The list of things that can make or break a soap character is long and constantly evolving – recasts, last-minute retcons that try to sort chaos into order, surprise babies and more.

Holden Novak (Nathan Owens) from “The Young and the Restless” has now found himself at the center of legacy. Two weeks ago, viewers and Novak himself learned that he, the charming and mischievous businessman who came to Genoa City pretending to be someone else, is the biological son of Dr. Stephanie Simmons (Vivica A. Fox) and Malcolm Winters (Shemar Moore), a fan favorite and member of the Winters family.

This has put Novak in a whole new lane and highlights an issue that has long existed in the soap opera world. You might think the problem is the reveal itself, but instead, the discovery only exposes the mishandling of this character and other long-lost relatives.

Introduced in Jan. 2025, Novak was an integral part of an identity swap plot that was a bit convoluted. He assumed the identity of the doomed Damian Kane (Jermaine Rivers) but was revealed to be his longtime friend and business associate.

The plot was eventually uncovered after Kane’s mother, Amy Lewis (Valarie Pettiford), met “Kane” face to face. From there, we got a partial picture of the kind of man Novak was: enterprising, a fairly convincing liar and captivating beyond belief.

It’s possible to throw a character like that into the mix and watch them bloom. He got in on the ruthless business dealings around town, but Novak really hasn’t had a real purpose on the canvas. Instead, he’s been thrust into one middling plot after another.

From the forever unspoken secret with Audra Charles (Zuleyka Silver) to the ticking time bomb that is his relationship with Claire Newman (Hayley Erin).

Even after the death of his close friend, Kane, Novak has never been urgently in the mix of things. He’s become an acquaintance with Cane Ashby (Billy Flynn) and someone Ashby looks to for help. He’s also fallen for Newman and started, then failed, multiple schemes.

In spite of all this, the audience has still been left with nothing to make us care about him on his own, much less as a member of a legacy family. What are Novak’s fears? His actual hopes and dreams?

In the past three years, Novak has been the third retcon, long-lost family member to appear, Kane and Newman being the other two. And what happened to those other characters?

After a spectacularly soapy introduction, Newman seemed to be headed in the right direction. We watched her get help for her trauma, and she began her entry into the business world. However, since then, she hasn’t had much direction or a compelling storyline. If she weren’t a part of the Newman family, would you care?

You can also point to the aforementioned Kane, Nate Hastings’ (Sean Dominic) surprise half-brother. His arrival in town was eventually linked to Ashby’s return, and after a brief flicker of a romance with Lily Winters (Christel Khalil), Kane ended up dead.

There was so much effort put into connecting him to Hastings, and it was over within a few months, ending with a knife to the back and a funeral that wasn’t even shown onscreen.

It’s imperative that this commitment to tying Novak to the Winters family deliver results. The one upside is that the reveal didn’t drag on too long. We got to see Shemar Moore and a mini Winters family reunion, and even the first Dr. Simmons sighting in over three decades.

There’s even a clock ticking presented through Malcolm Winters terminal illness and his needing a stem cell donor. It’s got a great setup. All the audience can do is hope that this is the start of something amazing and not a shaky tying of a loose end.