‘The Young and the Restless’: Lack of Respect for Rey’s Death Angers Fans

The Young and the Restless hero Rey Rosales (Jordi Vilasuso) may be gone, but he’s not forgotten. Fans are still an emotional wreck over the tragic death of the beloved Genoa City detective. While viewers are grieving along with Sharon Newman (Sharon Case), they’re also experiencing anger.

‘The Young and the Restless’ writers have mishandled Rey Rosales’ death

It’s been three weeks since The Young and the Restless killed Rey. The detective died in a car crash on his way to Crimson Lights. Aside from Rey, Victoria Newman (Amelia Heinle) and Ashland Locke (Robert Newman) were also involved in the wreck but escaped with minor injuries. 

Although Rey’s death appeared suspicious, the autopsy report revealed he had a heart attack while driving. Since then, the writers have mishandled the aftermath of Rey’s death. The storyline has been odd between Rey’s body not being shown and most characters finding out offscreen. While fans had mixed feelings about the detective, they feel Rey’s death should’ve been handled with respect.

Rey Rosales’ offscreen memorial was disrespectful to the character and fans

As expected, The Young and the Restless has Rey’s funeral offscreen. Rey’s mother, Celeste Rosales (Eva La Rue), requested his body be brought back to Miami. Sharon agreed with Celeste’s request and left for Florida. 

However, Sharon wanted to have a memorial at Crimson Lights with Rey’s friends before her departure. Viewers expected to have a tearjerker scene as Rey’s loved ones remembered the beloved cop. Yet, the show didn’t feature the memorial onscreen. Instead, Sharon and her family discussed how touching the memorial was after the service. 

On a Reddit thread, viewers discussed their annoyance with the decision not to show Rey’s memorial. 

“I really don’t understand why they did this to his character and the actor. Really upsetting. Like they really couldn’t make him just be in a coma for a while? Or just move away? And then to not even have a funeral,” wrote one viewer.

“They could have had a little gathering at the coffee shop or Society. I wish we could have said goodbye too,” a fan replied.

“It’s bad enough they killed Rey off, but to not actually air his memorial is insulting to the character, the actor, and fans,” another commenter chimed in.

“Honestly this Rey situation looks rushed. Like the writers realized halfway into their April scripts that they had to write Rey off because they couldn’t afford him. So they decided to kill him offscreen and have everyone but Sharon/Chelsea/Chance be nonchalant about it,” one user wrote.

Is the character being erased from ‘The Young and the Restless’ history?

Rey’s death remains a sore subject for The Young and the Restless fans. The rushing of his death and memorial is disrespectful to the character and his fans. Although the show has other storylines, they could’ve spared a few minutes to have a touching tribute for Rey.

With Rey’s funeral officially over, everyone will go about their business as if nothing happened. Sharon is busy helping Mariah Copeland (Camryn Grimes) and Tessa Porter (Cait Fairbanks) with their wedding. While Sharon is trying to remain active, she still grieves for her husband.

Sharon’s grief isn’t going away overnight, and in the coming months, she’ll face hardship as a widow. Yet, as fans know, eventually, she’ll move on into the arms of her ex-husband Nick Newman (Joshua Morrow). With Sharon reuniting with Nick, it’ll be like Rey never existed. Something the writers seem to want fans to think.