We have to say, The Young and the Restless Victor Newman (Eric Braden) may be the greatest schemer in soap history. He’s a masterful tactician who plays chess with people’s lives like no one Geona City has ever seen. As he revs up his plans in his revenge plot against Jack (Peter Bergman), The Mustache is showing that he hasn’t lost his touch.
So to provide a brief recap, Victor started putting the pieces in place for his scheme during the week of June 10 on The Young and the Restless. The Newman patriarch tasked Michael (Christian LeBlanc) to get close to Diane (Susan Walters) and Cole (J. Eddie Peck) to warm up to Kyle (Michael Mealor), no doubt in a move for Victor to have people close to Jack’s wife and son to gather intel on his rival.
Victor also decided to press Victoria (Amelia Heinle) to return to Newman Enterprises as co-CEO and instructed Adam (Mark Grossman) to become the interim CEO of Newman Media as Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) still works on her sobriety. While Victoria has so far resisted calls for her to go back to work and Adam hasn’t officially agreed to step back into the Newman Media role, as the saying goes, "What Victor wants, Victor usually gets."
Now we assumed Victor was planning an attack on Jack and Jabot, but we couldn’t quite see how Victor would do it besides fanning the flames in the feud between Kyle and Diane. Then came The Young and the Restless episode airing on June 14.
In the episode, Audra (Zuleyka Silver) is still in Tucker’s Parisian suite standing her ground with her ex about not wanting his handouts. She continues to insist that she has a mystery buyer ready to buy Glissade and has managed to convince the board members to sell. Once the sale goes through, she will be CEO of Glissade and without Tucker’s help. Tucker, of course, is in disbelief, and during the week of June 17, he’ll work to stop Audra in her tracks while also trying to unmask this unknown buyer.
Thankfully for viewers, they don’t have to wait until Tucker’s investigation is complete, as it’s revealed at the end of the June 14 episode that the buyer is Victor. He calls Audra and asks for updates, and she says everything should go according to plan. Victor compliments her for "having done a wonderful job," and claims to be looking forward to their "productive partnership" with her running Glissade.
The Newman Enterprises founder concludes the call by saying, "We’ll create a cosmetics company that will crush whoever comes our way, all right." That’s an obvious nod to the Abbott family’s beloved Jabot. If Victor and Audra are able to pull off this coup, Jack may want to hurry back from his planned trip to Paris to see Ashley (Eileen Davidson) and Traci (Beth Maitland). Jabot will need its captain at the helm of its ship if it will soon be under attack.
On a final note, is Kyle primed and ready to jump ship at Jabot? Also in the episode from June 14, he and Diane have another big blow-up over work and Jack’s attempt to mediate doesn’t go over well with Kyle. Since Victor pitches Kyle the idea of him returning to Newman Enterprises in a scene before the heated argument, we have to believe the Abbott heir is thinking about it. Given Kyle’s Jabot experience, he’d make a good addition at Glissade.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
