There’s a heinous situation ongoing on Young & Restless, but it came to a head of sorts on Thursday’s episode with the utterance of a a single line that made us realize that a notorious Genoa City baddie needs to find his dark side again… stat. In fact, reviving his badassery just might be the saving of a soap that some days feels as though it’s in critical condition.

With the return of Cane Ashby came the noticeable back-burnering of another core character of a similar generation. As Ashby was staged as the next Victor Newman, longtime fans began to scratch their heads in confusion and ask, “What about Adam?”, the son who had proven every bit as ruthless as his pops.

Sure, Adam dipped into a bit of a Kumbaya phase after reuniting with I’ve Changed Chelsea, but surely the battle for Newman Enterprises would bring out his dark side again as the crisis called for his particular brand of evil cunning. Right?

We dreamed of Adam taking matters into his own hands just like the old days (or maybe a tad bit tamer), doing the dirty work to avenge his ol’ man and making the likes of Cane and Phyllis beg to hand back the company… but no such luck.

Adam’s central role in this whole mess has been to try and “manage” Victor, doing his level best to keep dear ol’ dad coloring between the lines. He couldn’t even keep a secret from Chelsea, who is fully wearing the pants in the relationship. It’s an abysmal state of affairs.

Tuning in to see what Adam Newman would do next – and to whom – was one of the most delicious dramatic selling points of Young & Restless for years. The last glimpse we saw of that guy was when he tried to gaslight Sally after cheating on her, and he even fell short on that.

The “real” Adam Newman is beyond edgy… downright evil at times. We couldn’t have imagined the guy who stole Sharon’s baby and told her it died wringing his hands over Victor “hurting people,” but here we are. Adding insult to injury, it was Jack they were discussing, which should have sent Adam into a fury, but instead he merely went along with it, ineffectively asking Victor questions that weren’t getting answered.

Even a “grey” Adam would be preferable to the podperson we’re seeing these days… he’s almost unrecognizable. You know something is horribly awry when Victoria and Adam are hitting it off! The crux of the issue, however, is that the soap desperately needs to restore Adam’s badassery.

We get it… the writer loves therapizing characters, but reforming all of your baddies and borderline baddies makes for exactly what we’re getting these days – a boring soap full of droning dialogue with little drama. The ‘villain of the month’ routine isn’t cutting it… Young & Restless needs full-time scoundrels on the canvas. Will the real Adam please stand up!