Coming out of Covid, we all know how quickly viruses can spread, including on The Young and the Restless. But what’s currently happening in Genoa City can’t be mitigated by masks or even a vaccine. It’s too insane. And the victims are already too far gone.

It all started when Diane (Susan Walters) first returned to town. She is the classic example of the symptomless carrier. Diane wasn’t affected by this virus. But those around her were. Ashley (Eileen Davidson) and Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) were the initial ones infected. These two reasonable, rational women, both with important jobs, children, grandchildren, and full lives, could, all of a sudden, do nothing but shriek about what an evil person Diane was and how they could not rest until they’d gotten rid of her.

They hired a reporter to write an exposé about a woman nobody cares about. They brought a criminal to town and were shocked when Jeremy (James Hyde) proved dangerous. That seemed to shake them out of their feverish intensity, at least.

Y&R: Next in Line

But then Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) picked up the baton. She was so convinced that Diane was a threat to humanity that she faked her own death, put her children through hell, and even killed Jeremy, all in the name of protecting the world from Diane. She was literally unhinged, to the point where she still can’t see what she did that was so wrong. Aren’t all infections to be cut out and burned to protect others?

Young and the Restless: Across Town

Now, tragically, this mania has jumped targets, and Victoria (Amelia Heinle) and Nick (Joshua Morrow) are just as unhinged about Adam (Mark Grossman) as their mom and Nick’s ex-wife once were about Diane. They are just as convinced that they are battling a devil who must be exorcised by any means necessary. Who will this plague attack next?