The Young and the Restless character Matt Clark is unstoppable. He’s cheated death many times, most recently in Las Vegas. Despite having amnesia, he made his way back to Genoa City. He doesn’t know who he is. But what if Matt turns out to be the long-lost son of Victor Newman?
Cats in the Cradle, The Young and the Restless
Roger Howarth, who plays Matt, is a Daytime Emmy-award winner and a fan favorite. The actor played the part of Todd Manning on One Life to Live, and he was so successful in the part that writers opted to make him the son of Irene Manning (Kate McKeown; Barbara Rhodes) and Victor Lord. That made Todd the half-brother of series lead character Victoria “Viki” Lord Riley Buchanan, played by Daytime Emmy winner Erika Slezak (ex-Ronnie, General Hospital).
So there’s not only a tradition of tying characters to core families, but that’s something that Howarth has experience with courtesy of his stint as Todd.
The timeline actually fits that Matt could be Victor’s son, presuming that Matt and Nicholas are about the same age. Victor and Nikki got a divorce around the time Nicholas was born, so once the marriage was fini Victor was free to have a fling with whoever Matt’s mother might be.
Over the years, four different actors have played Matt, including Eddie Cibrian and Rick Hearst (Ric, GH), but we don’t know much about Matt’s family. His backstory canvas is a blank.
Does Matt know that he’s Victor’s secret “son,” should this “what if” scenario turn out to be true? On the one hand, we think not. Matt would have played this particular card a long time ago; on the other hand, it sure would explain Matt’s long-running hatred of Nick.
The Newman family welcome mat
What if Matt learned that he was Victor’s son decades ago? It would explain why he resented Nick so much. He hated that Nick had all this privilege and wealth, but so do a lot of people. Why did Matt zero in on Nick? Maybe because he knew that Victor lavished money and affection on Nick, but all Victor’s ever done to Matt is give him a swift blow in this living room!
We’d probably need to be introduced to Matt’s mother at some point to get this story going. What if Matt’s mother was none other than Aunt Jordan (Colleen Zenk, who just happened to play Howarth’s mother, Barbara, to his Paul on As the World Turns)?
Blood is a strong bond on soaps. Would Victor turn on his son even if he turned out to be Matt? Would Nick turn his brother away? How would Adam (Mark Grossman), Abby (Melissa Ordway), and Victoria (Amelia Heinle) respond? Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) would certainly weigh in on this, too!
Matt would likely hire himself a lawyer and find out what — if any — part of the Newman millions had he coming his way!
Making Matt the son of Victor Newman isn’t the most far-fetched twist in the world. Doing so would tie the bad guy to the Newman clan forever. It’s a “what if” that we could see Y&R giving a “thumbs up” to!
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Edited by Michael Maloney