For weeks now on The Young and the Restless, Lily (Christel Khalil) has been on a mission to become the sole CEO of Chancellor, now renamed Abbott-Chancellor. After Jill (Jess Walton) gave Billy (Jason Thompson) her control at the company and the demerger with Winters finalized, Lily assumed she could eventually push Billy out and run the company by herself, only reporting to Jill. Unfortunately for her, things haven’t gone as she planned and she wound up being fired by Billy instead.
Almost immediately after receiving her pink slip, she cozied up to Victor (Eric Braeden) who is determined to steal Chancellor from Jill and Billy, feeling the pair are no longer honoring Katherine Chancellor’s (Jeanne Cooper) legacy. The Newman patriarch, of course, led Lily to believe she would be put in charge once he acquired the business. She was enraged when Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) told her the truth, that Nikki would be running things and the Newmans hoped Lily would stay on as the COO.
Since then, Lily has been stomping around Genoa City, telling Devon (Bryton James) and Nate (Sean Dominic) that she will be the CEO, regardless of what Billy, Victor or Nikki thinks. Lily has refused to accept Nikki’s continued offer to be COO and has rejected Devon’s invitation to join him at Winters.
So what was Lily’s next move? She called Jill to tattle on Billy in hopes Jill would see her perspective and fire him. In The Young and the Restless episode airing on October 31, Lily doesn’t get a treat at all, because Jill tells her she’s not firing her son. Jill wants to give Billy some time to right the ship. Now Jill does encourage Lily to return to Abbott-Chancellor to work with Billy, but Lily refuses to work with him again.
Despite all the obstacles Lily has faced trying to become the sole CEO, she’s still committed to her cause. That’s why we think she’s about to sink to a new low to get what she wants.
We can imagine Lily deciding to accept Jill’s offer to go back to work with Billy, and then constantly doing slick things to undermine his every move. Lily could hope to prove once and for all that Billy is incompetent to run the company, and that Jill will have no choice but to fire him, leaving Lily in control.
However, sabotaging him won’t be that easy, as Billy’s guard is now up and he’s not stupid. So, Lily could up the ante by providing ample distractions for Billy to also get him off his game. Billy is a former gambling addict, so perhaps Lily seeks out some of his old buddies from that life to tempt Billy and lure him back into his mischievous ways. Such a plan is beyond underhanded, as Lily knows Billy is trying to be a great father to his kids, and he can’t be his best thrown back into addiction.
If Lily doesn’t take this approach, we can also see her accepting Nikki’s offer should Victor acquire Chancellor. She may think by working with Nikki, she can slowly undermine her and make Victor see his wife isn’t capable of running a company the size of Chancellor.
Now, Nikki would have to do some major screwing up for Victor to fire or demote her. We can’t forget, he let her stay in charge of Newman Media for months despite knowing she was drinking again. So Lily would have to set Nikki up pretty spectacularly to push The Mustache into making a decision that could shake up his marriage.
Lily could also hope to trigger Nikki by making the CEO job seem too stressful for her to handle. Nikki suffers from both MS and bouts of alcoholism, and too much stress is not good for either one. So will Lily pile on Nikki’s plate hoping that her boss quits? We can’t rule it out.
Again, Lily seems pretty desperate to get the position she believes she’s earned. So she may be willing to do just about anything to get it. Heck, we wouldn’t be surprised if she even made an alliance with Tucker to make that happen.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
