If you haven’t heard, The Young and the Restless’ Lily (Christel Khalil) returns to Genoa City the week of March 11, and right away she’s hit in the face with lots of drama.
While she no doubt will eventually face the feuding going on at Chancellor-Winters soon enough, in The Young and the Restless episode airing on March 13, she gets the devastating news that her boyfriend Daniel (Michael Graziadei) has slept with his ex-wife Heather (Vail Bloom), and the two are in love.
Lily’s heartbreak kicks off when she walks into Daniel’s apartment carrying groceries thinking she’s going to prepare him a surprise lunch. Unfortunately, she’s the one surprised as he’s already sitting down eating with Heather and Lucy (Lily Brooks O'Briant). The trio really looks like the perfect family, which is why it’s easy for Lily to sense that something strange is going on. As Heather and Lily excuse themselves to go prom dress shopping, Lily wastes no time in asking Daniel what’s going on.
He does some hemming and hawing before he finally breaks the news that he slept with Heather. Additionally, while he feels bad for doing something to hurt Lily, he doesn’t regret sleeping with his ex. The news sends Lily reeling. She’s understandably hurt that he cheated on her, and draws the conclusion that Heather has been after Daniel from the moment she got back to Genoa City.
Daniel does his best to steer Lily away from blaming Heather, but Lily remains upset by her nonetheless. Daniel continues to insert the knife into Lily’s heart when he says he never really stopped loving Heather after their marriage fell apart.
He also throws out there the fact that Devon (Bryton James) prevented him from telling Lily sooner about his reconciliation with Heather, which leaves Lily feeling a whole new sense of betrayal as her brother never shared that Daniel was a liar and cheater. The epic showdown to come between Devon and Lily as a result of Daniel's secret is sure to provide some must-watch TV. Hopefully, Mamie (Veronica Redd) will be on hand to eventually make peace between the two.
But back to Lily and Daniel. At the moment, Daniel works for Lily as his gaming platform is a part of Chancellor-Winters. Furthermore, Heather recently started a job working in the legal department at the company. Things are bound to be awkward for Daniel and Heather reporting to a boss they just wronged, and Lily may be on a warpath ready to mix her personal and professional lives and dole out punishments to her now-ex and his new beau.
We can imagine a situation where Lily makes it difficult for Daniel at work, rejecting his pitches and not willing to take meetings with him. (Devon may also make things uncomfortable for him because Daniel threw him under the bus). Additionally, with Heather being a new hire, Lily may have her legal team squeeze Heather out of a job at Chancellor-Winters altogether.
Now sure, Daniel and Heather could both threaten to take legal action against Lily if they feel she’s being unprofessional in the workplace, but that’s not really Daniel’s style. He genuinely appears to feel bad for what he did to Lily. So to solve any problems for him and Heather, he may suggest the two leave town, and he take his gaming platform to another company. Heather is a lawyer and can likely get a job anywhere.
From a storyline perspective, with Daniel and Heather reuniting and Phyllis and Daniel on better terms these days, Daniel doesn’t have a lot of foreseeable conflict on the show. So perhaps writers are preparing to phase him out of the soap.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the possibility that Daniel and Heather stay in Genoa City, but take their talents to Sharon’s new company Cassidy First Technology. A gaming platform would fit well there and we’re sure Sharon could use the legal assistance.
Make sure you keep watching as the Daniel and Lily fallout has really just begun.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
