May 7 marks the 35th anniversary of Victoria Rowell’s debut as Drucilla Barber on The Young and the Restless — and is the ideal date for the much-missed actress to make a surprise return to the soap. How?
Simple. Reveal that Damian Kane’s mysterious boss is less Aristotle Dumas than Ariane Dumas and the gender flip has been just another level to the power player’s charade. Imagine the shockwaves that would ripple through the audience if Damian finally ushered Lily Winters into a meeting with Dumas. The tycoon’s chair swivels around, and Lily finds herself face to face with… her mother.
“You weren’t expecting a woman, were you?” Drucilla asks.
“I wasn’t expecting… ” Lily replies. “Mom?”
In short order, viewers would learn that, following Dru’s “fatal” tumble from a cliff in 2007, she drifted downriver — far downriver. When she was rescued, she had no I.D. and no idea who she was. But, being the born survivor that she is, she spent years rebuilding a life and reinventing herself, first as a small business owner, then as an extremely big business owner.
Back in Genoa City, Dru would be faced with the daunting task of putting together the pieces of a past she doesn’t remember — her love for late husband Neil Winters, her tight bond with her children…
We understand that a comeback for Rowell is the longest of longshots, given the actress’ since-settled lawsuit alleging that she wasn’t considered for rehiring based on her advocacy on behalf of African-Americans both on screen and behind the scenes. But she seems to still be willing to return. In fact, in 2020, she told Soaps.com that Dru “never died.” What happened to her “was left nebulous and open-ended.”
We get it. It’s far more likely that Dumas is going to turn out to be Young & Restless’ new hire, Billy Flynn, who’ll soon be off Days of Our Lives as Chad DiMera. But you can’t blame us for dreaming, can you?
