Y&R: Anniversary of Katherine's Death

"The Young and the Restless" had two episodes that aired Tuesday and Wednesday August 26 - 27, 2014 that focused on the late Katherine Chancellor as played by Jeanne Cooper. As it was the one year anniversary of her death, the denizens of Genoa City along with some guests gathered to honor her.

At the mansion, Jill (Jess Walton) and Colin (Tristan Rogers) are interrupted by Murphy (Michael Fairman) who meets them before they go to the park. He offers the newlyweds congratulations. Esther (Kate Linder) is also there. Lauren (Tracy Bregman), Michael (Christian LeBlanc), Kevin (Greg Rikkart) and Paul (Doug Davidson) are all at the police station. Lauren and Michael go together to the event, with Kevin joining them later. Before Paul makes it to the party, he has to make some visits that are unrelated to the Katherine story.

Towards the end of the first episode, the group met at Chancellor park that was dedicated to Katherine upon her death. Lauren and Michael speak as Kevin and Murphy catch up with each other. Michael and Kevin argue, but stop because it dishonors Katherine's memory. Considering all the fights Katherine got into, I'd say it honors her, but I digress. Jill and Lauren speak and Lauren confides her marital fears to her older sister. Jill tells Lauren that it is a minor situation and not to worry. Kevin and Esther chat about their lives as it has been a long time since they've been on screen together. Kevin shares his pain with his soon to be former mother-in-law over losing not just Katherine, but his stepdaughter Delia, and his marriage to Chloe. Esther feels that Katherine and Delia are together.

During the second episode, Murphy shared with the others what Katherine wanted them to do. During their traveling around the world, Katherine and Murphy had written letters and burned them. He wanted everyone assembled to do the same. (Murphy has been living outside of Genoa City, since his wife's death and came especially to visit.) Nina (Tricia Cast) also made a stop in town to see everyone.

Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) could barely handle going to the event and lost her sobriety. No one knew what was wrong with her, just that she was in trouble. Neil (Kristoff St. John) made his first appearance since being blinded, which surprised everyone as during the party only his family and Jack (Peter Bergman) knew ahead of time. Lily (Christel Khalil) and Cane (Daniel Goddard) continued to worry about their family as Devon (Bryton James) and Hilary (Mishael Morgan) still looked at each other with longing. Each of them writes letters about their family as Lily is concerned about Neil, Cane stressed about Devon/Hilary, Devon muses about his feelings for Hilary and Neil writes about his wonderful wife. Since Hilary didn't know Katherine it was appropriate that she didn't write a letter. What amused me was that Neil has such great handwriting that it is legible even though he is blind as Hilary shared the text with everyone assembled.

Paul wrote about his marriage to Christine and how Dylan came into his life. Nikki admitted to drinking again and missing her best friend. Lauren writes about her marriage woes with Michael. Colin  writes about Jill, though he knows that Katherine wouldn't approve of their relationship. Esther just misses Mrs. C, and is doing her best to keep the mansion in order. Kevin writes about his imagination and obviously he didn't expect to be where he is now. Nina tells Katherine, that she's over Paul and moved on with her career. Jack mentions his father and how they must be spending time together in heaven along with saying goodbye to Phyllis. Victor (Eric Braeden) mentions his "evil plot" that Katherine wouldn't like, but says he still misses her. Jill is frustrated by the exercise and doesn't write anything. As the episode ends, Jill leaves the music box, which just gave her frustration. It has been stolen, by an unknown person.

The two episodes were a lot more low-key than last year's honoring of Jeanne Cooper and Katherine Chancellor. I did like at the end how it showed her memorial picture with the years of her life. The other thing I appreciated was that other than Hilary everyone at the event knew Mrs. Chancellor and in the case of Burgess Jenkins now playing Billy, there was a logical explanation why Billy wasn't at the park. I do wish that more of the cast was involved, but  the people who spent the most time with Katherine were included so I cannot get upset even if there weren't any other returns to Genoa City.