Better off dead

Phyllis and Jeremy's plan to frame Diane for Phyllis' ''death'' came to fruition this past week on The Young and the Restless -- and the fallout has left the rest of Genoa City reeling. But, now full of regret, is Phyllis really better off ''dead''? Diane certainly may have been better off staying ''dead''! Join our Two Scoops columnist for his take on the Phyllis/Diane drama -- and all the other happenings in Genoa City this past week.

My, oh my -- what a week it has been in Genoa City! So much has happened in the wake of Phyllis' "death," and I have been loving every minute of it. To start, I was happy that Daniel confronted Summer about not including him in planning their mother's memorial service. Sure, I get that she wanted to plan everything as a way to somehow make amends for the tattered state of their relationship, but as Daniel pointed out, he also had amends to make. I was glad that he didn't hold too much of a grudge, though, and that Summer apologized for not including him. The last thing I would want is the siblings fighting with one another in the wake of their mother's death. It was nice to see them form a united front and vow to avenge their mother's death.

Another pair of siblings didn't fare so well, though, as Ashley and Jack blew up at one another over Jack's insistence that Diane could not have been involved in Phyllis' demise. As much as I love to see these two getting along, it's just so entertaining when they are fighting with one another! Peter Bergman and Eileen Davidson knocked these scenes out of the park (as they always do). I loved when Ashley called him out for blaming "the dead woman" when Jack insisted that Phyllis brought a lot of her problems on herself. And it was a touching and heartbreaking moment when Ashley, even though she was furious and screaming at Jack, told him that she was only trying to fight for him because he was too blinded by his love for Diane to fight for himself.

Ashley and Tucker shared some great scenes this week, too. I love how she leads him on one moment but then cuts his heart off his sleeve in the next. When she told him that she was only going to half-heartedly accept his marriage proposal, if for no other reason than to get Jack to look in the mirror and realize the stupidity of forgiving -- and even marrying -- someone who's caused you nothing but pain, I was DEAD! Ouch! But, also, bravo to Ashley. It is clear that her walls are starting to come down, and she truly is contemplating forgiving Tucker and having a future with him -- but I am thrilled that she is not making it easy for him. I'm also glad that he's not giving up on her, either, though, regardless of how much she insists she doesn't have feelings for him. "You'll see," he told her. "We're meant to be." More of these two, please!! They are everything!

There were a lot of great interactions this week, actually. It was really nice to see Lauren and Christine sharing some scenes together! I've been enjoying seeing more of Christine lately, and I'm glad Lauren still has a friend to chat with now that she doesn't have Phyllis around. I have to applaud Christine for holding back her feelings of dislike for Phyllis and just being there to listen as Lauren grieved the loss of her best friend. Given Phyllis and Christine's tumultuous history, Christine has a lot of class to not shout from the rooftops that she is glad Phyllis is finally out of their lives. Phyllis did try to kill her once upon a time, after all, so no one could blame Christine if she was feeling anything other than relief and a sense of karmic justice now.

But Phyllis wasn't the only thing that Christine and Lauren had to chat about. Christine divulged to Lauren that she and Paul had split. As sad as I am to hear that they are not getting their happy ending after all they have been through over the years, if the writers want to use Christine more in the future, then they had to explain Paul's absence, given that Doug Davidson does not seem to be returning to the role anytime soon.

I'm just relieved that the writers didn't kill Paul off. At least we know he's out there somewhere, and who knows, maybe down the line, we will even see him back in Genoa City again (fingers crossed)! I can only assume that a Danny and Christine reunion is on the horizon this year. It would truly be sweet if they found their way back to one another. And wouldn't it be ironic if they finally get together after all these years now that Phyllis is gone, since she is what ultimately tore them apart?

Of course, as we all know, Phyllis is not truly gone. Her scheme with Jeremy to frame Diane for her murder became clearer and clearer as the week went on. Chance learned that Phyllis had been poisoned, and that is why she had been acting erratically before she collapsed at the bicentennial gala. That, coupled with having found a bottle of strychnine in the hotel room where Phyllis and Diane had their catfight, prompted him to declare her death a homicide investigation. I was hopeful that Chance's investigation would be focused on Jeremy when he essentially told him that he thought Jeremy had married Phyllis only to kill her, collect her money, and then frame Diane for her murder. But I was not terribly surprised (just a little disappointed) that he arrested Diane once the purchase of the strychnine was traced back to her. But let's discuss the memorial service itself before I touch on that climactic ending to the service.

Summer did a nice job of putting the memorial service together, even though not all her intentions were geared toward honoring her mother. She was also hoping to set a trap for whoever was responsible for Phyllis' death to reveal themselves in some way at the service. In fact, she was sure that Diane would feel so overwhelmed by her guilt after hearing how much everyone was grieving Phyllis that she might have an attack of conscience and confess to everything. She even admitted this in so many words to Chance when she invited him to the service.

Summer wasn't handing out invites to just anyone to attend, though; in fact, she even revoked someone's invitation! When she learned that Sally was planning on attending the memorial service with her father, she said what most of us are thinking: Sally shouldn't be going anywhere with Nick. Sally is having Adam's baby, and that is who she should be with. While I felt bad for Sally being attacked after she offered to help Summer out in any way that she could, I was also hoping in the back of my mind that Sally might be thinking Summer was right.

And I am glad Sally didn't go to the memorial service because, instead, she ran into Adam at Crimson Lights, and they chatted over coffee and tea. I still love these two together, and their chemistry always shines through when they share scenes together. It was cute to see them bonding over the child they are expecting, and I hope that we ultimately get a reunion for these two. Nick and Sally just aren't it.

As Adam and Sally continued to bond, Adam's sister Victoria was doing some "bonding" of her own with Nate back at Newman Enterprises. I can't keep track of which woman Nate truly wants to be with these days. He seemed committed to not cheating on Elena the last time Victoria tried to get him into bed in her hotel room, but apparently the Newman offices are more of a turn-on for him, since he didn't hesitate to engage in sexual activities with his boss while on the clock. As he and Victoria once again celebrated their recent successes at work over a few glasses of bourbon, he wasted no time in letting her know that he would not resist her advances this time.

I know a lot of people don't like to see these two together because of the whole cheating aspect (especially since Elena is such a likeable character, and it sucks to see her treated as a second thought to Nate). But I love the chemistry between Nate and Victoria, and their scenes this week were hot. And aren't we all here for the drama of it all? At least it hasn't been boring!

Regardless of whether anyone is Team Victoria or Team Elena, I think we can all agree that Elena deserves to be in a better relationship than the one she has with Nate. And after everything that Victoria went through over the last couple of years with Ashland, I would like for her to find some happiness and don't want to see her be the loser in love yet again. But, for now, she still lost out on "bedding" Nate because Nick interrupted them before she and Nate could have sex on her office desk. He didn't catch them in the act, but he might as well have.

It was obvious what was going on once Victoria unlocked the door for him and they tried to play it cool as though they were just having a meeting and "didn't know the door was locked." I was glad to see Nick didn't play dumb and called Victoria out for what she was doing. It was great to see him stick up for Elena, too (hey, maybe Nick and Elena would be a good pairing once Sally dumps him for Adam)! It was pretty great how Nick confronted Nate later at Society, too, and let Nate know how he feels about the situation. But I'm guessing that Nate is not likely to take Nick's advice.

While Victoria and Nate were heating things up at Newman, Phyllis' memorial service was underway at the GCAC in the new Neil Winters Jazz Club -- a very interesting choice of venue, given that this is where Phyllis collapsed in front of everyone before her supposedly fatal crash in the ambulance! Summer was not being subtle with her intentions by holding the memorial service there and having a police detective present. Of course, most people assumed Chance was there in case Jeremy stopped by, which he did, and it was fun to see Chance throw him out. Too bad Jeremy had to miss seeing his plan come to fruition at the end of the service, but it was a good thing for Phyllis that he didn't see her sneak into her own memorial service, wearing a disguise!

Now, I understand that a lot of viewers think that Phyllis' disguise was not good enough and that everyone there should have recognized her right away. I was even a little taken aback when I first saw her there because it seemed obvious to me, too, but I think the disguise she chose was actually a good one. She was dressed exactly like all the other staff that were on hand at the memorial service, so it made sense that she would try to blend in with them. She was also smart to stay in the background and not interact with anyone. And those that were in attendance were focused on other things besides the staff. They were all there to grieve Phyllis and were already a little ruffled from Jeremy's not-so-surprise entrance, commotion, and departure.

I can't say that I would have been paying any attention to the staff or who they may have resembled ,either, so I do think it was believable that no one recognized her. The show wanted to let us, as viewers, in on the secret that Phyllis was there in order to add tension and drama, so of course, it was obvious to us. I follow Michelle Stafford on Twitter, and she shared in a tweet that she stood on set for an hour, and none of the other cast members recognized her. She even said hi to Joshua Morrow (Nick) when she saw him, and he walked right past her without a second thought. Too funny. I love hearing those fun tidbits from backstage!

I hope that Phyllis took some comfort in all the nice things that were said about her at the memorial service as she listened and watched from the background. She was on shaky ground with many of her closest friends and family at the time of her passing and felt truly alone in the world, which was why she agreed to concoct the scheme of faking her death with Jeremy in the first place. After hearing how much she truly was loved and appreciated, it's no wonder that she later voiced regret over having gone through with it all. But there were definitely some moments throughout the service that Phyllis was feeling no regret over -- namely, Diane's embarrassment and arrest!

Phyllis looked like she couldn't have been more proud of Summer when her daughter called out Diane during the service and asked if there was anything Diane would like to say about Summer's mother. When Diane tried to refuse and insisted it wasn't appropriate for her to comment, Summer chastised her and pointed out that Diane seemed to have no problem sharing her thoughts about her mother the last time the two of them had seen each other right before Phyllis died. Yikes! Diane was incredibly embarrassed, and the whole room filled with awkward tension as it became clear that Summer was trying to humiliate her mother-in-law. Thankfully, Daniel interrupted the awkward moment and took some time to speak about his mother. But nothing could save Diane later on, as the memorial concluded and Chance arrested her for Phyllis' murder.

Yes, you heard me right. She was arrested for murder, which is why I need to get this gripe of mine off my chest: Why does everyone keep saying that Diane "murdered" Phyllis?! It's aggravating enough that Chance seems to have completely ignored his instinct earlier in the week that Jeremy is framing Diane, but that's not the most aggravating part of this whole fiasco, which is that the charge against Diane should only be attempted murder. Even though Phyllis had dangerous amounts of poison in her system, and that poison has now been linked back to Diane, it was the ambulance crashing in a fiery explosion that was deemed her true cause of death. It bothered me every single time someone said, "Diane murdered Phyllis."

Even Summer can't stop telling everyone that Diane murdered her mom, and she clearly has not a care in the world for her husband's feelings, as she continues to vilify his mother in that way. She is truly channeling her mother by being bull-headed and only seeing how this situation affects her. I understand that she is grieving her mother and needs to point blame somewhere, but she is only going to end up sabotaging her marriage by making a larger and larger rift between her and Kyle if she doesn't stop calling Diane a murderer -- especially since no one actually murdered her! The poison was not the cause of death.

Say it with me, everyone: "It. Was. Not. Murder!" I'm sure the writers have written it that way to amp up the drama, but it is driving me nuts! I know that doesn't let Diane off the hook for the crime, of course, but it's really annoying that even the police are calling the poisoning "murder."

Despite that aggravating piece of this storyline, and as much as I love the character of Diane, it was pretty fun and satisfying to see Phyllis revel in seeing her plan come to fruition. I love both Phyllis and Diane as characters, so I'm not necessarily rooting for either one of them to "win" -- I'm just rooting for more fun scheming and drama between the two of them. Ever since Diane returned and her rivalry with Phyllis was reignited, the show is the most exciting it has been in a long time. I'm very curious to see how this all plays out, though.

The only way I can see Phyllis getting away with any of this once everyone finds out she is alive is if she blames Jeremy for faking her death and claims that he's been holding her hostage somewhere. She'd have to play dumb about whether or not Jeremy framed Diane for the poisoning, though, if she wants to keep Diane behind bars, of course. But who knows? Maybe the writers have something else up their sleeve, but that is the only resolution I can imagine right now that doesn't end in Phyllis going to jail herself.

Let's just hope Jeremy doesn't kill Phyllis for real before she has a chance to reunite with her loved ones, though! He was none too pleased when he realized that she hadn't left town yet and was having second thoughts about their entire plan. She held her own when he chastised her, of course, but she genuinely looked scared when he threatened to kill her for real if she tried to expose their plan and reveal that she is alive. Finally, we are seeing Jeremy as a full-fledged villain that actually seems like a real threat after all his time spent doing nothing more than skulking around Genoa City and acting like a victim the last few months. James Hyde has been doing a great job in the role (especially this week), but, as great of an addition to the cast as he is, I can't wait for Jeremy to get his comeuppance -- let's just hope he doesn't give Phyllis hers, first!

Although it was quite the dramatic week in Genoa City, we were also left with a few sweet moments at the end of the week in the scenes with Daniel and Lily and also Mariah and Tessa. The sparks were really flying between Daniel and Lily this week and I am so ready for them to finally admit how they are feeling about one another!! Their scenes with Lucy and Danny at Society after the memorial were adorable, and that kiss Lily gave Daniel on the cheek as they said goodbye to each other had me aching for more between them. Don't get me wrong, I like the slow burn and anticipation leading up to their romantic reunion, but that doesn't mean that the anticipation isn't also killing me!

And how cute were the scenes with Mariah and Tessa with Sharon and Elena meeting their newborn, Aria! It was great to see Mariah and Tessa back in town and settling in as a family. I hope now that they are back, we will see them get a larger storyline again, but it is nice to see them living a happy family life, too, for a change. They have certainly had plenty of drama the last couple of years, so it's nice they are having a little breather before they get embroiled in more -- I just wish it didn't mean less screen time for them in the meantime.

Well, that's all from me for this week, folks! Can't wait to hear what you all had to think about this past week's episodes, so don't forget to hit the Comments here at the end of my column and on the social media posts throughout the week, too!

Until next time,Vance

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