Just when you thought the whole ordeal with Jeremy Stark (James Hyde) was dead on The Young and the Restless, only slight pun intended, Tucker (Trevor St. John) breathes life into it during a conversation with Phyllis (Michelle Stafford).
In the episode airing on September 19, Tucker invites himself to sit down with Phyllis at a table in the jazz club. She knows he’s up to something, but she immediately starts asking questions about his marriage to Ashley (Eileen Davidson) having previously overheard him trying to attain Heather’s (Vail Bloom) legal services. Tucker refuses to take the bait and instead pivots to a proposition.
Tucker is on a quest to take down the Abbotts and acquire Jabot, and he needs Phyllis’s assistance. Of course, he doesn’t share his true Jabot mission with Phyllis, but instead tells her that they should partner together in business. She understandably is repulsed by the idea considering it wasn’t that long ago he tried to blackmail her by holding a witness hostage that could have helped her beat the legal charges against her (although, she managed to remain a free woman without his help).
Using his unique charm, Tucker dismisses what happened with the blackmail and encourages Phyllis to work with him given her current predicament. That’s when he drops the big secret about her and Jeremy.
As it turns out, when Phyllis was allegedly dead, her then-husband Jeremy got an insurance payout for $2 million. Now that it’s public information that she’s not really deceased, the insurance company wants Phyllis to repay the amount. Unfortunately for her, before Jeremy died (rather Phyllis killed him), he funneled that money, along with half of Phyllis’ life savings, into a secret account. Essentially, Phyllis is in debt and has no way of knowing where the missing money is.
She is floored that Tucker knows any of this information. She’s only more surprised by the fact that Tucker is offering to give her $2 million in exchange for her putting her IT skills to use.
She counters that she already has a job working for S.N.A. Media. Tucker calls her bluff noting that the S.N.A. Media fell apart and Adam (Mark Grossman), the person who offered her the job, is no longer employed with Newman businesses. Furthermore, Sharon (Sharon Case) and Nick (Joshua Morrow) are going it alone with Kirsten Incorporated.
Phyllis tries to save face and ensure Tucker that she’s not without a job, but when she meets with Sharon later in the episode, the latter makes it clear that she’s resistant to working with Phyllis at Kirsten Incorporated with Nick. Sharon’s words push Phyllis to go see the one person she probably shouldn’t — Tucker.
Although she hasn’t given him a firm yes, Phyllis questions him some more about what he wants her to do. He explains he needs her to hack a company, but refuses to say which one until he knows she’s fully on board.
Will Phyllis wind up working with Tucker to take down Jabot?
Well that depends, is she really trying to be this changed woman? Keep in mind that Phyllis is technically still on probation, and since hacking is illegal, she could risk her freedom working with Tucker. Plus, we tend to think she still cares for Jack, and wouldn’t want to harm him.
On the other hand, when Phyllis bumps into Jack (Peter Bergman) in this episode, he is colder than we’ve ever seen him toward his one-time "Red." So, she may not be that inclined to have a soft spot for him in the coming days.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus.
