Y&R Exclusive: Billy Flynn Says Winning Lily Back Is Cane’s ‘Ultimate Goal’
When Cane revealed that he was the man behind the mysterious Aristotle Dumas persona on Young and Restless, his plans began to come into focus. But at the same time that he’s making big moves to try and topple the biggest empires in Genoa City, he’s also desperate to reconnect with his ex-wife, Lily (Christel Khalil), and their children. But which one is his true priority? “I think ultimately, Lily is more important,” Billy Flynn (Cane) tells Soap Opera Digest. “But until he feels like he’s enough, I would say that there are going to be things that get in the way of her feeling that she’s the most important. There’s a plan, and I think in his mind, it all just has to work — but I think she is the ultimate thing that is important to him.”
Do the Right Thing
Cane has returned to Genoa City to not only repair his relationship with his own family, but also help make amends with others, like hoping to get Billy and Jill to reconcile. “There’s a few instances along this path, which you’ll see over the next month or so, where he makes it a priority to try to fix these things, these other relationships — even besides his own — that are broken,” Flynn previews. “And I think he’s truthful in that that’s important to him.
“In his mind, he can make everything right again,” the actor continues. “And not just the things that he messed up, but the things that his father messed up or his family’s decisions have caused. I think maybe there’s a little bit of like, a… I don’t know whether it’s a Robin Hood complex or a Batman complex or something like that, where he thinks he’s doing the ultimate justice by trying to take down these people or companies that he thinks are bad in some way.”
Of course, that’s quite a lofty goal to set for oneself, and it’s going to be quite a challenge for Cane to achieve any of his aims. “He thinks, ‘I have time. I can do it. I can accomplish everything that I set out to, I know I can,’” Flynn explains. “And along the way, all the roadblocks and problems and diversions all come up. And he thinks, ‘Okay, I can fix it. I can fix that.’ Like, he just adds more to his plate, before he can get to his ultimate goal, which is winning back Lily and his kids.”
False Start
Complicating things even further is the fact that Cane dug himself into a hole with Lily — and the rest of Genoa City — by creating the Aristotle Dumas alter ego and lying to everyone for months. “I don’t know what he was expecting,” Flynn allows with a chuckle. “Maybe a warmer welcome, I think. Multiple people have been like, ‘What were you expecting, a parade?’ I think in his mind, he thought that people were going to be more impressed by this thing that he had accomplished.”
Communication with Lily has also been strained as the exes find themselves thrust back into each other’s orbits. “It’s like that thing where she’s telling him exactly what she needs, but he’s not hearing [her],” the actor says. “It’s almost like he’s thinking on a macro level instead of micro. She said, ‘I just need you to listen to me. I need you to tell me why you did this thing. And I need you to tell me that whatever it is you’re doing, you’ll just stop and fix things with Mattie and Charlie.’ So yeah, he got off on the wrong foot.”
Change of Plans?
All of these machinations and schemes not only risk alienating Cane from Lily but from his children as well. “It becomes a big quest for him to make things right,” Flynn teases. “There’s some stuff building to where you’ll see his efforts to try to make things right. But I think in his mind, he thought, ‘Okay, it’ll be easy to explain to them.’ I had scenes where I say like, even creating the name Dumas was because one of Charlie’s favorite books was The Count [of Monte Cristo]. So I think I thought that they would understand that I did it for them.”
Cane built this massive empire from scratch for his family, but has found them to be underwhelmed with his efforts. “He’s like, ‘Well, look what I’ve provided for us,’” Flynn says. “And they’re like, ‘Yeah, but we just wanted you. We needed you. And you weren’t there.’”
Which means that Cane is going to have to pivot in a big way if he still intends to achieve all of his goals. “Lily and his kids are of the utmost importance,” Flynn declares. “I just think he didn’t see that. When you’re a person who probably carries as much inner child baggage as Cane does, you don’t think the one thing that they want is the real you. Because when you feel like you’re not enough, you think, ‘If I could just create all this other stuff, they’ll think that I’m special or worthy.’ So he creates this empire and then ultimately, they’re like, ‘Yeah, but you lied to us. So who cares about all that other stuff?’ I think that surprises him.”
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