Y&R: New Regime Coming Next Week

On October 12, 2012, the first of the new regime episodes of The Young & The Restless will be airing in the US. It feels odd watching the program currently because due to the 10,000 episode many characters are appearing that normally aren't there. Here are my thoughts on recent episodes.

So Victor (Eric Braeden) is back in Genoa City after developing amnesia after falling off a horse on the Newman Ranch. He hitchhiked and ended up in California. First off, I can't believe that the only people who recognized him were people who lived in GC like Genevieve (Genie Francis) who he slept with and Billy (Billy Miller), who is his son-in-law. Victor got is memory back after being in an explosion, in which Billy risked his life to save him. Due to this selfless act, Victor is keeping the fact Billy knew he was alive before everyone else knew a secret. Victor's near death and amnesia also brought Victor and Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) back together as she did everything she could to bring him home. Of course, I have no idea why they wasted the time having Nikki and Jack (Peter Bergman) get married again only for the marriage to end before they had a honeymoon.

In a weird series of events, Sharon (Sharon Case) who had become Victor's wife before the accident went a tad insane. She teamed up with Tucker (Stephen Nichols) and they would have gotten away with it had Victor died. Sharon called off the search for Victor, and Tucker who sent Genevieve to find Victor kept it a secret. Basically, there was stock manipulation as Newman Enterprises went down in price went down in price when Sharon was interim CEO. Everyone who could bought stock on the cheap, and once Victor came back it shot through the roof. If someone kept Victor away and benefited from the situation, they were guilty of manipulation. What was crazy was in episode 9999, there was a funeral for Victor. I've seen some bad funerals in my soap watching days, but this went beyond that and didn't feel like Y&R at all. I can see why some viewers were horrified for that reason. Thankfully all of the characters knew it was messed up, as "widow" Sharon dressed up in a wedding gown as she planned to marry Tucker. Victor walked in after the nuptials, which were obviously invalid. Due to Tucker's actions, he has been shunned by his family.

Nick (Josh Morrow) while having to deal with his former wife Sharon being married to his father, also had the stress from his current wife Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) being accused of attempted murder for something she did in the 90s along with how a key witness in the case Tim was now dead. While Phyllis did run down Paul (Doug Davidson) and Christine aka Cricket (Lauralee Bell), Tim died of natural causes. Cricket and Danny (Michael Damien) are back again for a tad. They are reunited, though we don't know yet if either will change their lives as they are recommitted to each other. Daniel (Daniel Grazadei) and Heather (Jennifer Landon) are seeing each other on the sly as Heather is prosecuting his mother Phyllis/ Of course, Heather and Daniel have a lot in common as both of them have parents with legal issues. Paul still hasn't been exonerated for killing his son Ricky to protect Eden, and who knows when she will remember.

These are some highlights of what has been going on in Genoa City. I wonder how long it will take to wrap up these plots and begin new stories.