We didn’t think Nick Newman, played by Joshua Morrow, could fall any lower on The Young and the Restless. But the character hit rock bottom after he wound up in a seedy motel room last week, following the brave front he put on at his parents’ vow renewal ceremony.
Last Monday, Y&R put a focus on Nick’s pain pill addiction with a series of fantasy/black and white scenes in which he examined his life, including how he ended up addicted to opioids. Newer viewers were reminded of the decades-long animosity between Nick and rival Matt Clark (Roger Howarth).
Nick conjured up a fantasy image of Matt, who accused Nick of being afraid to ask the real questions in life, like why does he love being high so much?
This was Nick’s subconscious trying to put his life together. Nick encountered nearly all the important people in his life, including the late Cassie (Camryn Grimes), who he mistook for her twin, Mariah (also played by Grimes).
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Y&R included a flashback to Nick’s heart breaking into little pieces as he sang a lullaby to a dying Cassie, who succumbed to injuries sustained in a car accident. Nick’s voice cracked and part of him also perished as Cassie flatlined.
Now, Nick’s going through a different kind of agony as he grapples with his sobriety. He came back to the real world when he encountered Marie Kirkland (played by Daytime Emmy winner Jade Harlow, who plays Lianna Ramos on The Bay).
We’ve seen couples on the big screen meet and connect over addiction in such films as The Lost Weekend, Days of Wine and Rose, and Leaving Las Vegas. Y&R tasked Morrow and Harlow with playing an incredibly challenging storyline in which their characters needed to authentically connect with one another in a very short amount of time.
The two performers quickly established their characters’ chemistry. Nick and Marie were strangers, but both their portrayers embraced that, playing brilliantly and seamlessly into how it’s sometimes easier in life to open up to someone you’ve just met and may never see again.
Marie sized up Nick quickly just by looking at him — not to mention hearing him through what are likely paper-thin walls at the motel in which they were both hiding. Nick feigned innocence, but Marie wasn’t buying it.
“I know a fellow user when I see one,” she informed her new pal. Marie rattled off her drugs of choice, prompting Nick to realize that he and his new acquaintance spoke the same language.
“It’s a long time till morning,” Marie quipped when Nick said that he was returning to rehab the next day.
While Nick knows other addicts in his life (his mother, Nikki, Melody Thomas Scott, and his ex-stepfather, Jack, Peter Bergman), he hasn’t been able to open up to them in ways that he was able to with Marie.
Marie was looking to bond, but she still had walls up around her, understandably so given her own demons. “You going to try to ‘save me from myself?’” Marie quipped, accusing Nick of looking like the “White Knight” type. She added that many people have talked to her about her addiction.
“No one ever got through,” Nick said, asking not only for Marie’s sake, but also his own, as no one has been able to reach him yet.
As Marie probed into Nick’s life, correctly guessing biographical info about him (more or less), she let him know that she knew a lot about him. This allowed Nick to open up about himself.
© Howard Wise/jpistudios.com
“It’s like you spend your whole life…play by the rules, you try to do the right thing, and then you wake up one day, and you realize that everything is just wrong, on every level,” Marie offered. “Life is brutal and it is exhausting and it is soul-crushing. And if you don’t just take a little break, you could lose your mind.”
Morrow played Nick as someone who felt understood and heard.
Neither character had hit rock bottom at this point. While Nick flushed some of his pills away in the bathroom, he was tempted by some “dolls” that Marie had left behind. She returned to retrieve them and the two succumbed to getting high.
Clearly, they were on another plane of feeling mellow and relaxed, and the actors played their characters as feeling zero pain. “It feels good to feel nothing,” Marie mused. “You can’t explain it to people who haven’t done it.”
The actors lowered their energy levels to play the effect of the drugs, but they kept their performances so intense that viewers couldn’t turn away.
Dark humor can be found in even the most depressing moments of life, and that’s what we saw when Nick chuckled that it didn’t look good that he’d be making it back to rehab the next day.
Nick’s been known to make the hearts of his female admirers race, but, thanks to the drugs, Marie’s heart slowed down to dangerous levels after she had a different response following their lovemaking session. Marie’s nearly dying caused Nick to call Sharon (Sharon Case) and ask for help after Marie was taken away in an ambulance.
The next day, Nick attended a meeting for addicts in which he opened up about his pill problem and Marie’s near-death experience, as he berated himself for not doing more.
“Sounds like you saved her life,” said Marie, who appeared at the meeting.
Marie and Nick maintained anonymity during the rest of the meeting so as not to expose the other’s secrets or identity. After the others cleared out, Nick and Marie were able to communicate on a more intimate level.
Both Morrow and Harlow are likeable performances which played in beautifully with the wry humor and wit that Nick and Marie shared with each other. She quipped about how he prepared her coffee without cream and sugar and also when she shared details on what happened to her at the hospital as doctors saved her life.
“The whole time they were doing it, I kept thinking, ‘Do you know how much those drugs cost me?’” Marie said. “I kind of feel like I got mugged.”
Nick told Marie she looked good. “The walking, talking, breathing stuff…it suits you,” Nick deadpanned.
“Once somebody saves your life, you should at least say, ‘Thank you,’” Marie added. “I think that’s in the ‘Etiquette for Addicts’ book.”
Marie deadpanned that she wasn’t thrilled that Nick saved her life, but she’d let it slide. You know, this time. Nick said he appreciated that.
On paper, lines of dialogue like the ones above could easily be interpreted the wrong way by less seasoned actors. Morrow and Harlow played tinges of light in the dark moments, selling them without losing the intensity of their situations.
Nick and Marie’s journeys to sobriety are likely far from over. However, along with moments of great darkness and despair, we also see that there’s hope for both of them due in no small part to the bond that they’ve created.
“Just take the win, cowboy,” Marie told the man who she didn’t want saving her but ended doing just that, perhaps saving himself in the process.
Bravo to Morrow and Harlow for bringing to life a powerful tale that’s served as a reminder how addiction can happen to anyone and should never be judged.
The Young and the Restless, Weekdays, CBS
If you or someone you know has addiction issues, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration‘s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.