On the October 9 episode of The Young and the Restless, Jill stood by Cane, cheered up Cane, and, most importantly, believed Cane when nobody else did. Why is she so loyal to a man who came to town to con her in the most painful way possible? Let’s pop our diva on the couch and find out!
Key Takeaways
- Jill was a terrible mother to Phillip and Billy.
- Jill thought Cane was her chance at maternal redemption.
- Jill was a terrible person; this is her redemption, too.
I’ve Got a Lot of Living to Do
Jill (then Brenda Dickson) became pregnant with Phillip as a means to get his father away from his wife, Kay (Jeanne Cooper). Kay drove Phillip Sr. off the road and killed him. Now, Jill’s baby was just an impediment to her trapping some other rich meal ticket.
Jill (then Deborah Adair) sent Phillip off to boarding school as a toddler and didn’t even tell John (Jerry Douglas) about the boy while they were dating. Jack (then Terry Lester) is the one who outed her being a mom and nearly broke up his dad and that awful strumpet!
Jill (now Jess Walton, who recalled her and Kay’s decades-long feud, here) married John and continued ignoring Phillip (Thom Bierdz) until the then-teen left school and went to live with Kay, the woman who’d killed his father and hated his mother… and Phillip still preferred her to Jill!
Second Chances
When Jill gave birth to Billy, her son with John (though Victor [Eric Braeden] was also in the mix for a while), she was older, wiser, less desperate, and, one might think, now had the tools to be a better mother. Nah. She was pretty terrible with Billy (Jason Thompson), too.
By the time Jill actually decided to start supporting her son, Billy had become so self-destructive that the best she could do was try to help him clean up his messes, while offering tough love to get him to pull himself together. Unfortunately, considering their history, Billy only saw it as Jill refusing to believe in him. (To be fair, Billy accuses everyone who doesn’t think he’s the greatest person in the world of that.)
Three’s the Charm
That’s why, when Cane (then-Daniel Goddard) first came to town claiming to be the real Phillip, he charged that Kay had switched infants at birth — Jill leapt on the chance to finally be a good mother to the one child she hadn’t ruined yet. And, when the truth came out that Cane was actually a con artist, that’s why she kept thinking of him as her son. Because if Jill could be a good mom to Cane, she might get redemption for screwing up so badly with Phillip and Billy.
And that’s why she’s still siding with Cane (Billy Flynn) now. Not just because being a good mother to him will clear her karma, but because Jill was a terrible person herself. Perhaps believing in Cane will help her believe she’s improved as well.
