As entertaining as The Young and the Restless’ Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) can be, given the amount of drama and chaos she tends to stir up, I’ve realized she’s been spiraling out of control for not weeks or months, but years.
Arguably, since Diane (Susan Walters) returned to Genoa City and married Jack (Peter Bergman), Phyllis’ life has been a rollercoaster of instability. I think that stems from her lack of consistent employment.
After Phyllis’ plot with Ashley (Eileen Davidson) and Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) to rid Genoa City of Diane failed, and Phyllis was subsequently let go from Marchetti, she’s found herself flopping from one bad plot to the next, first faking her death and then aligning herself with Tucker (Trevor St. John) to go after Jabot. And during those times when she found a job, she was unfortunately pushed out of the role. She felt she had to quit Chancellor in solidarity with Daniel (Michael Graziadei) being fired, she was actually fired by Billy (Jason Thompson) once she was rehired at Chancellor and was terminated by Billy again at Abbott Communications.
While for some people, unemployment doesn’t lead to trouble, Phyllis has never been one of these people. In fact, she’s an example of the old phrase, “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” She finds chaos when she’s unemployed, and she even creates her own when she can’t locate it. So again, she needs to get back in the corporate world.
If I had it my way, Phyllis would either take an exec job with Sharon (Sharon Case) at Cassidy First, or Phyllis would wind up back at Jabot. Now in terms of Sharon, it may be hard for the two to go from enemies to coworkers, but Cassidy First is the perfect place for Phyllis’ skillset in technology. Plus, Sharon honestly could use Phyllis’ expertise right about now with Mariah (Camryn Grimes) distracted.
In terms of Phyllis possibly returning to Jabot, Diane would likely hate the notion, and Jack may not be a fan of watching his ex and wife work together (as civilly as possible), but Jabot could also use a hacker with Phyllis’ talent. Jack is locked into a contentious battle with Victor (Eric Braeden), and adding Phyllis to his roster helps give him more of a fighting chance against The Mustache.
All in all, we hope Phyllis gets back in the corporate world soon to help sturdy her hand. Heck, a romance may prove interesting as well.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.