The streets of Genoa City continue to whisper the name of Aristotle Dumas, and yet, almost no one on The Young and the Restless canvas knows who he is. Sure, word around town is that he wants to acquire Chancellor, but the true identity of the tycoon remains a mystery. However, The Young and the Restless writers have dropped enough breadcrumbs to lead me to believe that Aristotle Dumas is actually Cane Ashby.
The timeline
Although the rumor has been floating around social media for a while, it wasn’t until The Young and the Restless episode from April 2 that I jumped on the Cane bandwagon. In the episode, Jack (Peter Bergman) briefly stated that Aristotle arrived on the business scene about five or six years ago.
That may not sound like a big deal initially, but doing some research, Cane (Daniel Goddard) was last spotted in Genoa City in 2019, which was five or six years ago. Cane has a history of running cons, and he learned from the best conman he knows, his father. It’s perfectly reasonable to assume that in his time offscreen, he managed to amass a fortune to somehow build an empire.
The interest in the Winters
Months ago, Victor (Eric Braeden) informed Lily (Christel Khalil) that Aristotle had been looking into Winters, prior to Damian’s (Jermaine Rivers) arrival on the scene, and before Nate (Sean Dominic) came to learn that Damian is his half-brother. I found that odd at the time of the reveal, and my suspicions were only compounded when Amanda Sinclair (Mishael Morgan) blew back into town.
When she popped back up in town and met with Lily, Devon and Nate, she revealed herself to be Aristotle’s lawyer and the only person to know his identity. She assured the trio that Aristotle has absolutely no desire to take over Winters, as he has nothing but a deep admiration for the company. Interestingly enough, Amanda claimed that Aristotle admired Neil Winters (Kristoff St. John) very much and believes Winters “perfectly embodies Neil’s approach to business.” Additionally, Aristotle reportedly thinks that Neil would be very proud of Lily, Devon and Nate.
If you ask me, the entire sentiment sounds like it’s coming from someone who knew Neil personally, and given Cane was his son-in-law for years, we’d say Cane fits the bill.
All roads lead to Lily
If Aristotle really does have an appreciation for the Winters family and is on a quest to take over Chancellor, I think it all boils down to Lily. I think it’s entirely possible that Cane is Aristotle and would like to acquire Chancellor as a big gesture to win her back.
It’s no secret that Lily was crushed after Billy fired her from Chancellor, and further enraged when she aligned with Victor and Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) to get back into the CEO chair, only to be double-crossed. Cane was likely upset to hear all this news. Since Lily is arguably the love of his life, Cane could be trying to acquire Chancellor to give it to her to run, not only to prove his love, but to show that he believes she should be running the business. The idea isn’t far-fetched, especially when you think of the lengths Victor went to in order to get the company for Nikki.
I also found it rather interesting that in The Young and the Restless episode from May 30, while Lily ate dinner with Damian, she brought up her romance history with Cane. It sounds like foreshadowing of Cane’s return to me.
Billy Flynn
Now if you’re into other realms of the soap world, then you know the original Cane potrayer, Goddard, is currently starring in General Hospital as a dubious professor. So if I’m right about my Cane theory, Goddard may not be available to reprise his role. Thankfully, Days of Our Lives star Billy Flynn is set to make a debut on The Young and the Restless soon. Given his role hasn’t been disclosed as of publication, it’s entirely possible that Flynn plays a new version of Cane. With Rory Gibson crushing it as the new Michael on General Hospital, I won’t rule out the possibility that a new actor can add some excitement to a veteran character.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
