In the September 17 episode of The Young and the Restless, Phyllis has spent weeks insisting Matt deserves the chance to prove he isn’t the man everyone remembers. Matt finally makes a choice that could prove her right, but his idea of redemption means walking away from Phyllis and taking Patty with him.
Key Takeaways
- Matt decides leaving Genoa City with Patty may be the best way to protect everyone from her.
- Matt admits that leaving Phyllis behind is the hardest part of his plan.
- Phyllis finds Matt just as he’s preparing to tell Nick and Sharon he’s leaving town for good.
Phyllis Wanted Matt to Prove He Had Changed
Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) has believed in Matt (Roger Howarth) when almost no one else would. She even tried to manufacture a heroic moment that would force Sharon (Sharon Case) to see the man Phyllis believes Matt has become. The problem was that staged redemption wasn’t really redemption at all.
Matt has finally arrived at a very different answer. He doesn’t think he’s going to convince Nick (Joshua Morrow) or Sharon to forgive him, and he’s tired of trying. Instead, he decides the best thing he can do is remove himself and Patty (Stacy Haiduk) from their lives, even if nobody ever realizes what he sacrificed to do it.
Matt Makes the Choice Phyllis Couldn’t Make for Him
That’s what makes Matt’s decision so different from Phyllis’s earlier scheme. There is no audience Matt needs to impress and no forgiveness waiting for him at the end. In fact, Matt is willing to let Genoa City continue believing the worst about him if leaving with Patty keeps everyone safe.
It’s also the strongest evidence yet that Phyllis may have been right about him. Matt isn’t choosing the path that makes him look like a hero. He’s choosing the one he believes protects everyone else, even while telling himself that he and Patty deserve each other. For someone who has spent so much time wondering whether redemption is possible, that’s a remarkably selfless choice.
Phyllis Is the Price Matt Doesn’t Want to Pay
There is one part of leaving that Matt can’t dismiss so easily. Phyllis is the person who saw something worth saving in him when he struggled to see it himself, and Matt admits that walking away from her is the downside of his plan.
That makes Phyllis’s arrival at Crimson Lights especially painful. Matt tells Nick and Sharon that he’s leaving and has finally accepted he will never convince them he’s changed. Then he turns around and finds Phyllis standing in his way.
Phyllis wanted Matt to prove that the good she saw in him was real. Now she may have gotten exactly that proof in the one form she never wanted: Matt deciding that doing the right thing means leaving her behind.
MORE: Here’s what’s next on Y&R.
