On the May 21 episode of The Young and the Restless, Phyllis dictated terms to Nick: She’ll hand over Matt as soon as he gets Christine to drop the charges Victor trumped up against Phyllis. Phyllis is being vicious, selfish, and unreasonable. And yet, I am still on her side. And I hate it. The least I can do is figure out why.
Key Takeaways
- Phyllis is terrible.
- Phyllis is doing terrible things.
- Phyllis is right.
MORE: Here’s who understands what Phyllis is becoming.
How It Started
Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) has been awful from the moment she set foot in Genoa City, when she lied about Danny (Michael Damian) being Daniel’s father… and killed the person who could prove otherwise.
Most recently, she became completely unbearable when her hatred for Diane (Susan Walters) led to Phyllis faking her own death and putting her children, whom she claims to love above all else, through the hell of mourning her. She then became obsessed with Cane (Billy Flynn) and his magic AI program. And then she stole the program from Cane and eventually used it to steal Victor’s (Eric Braeden) company from him. Which was bad. But she’s the least bad person in the story.
Compare and Contrast
We would be actively rooting against Phyllis. Except that if Phyllis fails, then Victor succeeds. And Victor is so, so much more awful. Just this calendar year (less than half of 2026), Victor has had Jack (Peter Bergman) kidnapped, hired Patty (Stacy Haiduk) to seduce him… and when the alleged love of his life, his “baby,” Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) dared to suggest those weren’t nice acts, he threw her out of the house.
Victor is so sure he’s in the right that even Nick’s (Joshua Morrow) drug addiction isn’t enough to get him to give up his petty, childish, evil vendettas. Victor doesn’t care if Nick dies, as long as Victor gets what he wants. And that makes him so much worse than Phyllis that we’re on her side. How dare Y&R put us on Phyllis’ side???
