The Young and the Restless spoilers: Ian is alive! So who’s his next target?

In the aftermath of The Young and the Restless’ Ian (Ray Wise) shooting Victor (Eric Braeden) and The Mustache returning the favor, one thing became crystal clear by the end of the episode airing on January 29 — they both needed help.

As The Young and the Restless episode airing on January 30 kicks off, the paramedics arrive at the Newman Ranch and are quick to assess the situation. They declare Victor needs surgery for his wound, but have every reason to believe he’ll pull through with a full recovery. Ian, on the other hand, is declared dead on the scene. The latter piece of news is a delight for the Newmans, especially Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott).

The family matriarch makes some final condemning remarks about Ian for the years of torment he’s unleashed on her and her loved ones. Through a series of flashbacks, viewers are reminded of some of the ways in which he tortured her. So she’s feeling liberated that she can finally close the Ian chapter in her life.

Before Ian is wheeled away by paramedics, Sharon (Sharon Case), Mariah (Camryn) and Tessa (Cait Fairbanks) arrive to see what all the commotion is about. (Also in the episode, Tessa and Aria reappear at Sharon’s, and Tessa attributes their disappearance to an uncharged car and a dead phone, not Ian.) Once the trio sees Ian is dead, Sharon and Mariah both take time like Nikki did to recall all the evil he’s done and to extend some final words of condemnation.

Fast forward to Ian’s seemingly lifeless body lying in the back of the ambulance. As the emergency personnel drive his body to what we can only assume is the morgue, something remarkable happens. He opens his eyes and takes a gasp of air. That’s right, the longtime show villain is not dead.

This revelation likely means that Ian’s reign of terror is far from over and may just be paused. We aren’t sure how he’ll convince someone to help him recover from his gunshot wound, but given he has years of experience manipulating people, we have to consider it’s in the realm of possibility. If he’s able to receive even just a little bit of treatment and get stable enough to enact revenge for his current predicament and the loss of Jordan (Colleen Zenk), we have to believe he’ll be back.

Now as far as what those revenge plans entail, we can’t say for certain. It largely depends on how quickly he gets back in action. We can envision one scenario in which he gets well enough to sneak around the hospital where Victor is scheduled to get his surgery. Then once he tracks down the Newman patriarch, Ian could try to finish the job he started at the ranch. While there has been no word that Victor is leaving the soap, we can’t rule out that Ian could make Victor’s prognosis a whole lot worse.

But given Ian’s whole return to Genoa City this go-around focused on reconnecting with Mariah, his new plan could be going after her and her young family. Tessa and Aria weren’t kidnapped by Ian this time, but who’s to say he won’t try to do that in the near future? We imagine him abducting Aria, and then contacting Mariah to tell her that she’ll only be reunited with her daughter if she agrees to run off with him and not alert authorities or anyone else. Depending on how dire he presents the situation, Mariah may go along until she can find a more viable solution.

Again, Ian pursuing Victor or taking Aria in the future are just theories. However, with him alive, we tend to think he’s not just going to slink into the shadows forever. We’ll just have to see if he comes back and if he comes back alone. Could Jordan be alive too? Or could Ian partner with someone else just as deranged as he is like Patty William (Stacy Haiduk), which would be rather ironic given Heather (Vail Bloom) was her niece?

New episodes of The Young and the Restless air on weekdays on CBS. If you miss an episode, you can catch up on Paramount Plus.