Head Writer Josh Griffith Previews ‘Danger Continues to Loom’ on Y&R (Exclusive)
When it came time to plan a big summer storyline for Young and Restless that would bring the character of Cane Ashby back to the canvas, Head Writer and Executive Producer Josh Griffith looked to a classic mystery to craft his tale. “We knew that we had to reintroduce Cane in a big way as his return would impact so many of the characters,” he explains. “The original inspiration for this storyline was Murder on the Orient Express, but as I began plotting the story, I decided that we needed a locale where the characters would be trapped together, so the idea was born to send everyone to [Aristotle] Dumas’s remote chalet.”
The Best-Laid Plans
By having Cane’s guests lodge in train cars, Griffith was still able to have some of the setting of Agatha Christie’s classic whodunnit on Y&R, but wasn’t restricted to only using the confined space and could expand out into the estate, including the elaborate labyrinth of hedges. Shared the scribe: “Having a maze with so many secret paths and areas only increased the intensity of all the characters being together under these circumstances.”
Cane revealing that the mysterious and reclusive businessman Aristotle Dumas was his alias was only the beginning of the twists and turns, because soon, Jermaine Rivers’s Damian Kane fell victim to a killer. “Jermaine did a fantastic job for us with his performance,” Griffith declared, “bringing great energy to the canvas.” Unfortunately, every murder mystery needs a murder, and that was Damian’s role from the very start.
Raising Cane
All of this mystery and intrigue was crafted in order to introduce Cane back to the canvas, and with the edge that the character had when he first appeared back in 2007, played by Daniel Goddard. “It was time for Lily to have a big story with romance, and who better to upset Lily’s life than Cane Ashby?” Griffith shares. “Lily and Cane have such a rich history that I was interested in exploring with the added element of Cane now having this alter ego and taking him back to his roots when we first met the character.”
Having worked as co-headwriter on Days of Our Lives from 2015-16, Griffith was familiar with Billy Flynn‘s talent from his performances as Chad DiMera, and had always hoped to find a place for him at Y&R, so he was happy when the actor became available at the same time the role of Cane opened up. “I enjoyed working with Billy on DAYS and always hoped that we would work together again one day,” he explains. “We’ve had conversations over the years, but the timing was never right until now.”
As an added bonus, the writer/producer was thrilled by the chemistry that Flynn shares with his new Y&R co-star Christel Khalil (Lily). “Christel and Billy have exceeded our expectations,” Griffith enthuses. “They’ve had great chemistry since day one and are doing a fantastic job bringing this story to life. We can’t wait for the audience to see what’s in store for these characters’ next chapter.”
A Fine Mess
Of course, as badly as Cane would love to prove that he is a changed man and win back Lily’s heart, deceiving everyone with the Aristotle Dumas identity was not a great start. And even though he didn’t put the knife in Damian’s back, the murder didn’t help matters at all. “Lily holds Cane responsible for Damian’s death, so she has a lot of anger towards him,” Griffith previews. “While Lily knows that Cane is not capable of murder, she’s angry with him for creating the circumstances that led to Damian’s death.”
Lily isn’t the only one who doesn’t feel like they can trust anything that Cane says or does at this point. “Not only is Cane having to contend with everyone’s reaction to his deception, but the party guests are now accusing him of murder,” he says. “While he has the brilliance of Amanda [Mishael Morgan] by his side, not even she may be able to help him out of this mess.”
Cane remains convinced that the killer is after him, but he’s not the only one in danger as all of his guests remain trapped with him — and a murderer — on his lavish estate. Teases Griffith: “It’s safe to say that danger continues to loom in a big way, putting our core characters in serious jeopardy.”
Even once the killer is found and brought to justice, that’s still only the beginning of the tale as everyone heads home to reckon with Cane’s actions, both in France and Genoa City, where he has been buying up important properties left and right. None of which will help his attempts to prove he’s a changed man in any way, shape, or form.
“Cane has his work cut out for him when everyone returns to Genoa City,” Griffith previews. “It will be an ever-changing chess game as he tries to figure out who is a friend or a foe. And making matters worse is that several of his opponents may team up to take him down.”
Conversation
All comments are subject to our Community Guidelines. Soap Opera Digest does not endorse the opinions and views shared by our readers in our comment sections. Our comments section is a place where readers can engage in healthy, productive, lively, and respectful discussions. Offensive language, hate speech, personal attacks, and/or defamatory statements are not permitted. Advertising or spam is also prohibited.