‘The Young & the Restless’ Spoilers: Neil Lashes Out At Family in Drunken Tailspin, Drags Nikki Down With Him

Now that Neil Winters [Kristoff St. John] and Hilary [Mishael Morgan] are done and she’a ruined his relationship with Devon [Bryton James], things are awful for the former head of Jabot Face of Fashion. Poor Neil has not had an easy time of it. Imagine getting your vision back after being blind and then clearly seeing that your wife and son are shagging. And if that wasn’t enough, then he’s in a plane crash with his two betrayers. And now that he and Hilary are irretrievably broken and he and Devon are drastically estranged, the bottle is looking all the better to Neil.

Y&R spoilers follow – read at your own peril!

Neil will completely give up on bothering to hide his boozing from his family. He’s bellying up to the bar at the Genoa City Athletic Club and we’ll see in coming weeks that he has fully accepted (and even embraced) that he’s an alcoholic once again. Technically once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic, but still it’s not good news. We’ll see Lily try and talk him out of the bottle and even try to bottle block him by demanding that the GCAC bartender cut him off with no success. In fact, her efforts are greeted with hostility.

Actor Kristoff St John, who plays Neil, told Soap Opera Digest, “The betrayal of his wife and his son has been devastating to Neil and sent him into a total tailspin.” What’s interesting about this storyline is that Neil isn’t just falling off the wagon – he’s diving head first gleefully into a bottle of hooch. He’s not an alcoholic who is consoling himself in the bottle and feels shame. Neil feels angry that his supposed loved ones have actively driven him to drink and will let his loved ones know that they are the ones who did this to him.

We’ll see Neil lash out at Lily even as she tries to save him. Devon will try and protect Lily from Neil but this will just set Neil off more. Without the normal filters to keep him in check, Neil will explore his anger at his son for sleeping with Hilary. When Devon tries platitudes about recovery, this will inspire Neil to want to violently confront his conniving son. Meanwhile he’ll have a drinking buddy in Nikki [Melody Thomas Scott] who has turned to the bottle to deal with her stressful dealings with Victor.

Nikki, however, will want to get her life back on track and go back to Alcoholics Anonymous. She’ll try and get Neil to go with her. Instead of heading off to an AA meeting, Neil will play devil’s advocate and encourage her to keep right on boozing with him. The bottom line is that Neil has yet to hit rock bottom and he won’t course-correct until he does. The real question is what will it take to give Neil an epiphany? He’s had so many devastating life changes recently that it seems like things can’t get worse. But they will and it will force a change that Neil never saw coming.

Stay tuned to Soap Opera Spy for other inside scoop on the Young and the Restless and Neil’s struggles with the bottle, his family and his demons.