The Young and the Restless spoilers: Nikki’s big birthday surprise?

It’s time for another Newman affair over on The Young and the Restless, and if recent history has taught us anything, it’s that a party thrown by this family usually brings about some chaos.

For example, Victor (Eric Braeden) and Nikki’s (Melody Thomas Scott) anniversary party last year provided the perfect distraction for Jordan (Colleen Zenk) to kidnap Harrison (Redding Munsell) and Claire (Hayley Erin). Then at Abby (Melissa Ordway) and Devon’s (Bryton James) wedding, Billy (Jason Thompson) was gobsmacked with the revelation that Jill (Jess Walton) was stripping Chancellor from him and giving it to Victor. So with that being said, we anticipate that something dramatic is on the horizon for Nikki’s birthday party, being hosted by Victor and Claire.

Now, there are a number of things that could happen that make this a memorable birthday for the Newman matriarch. However, we’ve managed to come up with four scenarios in particular that we think could cause jaws to drop.

First up, let’s talk about the possibility that someone suffers a medical emergency. With Cole (J. Eddie Peck) dealing with a medical mystery, he’d be our guess. We can imagine him trying to put on a brave face for the event, but feeling under the weather. Then, during a pivotal moment of the party, collapsing. Leaving Victoria (Amelia Heinle) to whisk him off to the hospital.

Another unexpected turn of events we can imagine involves the reemergence of Ian Ward (Ray Wise). As The Young and the Restless fans know, the crazed villain is anything but dead, despite the belief of everyone in Genoa City. His returning to ruin Nikki’s big day and stick it to Victor is something Ian certainly would do. If Ian were to show, though, we imagine him showing up is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of his comeback.

We also can’t rule out the chance that the mysterious Aristotle Dumas uses Nikki’s birthday bash as his big coming out party to Genoa City. His identity has been a closely guarded secret for months, so we’re personally hoping he unveils himself soon. We think crashing Nikki’s celebration would provide for quite the introduction, especially if Aristotle turns out to be someone that Genoa City residents already know but have long forgotten about.

Our last thoughts on the possible unwanted birthday surprise boils down to Victor. The Mustache is dealing with an unhealthy amount of stress these days. He’s declared war on Jack (Peter Bergman), is fighting to break up Claire and Kyle (Michael Mealor), is concerned about Aristotle going after Chancellor and now Michael (Christian LeBlanc) quit being his attorney. Yes, some of these issues are of Victor's own doing, but probably stressful nonetheless. So we have to ask, is The Great Victor Newman about to suffer a stroke or heart attack?

To be clear, Victor is our favorite character. However, he’s been spinning out of control with vengeance for a while. We suspect a life-or-death situation could help reset his priorities and let go of his animosities.

For now, these are all just theories that we are floating out there about Nikki’s birthday party. But, don’t be surprised if one of these scenarios actually takes place.

New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.