Y&R SPICY HOT TAKE! Daniel and Tessa Porter Are Not Done and the Universe Just Removed Every Obstacle Daniel Sacrificed Himself to Honor

TESSA PORTER AND DANIEL ARE NOT DONE AND GENOA CITY KNOWS IT

TL;DR: Daniel broke up with Tessa Porter on The Young and the Restless to give her and Mariah a chance to rebuild their marriage. Noble. Selfless. Completely beside the point. Mariah just took a plea deal and is going into treatment. She will not be around. Daniel removed himself from the equation for a reason that just removed itself. Tessa and Daniel are not done. Duh.

Let Us Appreciate What Daniel Actually Did

Daniel Romalotti tried to do the right thing. We want to acknowledge that before we make our case, because the right thing in this situation was genuinely difficult, and Daniel did it anyway.

Tessa Porter is still married to Mariah Copeland. Feelings developed between Tessa and Daniel that had no clean resolution and no comfortable place to land. Daniel looked at the situation, looked at the marriage that existed before he arrived in Tessa’s orbit, and stepped back. He ended things. He gave Tessa Porter and Mariah the space to figure out if there was something worth rebuilding.

That is not nothing. That is a man choosing to be honorable when being honorable costs him something real.

We respect it. We are also here to tell you it did not work the way Daniel planned, and the universe has a very specific sense of humor about noble gestures in Genoa City.

Are you rooting for Daniel and Tessa Porter to find their way back to each other? Send your hottest takes to [email protected] and we just might publish them!

What Tessa Porter Did for Mariah

Before we talk about what comes next, we need to talk about what Tessa did.

Mariah needed help. The kind of help that does not come from a conversation over coffee or a heart to heart in the living room. The kind that requires a plea deal and a commitment to treatment and a willingness to step away from everything familiar in order to get better.

Tessa talked her into it. Tessa Porter, who has feelings for another man, who is navigating the most complicated emotional situation of her adult life, sat with her wife and made the case for treatment and kept making it until Mariah said yes. That is not a woman who does not love Mariah. That is a woman who loves Mariah enough to fight for her wellbeing even while her own heart is somewhere else entirely.

Mariah took the plea deal. Mariah is going into treatment. Mariah will not be around for the foreseeable future.

Tessa advocated for her wife and in doing so removed the entire reason Daniel stepped back in the first place. That is not irony. That is Genoa City operating at full capacity.

The Noble Sacrifice That Just Became Irrelevant

Here is the part that Daniel did not account for when he made his honorable exit.

He stepped back so Tessa Porter and Mariah could have the space to rebuild. That was the logic. That was the point. Mariah needed to be present for that rebuilding to happen and Daniel being in the picture complicated the possibility of it.

Mariah is not going to be present. She is going into treatment. She will be working on herself, doing the hard necessary work of getting better, and she will not be standing between Daniel and Tessa in any meaningful sense for the foreseeable future.

The sacrifice Daniel made was specifically designed to give Mariah and Tessa a chance. Mariah has now removed herself from that equation voluntarily with Tessa’s encouragement. The noble gesture Daniel made is still noble. It is also now completely beside the point.

Daniel and Tessa are going to keep spending time together. There is no buffer. There is no rebuilt marriage in progress to honor. There are just two people with feelings for each other and a situation that keeps finding ways to put them in the same room.

Duh

We are going to say the quiet part out loud that everyone in Genoa City is dancing around.

Tessa Porter still has feelings for Daniel. That did not stop when Daniel did the right thing. Feelings are famously unimpressed by noble gestures. Daniel ended things to protect a marriage that is now on pause while one half of it goes into treatment. Mariah knows enough about what happened between Daniel and Tessa to understand what she is walking away from while she gets better.

Nobody in this situation is villainous. Mariah is doing the hard, brave work of getting help. Tessa fought for her wife while navigating her own complicated heart. Daniel chose honor over what he actually wanted.

All of that is true. Also true is that the universe has now methodically removed every obstacle that made Daniel’s sacrifice meaningful and left him and Tessa exactly where they were before he made it.

They are not done. The show knows it. The fans know it. The only people who have not fully accepted it yet are the two of them, and they are running out of reasons to keep pretending otherwise.

Duh.

Do you think Daniel and Tessa Porter find their way back to each other while Mariah is in treatment? And when Mariah comes back, do you think anything will have changed? Sound off below because this comment section is about to have very strong feelings!

WATCH THIS: We’ll never shut up about wanting Paul back!

@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