After months of The Young and the Restless building up the mystery of Aristotle Dumas, in the episode airing on June 20, the mysterious billionaire tycoon was revealed to be none other than Cane Ashby (now played by Billy Flynn). I can't call myself surprised as I predicted Cane would be Aristotle way back when Jack (Peter Bergman) first discussed Aristotle with Billy (Jason Thompson).
Although it's very early days of seeing Flynn tackle the role, I already notice a slight difference in the way the character carries himself around Lily (Christel Khalil) and his desire to take on Victor (Eric Braeden). And this secondary point is where I’m having a slight issue.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy the writers are bringing Cane back. However, I’m having a hard time believing that Cane, of all The Young and the Restless characters past and present, is the one being built up to be this big rival of Victor.
Having been a viewer of the soap for years, thanks to the summers at my grandmother’s home as a kid, I know Victor has some real adversaries with some real reasons to loathe The Mustache. From Jack to Billy to Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) to Ian (Ray Wise) to Lily to his own children, they’ve all had real reasons to want to take down Victor.
Yes, at the current rate Victor has been going with nearly all of Genoa City, he’s definitely in need of a humbling of sorts, and I say that as a big Victor fan. But I just can’t believe Cane should be the one to deliver the slice of humble pie to Victor’s table.
They’ve certainly had interactions in Genoa City during Daniel Goddard’s tenure as the character, but nothing in my opinion to establish lingering bad blood to such a grand level. Additionally, while I’ll give kudos to Cane for somehow becoming a billionaire and corporate savant, is he respectfully in Victor's weight class?
Again, it’s still early into Cane’s new story arc, but it’s starting to feel as if Cane wants to prove himself to Genoa City residents and the global business community by wrangling The Great Victor Newman. If Jack Abbott has proven to be no match for Victor through the decades, and Tucker was outwitted, I just don’t get why Cane wants to provoke Victor to take on the challenge. Heck, Cane just managed to achieve success over the last few years, and risks losing it. Is he trying to get revenge for Victor duping Lily? Does he really feel that bad for Billy?
All in all, I’m just not sold on Cane having a genuine beef with Victor or him having the actual chops to take him down. But hey, I’m looking forward to seeing more of the Aristotle Dumas story unfolding and possibly making me less of a skeptic.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
