Young & Restless: Phyllis’ Hysteria Will Play *Right* Into Diane’s Hands — Plus, Victor’s New Ally and What’s Next for Chelsea

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Young & Restless’ May Sweeps may rank below average on the typical soap scale — a wedding with no drama, a catfight, and Phyllis being intense about a rival — but it was a solid C+ to B for the current regime, which has left us scratching our heads during previous sweeps months and wondering if they forgot about them entirely. Curiously, the soap aired much higher drama offerings in April with Ashland’s lie being exposed, Diane’s return, and Rey’s death.

Allied Forces

Victor vs. Ashland has dragged on too long… you can tell by the collective eye-roll over another teaser about Victor issuing an ultimatum. How many can he dole out and still be taken seriously?! That said, I can appreciate how they’ve tied it to the Diane story through Harrison. This coming week Victor will seek out a new ally in his quest to run Locke out of town — Kyle (through Summer). Obviously, he’s going to want him to legally cut off Ashland from Harrison in hopes that he’ll finally throw in the towel and leave town, but would it work? Ashland could fight back, or Kyle may refuse, not wanting to entangle his son in the Mustache’s agenda. We’ll see.

As for other “allies”, please give me Phyllis, Nikki and Ashley vs. Diane.

More: The move that could change Phyllis & Victor’s dynamic

Unhinged

The last time we saw Chelsea behave in a disturbing way she tried to poison Rey and frame Adam for it… which earned her a stint in the mental facility. Adam being so concerned about her erratic behavior signals that they’re likely going one of two ways with her character. Either Adam’s protectiveness is going to lead to issues in his relationship with Sally, aka, love triangle, or we’re going down a darker path again with Chelsea. If it’s the latter, will she perhaps target Victoria? It sure sounded like she blames her for Rey’s death regardless of the fact that he died from a heart attack. Or might this all be leading to another stay at a facility given that Chelsea was essentially left without a storyline after Rey’s death?

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Playing Into Her Hands

Phyllis sees Diane’s agenda and is 1000% correct about what she’s going to do — she wants Jack and the Abbott money and she’ll work both Kyle and Jack’s emotions to get it done. She’s already playing them both like fiddles. Diane is a passive-aggressive queen. She manipulates so as to make others look crazy for their (perfectly reasonable) response to her, and all the while remains the picture of innocence.

As Phyllis tried to warn Summer, Diane will make it so Kyle is forced to defend her against everyone (including Summer in the end, which could implode their marriage if Kyle doesn’t wise up). Case in point: Diane suggesting that Harrison call her Dee Dee. Having followed everyone online, Diane undoubtedly knows that this will upset Billy. It’s a set-up to have Kyle stand up for her and insist that his poor mother had no idea that was his late daughter’s nickname. Why Jack didn’t just speak up and nix the idea is beyond me.

Ashley and the rest of the town are already against Diane, so Kyle will easily be dragged into her “us against the world” scenario. She easily manipulated Jack at the GCAC (the GCAC set is back!), plus she already planted a seed of doubt about the timing of Phyllis’ decision to bed him. With Jack wanting to believe the best about Diane for Kyle’s sake, Phyllis’ overzealous approach to running her out of town will cause issues for them.

So, yes, Phyllis knows exactly what Diane’s going to do — and why — and she’s not only powerless to stop it, but she’s also playing right into her hands and could end up pushing Jack into her nemesis’ arms.

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Eye on You

It became even clearer this week that Young & Restless is headed for a love triangle with Elena, Nate and Imani, not to mention more conflict between cousins Nate and Devon. Nate and Imani bonded over their difficult relationships with their relatives and Elena was already on guard. In fact, she warned Nate that Imani has her eye on him. Devon already had his hackles up about Imani flirting with Nate, so if anything were to happen, he’d surely be the one comforting Elena… thus causing problems in his own relationship. How might it happen? I had to wonder if the mention of Naya’s health problems will lead to a situation where Nate has to comfort a distraught Imani and it turns into something more. Perhaps after an argument with Elena? Hmm… we’ll see.

Man Pain Chronicles

I think “Man Pain Chronicles” should have been the name of Billy’s podcast, especially since it’s the Genoa City man pain gang — Noah, Chance — who are tuning in. Also, why did he bother to disguise his voice when apparently everyone in town knows it’s him? Hilarious.

This is just my opinion. Feel free to join the conversation below.

Take a moment to remember the beloved soap stars we’ve lost so far in 2022 in the photo gallery below.