After all the plotting and scheming The Young and the Restless’ Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) did to weasel her way out of prison, in the episode that aired on August 8, she decided to take responsibility for her actions. Pointing to her conversation with Summer (Allison Lanier) as the catalyst for her decision, Phyllis went against Heather’s (Vail Bloom) counsel and told Christine (Lauralee Bell) that she was accepting her plea deal.
Well, in The Young and the Restless episode airing on August 9, after confirming that both Summer and Daniel (Michael Graziadei) won’t be prosecuted, Phyllis urges Christine to quickly get her in front of a judge for sentencing — which Christine does.
Once in the judge's chambers, Phyllis emotionally explains how she wound up in this predicament. She describes how lonely and isolated she felt when she met Jeremy Stark (James Hyde), how Jeremy convinced her to go along with his scheme against Diane (Susan Walters) and how much danger she and her kids were in because of Jeremy. Phyllis also professes how much she wants to change and make amends to her children.
Christine doesn’t show that much sympathy for Phyllis’ sob story as it’s being told. In fact, the district attorney is adamant that Phyllis must pay for her crimes and the judge should follow Christine’s sentencing recommendation.
When it’s all said and done, the judge opts to go a different route and sentence Phyllis to six months of community service and a year on probation. Phyllis is relieved with the decision while Christine finds it a bit unbelievable.
However, Christine’s reaction is not the one we’re most interested in seeing. Diane is bound to be outraged with the slap on the wrist Phyllis is receiving, and understandably so. Considering the new Mrs. Jack Abbott is the one that was framed for murder and had to watch Kyle (Michael Mealor) squirm for weeks trying to figure out to help his mother and his wife, she was greatly impacted by Phyllis’ actions.
Speaking of which, Phyllis’ actions led to Kyle’s marriage ultimately falling apart. So again, it stands to reason that Diane will be furious that Phyllis won’t receive any heavy consequences. If Diane wasn’t dealing with Ashley (Eileen Davidson) and Tucker (Trevor St. John) at the moment, we could even see her going after Phyllis to deliver some vigilante-style justice.
What may come as a surprise to some show fans, is we think Daniel will also not be happy with the verdict. For weeks now, he’s been upset with his mom thinking she is a habitual schemer and just stirs chaos, without really owning her part in the messes she causes. He’s also displayed a rather "holier than thou" attitude when it comes to Phyllis and has wanted her to pay for her recent crimes.
While he may be shocked that Phyllis took a plea deal to protect him and Summer, he could feel the gesture rings a bit hollow considering she’ll be walking the streets again, free to settle back into mischievous patterns. Don’t get us wrong, we don’t think Daniel wants his mother locked away for life. We just think he would have hoped for a slightly heavier sentence to deter Phyllis from returning to her old ways.
We should point out here once more, that Phyllis did commit to changing and making amends to Daniel and Summer, so if she’s able to convince Daniel she’s serious about that through action, we can’t imagine he’ll be angry for long.
As far as Summer goes, she is dedicated to moving past the last few months into her new era of life, so she may decide she wants it drama-free and put some distance between her and her mother, even if the latter is dedicated to changing. Considering Summer has a bubbling romance with Chance (Conner Floyd), the Newman heiress could opt to focus her attention on him and work.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air on weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus.
