Before I dive too deep into my opinion here, it’s worth noting that my grudge is not against The Young and the Restless actors themselves. I think Jason Thompson and Melissa Claire Egan are doing remarkable jobs in their respective roles as Billy and Chelsea. However, my annoyance is with the characters themselves. For the past few months on the soap, Billy and Chelsea have managed to really rub me the wrong way with only a few moments of redemption in between.
As it pertains to Billy, his continued jockeying for power at Chancellor-Winters is starting to grow tired. I get it, he wants to ensure his mother’s legacy is protected at the very company she co-owns, and he’d like to prove himself as more than the "family screwup." However, the way he’s going about it seems misguided. He’s constantly getting into arguments with Devon (Bryton James).
While Devon should own some responsibility for their spats, Billy came on board as interim Co-CEO and has challenged Devon at every turn. Billy pitched the idea of adding Abbott to the company name, picked fights about being left out of meetings and has helped make Chancellor-Winters the most hostile place to work in town. Again, Billy did all of this as only interim co-CEO while Lily (Christel Khalil) was away, and with Devon as permanent co-CEO and co-owner of the company.
Even as Lily returned back to work and Billy found himself out of the executive-level suites, he’s still been throwing his weight around at Chancellor-Winters as a member of the board of directors. While I agree with his notions that Lily shouldn’t have terminated Daniel (Michael Graziadei) after their breakup, I still find Billy’s overly insertive nature to be troubling.
If his professional ambitions weren't annoying enough, Billy’s managed to irk me on another front as well. He’s made himself Connor’s (Judah Mackey) defacto third parent, often overstepping and challenging Adam’s (Mark Grossman) every move as a father. Even if Billy thinks he’s butting in to support Chelsea and help Connor, his clashing with Adam is cringeworthy to watch.
In this same vein, Chelsea is tapping dancing on my nerves lately because she continually allows Billy to overstep in Adam’s efforts to parent Connor. It’s one thing to condone Billy speaking up, but it’s another to almost encourage Billy to think he has an equal vote in parenting Connor, especially in light of all the young Newman has going on.
Chelsea also constantly snaps at Adam as they both try to help their child. Sure, Adam can be stubborn like Victor (Eric Braeden) at times, but all I see is a father scared for his son and Chelsea is berating him for being human with questions.
Even in The Young and the Restless episode airing on April 18, as one of Connor’s doctors tries to explain Connor’s course of treatment and his inability to have contact with his parents, Chelsea lashes out at Adam as he questions the doctor’s tactics. Not for nothing, many parents wouldn’t be comfortable just dropping their "troubled" son off at a facility thousands of miles away and without the ability to speak with him. Considering I feel there is something off about Connor’s facility, perhaps Chelsea will regret trying to stop Adam’s inquisitive nature.
All in all, while I understand that my feelings about Billy and Chelsea won’t be popular among every viewer of The Young and the Restless, my sentiments remain the same. I just hope their trajectories change soon.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
