Just when The Young and the Restless’ Kyle (Michael Mealor) thought he would soon be eating the finest of macarons with the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop in Paris with Harrison (Redding Munsell), Summer (Allison Lanier) like a category-five hurricane comes and rains on his parade.
In The Young and the Restless episode airing on July 25, Summer saunters into the Abbott mansion with the most satisfying grin. She catches Kyle and Claire (Hayley Erin) talking about the upcoming trip to Paris, and Summer encourages the duo to stay in the French city as long as they like, but says Harrison won’t be joining them. Kyle becomes confused about how she plans to stop him from taking his son to Paris given a judge already told her there’s nothing she can do to stop him.
Then Summer happily informs Kyle that she had her attorney petition another judge who ruled in her favor. Until Kyle and Summer work out a new custody arrangement over Harrison, Kyle is not to take the little boy out of the country. The news infuriates Kyle. He’s perplexed how she could feel so insecure about her position in Harrison’s life that she would prevent Kyle from taking him to Paris, a trip Harrison was very excited to take.
After their blow-up, Kyle goes to meet with his attorney to discuss his options in combatting the judge’s ruling. Unfortunately for the Abbott heir, despite his suspicion that Summer bribed the judge, his attorney shoots down the notion, citing this particular judge would never take a bribe. Kyle’s attorney then informs him an appeal could take weeks, which is more bad news considering Kyle has business meetings lined up for Glissade in Paris that have to take place sooner rather than later.
Stewing in his anger, Kyle shares with his attorney his opinion that Summer is "selfish and vindictive," and notes "two can play at that game." These final words of the episode sound like a warning shot, and we have to think Summer is about to be dealt a low blow.
Now we’ll admit, we’ve found Summer rather annoying these days as it pertains to her insistence to fight Kyle for custody. Considering Tara (Elizabeth Leiner) is Harrison’s biological mother who never terminated her parental rights, you’d think Summer would want to work things out with Kyle without the courts, as she seemingly is fighting an uphill battle. However, Summer is in the weeds of a custody war now, and Kyle seems determined to make sure she loses, and loses badly.
So what might Kyle do next to get back at Summer for stopping the Parisian trip? Well, there’s a possibility that Kyle has his attorney craft a motion to have Summer’s visitation with Harrison terminated altogether. Kyle could argue that he’s been gracious in allowing Summer to spend time with Harrison given she has no biological ties to the child and never officially adopted him. The move could be seen as cruel on Kyle’s part, but if it works, it would allow him to make decisions regarding Harrison without worrying about Summer’s interference.
If this isn’t Kyle’s next step, then allow us to introduce the possibility that Kyle works with his legal team to get Tara released from prison early so she can reassert her rights as Harrison’s mother. Kyle could team up with Tara to cut Summer out of Harrison’s life. The Glissade co-CEO may feel he’d rather deal with Tara as she’d likely be more willing to play ball with his style of parenting, knowing a judge would probably not grant her full custody given her record, and she would be so grateful to be out of prison that she’d abide by his stipulations. Tara can be a bit unpredictable, however, so this plan certainly has its risks.
As we wait to find out what happens next in this fight between Summer and Kyle, we expect to see nothing less than explosive drama in the foreseeable future.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
