The Young and the Restless spoilers tease that Thad Luckinbill’s (J.T. Hellstrom) return to the cast (first air-date December 12) will result in couple changes in Genoa City. The surprise announcement that Luckinbill had agreed to rejoin CBS’ top-rated steamer, after not being seen since 2010, elicited a smartly timed social media thumbs-up from his former on- and off-screen wife Amelia Heinle (Vickie).
J.T. and Victoria are Reed’s (Tristan Lake Leabu) parents. Viewers saw Vickie speaking to J.T. (who wasn’t shown) about Reed prior to his unexpected arrival in GC at the start of this year. Leabu’s somewhat SORAS’d character ran away from home partially because his dad, Mackenzie (last played by Clementine Ford) and Dylan (J.T. and Mack’s young son who hasn’t been seen to-date) were moving to Poland, where J.T.’s security job would be based.
The split of J.T. and Vickie was epic all those years ago, in soap time. It was eventually followed by Luckinbill’s character gaining full custody of Reed in a bitter legal battle. The Newman family’s negative influence over Vickie was the impetus for J.T. seeking and obtaining control over their son, all of which would seem to make the repairing of this couple challenging but surely not impossible.
Viewers will be watching to see it Mack follows J.T. back to G.C. That character is Katherine’s (the late Jeanne Cooper) granddaughter via Brock (the late Beau Kazer). If Mack doesn’t initially return, dialogue relating to marital issues would seem primed to follow. J.T.’s proposed split from his wife would lead to natural speculation about he and Vickie reuniting, at some point.
Meanwhile, Billy’s (Jason Thompson) just demonstrated that he actually does love Phyllis. Some, including this scribe have been proven wrong. It would be too cheeky to write that Philly isn’t as solid as Villy was, at one time, or that everything could change soon. Those points would wink at readers, implying that Philly is here now, but it won’t last forever. The issue isn’t how long that relationship will last, but that Billy does love Phyllis, which this scribe didn’t think was true, or plausible.
When one appears to be wrong, or actually is, just admit it. There’s no harm in acknowledging that a hoped-for Villy reunion clouded judgment where Philly’s reality was concerned. Plus, the iconic versions of Billy (Billy Miller) and Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) were so mismatched, at the time, that Thompson’s and Tognoni’s obviously excellent versions of these characters and their clear chemistry were given short shrift and shouldn’t have been.
The last two paragraphs translate to an opening for Vickie to move on with her romantic life. J.T. is clearly positioned to become her soul mate again.
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