Matt Clark's in very bad company: The Young and the Restless Two Scoops For the Week of June 1

The Young and the Restless has a history of, if not redeeming its villains, then certainly finding a way to keep those antagonistic characters on the canvas. And it looks like Matt Clark is next in line to get a new life in Genoa City. Are his crimes really any more nefarious than the ones belonging to other characters on the show? Of course, they are! Aren't they?

The Young and the Restless road to redemption

Sienna, Noah, Sharon, Nick, and Matt on The Young and the Restless | Image: JPI

Roger Howarth has numerous daytime soaps under his belt. After a turn as Kent on Loving in 1992, he was cast in his landmark role as One Life to Live's Todd Manning, a frat boy who led a gang rape, and the victim was poor Marty Saybrooke (Susan Haskell).

Intentional or not, Todd was given the surname Manning, which coincidentally was the surname of Irene Manning (Kate McKeown, Barbara Rhodes), Viki Lord Riley Buchanan's (Erika Slezak) college pal.

Howarth had turned in a Daytime Emmy-winning tour de force as scumbucket Todd, and the writers, wanting to keep a mesmerizing performer such as Howarth on the show, devised a way to keep him on the canvas by revealing that not only was he Irene's son, but he was also Victor Lord's, Viki's father.

Despite his crime of rape, Todd was kept around (one way or another) throughout the show's finale in early 2012. Before coming to Y&R to play what could have been a short-term role as Matt/Mitch, Howarth was also on As the World Turns as Paul Ryan, and General Hospital as Franco and Austin.

Y&R found itself in a similar situation with Howarth's role as Matt Clark, who recently saved Nick Newman's life because Victor (Eric Braeden), Sharon (Sharon Case), Noah (Lucas Adams), and Sienna (Tamara Braun) don't know how to perform CPR.

Matt Clark's not just Nick's hero. He's also the man who somehow managed to fake his death about 25 years ago, when hospitalized, yanked out his IV, hoping to frame Nick for his murder.

That's something now he feels horribly about. In fact, Matt, having mostly recovered from amnesia, feels bad about all the horrible things he'd done. The list is pretty long. He raped Sharon. He raped Nick's first girlfriend, Amy Wilson (Julianne Morris). He stood by and let the police assume that Nick shot him (Amy was the one who pulled the trigger). Matt did more horrible things when he returned to Genoa City with plastic surgery, going by the name Carter Mills.

Last year, Matt, going by the name Mitch Bacall, caused Noah to have an accident. He kidnapped Sienna, held her against her will, and then he kidnapped Nick, Adam (Mark Grossman), and then he kidnapped both Noah and Sharon, and tried to kill all of them by pressing a detonator, blowing up the abandoned gas station he trapped them in.

A few chest compressions on Nick, and now, Victor is musing over giving Matt Clark a second chance.

Judge not lest ye be judged

Victor Newman (Eric Braeden) has been known to cross a line or two on Y&R | Image: JPI

Should Victor be doing this? Matt's crimes are reprehensible. Remember the time he kidnapped his wife's lover, locked him in a basement, and fed him rats? That led to his wife getting caught in a scuffle, falling, and miscarrying her baby. Pretty awful, huh?

Oh, wait. That wasn't Matt. That was Victor Newman, who held Michael Scott (Nick Benedict) in his basement, and it was Victor's pregnant wife, Julia (Meg Bennett), who lost her baby (Victor's, too!).

Victor could have been arrested for false imprisonment and causing the accidental death of his own child. But he skated on those charges, and he was off to his next storyline.

What about the time Matt burrowed through an apartment wall so he could sexually assault a woman he felt had wronged him? Oh. wait. That wasn't Victor. That was Michael Baldwin (Christian LeBlanc), who was obsessed with Christine (Lauralee Bell).

Michael found redemption through the prison rehabilitation system. Donating a kidney to Danny (Michael Damian) helped pave the way for forgiving Christine to support Michael getting his law license back.

Rogues Gallery

Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) and Michael (Christian LeBlanc) are two peas in a pod for a reason on The Young and the Restless | Image: JPI

Oh, and let's not forget about Rebecca (Kathy Schawver). She had the goods on Michael's wicked ways, but before she could expose him, Rebecca wound up beaten nearly to death and landed in Genoa City Memorial. Dr. Scott Grainger (Peter Barton) came up with an idea on how to keep Rebecca safe.

When Michael called up, pretending to be concerned about Rebecca, he was told that she'd passed away. After hanging up, Michael let out a wickedly chilling laugh as he knew his secret was safe. Was Rebecca dead? We don't think so. There's no evidence of that. Nor is there irrefutable evidence that Michael was behind Rebecca's assault.

Ditto for Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) starting the fire that killed Sasha (Tina Arning). Both Rebecca and Sasha met convenient fates that allowed Michael and Phyllis to live and scheme another day.

Speaking of Phyllis, we do know that she rented a car and plowed over Chris and Paul (Doug Davidson) the night before their wedding. That was finally addressed years later, but Phyllis got off on a technicality.

Let's not forget about legendary Sheila Carter (Kimberlin Brown), who committed a host of crimes both in Genoa City and in Los Angeles, yet she is still out there, mingling about in society, getting her heart broken, and decimating innocent pizzas with a pizza cutter.

The welcome mat for Matt

Nick should never turn his back on Matt Clark on The Young and the Restless | Image: JPI

All this brings us back to Matt. We're going to argue that his crimes are more heinous. However, perhaps Sasha, Victor's unborn child, and that poor defenseless TV set that Lauren (Tracey Bregman) bought Molly (Marilyn Alex), Sheila's mom, would say otherwise.

It'll be interesting to see what Christine, the district attorney, says about Matt's amnesia and his remorse playing into his legal accountability for his crimes. Yes, Victor has a say in all this (as he does everything, right?).

Another big question is what if Matt, who's remembered most or all of his activities, also "remembers" that he's a bad guy, and he likes inflicting pain on others? Perhaps it's time for Dr. Taylor Hayes (Rebecca Budig) from B&B to pop over for a crossover and analyze Matt.

If the Newmans forgive Matt and give Matt 2.0 (for lack of a better description) another chance, then they're setting themselves up for a major fall if he decides that being bad is more fun than being remorseful.

Catch all-new episodes of The Young and the Restless weekdays on CBS and Paramount Plus.