Young & Restless’ Most Meaningful Victor Newman Storyline Is Just *Begging* to Be Told

For decades, we have thrilled to the exploits of The Young and the Restless’ Victor Newman, the unapologetic Black Knight of Genoa City.

We have swooned over his grand romantic gestures, gasped at his treachery and cursed about the lows to which he is willing to stoop.

But as we recently noted, his vendetta against archenemy Jack Abbott has begun to feel less “been there, done that” than “been there, done that over and over and over again.”

Read the room, Young & Restless. The last thing viewers want to see right now is a filthy-rich narcissist running roughshod over everyone and everything in his path with no concern whatsoever about the destruction he leaves in his wake. It’s time for the show to humble Victor, and we mean truly humble him.

As it is, he considers himself untouchable, and we don’t blame him. Countless nemeses have come and gone, and none have been able to bring him down — heck, they’ve barely managed to slow him down.

We’d feel invincible, too!

Victor’s Day of Reckoning

What it would take to force the great and powerful Victor Newman to take stock, we’re not sure. Perhaps the loss of his empire. Maybe the passing of one of his children.

Or it could be something as common in Genoa City as a brush with death. Whatever it is, the result would have to be the same: Victor asking, “What have I done?”

He had to fight for everything that he has, so he could realize that along the way, he forgot how to do anything but fight — and at some point, that started to do more harm than good.

The storyline could be a tour de force for the estimable Eric Braeden as he plays Victor’s revelation that he’s won battle after battle, only to lose the war.

How many times has he hurt his beloved Nikki? How often has he broken his kids’ hearts or made collateral damage of someone who made the unforgivable mistake of wanting something for themselves?

“Is this a life to be proud of,” he’d have to ask himself, “or ashamed of?”

Knock Him Down, Build Him Back Up

Of course, the goal of cutting Victor down to size isn’t to keep him “small,” it’s to allow him to adjust his POV and redefine what it means to be “large.”

“I’ve been so focused on growing Newman Enterprises by taking, taking, taking,” he’d see, “that I’ve entirely neglected the potential benefits of giving.

What is the point of it all if it’s all for me? My company, my money, my achievements. Am I so petty and insecure that I need the world I created to revolve around me even now? What do I have left to prove?”

The answer: What Victor has left to prove is that he is better than that. That he has evolved away from the villain who once locked Michael Scott in his basement and fed him rats.

That he barely even recognizes the fiend who sicked Patty Williams and then Kelly Andrews on Jack. That never in a million years would the man that he has become replace Phyllis Summers’ husband in her bed with an imposter.

Room for Improvement

But how? How can Victor possibly make up for all of his misdeeds? Simple. He can use his business acumen and vast wealth to secretly bankroll a nonprofit, then staff it with one of the ambitious entrepreneurs on whom he’s previously stepped: Audra Charles.

Have him apologize for asking her to seduce Kyle Abbott, give her the top spot and request that she not disclose to anyone that he is funding the charity. “And what if I don’t keep your secret?” she might ask.

“What if you don’t?” he could reply. “That’s not a demand, it’s a request. There is no threat attached. The job is yours because you will be wonderful at it — and because I have wronged you.

I only ask that you keep my involvement to yourself because… well, let’s be candid with one another. If anyone knew that I was doing this, it would cast a dark shadow over the whole endeavor.

“You’ve suffered enough at my hand,” he might add. “As I try to make amends for my past, I shouldn’t like for you to have to deal with accusations that you are being used as a pawn in what others will see as my feeble attempt to atone. But the decision to honor my request for anonymity is entirely your own.”

Time to Shine

Imagine the gravitas that Braeden would bring to this storyline as Victor fully comprehends the scope of his power and the potential to use it to enact change for the better. Not just change for his bank account, change for the community, for those who are now where he started out: struggling, scrapping, doing whatever it takes to get by, never mind ahead. The Emmy winner would have to make room in his trophy case for a second statuette.