It’s been a while now on The Young and the Restless since Ashley (Eileen Davidson) and Tucker (Trevor St. John) returned from their Parisian honeymoon and threw in the towel on their short-lived second marriage.
She pointed to the inexplicable aggressive rage he displayed when she expressed her desire to return to Jabot as the reason for the couple’s split. On the other hand, he just felt her desire to return to Jabot and leave their new joint business venture was an incredible betrayal.
Then in the episode airing on December 28, viewers get a more well-rounded picture of what actually happened in Paris between Ashley and Tucker as each of them remembers through flashbacks what occurred. While Ashley recalls Tucker purposefully breaking a glass and throwing a chair as he abruptly left their table at the cafe, Tucker recalls lightly dropping a glass on the table (which didn’t break) and just moving a chair out of his way upon exiting. Tucker’s version of events is not the aggressive picture Ashley has been painting.
We admittedly had originally just taken the sequence of events as told by Ashley as absolute the truth; however, things changed.
Besides Tucker’s recount of what happened finally being shown, on December 29, CBS aired a 2003 episode of The Young and the Restless that featured Ashley in the midst of suffering a mental health crisis. Unfortunately, she walks into a Genoa City gala with a fake baby under the impression it’s her son Robert who previously died after an accident.
The interesting choice in an episode re-run seems like it was purposeful as if to remind viewers of Ashley’s past while providing a clue about what could be happening to her in the present. It’s possible that her splitting from Tucker in Paris was so traumatic that it’s triggering another mental health crisis and causing her to remember what happened between them differently.
Should Ashley be in trouble, we’re starting to think Tucker may be the one to rescue her. Regardless of them currently professing to hate each other, Tucker still loves Ashley and cares for her. In the episode airing on January 8, he appears genuinely concerned that his ex-wife is remembering the sequence of events "incorrectly." He’s also worried that she appears to be so afraid of him. This could all lead to Tucker looking more closely at his ex and realizing that something is wrong.
Now yes, Jack (Peter Bergman) has made a few inquiries with Ashley about whether or not she’s okay lately, but seems to be asking out of concern that she’s still very hurt by her separation from Tucker, has feelings for him and has a problem with the Abbotts going after him. Jack doesn’t come off as worried something else is afoot.
If our theory proves true and Ashley is in trouble and Tucker does come to realize that, we can see him fighting against her family to make sure she gets some help. If Tucker takes his suspicions to Jack, Jack would likely believe Tucker is just trying to play a sick trick in the two’s ongoing war over Jabot.
It’s likely that a catastrophic event takes place with Ashley before all those who love her get on the same page about a mental health crisis. If that’s the case, we picture Tucker coming to the rescue to save the day for his ex. Could his heroism lead to him and Ashley reuniting? Perhaps.
We hope a softer and more heroic side of Tucker leads to a character reset a bit. Like Adam (Mark Grossman), Tucker could use some goodwill in Genoa City so he’s not always seen as the evil villain.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.