Tragic Death😭 Young and Restless Actress Sharon in Tragic Car Accident died, Very Sad News,

Why Is The Young and the Restless Rewriting History? The Sanitization of Mariah and Tessa

In this week’s Young and the Restless recap, a curious trend continues—one that loyal viewers are beginning to find more frustrating than forgivable: the show’s ongoing attempt to whitewash the pasts of some of its most flawed (and therefore most fascinating) characters.

My colleague Candy recently voiced her disappointment over a major off-screen event involving Mariah. Understandably, she—and many fans—were baffled by the decision to keep such juicy drama off-camera. After all, isn’t this soap opera? We tune in for the mess, the mayhem, the betrayals. Not the neatly summarized aftermaths.

But what struck me even more than the off-screen drama was Sharon’s reaction. In comforting Mariah, Sharon insisted that “one bad act doesn’t make you a bad person.” It’s a fair sentiment—when taken at face value. But it also oversimplifies the reality of who Mariah truly is.

Let’s be honest: it’s not just one bad act. Mariah has a long, complicated history littered with questionable choices and manipulations. Her criminal past in Portland is rarely mentioned now, but it shaped her early years in Genoa City. And who can forget the disturbing time she colluded with Victor to gaslight Sharon by impersonating her dead daughter, Cassie? That wasn’t just a moment of poor judgment—it was cruel.

And yet, the show now presents Mariah as a reformed woman, noble and nurturing. Her history with Tyler, which included stalking and manipulation, is conveniently forgotten. So too is her cheating on Tessa—with Lindsay, a name that only long-time fans will recall. This conveniently selective memory has diluted Mariah’s layered, complex character into something far less compelling.

Tessa, too, has undergone a baffling transformation—at least in how others describe her. Sharon recently called her “kind and good.” Is she? Yes, Tessa’s recent behavior has been relatively drama-free, but her past is anything but squeaky clean. This is the same woman who once blackmailed Nikki Newman, extorting $250,000 in exchange for keeping quiet about Nikki’s role in JT’s death.

These are not minor transgressions. These were defining plotlines—full of deceit, manipulation, and selfish ambition. That’s what made these characters interesting. But now, it seems The Young and the Restless wants us to forget that side of them entirely.

Soap operas thrive on flawed, messy characters. That’s the magic of daytime drama. Viewers aren’t looking for perfection—we’re here for the moral gray zones, the bad decisions, the redemptions earned, not gifted by a script that suddenly forgets the past. By sanitizing characters like Mariah and Tessa, the show isn’t just rewriting history. It’s erasing what made them truly great.

And perhaps most frustrating of all—it underestimates the audience. We remember Lindsay. We remember the blackmail. We remember the pain and the chaos. And we want that remembered, too.