The Young and the Restless (Y&R) spoilers reveal another resident of Genoa City is packing up and hitting the road. Dr Ben “Stitch” Rayburn (Sean Carrigan) will be fired or bumped to recurring status, and we all know what that means in soap world, see ya once a year maybe at a holiday dinner, and that is only if you have any family to visit and in Rayburn’s case all of his family has left town or died.
With new The Young and the Restless Executive Producer Mal Young at the helm Y&R has already seen a lot of positive changes. These range from the interesting camera angles and outdoor scenes to the weeding out of characters that have really had no purpose.
A perfect example of this is Dr Ben “Stitch” Rayburn – he showed up in GC on the heels of Dylan McAvoy (Steve Burton) they were old war buddies. Dylan is the son of a Y&R core character, Mom Nikki Newman (Melody Thomas Scott) which then gives Stitch some importance.
The Powers That Were, Jill Farren Phelps & Charles Pratt Jr, gave Stitch a sister Kelly Andrews (Cady McClain) and it looked like they were laying down the ground work for the ole Dr to stick around. They gave Stitch a mom (Meredith Baxter), they gave him a past with an ex wife, Jenna Rayburn (Stephanie Lemelin) and a son Max (Jared Breeze).
You would think with his family tree growing Stitch would have turned into a permanent fixture on the most popular soap opera.
The problem with Stitch’s character was that Phelps & Pratt had no idea where to take him but they did know they wanted to keep Carrigan on the payroll. Stitch’s character started out as an upstanding Dr and citizen of GC.
But then he morphed into a man who bedded every woman who looked twice at him. Starting with Victoria Newman (Amelia Heinle), Ashley Abbott (Eileen Davidson) and Abby Newman (Melissa Ordway) all within 2 months. What was even more disturbing was that Victoria and Abby are half sisters and Abby and Ashley are mother and daughter! Creep meter hit new highs.
They destroyed his respectability with that type of behavior which really seemed out of character for Stitch. Just as a new family member came into Stitch’s life making fans think he would be sticking around another member died or left… so what was Stitch’s fate – was he staying or is he going?
Stitch’s first family casualty was mom Maureen. She turned out to be a scheming bitter woman who had to flee town after trying to blackmail Nikki Newman and we haven’t seen her since. Next on the Rayburn family tree was Jenna Rayburn, Stitch’s Ex wife. We saw Chelsea and Billy go on some Sherlock Holmes type of excursion to try to dig into Rayburn’s past, they stumble upon ex wife Jenna.
Viewers think we are going to find out more about the mysterious Stitch but nothing big ever came of it. Sister Kelly turned out to be a deranged stalker of Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman) and was eventually killed while holding Jack hostage.
There was basically no funeral for his sister the only acknowledgement was just Kelly’s ashes being knocked over on the floor in the middle of a brawl between Billy Abbott (at the time Burgess Jenkins) and Rayburn at the Genoa City Athletic Club.
Phelps & Pratt try to keep Stitch’s character relevant by marrying him off to a Newman… Abby Newman. TPTB even killed off his ex wife Jenna leaving his son Max motherless. At this point the character of Stitch is on life support literally – so TPTB bring in a talented kid Jared Breeze to play Stitch’s son Max.
Just when the viewers think Stitch finally has a family a wife who is pregnant and a son… BAM, Max turns out to be a child from hell causing lots of grief in his marriage to Abby and killing their unborn child by diabolically tripping Abby down the stairs causing her to lose her baby. The writers wrote a brain tumor as the reason for his evil behavior sending Max to a psychiatric facility.
With a list of family casualties behind Stitch Rayburn did that character ever stand a chance? If all of that isnt’t enough, Abby just asked Stitch for a divorce… paving the way for Dr Ben “Stitch” Rayburn’s exit.
CDL’s Y&R sources and Steve Burton himself have confirmed Dylan’s departure – the people of GC and fans will soon be mourning the loss of Dylan McAvoy. Dylan was the only tie to GC left for Stitch Rayburn.
With the new Executive Producer at the helm it looks as though he is finally putting Stitch Rayburn out to pasture. It’s been a long and sometimes painful run but the time has come.
Sources say Stitch will be moving out of town to be close to his son Max leaving the door open to future visits from Dr Stitch Rayburn… or not. One thing is for sure, Mal Young is cleaning up the mess that was left by Phelps and Pratt.
What do you think Y&R lovers are you going to miss Stitch or be glad that storyline is wrapped up?
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That feeling when you’re ready for the weekend! #YR pic.twitter.com/exmFeEe3qz
— Young & The Restless (@YRInsider) October 22, 2016
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— Young & The Restless (@YRInsider) October 21, 2016
