Soap Masterpieces November Throwbacks: Y&R’s Jack Abbot Discovers Patty Williams Had Plastic Surgery To Look Like Emily Peterson

November is the month for 30 days of soapy memories. Today’s throwback is remembering when Jack Abbott [Peter Bergman] discovered that Patty Williams [Stacy Haiduk] had plastic surgery to look like her psychiatrist. It was a great moment and seemed like it took years to come out [really, only about a year].

Victor Newman [Eric Braeden] paid for Patty to get plastic surgery to look like her best friend and doctor, Emily Peterson. His plan was she would switch places with her doctor, cozy up to Jack, and get information about Jabot to tell him. Victor’s plan begins to come unraveled as Patty becomes extremely unstable and commits a series of crimes, including poisoning Summer [Hunter King] in order to hurt Phyllis [Gina Tognoni] – who she felt was too close to Jack at the time.

The plan starts to fail when Paul [Doug Davidson] and his daughter, Heather [Vail Bloom] visit Patty [ who is Emily] in the mental hospital. Emily tells Heather that she is not Patty, she is Emily. Heather at first tries to reason with her then became almost frightened. Emily tells her to run a DNA test on a cup she drank out of to prove her identity.

The switch happened when Patty knocked Emily out, dyed her hair blonde, and walked out of her room looking exactly like Dr. Peterson. It was really smooth how carefully thought out the plan was. Emily tells Heather how the switch happened, and slowly she started to believe that she may not be her troubled aunt. Her confession brought up another question- if the sane doctor is in lockup, that meant her crazy Aunt Patty was free to hurt whoever she pleases.

Patty went to the hospital as Dr. Peterson to see Emily. She warns her no more outburst and rambling about being Emily Peterson. She has to come to terms with the fact she is Patty now. She tells her she needs to talk about something and needs her advice. She starts rambling about Phyllis meddling in her relationship and tipping Jack off that she is acting out of character. She tells her not to repeat any of their conversations to anyone, or she’ll order electric shock therapy for her.

Eventually, Jack learns the truth when Patty’s erratic behavior increased, and he read her diary. Emily and Patty’s switch places and Jack tried to resume his life with the love of his life, Emily. It didn’t work out because of her resemblance to Patty. They eventually were divorced; Patty later escaped the mental institution. Do you remember the storyline in 2009 when Patty took over Emily Peterson’s identity?