Young and the Restless delivers Matt Clark (Roger Howarth) being forced into polite society. And it’s all because of Victor Newman (Eric Braeden). He has ordered Matt to get close to Cane Ashby (Billy Flynn). And asks Phyllis Summers (Michelle Stafford) this week to not warn Cane about Matt’s past, which kind of seems nuts because so many people in town know all about him.
So, we’re going to talk about Victor’s plan for Matt and where that leads, including a job and possibly some romance because Y&R is clearly full steam ahead on this rapist redemption story with no end in sight.
Young and the Restless: Victor’s Antics
And just before we get deeper into this, I want to remind you the Victor has no problem with rapists. It’s sickening for this reason alone that he asks Phyllis to cover for Matt, who again a known rapist. Because Victor brought in Marco Aselli years ago, put that stranger in Phyllis’s bed who was essentially raping her daily for months. That’s a big source of her angst with Victor.
And at the same time, he had kidnapped Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman) and dumped him with Kelly Andrews, who had sexually assaulted Jack over and over and over until she was brutally murdered. So, this also was the second time that Victor hired Patty Williams (Stacy Haiduk) to kidnap and sexually assault Jack. And Victor also did that to Billy Abbott (Jason Thompson), if you recall, because Victor was the one who hired Chelsea Lawson (Melissa Claire Egan) to drug Billy and rape him.
Plus, Chelsea planted drugs on Billy to get him arrested, then turned up pregnant. So, honestly, Victor inviting Matt to live on the ranch down the road from Sharon Newman (Sharon Case), a woman he raped once and tried to rape a second time, it all makes sense, you know. Because Victor is a rapist apologist.
Y&R: Matt Clark’s Redemption and Victor’s Master Plan
That aside, it’s clear that Matt is sticking around. And this version of him who’s remorseful is being very well played by Roger Howarth, who I do really like. He has done bad man redeemed on both One Life to Live and on General Hospital very well and he’s doing it well here.
The big question is what’s next for Matt? The only thing so far that Victor demanded is that he get close to Cane Ashby, get into his inner circle and spy on him. And that’s of course to help Victor destroy Cane. And I’m guessing with Lily appointing him as Chancellor CEO that Victor’s just going to double down. He’ll be furious that he handed Lily that company and then she’s giving it to Cane to control somebody that he hates.
So now we’ve got Matt ordered to get close to Cane and Phyllis supposedly keeping quiet. So will Cane actually get to know Matt? I mean it seems like Sharon or Sienna Bacall (Tamara Braun) or somebody would spill the beans. But if they don’t then I guess Cane might actually let Matt get close to him. And in fact, there’s a chance that Cane could wind up hiring Matt to work at Chancellor. I also expect that Cane’s going to hire Holden Novak (Nathan Owens) or Lily Winters (Christel Khalil) may ask Cane to hire Holden. But at least, you know, he’s not a creepy rapist.
Young and the Restless: Phyllis Brings Matt to Arabesque?
Also this week, in a bizarre move of rewarding bad behavior, Victor decided to give Arabesque to Phyllis. And of course, that was Cane’s company, aka the company Cane started under his fake Aristotle Dumas persona. Since Phyllis already likes Matt, I could see her hiring him to work there at Arabesque. And in fact, Victor might actually suggest that Phyllis hire Matt. Or Victor might order Phyllis to hire Matt because then Cane might be even more intrigued by Matt and want to get to know the man who’s helping Phyllis run his former company.
And I’m also interested to see if Cane is ticked that Phyllis wound up with Arabesque because I am sure that that is what Victor intended it to do to tick off Cane by giving the company that Victor stole from Cane, handing it to Phyllis, the woman who helped Victor steal Arabesque from Cane. So, we’ll see. But since Phyllis seems to want to protect and cuddle Matt, you know, I could see her hiring him.
Y&R: Matt’s Future Employment and Love Life
One place I don’t see offering Matt a job is with Sienna or Noah Newman (Lucas Adams) at their new Genoa City Shadow Room. I imagine that they’ll also make it clear that Matt is persona non grata at their new club. Also, I don’t see Sharon Newman offering Matt a job at Crimson Lights as a barista since Sharon wants to avoid him totally.
There’s always a chance, of course, that Victor could offer Matt a job at Newman so that maybe Cane could be tricked into thinking that he might get some Newman info out of Matt. That could make Matt perhaps more alluring to Cane as a new friend. However, I tend to think that Arabesque is where Matt is going to wind up getting a job.
Young and the Restless: Matt’s Romantic Options Limited
As for his love life, I think pretty quickly we can figure out who would never date Matt. First of all, there’s his wife, Sienna Bacall, who actually needs a divorce from Matt. But then again, maybe she doesn’t need a divorce because Mitch Bacall doesn’t really exist and that’s the man she married. She didn’t marry Matt Clark. Also, Sharon wouldn’t date Matt if he was the last man on Earth and sleeping with him would save the human race. I think Sharon would let the human race die out first.
Victoria Newman (Amelia Heinle) also wouldn’t touch him because he’s a sex pervert that she blames for her brother Nick Newman (Joshua Morrow) getting hooked on fentanyl. Now, I will say this, Matt is really only half responsible for that because if Nick and Adam Newman (Mark Grossman) had handed Matt to the cops, then Nick would never have gotten in the car crash that broke his leg.
And Nick checked himself out of the hospital against medical advice and was gobbling up opioids like Tic Tacs. So, he was addicted before Matt ever gave him that first fentanyl pill. I think that he just complicated Nick’s new addiction. So, I only halfway blame Matt for that. But I know the Newmans fully blame him.
Young and the Restless: Matt’s Responsible for Nick’s Addiction
So, other than him being a creep, you know, starting the whole set of dominoes that tipped resulting in Nick’s addiction, I think it’s kind of on Nick and his DNA because there’s addiction in the family. However, there are two ladies in Genoa City that I am certain would be happy to date Matt Clark. One of them is Patty Williams. First, let’s be clear, she’s also a rapist, so I don’t think she’s going to hold a few instances of sexual assault against Matt.
And second of all, Patty doesn’t stand a chance with Jack. We still don’t know if she’s the one who took Diane Jenkins because that storyline hasn’t resolved on Y&R even though they’ve got Jack and Diane together happy over on Beyond the Gates this week, which seems random. Something is clearly broken at CBS daytime for them not to have stories aligned. It’s a big whoopsie. But Patty did seem to like Matt and she’ll never ever win Jack back. So yeah, Patty might chase Matt.
Young and the Restless: Phyllis Goes after Matt
And then there’s another rapist in Genoa City who would totally date Matt. And of course that is Phyllis. If you recall, she drugged and sexually assaulted Danny Romalotti (Michael Damian) back in the day, then lied and said he got her pregnant. That’s Daniel Romalotti’s (Michael Graziadei) origin story. But he has another biological father.
And we already know Phyllis has a soft spot for Matt even though she betrayed him. Plus, Phyllis wants to protect Matt from Patty. So, if Phyllis sees Patty sniffing around Matt, then yeah, I think Phyllis would totally date him, if for no other reason than to keep Patty away. And in fact, Matt might wind up dating both Patty and Phyllis in some twisted three-way rapist love triangle. I think it’s totally ick. But it feels like that’s where we’re heading.
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