Young & Restless remains a hot mess. Please see last week’s rant, as I’m well past the risk of repeating myself on that topic. Focusing on this week and beyond, Amanda’s return brought with it hints that dropped like anvils as to Dumas’ real identity.

Dumas Exposed

After watching Friday’s scenes with Amanda, Devon, Nate and Lily I feel 90% sure that Aristotle Dumas is Cane Ashby (who will be played by Billy Flynn). Cane’s been gone from Genoa City the correct amount of time, he admires Neil, would be happy about Lily, Devon, and Nate working together to take their family business to new heights, and it’s believable that he would have recruited Amanda. There are a few questions to be answered, however. The first: Where did he get the money to become a tycoon? Cane returned Devon’s billions that had been stolen by his father Colin and hidden in the Maldives… but it took a while. Perhaps Cane got his start from the interest the fortune garnered whilst in Colin’s account?

Second: Why would he want to help Billy? It’s believable that Cane might be upset about Jill selling Chancellor to Victor, considering his loyalty to Katherine, but it’s the part about him reaching out to Billy that gives me pause. Though they did forge a truce at one point, it was Billy that told Lily about Cane kissing Victoria while she was in jail, and that led to the end of his marriage. Cane actually decked Billy for tattling. Moreover, given Cane as Dumas knows everything about the Winters recent history, he’d know Billy fired Lily. So, it’s hard to believe he’d want to help him get Chancellor back. It’s not impossible, perhaps he agrees with Victor that his ex-wife is better off at Winters, but we have to consider the idea that perhaps he’s setting Billy up. If so, why would Amanda go along with it? She did make a point of saying she didn’t like what Billy did to Lily.

Finally, Dumas being Cane also explains why he’d allow Lily to be given the false impression that Damian was up to no good… so as to thwart any growing connection between them. But there’s another question. Did Dumas/Cane know Damian was linked to Nate when he hired him to run two companies? If not, it’s quite the coincidence. Do you think Dumas is Cane? Vote!

Odds & Sods

Nothing made me happier this week than how rattled Devon was by Amanda… Sally’s meditation for Billy was lovely, but I don’t tune into soaps to see characters becoming less dramatic… Sharon and Phyllis seem destined to land back in a triangle with Nick… For all her protestations about not allowing anyone to control her life again after Jordan, Claire’s totally allowing Victor to do it… Audra taunted Kyle and pushed his buttons knowing he’d take action that would ultimately blow up his own relationship. Kinda brilliant! Holden’s going to be a thorn in her side, though… Storylines gone missing: What’s going on with “Teriah” and the big secret? What’s going on with Cole? Is he dying or not? Why doesn’t Nikki have MS anymore? OK, we won’t dig that deep. Until next week, folks!

The opinions expressed are my own. Please feel free to share your thoughts on this week’s Young & Restless in the comments.