With The Young and the Restless’ Chelsea (Melissa Claire Egan) now serving at Adam’s (Mark Grossman) side at Newman Media, we knew it would only be a matter of time before Adam found himself stuck between his father and his new girlfriend/ex-wife.
As predicted, during the week of May 5, Victor (Eric Braeden) went to his youngest son and pressured him to do his bidding, and Chelsea learned of the plan and wasn’t on board with the idea. In particular, Victor went to Adam, wanting him to publish a hit piece on Billy (Jason Thompson), essentially portraying the Abbott Communications CEO as incompetent and a bad businessman.
Additionally, Victor requested that Adam highly compliment Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) as a success now that she’s in charge of Chancellor. The Mustache feels this could be a great tactic in assuring Billy and Aristotle Dumas don’t go into business together. (Victor also probably loves the chance to make Billy look bad in general, but we digress.)
To his credit, Adam wants to actually take the high road here, despite the fact that, like his dad, he also isn’t fond of Billy. With Chelsea serving as his very present conscience, Adam would rather just publish pieces through Newman Media that elevate Nikki’s work at Chancellor, leaving Billy out of it.
Jason Thompson as Billy concerned in The Young and the Restless
Jason Thompson, The Young and the Restless | Credit: CBS
Now, under normal circumstances, Victor would have completely disregarded Adam and Chelsea’s objections, but Adam stated he had another plan in mind to sever Billy’s connection with Aristotle. Since he’s been rather vague about what this plan could entail, we took a moment to think: “What could Adam do that would please Victor but not enrage Chelsea?”
Well, if we had to guess, then we think Adam might first try to convince Sally (Courtney Hope) to talk Billy out of going down this Aristotle road. She may not want to help Adam or Victor, but she too doesn’t trust the mysterious billionaire and fears he may bring bad news for Billy. So if Adam shares that Billy has a Victor-sized target on his back, Sally may plead with Billy to just focus on getting Abbott Communications off the ground. Adam could even sweeten the pot by promising to do what he can to diffuse Victor when it comes to Billy (which is a very tall order).
Chelsea would probably support this type of Adam/Sally alliance, but should Sally refuse, we suspect Adam could make an alliance Chelsea wouldn’t be happy about at all. We suspect that there’s a chance that Adam could find himself partnering with Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) of all people.
Michelle Stafford as Phyllis in black in The Young and the Restless
Michelle Stafford, The Young and the Restless | Credit: CBS
At the moment, Phyllis is still fuming with Billy for firing her and replacing her with Sally. Phyllis has already made a not-so-veiled threat to make Billy and Sally pay for what she views as betrayal. History shows that Phyllis is willing to make deals with people she can’t stand when revenge is on the line, so might Adam entice her to work with him so she gets payback and he satisfies his father’s request?
Perhaps Adam pitches Phyllis the idea to feed him all the intel she has on Abbott Communications and hack to find out more about Billy’s dealings with Aristotle in exchange for Adam publishing puff pieces about how Phyllis is a brilliant businesswoman and how she was the real brains behind Abbott Communications. It’s very possible for him to heap compliments on her and still keep Billy’s name out of the press. Phyllis could further use the good media coverage to steal some of Billy’s business contacts to help build a company of her own, or even outmaneuver Billy in acquiring Abbott Communications (which would be quite the bold move). Heck, we can’t even rule out Phyllis using the good press to propel her to striking a business deal with Aristotle herself.
This is all largely theory at this point, but the idea of Adam and Phyllis working together is a bit intriguing to think about.
