Like many on The Young and the Restless canvas, we find ourselves trying to figure out the mystery identity of Aristotle Dumas. For weeks now, he’s been causing a stir throughout Genoa City, and he hasn’t even appeared yet.
He has Victor (Eric Braeden) on guard due to their business rivalry, has Lily (Christel Khalil) concerned because of his ties to Nate’s (Sean Dominic) new brother Damian (Jermaine Rivers) and has Billy (Jason Thompson) foaming at the mouth with the possibility that Billy can reacquire Chancellor thanks to the billionaire.
Zeroing in on Aristotle’s proposition to Billy, Aristotle allegedly told him that he feels compassion for him after Chancellor was ripped for his hands. Furthermore, Aristotle would like the opportunity to help right this “wrong” by helping Billy get Chancellor back in some kind of quid pro quo arrangement. Not much is known yet about what Billy promised Aristotle, but it likely has to do with Victor in some capacity.
Now Sally (Courtney Hope), Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) and Jack (Peter Bergman) have all warned Billy not to take Aristotle’s bait as he’s too much of an unknown to be trusted. However, in true Billy fashion, he seems primed to take a gamble with the mysterious wildcard. A move we strongly suspect Billy will come to regret. We have a hunch that in the end, Aristotle will double-cross Billy.
Lately, rumors have been swirling that Aristotle is actually Cane Ashby (Daniel Goddard). We even suggested there is a strong possibility that this is the case based on Jack’s limited knowledge of Aristotle, which he revealed in a conversation with Billy in The Young and the Restless episode airing on April 2. If Cane is in fact Aristotle, then we have to consider that Aristotle’s interest in Chancellor could be tied to Lily.
Back in the day, Cane and Lily were a power couple in Genoa City. They got married, shared kids and he was a vital part of her support system when she battled cancer. Although she wound up dumping him before his departure from the soap in 2019, their kind of love and history just don’t go away. We wouldn’t be surprised if he’s been carrying a torch for her in his years offscreen.
Victor recently told Lily that his team found evidence that Aristotle looked into her, Devon (Bryton James) and the Winters brand three months prior to Nate seeking out Damian.
Looking back in time, Nate starts searching for Damian around December 2024. Roughly four months before that, in August, Billy fired Lily from the Chancellor-Abbott, citing that he couldn’t trust her. It’s not hard to imagine that sometime between August and December, Cane caught word of Lily losing Chancellor after years of her hard work and felt sympathy for her. If he somehow subsequently learned that Victor betrayed Lily to get Chancellor for himself, he could have developed a plan to right some wrongs.
It's possible that Cane has been working on a meticulous scheme to acquire Chancellor, not to give it to Billy, but to give it to Lily as a grand gesture to win back the love of his life. That would be quite the explosive development if it occurs, and leaves us to wonder if Lily would accept his generous gift.
Again, Cane being Aristotle is just a theory at this point. We also think there’s a chance that Aristotle is Billy Flynn’s new character that he’s set to debut on The Young and the Restless soon. And who’s to say Flynn won’t be debuting as a member of the Prentiss family, one of the original families of Genoa City?
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
