traci and Alan try their best to stop Ashley, but in the process of talking and wrestling with her for the weapon, the gun goes off and shoots someone in the process. Should all of this happen, we think the person on the receiving end won’t be Tucker, but either Alan or Traci.
If we had to guess, we think Alan would be the one who’s hurt, maybe even murdered, trying to save Ashley from herself. He has no real ties to Genoa City, he hasn’t been in town that long and his character in the soap world is pretty dispensable. While Ashley would ultimately be crushed that she shot her friend or even killed him, her grief process could really shake things up for her and push her to get the help she needs.
Now if Ashley were to shoot Traci by mistake, we think that also could be the wake-up call she needs to get some mental assistance. It's hard to picture The Young and the Restless killing Traci off the show though as she’s the heart of the Abbott family and has been with the soap for decades.
Remember, much of what we’ve said here is based on our own theories. So we’ll all have to stay tuned to see exactly what happens next.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
