months, viewers have been trying to solve the biggest mysteries surrounding the Hawthorne family, but one overlooked historical gap may be pointing toward a completely different bombshell. A growing theory suggests that Jacob Hawthorne may not be Elon Hawthorne’s biological son at all. Instead, the clues seem to point toward an even more shocking possibility—that Joey Armstrong has been Jacob’s real father all along. While this remains a fan theory rather than confirmed canon, several suspicious details have started lining up in ways that are becoming difficult to ignore.
The newest clue comes from Joey’s explosive confrontation with Elon. On the surface, the conflict appears to revolve around the dangerous plasma operation and Jacob’s involvement. But Joey’s behavior feels strangely personal. Rather than simply protecting a profitable criminal enterprise, Joey repeatedly tries to pull Jacob away from danger, even if it means openly challenging Elon himself. For someone known as one of Fairmont Crest’s coldest criminals, that level of concern seems unusually emotional. It raises an uncomfortable question: why would Joey risk so much for a man who is supposedly nothing more than another police officer?
That question becomes even more interesting when Joey’s treatment of Jacob is compared with the way he handles everyone else. Joey rarely shows mercy to people who threaten his business. He is calculating, ruthless, and willing to sacrifice almost anyone to protect his interests. Yet Jacob is treated differently. Joey warns him instead of eliminating him. He attempts to steer him away from danger instead of allowing him to become collateral damage. Those choices make very little sense if Jacob is merely another obstacle. However, they begin to look very different if Joey is secretly trying to protect his own son without revealing the truth.
The biggest piece of this puzzle may not be Joey at all. It may be the enormous hole in Jacob’s family history. Surprisingly little has ever been revealed about Jacob’s mother before her relationship with Elon. The series has never fully explained when she met Elon, what her life looked like beforehand, or whether Elon was even present during the earliest chapter of Jacob’s life. Those missing years remain one of the least explored parts of the Hawthorne timeline. In a soap opera built on hidden identities and long-buried family secrets, leaving such an important period unexplained hardly feels accidental.
If those missing years hide another relationship, the theory suddenly becomes much more believable. Imagine that Joey and Jacob’s mother were involved long before Elon entered the picture. Something happened that forced them apart, and Elon later stepped into Jacob’s life, raising him as his own child. Such a twist would explain why Joey has remained emotionally invested in Jacob despite every reason to keep his distance. More importantly, it would fill one of the show’s largest historical gaps without directly contradicting anything that has already been confirmed on screen.
Elon’s own behavior also begins to take on a different meaning when viewed through this lens. Throughout the story, Elon has consistently tried to keep Jacob away from Joey. He discourages Jacob from digging deeper, reacts strongly whenever Joey becomes involved, and seems determined to prevent any direct connection between the two men. On the surface, those actions appear to be about protecting investigations or hiding criminal activity. But what if Elon has actually been protecting a family secret that has remained buried for decades? His desperation could be driven not only by fear of exposing corruption but also by fear of exposing the truth about Jacob’s biological father.
The recent plasma storyline may have unintentionally strengthened this theory even further. Joey’s determination to remove Jacob from the operation feels remarkably personal. A criminal protecting an honest police officer at great personal risk is not typical behavior in Fairmont Crest. Emotional reactions often reveal hidden relationships before dialogue ever does, and Joey’s actions have consistently carried an emotional weight that business alone cannot explain. Whether intentional or not, these scenes have encouraged viewers to reconsider every interaction between Joey and Jacob.
When all of the unresolved clues are placed together, a striking pattern begins to emerge. Joey’s unusual protectiveness, Elon’s increasingly defensive behavior, the mysterious partnership between the two men, and the almost completely unexplored history of Jacob’s mother all point toward the same unanswered question. Individually, each clue may be explained away. Together, they create one of the strongest historical gaps currently surrounding the Hawthorne family.
Of course, there is still one important fact that cannot be ignored: none of this has been confirmed by the series. No DNA test has exposed Jacob’s parentage. No birth certificate has surfaced. No confession has been made. At this stage, the idea that Joey Armstrong is Jacob’s biological father remains a fan theory built from suspicious character behavior and significant gaps in the show’s timeline rather than established canon.
Still, if the writers eventually reveal that Jacob is not Elon’s biological son, it would instantly rewrite one of the most important family histories in Fairmont Crest. Joey’s actions would finally make perfect sense, Elon’s years of secrecy would gain an entirely new purpose, and the biggest Hawthorne mystery would no longer be hidden inside the plasma conspiracy—it would have been buried inside Jacob’s bloodline from the very beginning.
