Despite those closest to her practically screaming at her to stop and reconsider her actions, The Young and the Restless’ Summer (Allison Lanier) is determined to make all the wrong choices as it pertains to Harrison (Redding Munsell) these days. Nick (Joshua Morrow), Daniel (Michael Graziadei) and even Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) have all cautioned Summer about taking Kyle (Michael Mealor) to court to work out custody over Harrison, but it’s revealed in the episode airing on July 17 that she didn’t listen.
In the episode, Summer stumbles upon Kyle at Society as he’s on the phone making travel arrangements to accompany Audra (Zuleyka Silver) to Paris for a Glissade business trip. As soon as he hangs up, Summer wastes no time blasting Kyle for his decision to travel with his new co-CEO, which only succeeds in pushing Kyle’s buttons. It doesn’t help matters that he admits to hearing from her attorney who has filed a petition for Summer to get primary custody of Harrison. Kyle calls her delusional for thinking she could win such a case, but she looks rather smug about her chances.
Now we have to admit, we were even stunned by Summer’s audacity with the filing. She’s not Harrison’s biological mother, his real mother Tara (Elizabeth Leiner) hasn’t terminated her parental rights and Summer isn’t exactly the picture-perfect representation of morality.
Anyway, frustrated with the Marchetti CEO’s antics, Kyle does some button-pushing of his own when he tells Summer that he now wants to take Harrison on his business trip with Audra, and even mentions asking Claire (Hayley Erin) to come along. Summer hears this and flips, but in Kyle’s own smug moment, he reminds her that if he wants to take "his" son to Paris, he will. It’s certainly a reminder that she’s not Harrison’s biological mother.
After Kyle storms out, Phyllis arrives and tries to calm her daughter down. However, it doesn’t take long for Phyllis to put down the water and pick up the gasoline to add to this already contentious fire.
While she doesn’t think Summer should consider Claire a threat, she definitely sees Audra as one and agrees with Summer that Audra should be nowhere near Harrison. Phyllis even asks Summer, "How are we going to get rid of her [Audra]?"
With Kyle asking Claire if she had a passport in the same episode, it looks like he will indeed take her and Harrison to Paris. But Summer probably won’t just take this lying down, especially given her mom’s haunting words. We think Summer may arrive in Paris and go full-on Phyllis, enacting some absurd scheme that only backfires.
Although Summer wants to get Audra out of the picture, it’s not hard to imagine Summer planning some things that not only break the business partnership between Kyle and Audra, but also make Kyle look like a neglectful parent and Clarie a horrible nanny in the process.
Funny enough, Audra spoke with Sally (Courtney Hope) in the episode about the possibility of Tucker (Trevor St. John) reemerging and enacting some payback on Audra for stealing his company. Could Phyllis and Summer seek him out and team up with him and try to make that actually happen? Audra embarrassed Tucker in the business world, so would he do the same to help ensure her firing at Glissade?
Then there’s Kyle. While it would be incredibly cruel to Harrison, would Summer stage a scenario that makes it appear that Harrison has gone missing on Kyle and Claire’s watch? It’s not entirely an unfamiliar storyline for a desperate parent to stage a disappearance or kidnapping of a child to get an advantage over another parent in a custody hearing. However, that line of scheming usually goes wrong, and in this case, it could blow up in Summer’s face if she does this and the truth is discovered. Summer would likely lose access to Harrison for good.
While we’ll have to see what exactly happens in the brewing custody war between Kyle and Summer, something tells us when it’s all said and done, Summer won’t be victorious.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
