On the Couch: Why Y&R’s Billy Abbott and Chelsea Can’t Make Love Work

Billy Abbott and Chelsea have both gotten a massive amount of individual therapy on The Young and the Restless. Billy for his gambling addiction and self-destructive tendencies, and Chelsea for her regular episodes of psychosis, which led to her wanting to destroy herself…and others. But they’ve never gotten couples therapy together. And they desperately need it. Here’s why.

Billy Abbott: Past Imperfect

Chelsea (Melissa Claire Egan) doesn’t know how to have a healthy relationship. Full stop. Her back and forth with Adam (Mark Grossman) was sick, twisted, and violent. And it led to them believing that their painfully ordinary child was special.

Her relationship with Nick (Joshua Morrow) was a combination of rebound, love the one you’re with, and full of lies — primarily on Chelsea’s part. Her relationship with married man Rey (Jordi Vilasuso) was exclusively in Chelsea’s messed up head. And her relationship with Billy (Jason Thompson) began when she drugged him, raped him, and blackmailed him about their subsequent son, Johnny (Paxton Mishkind). So, to put it bluntly, Chelsea wouldn’t know a normal relationship if it fell into her lap. Or what to do with one.

Young and the Restless: For Better or Worse

Billy couldn’t make his many marriages to Victoria (Amelia Heinle) work. While living with Phyllis (Michelle Stafford), he slept with her daughter. He is his own worst enemy. Except when it comes to admitting it. Then, he always has someone else to blame. And Chelsea is currently in a state where she thinks the world revolves around her. This means she not only believes she’s as wonderful as everybody keeps telling her, but she also assumes when anything goes wrong, that’s about her too.

Billy Abbott and Chelsea Lawson: A Bad Combination

A woman who doesn’t know what a good relationship is and always blames herself for everything with a man who has only ever been in bad relationships but never blames himself for them? Yeah, they’re going to need a lot of couples therapy. Not for their sake. We don’t really care about them. But poor Johnny deserves better.

The Young and the Restless airs weekdays on CBS. For an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.

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