While we hoped The Young and the Restless’ Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) would soon get back on track with her sobriety after being forced into drinking again by Claire (Hayley Erin) and Jordan (Colleen Zenk), it looks like the Newman matriarch is nowhere close to regaining control of her life.
Despite trying to focus on work and receiving support from her family and friends, Nikki has just had a rough time trying to fight her alcoholism this go-around. It didn’t help that her sponsor Seth (Brian Gaskill) wound up falling off the wagon himself.
Additionally, despite her thinking she found a solution to her sponsor problem by relying on Jack (Peter Bergman), this seems like a recipe for disaster as she’s been hiding the fact that Jack is her new sponsor from Victor (Eric Braeden). A big idea in recovery is not hiding secrets from loved ones, and Nikki getting this level of assistance from her husband’s greatest rival is a pretty big secret to hold on to.
When you add the facts that Nikki has also fired Audra (Zuleyka Silver) putting herself in the position to run Newman Media on her own, and there was a fire at Jordan’s prison and the deranged villain hasn’t been found, we think Nikki is headed for one heck of a rock bottom that starts with an alcohol-fueled bender and ends in disastrous consequences. Consequences of the infidelity variety.
We can imagine a scenario in which Nikki feels she can’t deal with all the stress she’s facing one day and disappears off the grid to go drinking. Instead of calling Jack or Victor, she reaches back out to Seth and the two decide to give into temptation and go to a seedy bar. Then one thing leads to another, and a drunk Seth comes to hit on a drunk Nikki and they wind up spending a night together.
A sobering Nikki would instantly regret cheating on Victor, and attempt to swear Seth to secrecy. However, it’s Genoa City and Jordan is likely on the loose. Perhaps Jordan somehow catches Seth and Nikki in the act or the afterglow, and uses the scandal to further torture Nikki and Victor.
But what if Nikki’s drinking doesn’t lead to a hookup with Seth but with someone she’s more familiar with like Jack? Nikki and Jack have a long history as friends and were once married, so they have a past already. Although Jack is seemingly dedicated to Diane (Susan Walters), what if one moment changes things?
For example, let’s say Nikki goes on a drunken bender by herself but is later found by Jack. He could try to help get her home or to a hotel to sleep off the booze, but in the process, she starts remembering her time married to Jack and recalling all he’s meant to her over the years. Then she makes a pass at Jack. While Jack may initially reject her advances, could he quickly change his mind and give in to temptation?
At the moment, this is all just theory. So Nikki may remain faithful to Victor, which we hope she does. The two have been married and divorced more times than we can count, and we want the pair to be in it for the long haul this time. However, we’ll be staying tuned.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
