It's another big week on The Young and the Restless as Victor's trial begins, Ashley gets wonderful news about her treatment and the pressure of the world starts wearing on Phyllis.

While almost everybody in town is thinking on some level about the Newmans, not everyone is bothering with the trial. Hillary is working on becoming the female version of Victor Newman and doing a very great job. 

After all, if he goes to prison, who is going to be left holding all of the evil cards? 

I'm really surprised Devon has allowed Hillary to continue along the road she has been traveling. She's wholly unpleasant. If she was even the wee bit honorable in her desires to give herself credibility with the people of Genoa City, what she was doing would be admirable.

After all, who can really say using her husband's money for charity is a bad thing? But the way she does it is enough to make you want to slap her right off of her entitled perch. She keeps saying she wants to do the work to get what she wants, but pushing others aside (Ashley) like a bully is the wrong way to do it.

Simon: There is a strange fascination to watching two women tear into each other while smiling.

Especially when Ashley has been fighting for her life and Hillary knows it. It's not even like she's in the dark about it. Here's a woman who is begrudging a potentially terminally ill woman good things in life. It's hard to justify Hillary's actions based even on that one fact, let alone her other childish behaviors.

And every time Devon rewards her with a statement like You ARE beautiful and amazing right after she's done something despicable, he's only egging her on. But if I'm this angry at her, then a good villainess is she, right? Let the hatred flow!

The same cannot be said for Summer, who is equally smackworthy, but for much different reasons. The girl simpers and whines far too much for as much damage as she does to the people she loves. 

Did she really take as long as she did to realize what her mother went through at the hands of her grammpa?​ Gah. The way she says Grandpa drives me nuts. When Phyllis finally spoke to her like an adult, making her realize what straddling the line of Abbotts and Newmans means when evil is at hands really means, I was cheering for her.

But even then Summer went to her grammpa and asked why she should continue supporting him. She still missed the points Phyllis made about grammpa being behind the murders of Austin and Courtney because he was the reason Marco was in town and the reason all of that man's actions began. 

And until grammpa has everyone turn on him, he'll continue to sit there with that smug look on his face with his arms crossed. 

Poor Phyllis. I know she was crying and lashing out because of how angry she was at seeing him like that. Crying in front of him would make it even worse, because you know she doesn't want him to know how much he hurt her. But the entire case is situated around how much damage he did to her. It's terrible.

At least we know now that Michael is not capable of throwing a case. There is a subtle way to do it and there is an obvious way. Michael chose the obvious way and what happened for Friday's cliffhanger will surely get him disbarred. Thankfully, he already had that conversation with Lauren. He's done with the law.

Maybe that's why he chose the easy way out. He doesn't want to be the go-to guy anymore. It sure seems like he's stitching that up to be his reality.

I don't see how any jury can feel sympathetic toward Victor even if his attorney did throw his case. His arrogance is so unappealing it's impossible for feel anything for him but disgust. He doesn't do himself any favors, that's for sure.

Other events this week included the news that Billy has been given his mother's house. He was stuck there with Phyllis during a thunderstorm and she laughed when he said he'd chop wood for a fire during the storm in his suit. After and talking and being silly, they spilled the wine and tumbled over...ending in a kiss.

Phyllis: Billy Abbott? To your new digs.
Billy: To the woman that makes everything happen. Cheers. 

With Billy's relationship with Victoria ending and Phyllis clamoring for all of the love and support she can get, this was coming. I saw it before Jason Thompson took over the role of Billy, but after he did, it seemed like a foregone conclusion. His chemistry with Gina Tognoni is off the charts. 

While Tognoni has a comfortable rapport with Peter Bergman, there is something electric when Billy and Phyllis share scenes. The writers obviously recognized this and are going to take advantage. As old as the old quadrangle stories can be, when it's electric, it's electric, man!

Finally, Sharon continued having nightmares about giving birth. Paul assured Dylan nothing Dr. Anderson did had anything to do with Sharon and was all centered on Nick, so he tried to assure Sharon all was well. But Sharon thinks the dreams are telling her Sully doesn't really exist. 

And damn if she's not right. Because Sully is really Christian. Who knows how long that story will take to play out, but I'm guessing somewhere around the time Shawn gives birth and there can be a baby switch. WHY Shawn would want to give her baby to another couple, I don't know, but what do you see happening?

With as abruptly as they killed off Doctor Anderson and ended that storyline, you have to wonder if someone somewhere wishes they had a time machine so they could go back and make that whole thing go away!

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Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She's a member of the Critic's Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.