Now that The Young and the Restless’ Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) is finally back in Genoa City ready to put her failed Diane (Susan Walters) takedown plot behind her, there is seemingly one person that stands in Phyllis’ path to freedom — Christine (Lauralee Bell).
Although she may not always be on the canvas of the show, longtime Young and the Restless viewers know that Christine is Phyllis’ original nemesis, predating even Phyllis’ battles with even Diane.
The rivalry between Christine and Phyllis started decades ago in their battle over Danny Romalotti (Michael Damian) and has continued to this day. While the two women are no longer fighting over the affection of Danny, they certainly have never let bygones be bygones.
Their disdain for one another was on full display the moment Phyllis turned herself over to authorities on the episode that aired July 14. Christine was not in the least bit sympathetic to Phyllis’ alleged ordeal with Jeremy Stark (James Hyde) and was more than satisfied to watch Phyllis slapped with cuffs.
Then during the week of July 17, in the midst of a sitdown with Phyllis’s new attorney Heather (Vail Bloom), Christine makes it abundantly clear that she doesn’t buy the convenience of Carson’s (Walter Belenky) witness testimony.
Not only has the infamous EMT been in hiding for months only to reappear just as Phyllis turns herself in, but he seems to fully corroborate her story. Christine is highly skeptical and with good reason.
Also during the week of July 14, Tucker was shown as the one responsible for tracking down Carson. Not only that, but the former owner of McCall Unlimited made sure Phyllis knew that Carson is only present to testify on her behalf as long as she agrees to join Tucker and Ashley (Eileen Davidson) in a reimagined takedown plot of Diane. Not surprisingly, a desperate Phyllis took him up on the offer.
With all that said, is there a chance that Christine somehow learns about this pact and gets Carson’s testimony tossed? Possibly.
Again, Christine is incredibly motivated to see Phyllis behind bars and Carson serves as the key component to Phyllis’ defense. So the prosecutor will no doubt comb through Carson’s story and may even try to look over his finances to see if he’s recently come into any lump sums of money.
Additionally, we imagine Christine will grill Carson and threaten him with perjury charges hoping he will crack under pressure and spill the beans.
If this theory proves true and Christine stumbles about Caron’s Tucker connection, and the subsequent pact between Tucker and Phyllis, the latter’s case would be in limbo and it would seem likely she’s heading to prison. However, thankfully for Phyllis, we don’t imagine her going behind bars anytime soon. So it’s likely Heather would have another ace up her sleeve in the defense of her former mother-in-law.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air on weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus.
