Young And The Restless: Unexpected Plot Twists

Published on February 20, 2020. Updated July 19, 2022

A plot twist is defined as an unexpected change in the direction of a storyline. A plot twist can not only change the angle of a soap story, but it can also help with evolving character development along the way. When it comes to Genoa City, there have been numerous twists and turns in the storylines over the years. While some have been expected, others have had fans taken aback! Below are some of the most unbelievable Young and the Restless (Y&R) plot twists in recent history.

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12. Kerry Was Working With Ashley

Kerry Johnson had it all: smarts, personality, and beauty! She seemed perfectly matched with Jack Abbott, and was on her way to establishing real roots in Genoa City — until a plot twist got in the way! As quickly as Kerry entered the Y&R, she left when the direction of her story led her to betray Jack and Jabot as a planted mole in the company by none other than Ashley!
© Howard Wise/jpistudios.com

11. Who’s Your Daddy?

There have been a huge number of plot twists concerning the Abbott family in recent years. One major one was when Dina Mergeron revealed that John may not be the father of Jack. This threw poor Jackie’s entire world upside down. While he dug deep to find out who his daddy was, leading him to believe he could be related to Lauren, Jill, and even Victor at one point, in the end, a plot twist revealed John Abbott was his dad all along, and the entire “scare” was orchestrated by Ashley!
© Howard Wise/jpistudios.com

10. Dina’s Illegitimate Child

Mergeron has had more than a few skeletons in her closet over the years, with one recently coming out around an illegitimate child. Of course, said child just happened to be the father of Theo, Kyle’s most recent nemesis of choice. Nothing like adding a bloodline to really fuel the fire between these two men.
© Howard Wise/jpistudios.com

9. Summer’s A Match

Speaking of, when Lola was attacked from behind in 2019, causing an injury that left her in a coma and requiring a liver transplant, her family and Kyle immediately got tested to see if they were a match. Of course, they weren’t, and the only person who could save Lola’s life just happened to be the one woman who was after her man, Summer Newman.
© XT Arroyo/jpistudios.com

8. Sage’s Accident

Much like any baby swap storyline, the one regarding Baby Sully/Christian dragged on for quite a while. Just when fans thought the truth was going to come out — when Sage put two-and-two together about her son — a plot twist rolled in to stop that from happening. On her way to telling Nick (and Adam) the truth about Sully being Christian, Sage got into a car accident. This bought Sharon a lot more time with the baby; however, the real identity of Sully eventually did come out.
© Howard Wise/jpistudios.com

7. The Marco Annicelli Storyline

While drug lord Marc Annicelli trotted around as Jack Abbott, he caused a lot of chaos in Genoa City along the way. Y&R fans knew that once Jack returned, he and Phyllis would have to iron out some major issues in their relationship in order to move forward, especially since Phyllis was intimate with Marco while he was posing as Jack. What fans didn’t foresee was Annicelli’s involvement with Austin Travers and Courtney Sloane’s passing. While doing Victor’s bidding, Marco also had police officer Detective Harding in his back pocket. When Austin learned about the illegal doings of Annicelli, he got the ax, and then Courtney suffered the same fate shortly after.

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6. Adam Screws Over Sharon

In 2011, Sharon and Adam were pretty smitten with each other. Sharon went to great lengths to prove her man was innocent when it came to Sky Lockhart’s passing, and even tried to prove she was alive. As Sharon tried to gather evidence around this, by bringing Skye back to town, Lockhart ended up falling in a volcano (accidentally). The good news was that Adam was cleared of the charges, but then Sharon was being pinned for Skye’s demise. Months later, Adam would find the evidence to clear Sharon this, but felt wronged by her when she faked her own passing and assumed a new life to escape jail, so he destroyed the proof. What’s even more unbelievable about this story is the fact that Sharon’s nemesis Phyllis was the one to step forward and clear her name in the end.
© Paul Skipper/jpistudios.com

5. What Happened to Diana Jenkins?

In 2011, resident bad girl Diane Jenkins passed on in a classic ‘whodunnit’ storyline, where everyone in Genoa City became a suspect. Diane had very few allies in town, which made things hard, but what made it even worse was that the person who was behind her demise was also the one person nobody suspected. It turned out to be Nikki Newman, who has battled an alcohol addiction for years. Drunk during her encounter with Diane, Nikki acted in self-defense. Over ten years later, Diane showed up in Genoa City alive and well, causing drama all over again.
©sean smith/jpistudios.com

4. Adam Poses As Gabriel Bingham

Adam Newman seems to have nine lives. Not only was he able to escape criminal charges but he’s also passed away multiple, only to end up alive. In 2014, Adam passed away after a car crash that resulted in an explosion, but as it turned out, he was really alive. He was able to get reconstructive surgery to look like another man, Gabriel Bingham, and then assumed his identity. The fact that fate allowed for Adam to stumble upon the Bingham mansion, and have the same bone structure and build as Gabriel to pull off this rouse off is unbelievable, to say the least.
© sean smith/jpistudios.com

3. Daisy And Ryder Stir Up Genoa City

Sheila had a long obsession with Lauren Fenmore, and no matter what she did to shake Carter, the criminal always came back to haunt her. After Sheila’s (last) passing, it was stunning to say the least when Daisy Carter strolled into town to ruin Lauren’s life. She manipulated situations to make Lauren look bad, tried to mess up her marriage with Michael, and even kidnapped her. In a crazy twist of events, it ended up that Daisy (and her twin Ryder) were actually the offspring of Sheila and Tom Fisher, Kevin’s evil father. Sheila’s unknown time as a new mother was a nice little plot twist fans enjoyed watching.
©sean smith/jpistudios.com

2. Victor Gets Colleen’s Heart

When Colleen Carlton passed away in 2009, Y&R fans were devastated. After all, the poor girl had been suffering a lot lately thanks to Victor Newman’s schemes. If drowning in the same lake as her father wasn’t ironic enough, Colleen’s heart seemed to fit like a perfect match for Victor, who happened to be in the same hospital suffering from a heart attack and needed a new one. Colleen was declared DOA, but Tracy made that difficult decision to take her off of life support and pass on her heart so that Victor could be saved.
©sean smith/jpistudios.com

1. Genoa City Doppelgangers

They say everyone has a twin, but Y&R seems to take this idea to extreme lengths. First, there was that time that Sheila Carter had surgery to wreak havoc on Lauren Fenmore by posing as her BFF Phyllis Summers. Then, of course, Jack dealt with Marco Annicelli running around as him back in 2015. Even Katherine Chancellor had a doppelganger by the name of Marge Catrooke that was merged into storylines in the late ‘80s and 2008. Who knew a waitress, who looked exactly like the richest woman in town, existed only a few miles away?
©sean smith/jpistudios.com