Roger Howarth Exit Rumors Erupt as Matt Clark Leaves Young and the Restless With Patty Williams

ROGER HOWARTH SENDS MATT CLARK OUT OF GENOA CITY IN TEARS

TL;DR: Friday, September 18 on The Young and the Restless: Phyllis begs Matt Clark to stay, promises to stand by him, and he still chooses the road with Patty. Roger Howarth ends the hour crying alone at a cafe table, and no exit for the actor has been announced.

Phyllis Summers Begs, Matt Clark Refuses, and the Tears Come After She Leaves

Is Roger Howarth leaving Young and the Restless? Every fan will be typing that on Friday, September 18, because Matt Clark spends the whole episode saying goodbye. He tells Phyllis Summers he is leaving Genoa City with Patty Williams, and no amount of begging moves him. By the end of the hour he is alone outside the Chancellor Park cafe, head in his hands, sobbing.

It starts at Crimson Lights. Matt Clark stops in to say goodbye to Nick Newman and Sharon Newman, and cannot resist one parting shot: he tells them they belong together. Nick tells him to skip the big production and just go. Then Phyllis walks in and finds him having coffee with the two people who want him gone the most.

Phyllis marches Matt out to the cafe patio waving the goodbye letter he left at the Riverbank Motel, the one where he called her his best friend. She wants to know what happened to their plan to turn Patty in. Matt has a new plan. Patty is a better friend for him now, he says, because her crimes look like his, and since no prison can hold her, he can keep her under control by going along.

Think Matt made the right call? Write to the editor at amber@soapoperamagazine.com and make your case.

Phyllis Summers Promises to Stand by Matt Clark and He Still Says No

Phyllis asks what happens when Patty stabs him or shoots him. Matt insists that will not happen because Patty likes him. Phyllis tells him to ask Jack Abbott what happens when Patty likes you. Patty put a knife in Jack back in July, so she has a point.

Then Matt asks Phyllis to give him a reason to stay. She begs. Nobody will give him credit for leaving, she says, but she will give him credit for staying, and she will be right there beside him, loving him and supporting him.

Her voice cracks when she asks whether he understands how rare a friendship with no judgment is. Roger Howarth plays every beat as a man who wants to say yes and cannot, his best work since the Mitch Bacall mask came off last fall. Matt says she deserves someone who will make her life easier. Phyllis fires back that easy is for wimps.

When he still will not budge, she says she pities him for the first time ever. She tucks his letter into her purse, tells him their life could have been incredible, wishes him luck and walks. That is when he breaks. Once the crying stops, he asks Genoa City why it is so hard to quit.

Is Roger Howarth Leaving The Young and the Restless?

No exit has been announced for Roger Howarth, and nothing from the network or the actor says Friday is his last episode. Remember the pattern. Matt got an off-screen sendoff to prison in January and was back by April 1. He announced he was leaving town in the July 20 episode and never went anywhere. Friday makes three goodbyes in one year, which is not how a soap writes out a Daytime Emmy nominee.

The show’s own fall preview also talks about Victor Newman taking even more control of the Matt situation and Phyllis deciding whether she wants Matt in her life at all. You do not preview a decision about a man who is gone. Reading between the lines, this is a pause with a return date, not a farewell. For more Young and the Restless scoop on the fall, the roadmap is already out there.

Nick Newman and Sharon Newman Want Him Gone While Phyllis Summers Ends Up at a Bar

Back at Crimson Lights, Nick and Sharon pick over the wreckage. Nick is not comfortable cutting Matt loose after everything he has done. Sharon does not care whether he has changed, because it does not undo what he did, and she hopes he stays gone forever. Nick has also heard secondhand that Phyllis said she was falling for Matt. Sharon’s read is sharper: Phyllis sees the two of them as fellow pariahs.

Phyllis pushes into The Shadow Room and finds her son Daniel Romalotti Jr. behind the bar. Daniel braces for a lecture. She orders a Bloody Mary instead, right now, and that is the whole conversation. Don’t be surprised if that drink is the first step toward mending things between mother and son. My gut tells me Roger Howarth will be back on that patio before the ice in her glass melts.

Should Phyllis have let him go, or should she have chased him to the bus station? Leave your verdict in the comments below this article.

Catch up on every twist with our full Young and the Restless spoilers coverage.

Matt Clark Will Be Back Before That Bloody Mary Is Finished

Our take: Matt did not choose Patty because he wants her company. He chose her because he believes he is poison, and Phyllis just proved she would drink it with him. It is the saddest thing this character has ever done, and the first time he has protected anyone but himself.

Now pick a side. Team Phyllis says he threw away the one person who ever believed in him. Team Matt says walking away was the only decent thing he had left. Bring your verdict to our Facebook page, because this one is going to get loud.

WATCH THIS: Friday, September 18. Bring tissues, and keep one eye on that empty chair.