Fans of The Young and the Restless may have seen the writing on the wall when it comes to Lily's (Christel Khalil) choice to either stay at Chancellor or go to Winters after the demerger of the two companies.
Originally, she sold Devon (Bryton James) and Nate (Sean Dominic) on the idea that she would pretend to support Billy's (Jason Thompson) notion to split Chancellor-Winters and run Chancellor (soon to be Chancellor-Abbott) with him. Then when the dust settled, she would back out at Chancellor and run Winters by Devon's side. However, what Lily didn't count on was how guilty she would feel if she were to betray Jill (Jess Walton), the woman who chose her to run Chancellor over her own son. Lily also didn't anticipate how enticed she would be by the ideas Billy pitched to her and how nervous she would be about the possibility of butting heads with Devon at Winters if they worked together.
In The Young and the Restless episode airing on July 11, after speaking with both Devon and Billy separately, Lily tells Billy that she's going to stay on at Chancellor. When Lily eventually relays her choice to Devon, he probably won't be too surprised, as he's suspected that she was wavering from their initial plan. However, he is likely to still be upset.
When Lily asked Devon earlier in the same episode what it would mean for them if she opted to work with Billy, he just said, "I don't know what that would mean." The words don't exactly lead us to believe he'll be sending her a congratulations bouquet. Plus, the fact she told Billy she was accepting his offer before telling Devon she was not joining him at Winters may not sit well with her brother.
With all that being said, we can picture some tense sibling moments in the foreseeable future. Devon will probably lay on the guilt in an effort to make Lily feel bad for leaving her family legacy behind. In turn, Lily could assert that Devon never wanted an equal partner but a yes-woman or a puppet.
Then there's the whole demerger of Chancellor-Winters. Despite both sides thinking the process is going to be hard work but a relatively smooth process, we aren't as confident of that. In particular, when it comes to the gaming and music divisions, which Devon should be entitled to as those are really in the Winters' wheelhouse, we have a hunch Billy will make a play for keeping a part of them at Chancellor and Lily will back him. A move like that would anger Devon and provoke him to fight back.
Speaking of antagonistic moves, we can imagine Devon making a few of his own, namely in his hiring selections. Once separated from Chancellor, he could seek out Heather (Vail Bloom) and Daniel (Michael Graziadei) and offer them positions as the head of legal and the head of gaming respectively. They've been out of work since Lily fired them after catching them cheating behind her back, and Devon only went along with the decision so his sister wouldn't be uncomfortable at work. From a business standpoint, it would be brilliant to bring the duo on at Winters. However, Lily could see hiring them as a slap in her face.
With there being a good chance more bickering is on the horizon for Devon and Lily, and for the executive team leading the demerger of Chancellor-Winters, that begs one question. Was Jill right that splitting the companies is a mistake?
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
