The Young and the Restless’ Victor (Eric Braeden) may just be the most stubborn person in all of Genoa City. Despite Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) telling her husband that pretending to suffer from a mental decline is a cruel idea that is bound to have consequences, he remains undeterred, claiming it’s the only way to test the loyalty of all his children. Well, all of them minus Abby (Melissa Ordway), who once again manages to escape another round of Newman family drama.
Now we knew it was only a matter of time before Victoria (Amelia Heinle), Nick (Joshua Morrow) or Adam (Mark Grossman) found out what Victor was up to with his latest scheme, and in the episode that aired on October 25, the person to crack the mystery turned out to be Nick.
After Adam shared with his brother the picture Victor drew of a snake consisting of his children’s names, Nick went to speak to Victor about the image. While Nick initially went out of concern, Nikki pressed Victor to come clean with his son, and The Mustache reluctantly confessed the truth. Victor also demanded that Nick keep this information a secret from Victoria as Victor still wanted to put her through this test.
Unfortunately for Victor, Nick’s loyalty to his sister surpasses that which he has for his father, and Nick exposes Victor’s secret to Victoria in the episode airing on October 26. The news leaves her in shock and disbelief. The question now is how will Victoria respond to the information?
While we long suspected that Victoria would rip a page out of Victor’s playbook on revenge and enact a plan of vengeance against him, a conversation she has with Nate (Sean Dominic) prior to finding out this major revelation leaves us to think Victoria will walk away from Newman Enterprises, and possibly Victor, for good.
In the same episode, during a pillow-talk discussion between Victoria and Nate, she wonders what it would be like to be a part of a normal family. She also says, "Sometimes it feels like we’re this royal family, where all the children are just waiting around for the king to die so they can fight over his crown. Nate, I don’t want my dad to die."
Victoria goes on to talk about how she doesn’t know if she even wants to be her dad’s successor. The statement was a shocker to Nate and us.
These words, in addition to her sentiment that she just misses being able to talk to her dad as family members rather than business colleagues, we’re starting to believe that Victoria is coming to the realization that all the chaos around the family company isn’t worth the headache.
After she has time to process her dad’s deception, we can imagine her handing over her resignation papers to Victor and quitting. It’s also not hard to envision her expressing her frustration with him for his cruelty and taking a step away from their relationship. While he may profess the necessity of his actions, she’s not likely to see his point of view.
As far as Victoria’s next career move, we’d like to see her either take a break from all the corporate shuffle in Genoa City, or in a surprising move, go work with Sharon (Sharon Case) and Nick at Kirsten Incorporated. Sharon has been committed to repurposing her company to do some good in the world, and Victoria using her business savvy to help Kirsten Incorporate in its goodwill venture may be just what the Newman heiress needs.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus.
