Young and the Restless Spoilers: Matt Clark’s Head Injury Could Unravel His Redemption

MATT CLARK WAKES UP BLOODIED AND ALONE, AND FANS FEAR THE BLOW BRINGS BACK THE OLD VILLAIN

TL;DR: Matt Clark survives the crash with a bloodied face and a pounding head, and Patty Williams is gone. The last blow to his head helped turn him into a better man, so fans are asking whether this one turns him back.

Matt Wakes Up Alone in the Wreck

These Young and the Restless spoilers pick up right where the crash left off. In Tuesday’s episode, which aired a day early in Canada, Matt Clark comes to slumped over the airbag with blood on his face and a head injury that has him wincing. The passenger seat is empty. Patty Williams has already slipped away, and Matt staggers out of the car alone.

That head injury is why fans are nervous. The last time somebody hit Matt over the head, he woke up a different man. Now the chatter is blunt: could a second blow bring back the villain Genoa City has feared since the 1990s? The rest of the week is laid out in our two-week Young and the Restless spoilers.

Patty did this while he was trying to help her. As we covered in Monday’s Canadian day-ahead, when Patty grabbed the wheel, Matt begged her to turn herself in and swore there was still good in her. She said she would rather die than be locked up again and yanked them off the road.

Do you think Matt Clark can stay a good guy after this? Tell our editor at amber@soapoperamagazine.com.

The First Blow Changed Everything

Here is why this crash matters. In late April, after Matt set off an explosion outside Las Vegas meant for the Newmans, Sienna Bacall hit him over the head with a rock and left him for dead. He woke up with no memory at all. The man who once terrorized this town spent weeks charming Phyllis Summers and begging to be told who he was.

Then-head writer Josh Griffith called the amnesia a way of “recreating and reinventing the character.” When Matt’s memories came back in June, he broke down and asked for the chance to make amends. Days earlier he had done chest compressions on an overdosing Nick while Phyllis gave mouth-to-mouth, and paramedics said the CPR saved Nick’s life. Phyllis has been betting ever since that the blow to his head made Matt Clark a better man.

Will Matt Clark become a villain again on Young and the Restless?

Nothing on screen says so yet. Through Monday’s crash, Matt Clark was the one preaching surrender and remorse, and nobody has confirmed brain damage, memory loss or a personality change. Wednesday’s preview promises him “a rude awakening,” and preview photos show him bruised in a bed. Where that bed is has not been revealed.

Griffith set the terms in June: Matt has a future only “if he doesn’t fall back into that person.” And Roger Howarth said in May that his character was “still Matt,” memories or not.

Here is the twist worth remembering. In January, Matt attacked Nick Newman from the back seat and choked him while Nick was driving. Nick crashed and broke his leg, and the pain pills for that leg set his addiction in motion. Nine months later, Matt is the one bleeding behind the wheel, the latest turn in his long history of making Nick pay.

Nick Is Carrying the Dealer’s Drugs

Meanwhile, the Newman whose addiction began with that leg is sitting on a dealer’s stash. Nikki Newman corners her son at Crimson Lights, and Nick admits beating Joe but swears he did not kill him and that Joe ran off. A flashback shows Nick pulling the drugs off Joe’s unconscious body in the alley.

At the bedside of Marie Kirkland, who lies unconscious on a breathing tube, Nick tells her he made sure Joe will never deal drugs to anyone in this town again. Later, alone on the patio, he pulls the drugs out of his pocket. Joe is still missing, and Nick is 19 days out of rehab. Our Tuesday day-ahead has more on Nick’s visit to Marie’s hospital room.

Sharon Starts Over as Matt Comes To

Across town, Sharon Newman shows off a redecorated home now that she is on her own. She has more reason than anyone to care which Matt walks away. He raped her in the 1990s, and in April he held her at gunpoint.

So which man gets up? My gut tells me the writers did not put Matt Clark through a second head injury just to leave him exactly as he was. Don’t be surprised if Wednesday’s rude awakening leaves him confused about who he is, or far too clear about who he used to be. With Patty loose, a battered Matt with his old instincts would be a dangerous man to send after her.

Then again, the confirmed danger right now is Patty, not Matt’s mind. One crash may not undo a man who saved a Newman’s life.

Good Matt or old Matt: which one walks away from that wreck? Leave your prediction in the comments.

See what is next for Matt, Patty and Nick in everything coming up on Young and the Restless.

One Blow to the Head Made Matt Better and Another Could Break Him

I want the redemption to stick. Matt earned some grace when he kept Nick alive. But this show loves a mirror, and putting Matt behind a wrecked wheel nine months after he put Nick there feels like a writer’s wink.

So is this the moment the old Matt claws his way back, or does he come out of it more determined to be good? Pick your side on our Facebook page.

WATCH THIS BEFORE MATT’S RUDE AWAKENING: