Unfortunately for The Young and the Restless’ Sharon (Sharon Case), her mental health struggles appear to be worsening with no moment of relief in sight. From the moment she informed Nick (Joshua Morrow) that her doctor changed her bipolar medication, her behavior has become increasingly erratic, which is getting worse now that she stopped taking medicine altogether. She frequently spaces out during conversations with loved ones, she’s not been going to work, her home is not quite as tidy as it once was and she’s been suffering from hallucinations.
At first, she was just hallucinating Cassie (Camryn Grimes). Then as days went by, she started seeing an imaginary version of Nick. Her conversation with the fake Nick even led to declarations of love between them and a kiss. But most recently, she’s been imagining her longtime stalker and tormentor, Cameron Kristen (Linden Ashbey), which spells trouble.
When Cameron was alive, he did everything he could to make Sharon’s life miserable. Not only did he attempt to sexually assault her decades ago, but it was just last year when he kidnapped Faith (Reylynn Caster) and tried to murder her, Sharon and Nick in a revenge plot. It only failed because Sharon killed Cameron instead.
However, now that Cameron is back (in Sharon’s mind) and tormenting her again, we can only imagine what unsavory things he may say to Sharon, or convince her to do. Already in The Young and the Restless episode airing on August 6, Cameron appears to Sharon and needles her about why she’s imagining him. He surmises that he’s there because she needs him, but also alludes to himself being a representation of the fact that she was able to save one daughter from danger (Faith) but not another (Cassie).
Cameron’s words got us to thinking. What if Sharon imagining Cameron is her unchecked subconscious, and he becomes a relentless force that convinces Sharon to do whatever she has to in order to prevent losing another child? Considering she killed to protect Faith, will Cameron convince Sharon to kill to protect her again? If so, who might Sharon view as a threat?
Should our suspicions prove correct, right away we have to be concerned for Phyllis (Michelle Stafford). Over the last few weeks, Sharon and Phyllis have shared a few tense moments, with Sharon warning Phyllis not to have certain conversations with her daughter. Sharon has also been under the impression that Phyllis is trying to rekindle things with Nick, and Sharon obviously wants Nick back. So will an unmedicated Sharon come to view Phyllis as a threat to her daughter, her reunion with Nick and her family? If so, will Sharon let Cameron convince her to take some murderous action to stop Phyllis?
If Sharon doesn’t come to attack Phyllis, then we have to consider she may go after Daniel (Michael Graziadei). Immediately after Cassie’s death, she blamed Daniel for putting her daughter in such a dangerous predicament. As time went by though, Sharon seemingly came to forgive Daniel. However, as recent episodes have shown, the more she thinks about Cassie and has flashbacks of her little girl, the more unnerved she becomes hanging around Daniel.
With that being said, we think it's possible that Sharon could imagine seeing Cassie more and start to believe the encounters are real. Then feeding her delusional thoughts, Cameron arrives and convinces Sharon that she must protect Cassie at all costs. If Sharon starts having a hallucination when Daniel happens to come around, Sharon may go into mama bear mode and attack Daniel thinking she’s defending her daughter. Again, Sharon’s bipolar disorder is not being treated at the moment, so things can quickly go left.
For now, we just have to wait and see if any of our hunches pan out. However, with Cameron back in the picture, danger just seems like it's lurking in the foreseeable future.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
