Dear readers, when Billy spat those words into Adam's face on this week's The Young and the Restless, it took my breath away. Jason Thompson is a phenomenon. Watching him explode like a volcano into Adam's face was very satisfying for me. The passion and anger in Billy's eyes were intense. I taped that scene on my phone and watched it multiple times. I made my husband, who pretends he doesn't watch Y&R, watch it. Okay, in this case, he really doesn't watch it. He always says, "Is this the one with the girl named Cricket that wears a baseball cap?" He remembers that because Cricket wore a baseball cap once in the '80s. But I digress.
That scene was pure fire. Can you imagine being on the other end of that? I hope Jason Thompson and Mark Grossman went out for beers after that scene. I used to tour in a repertory theatre group, and there was one play we did that completely leveled us when we performed it. It sprang to mind when I saw that scene. Acting or not, screaming into someone's face takes it out of you.
Although I started with Jason Thompson and Billy, all four of the lead characters in this love quadrangle have been Emmy-level good. Melissa Claire Egan was heartbreaking as the tormented Chelsea, shaky and quivering with guilt for weeks. Watching the unraveling of lioness Sally (played by force of nature Courtney Hope) as she discovered in brutal fashion that Billy's suspicions were right all along. As the conflicted and calculating Adam, Mark Grossman is trying to make things right with Sally while still harboring feelings for Chelsea, which reignited after their one night together. Every single person in this storyline has brought their A-game, and it is thrilling to watch—but heartbreaking, too.
Why? Because there are no villains in this scenario. Adam and Chelsea are good people who made bad decisions in a tense moment. Sally and Billy were both supportive partners to Adam and Chelsea while they dealt with Connor's illness.
Billy is a good guy; he has been wonderful to Chelsea and Connor. He literally talked Chelsea off a ledge and has been by her side ever since. He doesn't deserve to be hurt. He didn't do anything to cause this. I am hurt for him.
But here's the rub: I love Adam, too. I can't hate him or make him the enemy because he was reeling, too. His son was self-harming, and Adam felt responsible because of his own issues and the choices he had made in the past that impacted Connor. It was natural that Adam and Chelsea would reminisce about their past and the happy times they had together and that those old feelings would flare. I don't believe that love dies. If you ever truly loved someone, you still love them. Maybe not in the same way. Maybe you don't act on it by getting drunk and sleeping with them like Adam and Chelsea did, but your heart still carries that relationship around in a secret scrapbook of your life.
Chelsea told Billy it was just a one-time thing that meant nothing. Adam told Sally something very different. Adam admitted, under great duress, that there was love involved, that his feelings for Chelsea had resurfaced. Sally was understandably leveled by his admission.
Now, is it Chelsea's turn to go and tell Billy what she knows? I think Billy is on the verge of forgiving Chelsea, but once he hears that Adam has feelings for Chelsea, will he want to put his heart out there again? Billy was so nervous about hurting Chelsea, afraid that if he said he didn't want to work things out, she would want to harm herself again, but Chelsea assured Billy she would never go back to that dark place. But can she really promise him that? This storyline is filled with such heartache and angst. I'm glued to my TV anytime one of these four powerhouse performers is on-screen. I am very anxious to see how this all unfolds. I genuinely care for all four leads. I want all of them to be happy, but I don't see how everyone can get a happy ending. Unless…
I have heard two rumors, and I am not mad at either one of them.
Rumor 1) Sally and Billy have revenge sex, and Sally gets pregnant with Billy's child and finally has a daughter. I am so happy about that rumor; I hope it's true.
Rumor 2) Chelsea got pregnant after her and Adam's one night of drunken unprotected sex, and she gets pregnant, and Connor gets a new sibling.
Is either rumor true? Are both rumors true? Only time will tell, but if I had to pick one, I'd pick Sally and Billy having a baby because they are both long overdue for true happiness.
Another person who has been unhappy for quite a while is Sharon Newman. Sharon is tortured and spends almost all day, every day talking to bloody ghost Cameron. At first, we thought it was because her meds were off, but it's kind of feeling like she flushed the entire bottle down the drain.
Sharon encouraged Faith to help Lucy when Lucy messaged for help. When Faith arrived, Lucy was drunk again. So, little Lucy is bold enough to shoplift booze from behind a bar? Yikes. It makes me wonder if she's been drinking since she was in Europe. Doesn't seem like her first time.
When the news broke that the girls ended up in a car accident, Heather, Daniel, Sharon, and Nick feared the worst and went right to the dark thought that history was repeating itself. Thankfully, it appears the girls will be okay, but that's not the end.
Sharon is glaring daggers through the entire Romalotti family and silently blames them for Faith being injured.
Readers, I will admit these scenes are hard for me to watch. I was in a terrible car accident when I was young, where one of my friends died, and just watching these scenes triggers my decades-old PTSD over the incident. I cannot judge Sharon or Daniel for revisiting Cassie's accident because I revisit my own, too, and it's been 40 years. Those tragedies are things we carry around inside our souls, like little regenerating time bombs ready to explode at any minute.
Daniel is still carrying guilt over his actions as a teenager, but Sharon is fighting every minute to control her voracious anger. She is carrying full-on rage inside her, and it shows. I fear Sharon's inner rage will turn into violence directed at Lucy or Daniel. Consider the fact that she is taking advice from the dead, violent ghost man in her head, and he was a psychopath.
When Sharon finally explodes and hurts Daniel and/or Lucy, what happens next? Can we ship her to Paris to be Ashley's roommate at the clinic? Does Nick move in and play nursemaid to Sharon for the rest of her days to keep her from hurting anyone else?
I hope not. I want more for Nick. I would rather have Nick go back to Phyllis a million times than have him be the caretaker for an unstable Sharon. Or, if the Y&R writers need some ideas, I have a great one… Why not hire someone new and let Nick have a completely new partner? Make it someone stable and not in love with his brother, not faking her own death, not hearing voices. Imagine a lovely, stable, 50-something babe who likes to travel and go to concerts and has no mental illness at all. Just an idea.
In happier news, the Newman clan is getting along much better this week. Claire and Summer had a civil, verging on friendly, visit in the park. They got to know one another a little better. I love this version of Summer. Alison Lanier and Hayley Erin have great rapport on-screen, and I see happy holidays in their future unless Claire starts dating Kyle—then, all bets are off. Some of Summer's earlier suspicions about Claire are starting to fade, and she sees the person Claire is now instead of the person Jordan utilized to torment her family. It was a delightful scene and good progress for these two new cousins.
But we know Victor is working his machinations to get Kyle to fire Claire so she can work at Newman. Kyle initially declined, but Victor rarely takes no for an answer, so I do not expect that to be the end of it. Once Claire is no longer employed by Kyle, I would put cash money down on Kyle asking her out. Will this newfound truce between Claire and Summer hold If Claire starts dating Summer's ex-husband? I would bet against it.
Kyle's parents, Jack and Diane, are at their wits' end, trying to make peace with their son, who understandably is still angry after his mother fired him from the family company. Susan Walters was incredible this week as a guilt-stricken Diane who realized that Kyle has never truly forgiven her for faking her death. The weight of what she did in the past and how it still impacts their relationship in the present hit her square in the chest.
This week, Diane whined to Jack that the Jabot staff thinks she is incompetent at her job because of the seeds Kyle planted. Or, and just hear me out, could it be that Kyle was right and Diane is bad at her job? Could it be that all those times Kyle tried to cover for her was because she actually screwed up, and he quietly tried to clean up her mess to save the company?
I hope that's it. I hope Diane makes a huge mistake that allows Kyle to say to Jack, "See, I told you so. That's why I was double-checking her work." Jack is trying so hard to make peace with his son, but all his efforts have failed to move Kyle's stance an inch. He is dug in and determined to use Glissade to show his parents that they screwed up when they fired him.
In the interim, Kyle and Audra have a very tense partnership, which Summer picks up on. She is relieved to discover that Kyle doesn't trust Audra any more than she does.
Speaking of people we don't trust, I am more convinced than ever that Alan is Martin. Alan's willingness to give up his practice in Paris and move to Genoa City without a care doesn't seem like the devoted doctor we first met. People keep saying, "Didn't they do a DNA test?" I didn't see them do one; a guy looking like Alan and wearing Alan's shirt came in and said, "Martin is dead." And everyone believed him.
But is Martin crazy enough to switch shirts with his dead brother? I say yes. And they're identical twins. They'll have the same DNA! Mind you, this is just my gut. I have no intel telling me one way or the other. It's just me saying, "No one would willingly leave Paris, France, for a small town in Wisconsin, even for love." But the kicker was when he said he was going to write a book about his brother? Nope. That's totally Martin, who wants to tell his side of the story as to how misunderstood he was. Mark my words.
Nikki and Victor are continuing to spin their web about how to take Chancellor away from Billy, and from next week's previews, it seems that Lily is going to ask Victor to help her do it like it was her idea and not his plan from the get-go. Smooth work, Nikki. Lily told Devon what had happened, and he resisted the urge to say, "I told you so." I love it when Lily and Devon are getting along.
This is a recurring theme in my columns—I hate when families are fighting and screaming at each other and at odds. I was in an extended family where I never heard anyone yell at anyone, and when I hear other families, even TV families, do it, it always makes me uneasy. I understand that that makes me a very lucky person. But I'm old, and I grew up in a time when people were polite and civil to one another as a rule of society. I miss it.
What will happen tomorrow, dear readers? Will Ghost Cameron tell Sharon to stop making a scrunchy face every time she sees him because it's her "I'm having crazy hallucinations" tell? Will Connor have a relapse when he realizes that his parents cheated on their partners, or will he secretly be glad? Will I ever be able to wear a backless dress and look as glamorous as Michelle Stafford did this week?
Will Ashley come home and realize her sister is dating evil twin Martin? Will Phyllis continue to blame Diane for Kyle and Summer's marriage breaking up and conveniently forget the fact that she faked her death, framed Summer's mother-in-law for murder, and forced Summer to lie to Kyle? Will Claire add crazy Aunt Jordan to her family tree, or did she trim off that branch?
Only tomorrow knows, dear readers, and I will tune in tomorrow as long as there are tomorrows.
~ Tamilu
