If you tuned into the Wednesday, May 1 episode of CBS’ “The Young and the Restless” you may have been in quite a shock when you saw Mishael Morgan appear as Hilary Curtis on the daytime drama series. This marked the first time the actress appeared on the soap in scripted form since her character was killed off last summer. So what’s the deal?
In the episode, Hilary’s husband, Devon Hamilton (Bryton James), had a vision of his late wife as Elena Dawson (Brytni Sarpy) laughed about something Devon had said about his going to a Prince concert when he was younger and Elena not being able to picture Devon as a young boy. Elena’s laugh reminded him of Hilary’s just as the audience is shown a clip of the character seemingly appearing as a passenger in a car with Devon from a prior episode. Leading up to the moment, Devon had been contemplating his growing feelings for Elena throughout the episode as well as having discussions over the loss of both Neil Winters (Kristoff St. John) and Hilary with his sister, Ana (Loren Lott), to an outpouring of support from his friends.
“Yeah, that was me,” wrote Morgan on social media after the episode aired. “It’s always nice hanging out and making art with my #YR fam! How’d you guys liked the surprise!?!”
A rep for the soap recently confirmed to CBS Soaps In Depth that Morgan will be appearing in more episodes in the weeks ahead, but she is not back at the show. As such, it’s understood that as Devon continues embracing his romance with Elena that he’ll still harbor some doubts about his ability to move on after losing one of his greatest loves.
Prior to her surprise appearance as Hilary, Morgan also appeared as herself in the Monday, April 29 tribute episode dedicated to Kristoff St. John.
You can view her talking about the late actor in the clip below.