Jack Abbott rolls out the welcome Matt Clark: Two Scoops for The Young and the Restless, the week of January 5

The year has just begun, but the action in Genoa City is heating up with the Newmans, Abbotts, Lily Winters, Phyllis Summers, and many, many others on The Young and the Restless!

What happened on The Young and the Restless

Diane, Jack, Matt, and Kyle on The Young and the Restless | Image: CBS

Victor (Eric Braeden) had the upper hand against the Abbotts until he didn’t. Jack (Peter Bergman) had a lot of bravado when talking down Victor, telling him that the Abbotts had beaten Victor as many times as they’d lost to him. We’re guessing Jack puts more thought into his security team than Victor does. Jack employed hired hands to follow the Newman clan, which gave him an advantage after Matt Clark (Roger Howarth) caused Nick to crash his car.

Kyle (Michael Mealor) was able to get to Matt and, with the help of the Abbott security team, capture Matt and bring him to his father to use as a bargaining chip against Victor. All this could have been avoided if Victor had insisted that his security team, which originally captured Matt – Victor should get credit for that – had accompanied Nick to wherever he was going to take him. Two security guards in the back seat would have stopped Matt from getting his composure and getting one up on Nick.

Why doesn’t Victor have full-time security living on the ranch with him? Why don’t Noah (Lucas Adams) and Sienna (Tamara Braun) have full-time security with them?

A Case for Queen Sharon

Sharon, Sienna, and Noah on The Young and the Restless | Image: CBS

It was simply a joy to watch Sharon (Sharon Case) go into protective mama bear mode when Noah and Sienna walked into Nick’s hospital room. She lectured Noah like he was a teenager who had cut curfew one too many times! And this wasn’t about staying out to go to a party! Noah and Sienna’s sojourn away from the ranch already caused Nick to take a blow to the head and for Sienna to be kidnapped. She was very close to having her life snuffed out.

Case’s performance (which you can read about here) came a bit close to what we might see on a sitcom when a mother gets angry at her kids for disobeying them. But guess what? Those performances are loaded with drama because good moms – like Sharon – are concerned about their kids when they’re in potential danger! Frankly, if anything, Sharon could have been more forceful with Noah!

The bloom is off the rose

Cane tried to give Lily a rose on The Young and the Restless | Image: CBS

Cane (Billy Flynn) made one last attempt to reach Lily (Christel Khalil) and get her to reconcile with him. He handed her a rose at the Genoa City Athletic Club, hoping to make inroads. Cane let Lily know he coerced out of her assistant where Lily was. But then again, if she wasn’t at her house, Crimson Lights, or the jazz lounge that’s underneath the GCAC, where might she be? Cane probably wasn’t wise in giving up how he found Lily, because if Lily’s response is any indication about his methods, her assistant is likely going to be looking for a new job! Hopefully, Lily has more on her mind than penalizing an eager assistant who probably believes in true love.

Lily did everything but belt out a Taylor Swift song as she told Cane that they were never, ever getting back together. Lily’s leaving town to make her point. It’s time, in all likelihood, with Khalil’s real-life maternity leave (though there’s been no official word on that. Khalil keeps a low profile on social media with her personal life, which is every bit her right!) We look forward to Lily’s return to Genoa City and our screens. We won’t be a bit surprised if Lily’s open to giving Cane a second chance when she comes back. But, by then, it may be too late, given Cane’s new trajectory.

Hello, Phyllis

Phyllis and Cane are a new power couple on The Young and the Restless | Image: CBS

The on-screen effects of her absence will likely be watching Cane go down a very dark path. He’s going to be more like Aristotle Dumas, we suspect, than being Cane Ashby. What’s fascinating is that Cane is not just moving on (it looks like) from Lily, but he’s moving towards Phyllis (Michelle Stafford).

He knows Phyllis stole his AI program and gave it to Victor. He knows she couldn’t control how Victor would use it, and he used it against Cane! Phyllis can claim she didn’t know it would hurt Cane, but she also didn’t know how he wouldn’t use it!

Cane revealed to Phyllis that there’s an element to the AI program. Whoever uses it will find that the program attacks the host user. Holy, switcheroo! Take that, Victor Newman! Matt Clark’s not your only problem.

But that begs the question: if the program will attack the host's user, how was Cane ever going to use it against Newman, Jabot, etc., and not have the program attack Cane’s company, Arabesque? This is for tech support folks to figure out. Come to think of it, we wouldn’t mind seeing the show bring on a character that could be used to explain how AI works and how it doesn’t.

Affairs of the Heart

Victor and Traci on The Young and the Restless | Image: JPI

While it’s interesting to see Jack use Matt as leverage against Victor for the program, we still think that a heartfelt (no pun intended) visit from Traci (Beth Maitland) to Victor, where she would implore him to stop his attack on her family, would be in order. Traci could remind Victor that she signed off on her late daughter, Colleen (Tammin Sursok), donating her heart to Victor. The mogul sure didn’t have a problem with the Abbott family’s generosity that day. Maybe if Victor had rewatched the Christmas Day episode, he would have been reminded of the night he was visited by Sabrina (Raya Meddine), Hope (Signy Coleman), and Colleen? He turned over a new leaf the next day.

We understand old rivalries being brought up, but is Victor truly justified in going after Jack because he helped Nikki with her sobriety? Nikki doesn’t have a problem with Jack’s efforts. And she has stayed on the wagon. Why can’t Victor just call this one “no harm, no foul?”

Father’s Daze

Nick and Noah on The Young and the Restless | Image: CBS

Yep, we’re still on Nick’s case about driving off with Matt Clark alone in his car. What was he thinking? The Newmans had Matt under their control, and they gave it all away. Hadn’t anyone seen reruns of cop shows from the 1970s and 1980s? Crooks were wrestling their way out of captivity back then. Ironically, Nick was all over Noah’s case when he thought that his son wasn’t taking the threat of Matt Clark very seriously. And guess what? Nick was right! Noah and Sienna went off and ran into danger when Annie Stewart (no, not the one from As the World Turns) clubbed Noah over the head.

So what does Nick do? He does exactly what he forbade Noah to do. Nick is one of our favorite characters on Y&R. He makes jokes. He’s the voice of reason. And we’re hoping that he and Sharon make another go of it someday.