Well, I'll be damned.
Look at you,
the new CEO of Chancellor Industries.
Look at that.
It's going to take a little while for me
to get used to that.
And it just hit me
when I was getting dressed this morning.
This is it.
Today is the day.
I am in charge of my dear Katherine's company.
I get to build on her beautiful legacy.
And you will do an even better job.
You will make it more successful.
I promise you.
You ready?
I am more than ready.
And I have you to thank for all of this.
[phone ringing]
♪♪
[Diane sighing]
I just got out of a meeting with our lawyers
about the Glissade contracts that Victor sent over
and you are not going to believe what they discovered.
It's an empty company. A shell.
Victor sold off all the divisions
before he handed it over to you.
You knew about this?
[Nikki gasping]
"With decades of experience as a major player
"in both business and philanthropy,
"Ms. Newman is well poised to take the reins
"of the iconic company led for many years
"by her close friend, Katherine Chancellor."
VICTOR: Yeah.
Wow, wow.
That makes me sound pretty important.
Well, my sweetheart. And now...
look at this.
Get here.
Look at all these articles.
Oh, yes.
-Huh? This is the lead story. -Oh, my gosh.
Not only here, but look at this.
Paris, Rome. Look at that.
Wow.
Ooh.
[distant chattering]
Hey.
NIKKI: Oh, now what is all this?
Uh, well...
We just wanted to come by and wish you luck on your first day.
And your hair is amazing, Mom.
-It's perfect. It's très chic. -So sophisticated.
Thank you, guys.
Did you arrange for this, too?
Uh-uh. Had nothing to do with it.
My children's idea.
Uh, also, we come bearing gifts.
Oh, my goodness. You didn't have to do that.
This is for your new office.
Oh, thank you.
Ah.
It's perfect.
Perfect.
VICTOR: That's beautiful.
VICTORIA: Three generations of Newman women.
Yes.
And you, of course, know what this is all about.
Oh, my gosh.
[laughter]
What? Why is it so funny?
I'm pretty sure it's an inside joke.
Nicholas knows that I can never keep these things alive.
Which is why there's a standing order
to have a brand new one sent to your office
-every single week. -Oh!
Whew.
-VICTORIA: This is from me. -Aw. Thank you, sweetheart.
-You're welcome. -My goodness.
VICTOR: Nicest office. My goodness.
-It's so unexpected. -I thought you would like it.
[Nikki gasping]
[Victoria laughing]
I believe I gave you something very similar
-not too long ago. -VICTORIA: Yes, you did.
-You absolutely did. -VICTOR: Oh, my goodness.
-And it worked. -You remember that.
Well, thank you all so much.
It's moments like these
that I realize what a wonderful family I have.
It's been a tough year.
But I can honestly say that I have never felt stronger
than I do right now.
And I am so excited for this new adventure
and happy that I have my family to celebrate with me.
I am...
I am just so blessed.
I'm so proud of you, Mom. You're my hero.
Oh, darling.
-VICTORIA: I love you. -I love you, too.
You are all our hero.
Bring it in.
-Aw. -With that cool haircut.
Love you, Mom.
I love you so much.
And Claire.
I love you, too.
You forgiving me
and bringing me into your family the way that you did,
it just-- It's the best gift that I've ever received.
And thank you.
And I just, I hope that this day is the first
of only good days for you from now on.
It's all over and in the past.
Okay?
Okay.
But I do have a favor I'd like to ask of you.
Anything.
Would you accompany me to my first day at the office?
[phone pinging]
[Billy sighing]
Finally.
BILLY: Before you say anything,
I only called you back because I wanted you to see
what I'm doing.
Packing up my former office
because I was unceremoniously dumped
by my own flesh and blood.
For Victor Newman, no less.
Son, I know you're angry.
You have no idea.
Well, if you think it doesn't upset me
to see you like this, you'd be wrong.
Am I supposed to feel bad because you're upset?
This is not the way I wanted it to end, Billy.
Stop. Honestly, just stop
because I don't want to hear it and I don't have time.
I don't want to hear you say again that
this was my fault and that I brought this all on myself.
Not all of it, no.
Okay, so what part of it got me fired?
Oh, Billy.
No, I'm serious. I want to know.
Was it an act of God?
Or was it you that cut me off at my knees?
And caved to Victor?
I had to protect the company.
Our reputation was taking a major hit.
I had to make the change. I had no choice.
You left me no choice.
Isn't choosing your family
generally the right thing to do, Jill?
How did you find out
what Victor had done with Glissade?
My contact in Europe told me
he was trying to break the company up
and sell it for parts.
Why didn't you tell me?
Well, I wanted to see if he could pull it off.
[Diane laughing]
Well, while you've been waiting around,
Victor just handed me a big box of nothing.
According to our lawyers,
all we have left is the name "Glissade" and nothing else.
Yes, I am aware.
Well, you don't seem very concerned about it.
Oh, hell, I always expect Victor to be Victor.
I don't take anything he says or does at face value.
Well, all I see is Victor now taking a victory lap
at our expense.
You know what?
He was acting like he was doing all this
to hurt you and Kyle.
But what he really was after was more money
and, I don't know, a chance to gloat.
Oh, make no mistake. He was only out to hurt me.
Money was just icing on the cake.
Then I guess, once again,
that bastard has the last laugh.
Oh, I'm not so sure about that.
You want me to join you at your first day at work?
I would like that very much.
I think Mom is trying to show you
what it might be like if you were to work with her again.
I mean, if you decided to change your mind.
Claire can do whatever she wants
and I will support her 100%.
But you and I did work well together before.
And I-- I know you had a different agenda then.
But even if you hadn't been good at the job,
it wouldn't have made any difference.
I would have dismissed you
as just another person that HR sent over.
You were good.
You can do this.
I am flattered. I really am.
But still, no, huh?
Actually, it's not no.
I, uh...
When you first brought up the idea,
the timing wasn't right.
And honestly, I don't think that I was feeling confident enough
to make a big change like this.
But things are different now.
My life is different and...
yes, I'm curious.
I would be honored to accompany you
to work on your first day.
You've got something up your sleeve, don't you?
Something that I hope
will put Victor in his place once and for all.
JACK: Hey!
Good morning.
Morning.
Where are you off to?
Well, since I don't have any work
to keep me busy these days, I figured maybe I'd hit the gym.
Can you hang around for just a minute?
Look, you've said all there is to say
about what happened.
You heard my side. I heard yours.
So, let's just give it a break for a while, okay?
Fair enough. We just had more information to share with you
if you want to hear it.
JILL: Okay, I've been demoted.
From mom to Jill.
Boy, you really know where to stick the knife in, don't you?
We're talking business.
That's how you like to be referred
to in a professional setting.
Stop it, Billy.
You said it to hurt me and you know it.
And it did. Congratulations.
Doesn't feel good, does it?
I know I hurt you, too. And I'm so sorry about it.
Not sorry enough to support me
or give me the benefit of the doubt.
I told you my reasons for that.
And I don't accept them.
I'm your son, damn it.
A supposed heir to your legacy,
but you don't give a damn about that.
No, you tossed me aside
as soon as Victor turned up the heat.
This is so typical of you.
You don't take responsibility for any of it, do you?
You alienated Lily.
You let Chance walk away.
And you hired Phyllis, for God's sake.
Lily sabotaged me. Do you understand that?
Chance walked away
because he wanted to be a cop again.
As far as Phyllis, believe it or not,
is the only one that wanted to fight for this company.
And I fired her because you forced me to do it.
The company was going in the wrong direction, Billy.
And I felt I owed it to Katherine
to keep Chancellor safe and thriving.
And I knew in my heart that I didn't have the strength
or the stamina to do it anymore.
Oh, that's right. The sick card.
Yeah, you used that excuse with Lily
when you explained the reasoning for selling the company.
You're calling it the sick card?
You don't believe me?
You didn't give me the benefit of that excuse.
You sandbagged me.
You let me believe that I was going to fill your shoes
and you never intended for that to happen.
That is not true.
Has it ever occurred to you
how hard this decision was for me?
How many nights I lay awake
turning this over and over in my mind, Billy?
God, I wanted you to succeed.
BILLY: No, you didn't.
You set me up to fail.
So, you and Victor and everyone else
could comfortably say that Billy screwed up again.
Billy couldn't hack it.
You made a mistake, Mom.
Now, I've made mistakes in the past, fair enough,
but I've owned every single one of them.
And that's not what happened here.
I made every right decision to strengthen this company
and lead it into the future
until I was stopped dead in my tracks
because someone lost their nerve.
That's you.
You jumped ship, Mom.
And you left me high and dry.
So, unless you called to tell me that you've changed your mind,
I've got nothing else to say and this conversation is over.
No, I haven't changed my mind.
Then, goodbye.
Billy? What are you doing here?
What does it look like I'm doing, Nikki?
I'm packing up my office.
Didn't expect you to be here at the crack of dawn.
I didn't want to waste any time.
Oh, I'm sure you didn't.
You don't have to do this, you know.
We can have someone pack these things up and send them to you.
Oh, that's very sweet of you.
I know it's a hard day for you.
Well, to the victor goes the spoils.
Look at that, a pun.
I know he's a cutthroat son of a bitch,
but I always expected a little more class out of you.
Billy, I have had your back on more than one occasion.
I have stood by you many times and you know that.
I am not your enemy.
No, you just happen to be married to the man
that wants to grind me to dust for his own amusement.
[sighing] This was a business decision, nothing more.
Come on, Nikki.
Don't spit the company line with me, okay?
Victor wanted to buy you a nice little gift
and I happened to be in the way.
But this is a nice moment for him. It's very sweet.
He gets to give you what you want
and screw me over as a bonus.
This is something I wanted very badly.
And I am truly sorry if things didn't work out
the way you wanted them to.
[mocking chuckles]
They were never meant to.
But you know what? Lesson learned.
I understand you trying to explain away
Victor's reasoning for throwing me out of my ass,
but do you have any remorse for how this affected Lily?
I mean, because you sat there while Victor led her on,
letting her believe that she was going to come back
to this company, a company that she loves.
And all of that was a lie.
Are you okay with the way that happened?
Or was that just business?
Thank both of you for coming.
Of course. It's Mom's big day.
Meant a great deal to her.
I have rarely seen her this happy.
[phone pinging]
Is everything okay?
Yeah, I just, um, I gotta get going.
VICTOR: All right, son.
Again, thank you.
Hey, when it's for Mom, you never have to thank me.
-Love you both. -Love you.
Are you still upset with me regarding Billy boy?
Look, Dad...
I've gotten myself to a place
where I understand you wanting this for Mom,
but did you have to humiliate Billy the way that you did?
Are you honestly forgetting what he has put you through,
the children through, our family through?
You serious?
I can't stand his arrogance.
What if it comes back to bite you?
Bite me what?
-Billy? -Daddy, I know Billy.
I know him better than you do.
And when he stormed out of here after Abby's wedding
saying that this wasn't over, you know what he meant.
-Oh. -VICTORIA: Don't you? He meant
that you're going to be his obsession.
You're going to be his target 24/7.
Oh, my God. Really?
-Wow. Bring it on. -Daddy, I've been there.
I can speak from experience.
A Billy Abbott with nothing to lose can be
a very dangerous man.
Whatever this news is, it can wait.
-I've got to go. -It's about Glissade.
[sighing]
What about it?
Well, the news is official.
Victor has given up control of the company.
He has signed it over to your mother.
Well, that's just great.
That's-- that's perfect.
You taking control of the company
I'm supposed to be running.
Was that part of your plan to teach me a lesson?
It-- it was part of the plan, yes.
I'm not sure whether to call this poetic justice
or just ironic.
I don't know.
Did we succeed?
What do you mean?
Did you learn anything at all from this?
Did anything sink in?
[sighing]
Victor is still the devil.
I relearned that.
My parents are damn good actors.
You not only fooled me, you fooled everybody else.
That was the idea.
KYLE: Yeah, you were pretty good at it.
What did you learn about yourself?
That's a bit more complicated.
Take your time.
What I learned about myself.
I was angry.
I was really, really angry at you for
not giving me what I thought I deserved.
And especially at you, Mom.
For a lot of things I didn't even know were still there.
What kind of things?
Old stuff, mostly.
Old wounds.
When you and Dad were pretending to hate each other,
I was ready to take his side. I never hesitated.
I instantly thought you were the woman
who didn't give a damn about me or Dad
or anybody else but yourself.
You don't know how hard it was for me to keep doing that.
The look of disgust on your face.
JACK: I almost called this off.
-Yeah, but I wouldn't let you. -It was that painful for her.
No, she wouldn't, because we both knew
this was the only way to tear you away from Victor.
Yeah, I own every piece of that.
I should have been smart enough to figure out
that the only interest Victor Newman would have in me
was to find a way to get to you.
I was blinded by my rage and I think I know why.
I never forgave you for leaving me when I was a kid.
[sighing] Uh...
I've been afraid that that was going on, you know,
even before all this.
Yeah, I thought I was really over it.
After the initial shock, I was happy you came back.
Happy that you and Dad found each other again.
But the minute you and I had problems,
I could feel my stomach turning.
That feeling of betrayal, of abandonment,
that deep gnawing hurt that I carried around for years about
not having a mother and wondering, why did she leave?
What did I do wrong?
You know, that kid stuff, that childhood stuff.
Kyle, stop.
You didn't do anything wrong.
You were perfect.
It was me. I mean, I-- I ruined things.
I abandoned you.
And you have every right to-- to doubt me
and-- and to make me earn your love and your trust.
And I am-- I am just so sorry
that this whole thing has brought all this up for you.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I guess I owe you an apology, too.
What do you have to apologize to me for?
When we were working together at Jabot...
you accused me
of trying to undermine you
and I blew it off as you being paranoid and incompetent.
And the more I began to think about it,
the more I realized that...
you were right.
I was, without even realizing it,
trying to sabotage you.
For the record, I did try to get Lily to come work with me.
As a consolation prize.
So, she'd do all the work and you'd get all the glory.
It's the Newman way.
I find it odd that you're suddenly defending her,
since you're the one who fired her in the first place.
Lily was the best thing to happen to this company
until you stupidly got rid of her.
Totally agree.
And I was righting that wrong
when the rug got pulled out from under me.
By your own mother.
She saw the damage you were doing,
and she wisely stepped in
before Katherine's crown jewel was tarnished beyond repair.
My God, it's such a convenient narrative, isn't it?
Billy screwed up again, so let the parents come in and fix it.
You said it, not me.
And it's garbage, Nikki.
Deep down inside, along with all your self-righteousness,
you know I'm right.
You know, Claire, if I were you,
I would stay clear of all the Newmans, except for your mom.
The rest of them are cut from
the same blood-soaked cloth as Victor.
Don't learn the hard way, like I have.
[footsteps moving away]
-Hey. -SHARON: Hi, thanks for coming.
Yeah, what's up?
Um, let's go out there.
Okay.
I suppose I deserve this.
NICK: What?
The looks, the stares, the whispers.
I'm notorious now, haven't you heard?
Sharon, you don't need to do this.
Just let Esther run this place.
You don't need to put yourself on display for everybody.
Maybe I feel like I deserve it.
You don't.
Well, you are in a very small and shrinking minority.
Anyway...
[sighing]
So, you said you had some good news from your doctor.
Yes, my doctor changed my meds again,
but this time, I can really feel the difference.
I mean, I'm still feeling anxious,
but who wouldn't be in my situation?
But I'm not feeling as overwhelmed.
It's a real difference.
That's great.
Yeah, it's something, I guess.
No, no, no, it is a lot more than that.
I'm so glad that you're feeling better.
This can also help your case.
Yeah, my case.
Look, if it's on record
that you were struggling with your medication,
Michael can use that for your defense.
That's what I wanted to talk to you about.
Nick...
this is a lost cause.
I'm a lost cause.
The more I think about it...
this insanity plea,
I think it's a mistake.
So, I was a little off base when I called your suspicions
about Sharon a conspiracy theory, huh?
You still talking to me?
I must admit, I'm surprised you're here.
I meant to come by earlier.
Things have been crazy in my world lately.
You know how that goes.
You look great.
It's the lighting, clearly.
BILLY: Ah-ha.
Seriously, though, how are you?
I'm okay. I mean...
I mean, that crash took me for a loop, that's for sure.
I have a little bit of brain fog.
Elena said I can go home this afternoon.
-That's great. -PHYLLIS: Yeah.
That's really good news.
And Daniel's being cleared of all charges, so that's good.
You got to be relieved about that.
Oh, I'm so relieved.
And Sharon?
You were right about Sharon the whole time,
but nobody believed you.
Not even you.
-Yeah. -Which you so gracefully
just admitted, so.
Well, I've been wrong a few times lately.
I'm a bit of a losing streak, actually.
What?
Why are you here?
Just told you. Wanted to come by and say hi.
PHYLLIS: Mm.
I know you better than that.
I'd love to think that you have been up all night thinking
about my well-being, but I know better.
And you look like you lost your best friend.
Oof. That bad, huh?
Yep, that bad.
Why are you here?
I lost control of Abbott Chancellor.
My mother sold it.
To Victor.
What?
Oh my God, that's cold, even for Jill.
Yep. I lost it all, Phyllis.
I got nothing.
I'm sorry you had to witness that ugly scene with Billy.
It's all right.
No, it's very unpleasant.
He's angry, and when he gets that way,
he has a tendency to scorch the earth.
My parents warned me things could get ugly if the family
acquired Chancellor, and it's honestly one of the reasons
that I've been unsure about coming to work here.
And I can't blame you.
I know this has been particularly hard on Victoria.
Yeah, Mom is really torn.
She, on the one hand, is so thrilled for you.
She's genuinely so excited to see you get this opportunity.
But on the other hand,
she's really worried about Johnny and Katie.
Billy's their dad.
And he's a very good dad, too.
Of all the issues I may have with Billy,
being a good father is not one of them.
And I don't want to see Johnny or Katie get pushed
in the middle of any of this any more than your mother does.
I don't see how they won't be, though.
They're both old enough to know what's going on.
Yeah, I know.
We're just going to have to explain it to them
as best we can and hope they understand.
I guess so.
This isn't exactly how I envisioned sharing
my first day of the new job with you.
I hope it doesn't stand in the way of
you accepting a position here.
I would like to know one thing.
What was Billy talking about with Lily Winters?
What really happened between the two of you?
Sharon, we discussed this.
No, you and Michael discussed that the only way
I was going to avoid a life in prison was to plead insanity.
And I've never been comfortable with that.
Okay, what is the alternative?
To do what I set out to do when I confess.
To accept the consequences of my actions.
You know that's a life sentence, right?
Sharon, listen to me. Listen to me.
You are not in your right mind, okay?
You have a history of doing this where you do things
that are out of character because you either stop taking
your medication or you don't have the formula right.
Okay, yes.
Getting the meds balanced was a struggle.
But at the end of the day, I knew what I was doing.
But you said it yourself.
You don't remember the moment that you killed Heather, right?
But I know that I did it.
I know that she's dead because of me.
So why do you keep making these excuses for what I did?
Because there are extenuating
circumstances that a judge and jury need to hear.
Okay.
But it's-- Let's say that that doesn't work.
It doesn't go that way.
Let's say that a judge and a jury agree with me
that this is just some feeble justification
for a horrible act because...
That's what I think is going to happen, Nick.
And I think that you need to be prepared for when it does.
I know how hard it must have been for you to tell me that.
Hard for you to hear.
Once it dawned on me what I was doing, I couldn't deny it.
I was trying to make you look bad at Jabot.
You didn't deserve that.
No, but you didn't deserve for me to be given the job
that you should have had in the first place.
Especially one that you worked so hard for.
Yeah. Dad must have seen something in you.
That he wasn't seeing in me and he made
a judgment call for the good of the company.
Look, I admit I could have handled things differently.
Maybe not make you feel like I lost faith in you.
Yeah.
Well, we're all pretty good at hindsight, huh?
[chuckling]
I guess the question is, where do we go from here?
Forward?
Can we go forward?
Um, yeah.
Yeah, I want that.
I really do.
But, guys, there's a lot of hurt and a lot of anger.
And there is a big question about where I belong.
And I just don't know where that is right now.
Lily Winters is a very talented executive.
But Billy was right.
Victor and I were not completely honest with her.
Was it the way Billy described it?
Victor led her to believe that
if she helped us acquire the company and pushed
Billy out that she could get her old job back.
But that was not really the plan.
Victor wanted the company for me to run.
And when that truth came out, she was crushed.
I tried to convince her to come work with me by my side.
But she refused.
But as it turns out, Victor had other plans for her anyway.
What? Do you mean what other kind of plans?
Well, he feels it's her rightful place
to work at Winters with her family.
And I could see the logic in that.
But Lily wasn't having it.
Oh, no, no, she wasn't.
So that's where we are.
Do I regret how we handled things?
Absolutely.
And I hope someday she can forgive me for my part in that.
As for now, unfortunately, Victor and I have made
an enemy out of a woman we greatly admire.
Now that you know the whole story, have I scared you away?
Or are you still interested in working here?
You keep saying that I have to prepare.
What are you talking about? Prepare for what?
I might not be here to help you launch
our daughter into the world.
Sharon, I've asked you to not talk like that, please.
And I've told you that I have to.
Noah and Mariah, they are older and stronger.
But my going away, it will be devastating for Faith.
No matter the outcome, we will get our daughter through this.
This is important.
You have my word.
Thank you.
You don't have to worry about it, though.
I know.
And I'm very grateful.
I don't know what I would do without
your strength and your support.
Though I do keep wondering, why does he do it?
Why don't you hate me?
-Sharon, come on. -SHARON: No, I mean it.
When you hear me talk about all these terrible
things that I've done, why don't you leave?
I have known you most of my life.
And I care about you.
This is not a difficult decision for me at all.
I'm not going to abandon you.
Not now, not ever.
I am so sorry, Billy.
Thanks.
Although I'd be a lot sorrier if you hadn't already
thrown me under the bus when Jill gave
her thumbs down to me working at Abbott Chancellor.
I had to get her off my back, Phyllis.
I had all the intention in the world to get
you back in the fold.
-Mm, famous last words. -I mean it.
I just needed time to shore up the company.
Jill had other ideas.
BILLY: Yeah, she did. And look,
I don't want to talk about her anymore, okay?
I'm done with her.
But Victor, on the other hand.
I think it's time the old man get a taste of his own medicine.
Mm. You're the guy who's going to do it?
Yeah. Why not?
Well, okay. I'll forward your mail to the cemetery.
Didn't say I could do it alone.
Phyllis, you hate Victor just as much as I do.
So, I'm thinking, when you get out of here,
you and me team up, and we take Victor down together.
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