The Young and the Restless Perspective: Is Michael a fair-weather friend to Phyllis?

On The Young and the Restless, Michael Baldwin has found himself thrust in the middle of the AI drama lately, pulled in multiple directions by various individuals. Victor Newman has allowed Michael back into his inner circle, making his friendships with Diane Jenkins and Phyllis Summers a bit more complicated. Phyllis recently made a remark that Michael was a "fair-weather" friend at best, which posed the ultimate question. Is Michael truly a fair-weather friend or does he simply refuse to champion bad behavior?

Phyllis is a risky friend on The Young and the Restless

The Young and the Restless' Phyllis is ready to burn Genoa City to the ground | Image: CBS

Michael (and Lauren) can only do sit back so many times and watch Phyllis blow up her life, before they needed to take a stand. Michael has sat idly countless times in the past as Phyllis plotted and schemed to get what she wanted. However, there was a noticeable shift after Phyllis faked her death in an attempt to frame Diane for murder. Diane was a close friend of Michael's, similar to his relationship with Phyllis. This was absolutely the straw that broke this friendship in half.

Once Phyllis was revealed to have faked her death as part of a revenge plot, her friendship with Michael was never the same. Trust was broken. Phyllis allowed Michael to grieve for her, even going as far as to attend her own funeral and watch everyone's heartbreak firsthand. Beyond the friendship with Michael and Lauren, it's also a safe assessment that for the most part, Phyllis has never recovered with most of Genoa City after that stunt. It did irreparable damage to her credibility and reputation.

Beyond Phyllis' stunt demise, she went out of her way to destroy Danny and Christine's relationship on the road to her wedding. She made a fool out of herself on several occasions, including crashing the Bachelorette event and the wedding reception. Since Michael is close to the newly married couple, Phyllis' desperate attempts to derail their happiness did not sit well with him either. Although Lauren brokered peace between the embattled best friends on their 20th anniversary celebration, it doesn't appear that Phyllis left the night with the same sentiment as Michael.

Hypocrisy that can't be ignored

The Young and the Restless' Michael frequently overlooks Victor's bad choices | Image: CBS

During Phyllis' confrontation with Nick over using Cane's AI program to steal Newman Enterprises, he brought up her relationships with various people in town. On the subject of disappointing Michael, Phyllis referred to her and Lauren as "fair-weather" friends, which leaves the impression that she didn't take their truce as seriously as they did. While that could be perceived as Phyllis running out of reasons to care, it's possible that she finds the hypocrisy in Michael's feelings toward her.

Michael has repeatedly taken issue with the extreme lengths Phyllis has gone through to get revenge and find success. However, despite his comments toward her, Michael consistently enables Victor's bad behavior, coming back to him time and time again. Victor brought Jack and Jabot to their knees, and Michael was still willing to work with him to find information on Matt Clark and Sienna. Michael received a coin from Victor as a Christmas gift, and somehow that was enough to get Michael to avoid risking Victor's wrath.

None of Michael's feelings toward Phyllis can be disputed. She is guilty of all the things that drove him away from their friendship, but does that make Phyllis' points any less valid? If he's willing to stand by Victor, who routinely crushes anyone in his path with complete disregard to everyone's feelings, why can't he extend the same grace to his long-time cohort?

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