It’s a sad day for The Young and the Restless fans who were rooting for the romance between Traci (Beth Maitland) and Alan (Christopher Cousins). While The Young and the Restless episode airing on March 12 showed the happy pair getting engaged, it also revealed that a prediction we made long ago is likely true. Alan isn’t Alan at all, but likely his evil twin Martin.
Taking a step back for a moment, last year when Traci and Alan accompanied Ashley (Eileen Davidson) back in Paris as she tried to get to the cause of her dissociative identity disorder, it didn’t take long for the truth to come out that Alan had a twin brother. Martin was deranged and pretended to be his brother to get close to Ashley, eventually putting her in an uncomfortable position. Unfortunately for Ashley, as she remembered what Martin did to her, he again resurfaced and attempted to harm her again at Alan’s home.
Thankfully, Alan and Tucker (Trevor St. John) were able to rescue Ashley in the nick of time. In all the commotion, Alan and Martin got into a scuffle that went out to the balcony, and they both fell over to the ground. At the scene, Martin was instantly declared dead while Alan walked away with minor injuries. No one seemed to question if there was a mistake made in identifying the twins (again we did), and Traci and “Alan” kicked off a romance.
Fast forward to the present and in the March 12 episode, Traci, “Alan,” Jack (Peter Bergman) and Diane (Susan Walters) catch up over a meal at the Athletic Club. As Traci and Alan talk about their romance, he mentions that he would ask her to marry him if he believed she’d say yes. Once Jack and Diane excuse themselves, he indeed pops the question and Traci accepts. Alan then rushes off to get a ring.
While gone, Alan takes a moment to sit on a park bench and pulls out his phone. He then plays live video footage from the clinic where Sharon (Sharon Case) and Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) are being held. Given the diabolical nature of kidnapping the women and making them play games to survive, we again assume Alan is not Alan, but Martin.
Martin kidnapping Sharon and Phyllis was certainly not on our bingo card for the new year. He has no vested interest in the women being amicable toward each other and he’s not been around for their most intense fights. So that begs the question, why would he do any of this?
If we had to guess, he’s doing this all for his twisted fascination with human behavior. After Martin hypnotized Sharon to prove she didn’t murder Heather (Vail Bloom) and learned some backstory on her dealings with Daniel (Michael Graziadei), it’s possible Martin dug around in Sharon’s history with Daniel’s mom Phyllis. Doing so, he became intrigued by the sordid history between the two ladies. Then, Martin decided to conduct a social experiment to see if he could force the women to address their shared past to move into the future in a friendlier direction.
In terms of what happens next, we suspect Sharon and Phyllis will be rescued by Nick (Joshua Morrow) and Billy (Jason Thompson). We don’t believe Martin really had any intention of killing the ladies.
With that being said though, we have to wonder if there is no evidence tracing him to the kidnappings, will he seek to turn more of Genoa City’s residents into subjects for his social experiments? Heck, if Phyllis and Sharon come out on cordial terms, perhaps even as friends, maybe he can throw Victor (Eric Braeden) and Jack into the abandoned facility next, as they are the biggest rivals in town.
On a final note, we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out the possibility that Martin is dead and the culprit behind all of this is actually Alan. If that proves to be the case, then that begs the question, who was really the evil twin?
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.