At the ranch, Victoria and Adam are on their phones doing damage control as Nikki frantically asks Victor, “Who is doing this to us?!”

At that very moment, Phyllis is on the Cane train imagining Victor handing her the key to Newman Enterprises and telling her she won fair and square.In Red’s fantasy, both Victor and Cane gush that Phyllis is a genius. Nikki tells her she’s the true heir to Katherine Chancellor’s

 

 

legacy. Cane, shirtless, interrupts her reverie with a champagne toast… to having it all.At Billy and Sally’s place, he’s alone toasting to Victor’s downfall when Sally spies him. He claims he’s having a drink to “take the edge off”. She asks, “What’s the problem?” He claims

there isn’t one and wants to go to bed. Sally hits him with the, “We need to talk.” He’s been agitated lately and it’s scaring her. Billy admits seeing Cane and Phyllis plotting got under his skin.

As Billy keeps repeating that he’s fine, Sally stands there looking totally unconvinced. She heard him tell Jack he was jealous that Cane and Phyllis are taking Victor down and not him. He lied to her earlier!

Sally reminds Billy that Adam lied to her and now he’s doing the same thing. Billy’s outraged by the comparison. Sally argues it’s not about the depth of the lie. Billy admits he’s happy that Victor is going down. He hollers, “I wish it was me! I wish to God it was me who took Victor down!” Is that enough for her?Sally tells him he’s missing the point. He has an obsession problem. Billy turns on the charm, gets a kiss, and pulls her toward the bedroom. She stops and asks him to promise not to obsess over payback anymore. Billy vows he’ll only obsess over her.At the Abbott mansion, Jack relays to Diane how Victor suddenly got a text at the ranch and all the blood drained from his face… he doesn’t think they’ll have to give up anything to get him to back off. His hunch told him Victor is scared. Whatever went down, he didn’t see it coming.Jack and Diane speculate that Cane had Phyllis steal back the AI and they attacked Victor. Diane never thought she’d utter these words, “Yay, Phyllis!” Jack warns they have to keep their guard up. Jabot could still be in jeopardy.

Diane wishes she’d been there to see it. Jack will break out the bubbly when Jabot is back up and running and the threat is gone. He knows Victor called a family summit… which means this is big. He’s sure Nikki will confirm if Newman is under attack. Diane hates him relying on her, but concedes that she might tell him.

Victor’s Plan
At the ranch, Victor tells Nikki that it’s not an inside job… no one at Newman knows he has the software or how powerful it is. Nikki hopes he doesn’t think it’s Jack. Victor sniffs that Abbott doesn’t have the resources or intelligence to pull this off. It’s either Phyllis, Cane, or both.Nikki and Victor try to make sense of Cane and Phyllis doing this now. He admits the redhead was angry with him. They’re desperate because Cane’s company is in shambles and she can’t pay her bills. Nikki asks if they have to shut down Newman. Victor says they’re too big for that… they’ll have to negotiate. “Everyone has a price.”On the Cane train, Phyllis is keen to go over and let Victor know they’re responsible. She can’t wait to see him fall from his perch. Cane chuckles. The redhead mentions bragging to her kids before launching into a rant about how poorly Victor has treated her. She can’t wait to stand in front of him and tell him they were responsible for his downfall.

As she dreams of remodeling Victor’s office, Cane, looking amused, suggests they keep Victor’s portrait as an homage to the founder. Suddenly, Phyllis gets a text from The Mustache himself. Cane suggests she let him stew for a while. His phone starts ringing and he declines the call. Phyllis enthuses, “Stew away, baby. Stew away.”

Cane zones out and Phyllis pleads with him not to be moody and brooding while they’re having fun. Ashby admits something’s bothering him from earlier… he saw sadness in Billy’s eyes. He wants to help his not-brother, who has been through it over the years.Agitated, Phyllis warns he’ll end up with a broken heart. Cane assures her his intentions with Billy won’t hurt what they’re doing at Newman. He tries to distract her with sex and it works.Back at the ranch, Victor promises Nikki they won’t lose the company. She’s unconvinced. That program could destroy everything they spent their life building. “Forget Phyllis and Cane, that is the real enemy.”Adam enters and declares that the IT team can’t stop the AI. The program is eating them alive! Nikki exclaims, “We have to shut down immediately.” Victoria appears. She agrees with her mom and has already started transferring their assets offline. They don’t have long, however. This program is so fast she’s never seen anything like it. Nikki fumes, “Your father has, haven’t you? You know exactly how this will end!”Victor insists what happened to Arabesque won’t happen to them. Suddenly, Victoria gets word that one of their divisions has been completely wiped out. Victor grunts, “OK, Cane Ashby. This ends right now.” With that, he walks out the door.On the Cane train, Phyllis checks the time to see if it’s too late to go over to Victor’s and gloat. Cane shrugs, “We can do that.” She goes off to shower and he pulls out his phone to call Billy, and asks him to meet him in the morning.At the ranch, Nikki tells Victoria and Adam she’s furious with their father. This was so unnecessary! It was just to punish Jack. He wouldn’t even trade the program to get Matt Clark off the street. She fills Victoria in on Jack’s offer. Adam points out that Jack can rest easy now. Nikki wishes she could say the same for them.At the Abbott house, Diane is happy about Victor going down. Jack warns, “Don’t count him out yet.” She’s sure Phyllis and Cane are toasting the world. She would be. Jack isn’t sure Cane and Phyllis understand that this war will never be over.Victor shows up on the Cane train and isn’t surprised to find Ashby with Phyllis. He asks, “So, Cane. What will it take to end this madness.” Phyllis grins like the cat that ate the canary.