Credit: CBS screenshot

Billy and Adam got in their feelings this week and a fist flew, but all anyone is talking about, and rightly so, is Young & Restless’ Sharon, and the shockingly dark turn her story took. Here’s a look at what happened, and what’s ahead.

The Big Problem

Before getting into the nitty gritty of what happened with Sharon and Heather, I’d like to touch on a problematic issue that has emerged in the telling of this story. Of course this is fiction, but the writers’ handling of Sharon’s disorder has offended some viewers.

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Those suffering from bipolar disorder can experience explosive anger, and delusions and psychosis are possible in severe cases, but this story is seemingly suggesting that a bipolar person who goes off their meds, or who tries a different med, might kill someone, which feels irresponsible and potentially damaging. With that said, we haven’t seen the story play out in its entirety yet, and Sharon Case promises much more to come, so further explanations for her character’s behavior will certainly be forthcoming.

The Twist

I don’t think I need to go over what happened between Heather and Sharon again as almost everyone will have tuned in to this “must see” episode. All of the elements (music cues, lighting, etc.) that went into the scenes made them some of the most shocking and dramatic we’ve seen in absolute eons, but it was the acting that took it all to another level. We won’t soon forget Vail Bloom’s relentless “cross-examination” of the intruder in Heather’s home, Linden Ashby’s perfect delivery as Sharon’s snarky sidekick, Cameron, or Case’s heart-wrenching wailing as she realized what she’d done. That brings us to all the questions we have moving forward. Did she really do it? Did Sharon actually kill Heather and dump her body?

There must be more to this than what there appears. If not, Sharon would be found out, locked up, and that would be that. The twist is in Sharon blacking out during the confrontation with Heather. While she was “out,” Heather could have taken a second fall and hit the back of her head, or someone could have come into the apartment and bashed Heather in the back of the head, knowing Sharon would be blamed for the death. We need the full picture to fill in the blank. I suspect delusion will somehow come into play, as the dumping of Heather’s body was incredibly similar to the time Sharon dumped Cameron’s body back in the day. It could all be tied together in her mind. Incidentally, Cameron turned up alive, and Heather could too.

As it stands, Sharon believes she killed Heather and will make her decisions about how to proceed based on that. We see Daniel telling Lucy that her mother isn’t coming back in the preview, but he’s not sobbing or devastated as though he found out she’s dead. We also hear Sharon tell Nick that she decided to confess, but she’s still out walking free, so that may be misleading. Will Sharon somehow make it look as though Heather left town?

Ultimately, if Heather is really most sincerely dead, either Sharon didn’t kill her, or she’ll be found not responsible because the doctor prescribed her the wrong meds, or she has a brain tumor… something along that line. There’s a lot more to come in this storyline, folks, so there will definitely be a twist, or two or three, before the truth comes to light.

Bits ‘n’ Bites

How great were those flashbacks at Cassie’s grave?! The powerful scene between Sharon and Dolores was just, wow! I’d forgotten. Perhaps the most entertaining aspect, however, was looking back over all of Nick’s hairstyles… Something in me loves the connection between Adam and Faith since he gave her a kidney, so I enjoyed their chat in the park. Even though Adam isn’t a part of Sharon’s storyline this time around, it was a nice nod to their history… Billy and Adam’s fight was good soapy fun, but they shoulda let them go whole hog and bust up Abby’s restaurant… Adam trying to talk Chelsea into the idea of getting back together was as dry as the Sahara. There’s simply no emotional or sexual undercurrent between them… Pulling Phyllis into Sharon’s story via Daniel’s family gets two thumbs up from me. Both of the actresses involved have 30th anniversaries this fall, and what better way to mark them than to play into the volatile history that so divided fans back in the day?!

The opinions expressed within are my own. Please feel free to share your thoughts on this week’s Young & Restless in the comment section.