For a while now, many fans of The Young and the Restless have questioned Billy’s (Jason Thompson) motives as it pertains to his renewed interest in Chancellor-Winters.
When he returned to the company, he initially did so citing he wanted to support Jill (Jess Walton) and knew he had also reached a ceiling at Jabot as long as Jack (Peter Bergman) was in charge. However, as he settled into Chancellor-Winters, he quickly became a thorn in the side of Devon (Bryton James), pushing for more control and even pressing that the company name be changed to Abbott-Chancellor-Winters to reflect his mother’s legacy. The latter idea was shot down and with good reason as adding Abbott was never a desire expressed by Jill as co-owner of the business, and it was an obvious power play by Billy to see his name reflected in the corporation.
Fast forward to the present, and Jill has relinquished her control of Chancellor-Winters to her son as she battles cardiac issues, and Billy is back in Genoa City gearing up to stir the already troubled pot at the company.
In The Young and the Restless episode airing on June 6, he meets with Lily (Christel Khalil) and spills the beans about his mom’s health struggles, despite Jill requesting he keeps the information to himself. Lily realizes Jill’s heart problems are what led her to secretly give her power at the company to Billy and is sympathetic to the situation.
Then Billy again brings up adding Abbott to the Chancellor-Winters brand. Lily is skeptical of his timing and renewed interest in the plan, but he assures her he just wants to make sure his mother’s legacy is honored and remembered. He would like Lily to pitch the idea to Devon and support it with the board members. She doesn’t make any promises but says she'll think about it.
Before the two part ways, Billy asks Lily not to tell Devon about his mom’s health condition, and Lily is taken aback as she isn’t sure how she sells a name change to Devon given he was vehemently against the notion originally. Billy understands the dilemma and says he wants to speak to Jill about disclosing her problems to Devon first and he’ll get back to Lily.
Later in the same episode, Billy and Chelsea (Melissa Claire Egan) sit down for coffee at Crimson Lights to catch up. After filling Billy in on the latest with Connor (Judah Mackey), Chelsea listens as her boyfriend talks about Jill and his desire to add Abbott to Chancellor-Winters. Immediately, Chelsea notes that it probably wasn’t wise to trust Lily with the information about Jill given all of the animosity at the company.
Chelsea also brings up a very good point thinking Billy needs to speak to Jack and the rest of the Abbott family about his plans considering the Abbott name is their legacy as well. Billy scoffs and says he’ll fill in Jack later, but Chelsea warns him that he may not want to wait.
With all of that being said, between Devon's likely opposition, Lily’s loyalty to the Winters family and their own plan to demerge Winters from Chancellor-Winters, Chelsea’s unheaded warning about Jack and Billy’s ability to be Billy, we have a feeling that things are about to blow up in Billy’s face in a major way.
It’s not hard to imagine that Jill is going to be furious with her son for sharing her health problems when she swore him to secrecy. Plus, when Devon hears of Billy’s plans, there’s a strong chance that it will do nothing but renew Devon’s sense of urgency to separate from Winters from Chancellor-Winters. A demerger is definitely not something Jill wants.
Then there’s Jack and the Abbotts. Given the way Billy is waiting to clue them into his idea, we can picture Jack blowing his top. There’s an argument to be made that John Abbott’s (Jerry Douglas) corporate legacy begins and ends with the company he started, which is Jabot. Jack may see Billy’s push as his little brother’s way of stroking his own ego, and he could take things further and suggest if Billy wants to honor Jill then he should propose adding her maiden name to Chancellor-Winters.
If we had to guess, Billy won’t win this battle and his claims of change will be questioned by those who know him best.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
