JPI

Thom Bierdz is back on "The Young and the Restless" but what the hell is going on?

So if you missed Friday's episode of "The Young and the Restless," get your butt over to the recap section ASAP and read the blow-by-blow. Because it was a damn good episode. But the biggest shocker came in the last minute. Cane, alone in the church following his wedding to Lily, recalled a phone conversation he had (which we saw) onscreen shortly after he came to town two years ago and was identified as the "real" Phillip Chancellor III. In said call, he was talking to his Uncle Langley and said something to the effect of "Mate, I'm totally in, they're begging me to stay." When we cut to the other end of the call -- the aforementioned Langley, whom we never saw two years ago -- who did we see but actor Thom Bierdz, who played Phillip Chancellor III in the late '80s! What the hell is going on?

For those of you confused at this, or the significance of this, here's the backstory: Thom played the teenaged Phillip from 1986 to '89. Phillip was Jill's son with Phillip Chancellor, who was Katherine's husband. Jill's affair with Phillip senior was what started he whole Katherine/Jill feud. Oddly enough, though, Katherine was super close to Phillip when he became a teenager. Anyway, in 1989 -- after getting drunk -- Phillip III got into a car crash and died. He left behind lady love Nina and an infant son, Phillip Chancellor IV.

Anyway, back in 2006, recovering alcoholic Katherine all of a sudden remembers that back in the day, when she was drunk, she had little baby Phillip Chancellor III switched with some random kid. This was mostly because she was pissed off Jill schtupped her hubs. So we were led to believe that the Phillip III that died in 1989 (played by Thom) was just a random baby that had been raised by Jill but bore no biological relation. Then Cane came on the scene and all evidence seemed to indicate HE was Jill's biological son.