For years, it feels like, we have waited for The Young and the Restless to give us a soap story that we, as fans, could really sink our teeth into — and how we have it as a supposedly dead Phyllis Summers has killed her new husband, Jeremy. Oh, the possibilities!
Young and the Restless Fixes Its Phyllis Summers Problem
It has been almost painful to have to watch Michelle Stafford play out Phyllis’s downward spiral as a harpy mother who sabotages herself at every turn with both her children and abandons her dream hotel to scheme against an old enemy. Surely, the two-time Daytime Emmy winner deserved richer material.
In decades past, you could trust that former head writers, if they were putting the viewers through a rough patch, it would work itself out, and the end result would be worth it. But the writer from the last several years has earned no such trust from the audience.
What happened to Tara Locke (Elizabeth Leiner) being a thorn in Kyle’s (Michael Mealor) side? Ashland Lock was set to be the new Genoa City power broker, wasn’t he? Why has Billy (Jason Thompson) changed jobs so often? Abby (Melissa Ordway) and Devon (Bryton James) sleeping together, with Amanda (Mishael Morgan) and Chance (Conner Floyd) walking in…where has that gone? Diane (Susan Walters) using Allie (Kelsey Wang) to return, but nothing developed from that as Allie has been sidelined. There was no fallout from Rey’s (Jordi Vilasuso) death. (Could Chelsea poisoning him have led to his heart attack?) Chance’s Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder…we could go on, but you get the idea.
The Young and the Restless has become the king of no follow-through when it comes to setting up interesting situations only to dump out of them faster than you can say The Great Victor Newman. But now, Phyllis Summers has herself in quite a bind. She’s believed dead by her loved ones. She teamed up with a man Diane warned her and everyone else was dangerous, and then he tried to kill her. But old Phyllis is back — she pointed out to Jeremy that she, too, was dangerous! And now she has killed her adversary (that has to be Jeremy under the sheet!) and she’s trying to dispose of his body. She’ll do it, too. She’s done it before (just ask J.T. Hellstrom).
This sets the stage for her to return to Genoa City where she thinks she’ll eventually earn the forgiveness of everyone…eventually. After all, Diane did the same thing, and look at her now. The thing is, Phyllis’s “death” has torn people apart as allegiances were made, pitting husbands against wives, friends against friends, and so much more. Diane’s faked death and resurrection happened a decade apart, allowing tempers to ease. Wounds are still fresh, and anything can happen. And we can’t wait to see it all unfold.
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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