Y&R SPICY HOT TAKE! Jack Ass Abbott Has Officially Replaced Smilin’ Jack Abbott, and This Is His Dumbest Week Yet

JACK ABBOTT CALLED IN THE GCPD AND THEN DECIDED TO PLAY DETECTIVE HIMSELF INSTEAD

TL;DR: Jack Abbott called the GCPD into Diane Jenkins’ disappearance, then sidelined the detective doing the actual work so he could run his own con on Patty Williams on The Young and the Restless. He moved his whole family out and Patty in. Harrison Locke is the casualty nobody is accounting for. Victor Newman used to call him Smilin’ Jack. Jack Ass Abbott is the only name that fits now.

He Called In the Cops, Then Benched Them

Jack Abbott did the responsible thing first. He brought in the GCPD, sat down with the detective on the case, and reported that his wife had been taken by a woman with a long, ugly history of doing exactly this. That is the move of a man taking his wife’s disappearance seriously and trusting actual law enforcement to chase her down.

Then he changed his mind about how this gets solved.

Rather than let the detective work the case, Jack decided the smarter play was to run his own undercover operation on Patty. He is going to fake a romantic reunion, move her into his home, and charm Diane Jenkins’ location out of her himself. The professional with a badge gets to “discreetly look into things” on the back burner while Jack freelances a sting that hinges entirely on out-acting the most unpredictable woman in Genoa City.

What could possibly go sideways there?

Do you think Jack has completely lost the plot, or is there a version of this con you can actually defend? Send your hottest takes to amber@soapoperamagazine.com and we might publish them right here on the page!

He Moved His Family Out for Her

Here is how committed Jack is to the bit. He moved Traci Abbott, Kyle Abbott, and Harrison out of the Abbott house and moved Patty Williams in.

Sit with that sequence. A man whose wife is missing decided the most pressing use of his week was rearranging his entire living situation to make room for the woman caging Diane somewhere upstate. Patty hauled her bags through the door, cooed about being “home,” and took a guest room with the door left helpfully unlocked. Traci called it disgusting. Kyle put on a show of never forgiving him. The performance is on.

This is not a coincidence of timing. This is a man whose priorities have come completely apart.

Nobody Considered Harrison

This is the part that actually matters. Harrison Locke used to be the center of Jack Abbott’s entire world. That was the man’s whole personality for a stretch. Harrison’s bedtime, Harrison’s school, Harrison’s wellbeing, all of it ran through Jack with real intention.

Now Harrison has been uprooted from the only home he has known, parked at the Athletic Club with Lucy babysitting and room-service pancakes for dinner, while the adults rearrange a household to install a woman connected to his grandmother’s kidnapping. Nobody asked how this lands on an eight-year-old who has already had more upheaval than most adults.

Here is the obvious fix neither Jack nor Kyle reached for. Summer Newman is in Milan. Harrison could have gone to stay with his mother for a stretch and kept up his schooling remotely while the grown-ups sorted out their chaos without a child in the middle of it. That is not a complicated idea. That is the kind of thing a thoughtful parent lands on in about thirty seconds.

Neither of them reached for it. Because neither one is currently operating like a thoughtful parent.

Is Jack Ass Abbott a fair nickname for where this man is right now, or does he deserve a little grace? Drop your verdict in the comments because this section is about to get very loud!

Smilin’ Jack Is Officially Dead

Victor Newman used to call him Smilin’ Jack. That nickname carried a certain affection under the needling, the recognition of a man who could be exasperating but was fundamentally decent and tried to do right by the people he loved.

Smilin’ Jack is gone this week. What is left of Jack Abbott is a man who called in the cops and then sidelined them, rearranged his household for the woman holding his wife, and let the little boy who used to be his whole reason for getting up in the morning get shuffled off to a hotel suite and forgotten by everyone but a babysitter.

Jack Ass Abbott is not a cheap shot. It is accurate. Victor’s nicknames have always had a way of sticking on the Abbotts, and this one fits perfectly right now. Jack has had bad weeks before. This is something else entirely.

Settle It for Us, Genoa City

So where do you land on this mess? Swing by our Facebook page and tell us whether Jack is a tortured husband running the only play he has left, or a man who lit his own family on fire for a con that was never going to work. Pick a side and let us hear it.

WATCH THIS: Dear Y&R, GIVE US PAUL!

@soapoperamag GIVE US BACK PAUL! Genoa City is lawless right now and they need THE BIG GUNS. Enough flighty cops. Enough with having no detectives. IT'S TIME TO BRING BACK PAUL WILLIAMS. Whatever beef Y&R has with Doug Davidson MUST end. Genoa City NEEDS Paul. Patty-Cakes NEEDS Paul. And we THE FANS deserve Paul! #YoungandtheRestless #BringBackPaulWilliams ♬ original sound – Soap Opera Magazine