Sally Spectra already gets the awards for Most Supportive Girlfriend on The Young and the Restless to her boyfriend Billy Abbott (Jason Thompson) and gal pal Audra Charles (Zuleyka Silver), having stood by them numerous times, offering unconditional love and support.
Now, it’s time for Sally’s portrayer, Courtney Hope, to get an accolade, namely TV Insider’s Daytime Performer of the Week honors for her heartfelt performance in response to Sally’s surprise pregnancy.
Last week, even though Sally was the one feeling a bit under the weather, she still encouraged Billy to go to London to see his mother, Jill (Jess Walton), who could use a visit from her son.
Billy insisted on sticking by Sally’s side to play doctor (he sure made a great one as Dr. Patrick Drake on General Hospital, right?), but she continued to push him away. When Billy left the room to prepare tea and soup, Sally texted Audra for some help.
We saw Hope have her character play a bit of an agenda when she was briefly alone. Was she trying to enlist Audra to get rid of Billy? Compelling performers, like Hope, know how to play secrets. They keep the audience engaged as they ask, “What’s going to happen next?”
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Wondering if Sally simply didn’t want to go to London with him, Billy asked Sally if honesty was still their thing.
“Right,” replied Sally, using a tone that, again, was subtly holding a secret. Sally assured Billy that she was just a little run down, and that’s why she was staying put.
After Billy left, Audra handed Sally an item in a bag, asking if she even really needed it. “No, I’ve been here before, Audra,” Sally said with a certain sad resignation in her voice, as she opened the bag. “I know the signs.”
The moment was timed perfectly as viewers spied that Audra had brought Sally a home pregnancy test. Hope’s nuanced performance didn’t telegraph that Sally necessarily thought that she was expecting, but at the same time viewers weren’t totally shocked either.
The sadness in Sally’s voice wasn’t about being pregnant, but rather, it stirred the painful memories of how her first pregnancy ended tragically as her daughter, Ava Hope, fathered by Adam (Mark Grossman), died shortly after birth.
The beauty of Audra and Sally’s friendship is that it’s a two-way street. Sally gently listened to Audra’s own tale of expecting a baby. They were different in that Audra miscarried Noah’s (Lucas Adams) child while Sally’s daughter, Ava, was born.
“Grief is not a competition, what you went through matters,” Sally supportively told Audra when her friend noted that their experiences were different, hastening to emotionally add, “I really miss Ava. I’m really grateful to have held her and to have known her even if was just through my heart.”
Wiping away tears, Sally shared that Adam is a great father to Connor (Judah Mackey), but that he and Chelsea (Melissa Claire Egan) have something special, so she doesn’t think about what it would be like to still be with him. But being a mother? That’s different.
Understandably, Hope had Sally play shock when she revealed to Audra that the home pregnancy kit revealed a positive result. Asked if she was going to share the news with Billy, Sally answered yes, but she hoped that she’d be able to find the words.
“Billy and I have had a lot of really big talks,” Sally said. “It used to drive me crazy when nothing changed. [Editor’s note: Us, too!] There’s no way around it this time. This big talk is going to change everything.”
A reality of soap opera storytelling is characters delay sharing information. But Sally’s not like that. She takes the bull by the horns, which is why she texted Billy saying that they needed to talk. We’d expect nothing less as Hope brings a vulnerable bravado to her role.
When Billy returned home (and Audra now gone), Sally informed him that she wasn’t sick and she didn’t have a virus, though she did have a little nausea. He assured her that whatever was wrong with her, they would get a specialist to deal with it.
“I’m pregnant,” Sally softly shared.
Hope played Sally telling Billy the big news for all it was worth. We saw a host of emotions wash across her as she readied herself to deliver the news — hope, apprehension, and, most of all, joy.
Y&R‘s telling all kinds of stories these days, including action and danger in Las Vegas, corporate subterfuge, and Artificial Intelligence, but, at the end of the day, soaps are about love, romance, and family, which Hope’s performance reminded us is the most powerful kind of story a daytime drama can tell.
Hope’s performances call to mind the kind of star power that we’d see on the big screen from romantic heroines in classic films, and we mean that in all the great ways. (This apparently runs in the “family” as the late, great Darlene Conely, who played OG Sally Spectra on The Bold and the Beautiful, likened her character to Stella Dallas and Mildred Pierce.)
We’re always rooting for Sally and now, we’re rooting for her even more. Brava to Hope for delivering a series of performances that gave us all the feels.
The Young and the Restless, Weekdays, CBS
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