It’s literally been only a few short weeks since The Young and the Restless’ Ashley (Eileen Davidson) and Jack (Peter Bergman) decided to finally call a truce in their latest sibling squabble. Jack gave Ashley her company assets back as a wedding gift, and Ashley agreed to move on from Jabot and the Abbott family mansion, and the siblings together promised to do their best to respect each other’s spouse. While that all sounded good, there’s been this lingering suspicion that their momentary peace wouldn’t last.
Even with this suspicion, all was quiet on the Abbott front until the episode airing on Tuesday, August 29. On a positive note, Diane (Susan Walters) and Ashley may be on the path to becoming friends. Well, friends is probably too strong of a word considering they’ve been mortal enemies for decades.
But, in the new episode, Diane manages to save Ashley’s life who chokes on a grape. Now minutes prior, the two women were taunting each other and throwing digs, but once Ashley couldn’t breathe, Diane put their mutual animosity aside to help her new sister-in-law.
However, on a more negative note, Jack and Tucker (Trevor St. John) have their own interaction in the episode, and the fireworks fly. Tucker pops up at the Abbott mansion while Jack and Billy (Jason Thompson) are talking, and Tucker wastes no time telling Jack that while the oldest Abbott sibling is worried about Ashley trying to sabotage him, Jack is ignoring the real threat — Billy.
Tucker elaborates by noting how Billy was ready to partner with Ashley to go after Jabot with the understanding that Billy would eventually become the sole CEO of the company. This of course wasn’t new information to Jack given Billy told his brother about these conversations as he was pretending to work with Ashley and Tucker. Yet, the spin Tucker puts on the story clearly makes Jack consider the possibility that Billy would stab in his back.
Shortly after Tucker leaves the brothers alone, Jack tells Billy, “Good thing I trust you, he made a hell of a case.” The offhanded remark leaves Billy fuming with Jack as he thinks his older brother doesn’t trust him. An angry Billy walks away, and Jack is soon greeted again by Tucker.
Ashley’s new husband is quick to point out that Billy is gone, and Jack calls Tucker out for sowing discord in his relationship with his brother. That’s when Jack and Tucker exchange a pair of threats that kind of remind us of the fierce conversations Jack used to have with Victor (Eric Braeden) back in the day.
Jack tells Tucker, "You will never be any part of my family McCall. And I promise you, if you hurt or cause heartache for Ashley in any way at all, I swear to you, I will destroy you."
In return, Tucker warns, "Don’t push me Jack. I know I give off this air of not giving a damn about much. But don’t fool yourself. You do not want to cross me."
The scene makes us think that The Young and the Restless is foreshadowing an epic new showdown, that we would like to see. Again, since Jack stopped going head-to-head with Victor, the Abbott hasn’t had a good sparring partner. With Tucker and Jack threatening each other, maybe this rivalry will heat things up in Genoa City.
Now in all fairness, Jack’s threat was based on Tucker hurting his sister. But let’s be honest, as angry as Jack appears in this recent conversation, we can see Jack going after Tucker just to rid him from the Abbott family tree (he’s married to Ashley, so he is family despite what Jack told him). If this proves to be the case and Jack goes after Tucker while he’s on good terms with his new wife, Ashley will no doubt be furious with her brother and be ready to join the explosive fun.
Oh, and we can’t forget, that during the week of August 21, Billy shared with his brother that Adam (Mark Grossman) bragged about having dirt on Tucker. Considering Adam and Jack are friends, we tend to think Jack wouldn’t be above going to his buddy to get the scoop on his nemesis.
Brand-new episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus.
