Credit: Howard Wise/JPI

Young & Restless is on the verge of pscyhoanalyzing the fun and drama right out of this soap opera. That said, we’ve had a couple of mysteries to keep us distracted: Who is Alan? Who is Aristotle Dumas?

Testing the Waters

I’ve always been down for a good “frenemies” moment between Sharon and Phyllis, but making it permanent seems unwise when the name of the game is drama. It’s become something of a trend with the current writers to “therapize” the edginess out of all the chracters who traditionally keep us entertained with their pot-stirring. Adam, Chelsea, and Diane have become dreadful bores, and now Phyllis, of all people, seems set to follow in their footsteps. It’s disheartening to say the least and not at all what we’re here for… the writers need to take note of the melodrama happening on Bold & Beautiful and Beyond the Gates.

‘Alan’ Exposed

There was a ton of foreshadowing in those conversations between Jack and Traci that make it pretty clear that, barring a twist where Alan had some sort of psychotic break following the death of his twin, Martin survived and has been impersonating his brother. We predicted that Alan/Martin will target Ashley again as part of this “surprise” he’s planning… and if cornered upon his return to Genoa City by Traci, he may well pull out his phone and reveal that he has her sister locked up somewhere. If not, this could turn out to be yet another fizzle of an ending, where they simply expose that Alan is Martin and then trot him off to jail. Of course, our hearts will break for Traci, and we’ll hope against hope that Sharon and Phyllis get the chance to confront their captor, but I’m not holding my breath. Daniel and Sharon, after all, were robbed of such an opportunity for closure in the Jordan/Ian story.

Aristotle Dumas Revealed

We’re clearing ramping up to the reveal of the person behind the alias “Aristotle Dumas”. There are a couple of options here, and neither of them jive with my first thoughts on the character. When Victor told Michael that he’d competed with Aristotle Dumas to buy up companies over the years, the assumption was that he was a similar age to the Mustache. But new information has our theories skewing him younger. With Daniel Goddard teasing an announcement, we had to consider that Dumas might be Cane Ashby. Let’s consider some evidence: Lily’s involved, Jill’s involved, Cane has a history with Chancellor Industries, and he lives in California where Dumas’ companies are based. It could be him, but he would have had to build an empire pretty quickly after leaving Genoa City to have been competing on Victor’s level for “years”.

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A theory I like better is one floated by Mark Harding, a longtime Young & Restless viewer on Twitter: That Aristotle Dumas is Brooks Prentiss and will be played by incoming Days actor Billy Flynn. Not only is this much preferable to what would amount to an unbelievable Cane-related plot, but it would bring the OG Brooks/Prentiss family back onto the canvas. I like to think it might also open the door for a Theo return. Anywho, for those who don’t know, the Prentiss family ran a publishing empire, which Victor once stole. This explains not only why Brooks would have animosity toward the Black Knight, but also the literary names for his companies, Monte Cristo and Dangler, and his alias, Dumas.