traumatize her kids by playing dead as part of one of the most cockamamie revenge plots we’ve ever seen hatched. Then, the

show had her throw herself at Danny, in whom she had expressed zero lustful interest in decades. Then, the show had her throw herself at Nick, because what? She was down in the dumps? Seriously, WTH?

Our best guess is that the powers that be are launching a “reset” of the character, one that allows her to regain her sense of self-worth and her smarts. Before building Phyllis back up, we figure Young & Restless wants to bring her down — way down. And this silly renewed crush on Danny is pretty far down there!

“Are you saying you don’t wanna put a ‘rock on’ my finger?”

We’ll grant you that Phyllis has always been an unpredictable live wire. But until Diane’s resurrection, she had also become stabler and savvier. She’s not some JV vixen still learning the ropes, she’d a dyed-in-the-wool conniver par excellence. So the half-baked shenanigans she’s gotten up to have seemed out of character for the shrewd dynamo that she’s become.

On the other end of this storyline, we can only hope that the Phyllis that emerges is one that honors the journey that she’s taken from desperate and scheming to confident and formidable. We still want her to stir the pot; of course we do. But we would love for her to do it like a character who had learned from her mistakes and is all the more dangerous and enticing because of it.