If you're a fan of The Young and the Restless' Billy (Jason Thompson), then you're probably feeling bad for him right about now. He started off the week of August 19 facing heartbreak when Chelsea (Melissa Claire Egan) opted to put a pause on their relationship, blaming her time commitment to Connor (Judah Mackey). While viewers know she requested to take a break from her relationship due to the overwhelming guilt she feels for cheating on him with Adam (Mark Grossman), all Billy knows is that his girlfriend is hiding something from him.
Unfortunately for Billy Boy Abbott, his week looks like it's about to go from bad to worse. In The Young and the Restless episode airing on August 20, he walks into the Abbott-Chancellor offices in a foul mood and crosses paths with Lily (Christel Khalil).
When Lily asks about revisions to the press release announcing their new partnership in running the company, he loses it. Clearly taking his frustrations trusting Chelsea out on Lily, he rips into Lily about her trying to scheme to cut him out of Chancellor.
Billy accuses her of seeing him as just some screw-up and waiting for him to fail, all so she can swoop in and run Chancellor alone. She's surprised by his outburst but fires back with her own quips about him making wild accusations and his determination to reset his image in the corporate world. They continue to go back and forth, with her demanding he get over himself and him accusing her of being power-hungry like Devon (Bryton James). Their bickering is interrupted when Chance (Conner Floyd) walks into the room and diffuses the situation.
Later, while grabbing a drink with Chance, Billy talks about his frustrations with Lily and his theory that she's going to stab him in the back. Chance attempts to caution his uncle from this line of thinking, but it does no good. By the end of their discussion, he's determined to fire Lily and he sends her a text message wanting to meet. Judging by the following preview clip, he goes through with the firing.
Billy's rash decision may wind up haunting him as Victor (Eric Braeden) and Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) are actively trying to take Chancellor from Jill (Jess Walton) and Billy. In fact, in the same episode, Victor shares with his wife that he plans to use Adam at Newman Media to help tear down Billy's reputation. Additionally, The Mustache tasks Nikki with cozying up to Lily. Although hesitant about the task, Nikki eventually agrees to do it.
Call it destiny, because by the end of the episode, Lily walks into the Athletic Club as Victor and Nikki are preparing to eat dinner. Spotting her, Victor calls her over to join them. Moments later, Billy walks in, there to meet with Lily, but Victor gets up from the table to intercept him for a conversation. The Newman patriarch leaves Nikki and Lily alone to talk, and Nikki wastes no time trying to pick Lily's brain about her current working environment.
Last week, we would have said Lily wouldn't work with Nikki to take down Billy or betray Jill. However, if Billy fires her, considering how much Lily values Chancellor and her work at the company, she may be all too eager to partner with the Newmans to reclaim the business. While Lily could always go work with Devon at Winters, as she pointed out, she put in a lot of time and effort in helping to elevate Chancellor and she doesn't want to just wash her hands of all that.
The major question we have is whether or not Lily would be comfortable playing second fiddle to Nikki and reporting to Victor? Victor isn't exactly the easiest boss to work for. Look at the hoops he makes his own kids jump through to keep a job.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
