When it comes to The Young and the Restless’ Nate Hastings (Sean Dominic), much can be said about his transformation since hanging up his white coat as a doctor. Transitioning into the business world, he’s become ambitious, ruthless, manipulative and downright selfish. While these characteristics aren’t that uncommon in Genoa City, as we easily could be describing Adam (Mark Grossman) or Tucker (Trevor St. John), when it comes to Nate, these traits seem to be what will ultimately lead to his downfall.
For months now, Nate has managed to accumulate a list of people who wouldn’t mind seeing him taken down a peg or two. Between Nick (Joshua Morrow) not liking him for a number of reasons including stealing the COO position at Newman Enterprises, Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) not trusting Nate’s motives about anything and of course, Elena (Brytni Sarpy) despising Nate for cheating on her, he’s collected his fair share of people wanting to take him down.
However, if he is headed for a downfall, who will actually be the one to push him?
Elena
One possibility could be Nate’s spurned ex-girlfriend. If you’ll recall a few weeks back, while at the Genoa City Athletic Club, Nate had a heated confrontation with Elena and she warned him to stay away from her or else. That "or else" was a bit dubious and could be a signal she has something in the works. She’s been rather quiet on the soap as of late, so perhaps she’s been developing a revenge plot.
Billy
Billy (Jason Thompson) has not been a fan of Nate for quite some time. The Abbott heir didn’t like what Nate tried to do with his own family at Chancellor-Winters and Billy doesn’t care for Nate dating Victoria (Amelia Heinle). Despite their ups and downs romantically, Billy has a love and appreciation for Victoria and will always try to protect her whether she is receptive to it or not.
When you take into consideration that in the episode airing on August 17, Billy calls Nate "dangerous," could Billy soon make a move against Nate? Even if Billy is knee-deep in the Abbott sibling rivalry between Jack (Peter Bergman) and Ashley (Eileen Davidson), we think he’d find the time. By the way, his sabotaging Nate could lead to the Victoria and Billy reconciliation we’ve been anticipating.
Victor
No matter who it is, Victor (Eric Braeden) always seems to be the smartest in the room. There is no one more cunning than him. Which makes it odd that he seems to embrace Nate despite Nick and Nikki’s expressed reservations.
Then during the week of August 14, Victor found out that Nate was willing to go along with Adam’s blackmail plan to protect Audra (Zuleyka Silver), which Nikki found particularly bothersome. Yet, in the episode that airs on August 17, when Nate goes to apologize to Victor, Victor seemingly accepts the apology. In fact, he rewards Nate by asking him as the COO of Newman Enterprises to look over the financial paperwork of Adustus (now known as SNA Media as of August 17). But could The Mustache be setting Nate up?
We can’t put it past Victor. Again, he’s a smart man and usually has a good read on people, so we doubt he’ll let Nate dupe him.
Audra
Audra may be Nate’s closest friend in town, but she is just as cutthroat and ambitious in business as he is. She also had no problem throwing him under the bus when it came to the McCall Unlimited scandal. Instead of letting him do his part in speaking to Nikki and Victoria, she went behind his back to speak to Nikki and then confessed everything to Victor, leaving Nate with egg on his face.
On the August 16th episode, Tucker actually warned Nate to watch his back when it comes to Audra. Tucker called Audra "a self-centered and vicious person." He went on to hint that when Audra goes for what she wants, Nate won’t see it coming. Take a look at the exchange for yourself.
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While any one of these four suspects could plot Nate’s downfall, we’d be remiss if we didn’t say that Victoria herself could go after Nate. She’s already starting to doubt whether she can trust him, so perhaps she’ll put him to the test knowing that he’ll fail, and soon fire him from Newman Enterprises.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air on weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus.
