It should come as no surprise to longtime viewers of The Young and the Restless that Victor (Eric Braeden) currently has a lot of irons in the fire. Not only is he supervising Kyle (Michael Mealor) and Audra (Zuleyka Silver) as they relaunch Glissade to go after Jack (Peter Bergman) and Jabot, but he is also incredibly determined to take over Chancellor Industries (Abbott-Chancellor). Plus, Victor is set to get involved in the custody battle between Kyle and Summer (Allison Lanier), which spells trouble.
Circling back to Victor's interest in acquiring Chancellor, he's made it abundantly clear he can't stand that Jill (Jess Walton) gave Billy (Jason Thompson) her power to run the company. Victor is certain Billy will destroy Chancellor and ruin Katherine's (Jeanne Cooper) legacy. With that firm belief, Victor has his eyes set on taking the business and handing it off to Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott).
The Mustache has subtly suggested a hostile takeover to Devon (Bryton James) and Lily (Christel Khalil), which has caused the Winters siblings to take pause, as they should. Victor has a habit of getting what he wants, so Devon is naturally afraid Lily could get hurt if Victor goes after Billy and Chancellor. Lily is just worried about the likelihood Victor succeeds in acquiring a company she's given so much to.
After sharing her concerns with Billy and asking him to leave Chancellor to prevent Victor from coming after it, in The Young and the Restless episode airing on August 8, Billy approaches Lily with a proposal. Although he initially thought Lily had a lot of nerve asking him to step back from Chancellor when he technically has more control in it than she does, he's had a change of heart.
In the episode, he tells Lily he's willing to take a public step back from the company so he's no longer a face of it. While he'd still work behind the scenes, partnering with Lily on the day-to-day dealings at Chancellor, he'd let Lily stand in the limelight by herself. Lily is left in utter shock by the proposal, and he emphasizes that by following this plan, he hopes Victor backs off. Both Billy and Lily know Victor is fond of her, if nothing else because she's Neil's (Kristoff St. John) daughter, and the duo hopes the Newman patriarch won't attack her.
Now before Billy goes through with the plan, there's just one person he has to talk to first — Jill. In order for this scheme to work out, Lily aptly points out that they need to present the public with a viable reason for why Billy is seemingly taking a step back from Chancellor.
Billy thinks telling the press that he's taking time to help Jill with her medical needs provides the perfect cover story. However, he knows he can't run with that narrative unless Jill approves, so getting approval is his very next step. By the way, Lily isn't fully on board with outing Jill's medical condition and using it as cover, but Billy is pretty sold on the idea.
With all of that being said, will this be enough to keep Victor from coming after Chancellor? We don't think so.
In the past few months, Victor has repeated the notion that business is just business. Although Victor likes Lily, he sees acquiring Chancellor now as a good business move. Plus, he wants to honor his friend Katherine. When she passed away, she originally left him Chancellor, but he saw how much it meant to Jill and sold it to her thinking she'd honor Katherine's legacy. He now feels differently about Jill's actions.
Victor also promised the company to Nikki at this point and she genuinely wants to run it. He loves his wife and is willing to do a lot to please her. So again, whether Billy is the public face of the company or not, Chancellor is still in danger of becoming a part of the Newman Enterprises family.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
