Young and the Restless: Phyllis’ Ruthless Blackmail Seduces Cane – Steamy Betrayal?!

Young and of the Restless puts Phyllis Summers (Michelle Stafford) possibly in a position to help Cane Ashby (Billy Flynn) save his company, Arabesque, from the AI that’s destroying it. But of course, with Phyllis, nothing comes for free.

We’re going to dive into what price she might demand from Cane if she saves Arabesque from ruin.

Young and the Restless: Cane on the Warpath

So, what we’ve got right now is Cane is super furious with Victor Newman (Eric Braeden) for unleashing his own AI program on Cane’s company. So now, of course, he’s desperate to save Arabesque from Victor, but Cane’s tech guys say they can’t figure out how to activate the kill switch and shut the AI down. We saw Phyllis was recently telling Cane that it’s not too late to save the company.

And Phyllis was saying “we,” like she’s still in this with him, like they’re still cohorts, you know. But Cane thinks maybe this is all karma and he deserves it for even creating the AI and all the other things he’s done. But Phyllis disagrees. Plus, if Cane gives up on Arabesque, Phyllis is out of a job, or she’s acting that way because she asked Victor to give her Jabot. So realistically, Phyllis doesn’t need a job from Cane.

Phyllis and Victor’s Shaky Alliance Exposed on Y&R

Phyllis is still pretending to be an ally of Cane’s. She is lying about taking that AI and she’s clearly still really hot for him. So after running into Cane this week, we saw Phyllis go and confront Victor and said that him attacking Cane’s company with the AI was not their deal. But Victor doesn’t care. He kind of taunts Phyllis and says they are not partners and he can do what he wants.

Victor also said that their only agreement was that Phyllis would get Jabot after he took it from Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman). And Victor insists that he still plans to honor that. But he also wants to know why the heck does Phyllis even care that he’s attacking Cane’s company. And Victor reminds Phyllis, writes her that reality check, you know, that she’s the one who royally screwed Cane over by stealing the AI from him.

So, Victor’s asking Phyllis, “Why do you even care about what I’m doing to Cane?” Victor also tells Nikki Newman (Melody Thomas Scott) this week what he’s doing to Cane. And she doesn’t care. She thinks it’s great. She’s probably not going to like it when he wants to aim it at Jabot, but for now at Cane, she’s fine with it.

Unraveling Phyllis’s True Motives and Risky Betrayal

So, Phyllis stole the AI, I think, because she was really annoyed that Cane wouldn’t use it like he said he would to attack Newman Enterprises. I don’t think she cared if he attacked the other companies in town. She just wanted Newman and Chancellor by extension to go down. If you remember, Phyllis told Cane she wanted to take over Newman and she wanted Victor to be working for her, to be answering for her. So Phyllis’s whole thing was about punishing Victor. Not about Jack, not about Jabot, you know.

So either it’s sloppy writing on Young and the Restless or she had this long con planned out, you know. Right now what it looks like is that Phyllis did one of her crazy impulsive things, got PO’d and stole the AI, and then she handed it to Victor thinking she could trust him, which is insane to ever think that. And I don’t think Phyllis ever wanted Victor to target Cane with it. Phyllis was relying on Victor’s hatred of Jack to have him attack Jabot, which again doesn’t make a lot of sense.

It’s dumb because Summer Newman (Allison Lanier) will be furious with Phyllis since her company Marchetti is part of Jabot and Summer cares about the Abbotts. And I’m sure Victor wouldn’t let Marchetti be destroyed or taken from Summer. Nonetheless though, she’d still be furious at Phyllis for betraying the Abbotts and helping Victor.

Phyllis’s Master Plan on Young and the Restless: Saving Arabesque to Win Over Cane

So, in the end, I think Phyllis may realize she needs to stop the AI before this goes any further. And she may think that she can still get what she wants, which at this point is Cane. Because really, it’s not that Phyllis wants Cane to lose his company. I don’t think Phyllis does. I think she wants to run the company with Cane.

And I think Phyllis not only wants to be at his side in business, but also I think she wants to be sleeping on a pillow next to Cane and to be romantically and intimately involved with him as well. She’s fixated and she has been even before she knew it was him. Even back with the Dumas stuff, she already had it in her head.

Young and the Restless: Phyllis is the Key to Saving Arabesque

So because Phyllis started all this, I do think she can fix it and end it. I suspect that she might have been playing Victor from the start and maybe has always had access to the kill switch. Phyllis knew about that. She also knew about the ability to remotely control the AI, which Cane told her he was planning to do when he was going to have Billy Abbott (Jason Thompson) using it instead of him.

In the end, I suspect Phyllis didn’t give Victor complete control of the AI. I think she handed it over to see what was going to happen and I think she can access it through a back door or can activate the kill switch. Cane’s IT team is having a hard time but Phyllis is, you know, the mastermind behind all this.

She’s a brilliant hacker. She was clever enough to steal Cane’s AI. And I also think Phyllis is clever enough to shut it down, to have left herself some kind of emergency exit, a way to pull the plug because she knows better than anyone, Victor cannot be trusted.

The Ultimate Price: Will Phyllis Blackmail Her Way into Cane’s Life?

However, I think Phyllis will dangle the offer to stop this and save Arabesque to Cane, but it’s going to come with a price. And I think it might be a pretty high price that Phyllis demands of Cane. You know, he’s been dancing around with Phyllis for a while, flirting and teasing, almost kissing, but at the end of the day, Cane’s still hung up on Lily Winters (Christel Khalil).

His ex-wife told Cane they’re never getting back together. And we know Christel Khalil is leaving soon on maternity leave. So, Lily will exit Genoa City. So, Phyllis may tell Cane she’ll save his company, but in exchange, Phyllis gets Cane. And let’s be real, Phyllis is not above blackmailing her way into Cane’s bed.

Phyllis is Ruthless on Young and the Restless

Because remember, Phyllis drugged men before to get her way. That’s what she did to Danny Romalotti (Michael Damian) way back in the day and then convinced him she was pregnant with his child. When she needed a DNA sample from the real bio-dad to fool Danny, she drugged that guy, drugged her actual baby daddy and took a sample.

So, Phyllis doesn’t have really any scruples when it comes to getting what she wants, the man she wants, the end goal, whatever. So yeah, she might leverage Cane into being with her if she saves him from bankruptcy, which is insane because Phyllis has caused all of this.

Cane’s Dilemma: His Company vs. His Relationship with Lily

And if Cane gives into Phyllis, he’s going to alienate Lily, put the final nail in the coffin with them. If Cane sleeps with Phyllis, I don’t think Lily would ever look at him the same again. And even if Cane tells Lily Phyllis blackmailed him, I don’t think Lily would be sympathetic.

She may just think Cane is prostituting himself to keep the company that he built off funds his dad Colin built from a dying old lady. So, later this week, spoilers say Lily catches Phyllis and Cane in a compromising position. So, this might be when Phyllis offers Cane her deal and maybe Phyllis demands a down payment. She wants a kiss from Cane, you know, wants that first installment to make sure he’s going to follow through before she stops the AI.

So Arabesque may be saved, but then Phyllis may end up owning Cane and Lily walks away in disgust. I guess we’ll find out what’s really important to Cane this week and whether he’s willing to trade his body for his company if that is the price that Phyllis demands.