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| On Young and the Restless, Hilary (Mishael Morgan) and Devon (Bryton James) deserved more than what was written. |
"I can't imagine two people more perfect together." Hilary says to Devon of Cane and Lily Ashby. In reality, it is Hilary and Devon that embody perfection.
On August of 2013, Hilary formally introduces herself to Devon as Cane's assistant at Crimson Lights Coffeeshop. She gives a contagious smile whilst denying the GC Buzz gossip. In their next shared scene, she asks about his music business. He seems bewildered that she has taken an interest in the family, him in particular. Syrupy sweet Hilary is a scorned Ann Turner, seeking revenge for the death of her mother on the Winters clan with her partner in crime, Mason. In the past, Neil had left Rose Turner to her death and it affected Ann considerably. As villainous Hilary, she planted Neil's diary entries and scandalous staged photos of herself and Cane. She went as far as slipping alcohol into recovering alcoholic Neil's drink.
Once Hilary's schemes are exposed, Devon is disgusted. Neil thinks she is just a girl mourning her mother. Devon believes she is too grown to behave so evilly. He later visits her hotel room and offers her a million dollars to leave town. He shares his upbringing story-- drug addled mother lost to getting high and good hearted, adoptive mother Drusilla who died tragically. Hilary is touched. Mason ends things with, "you're on your own!" Unfazed Hilary touts, "Please. I always was."
Down the line, a reformed Hilary is mending fences, taking on a redemptive leap. Devon, however, cannot stand the sight of her. Every time she enters room, he insults her and takes flight. Hilary understands that forgiveness takes a while. Yet, her damage was mostly inflicted onto Lily, Cane, and Neil-- not necessarily Devon himself. Plus, he starts hanging out with Mason. She calls him out for being quick to befriend Mason over her. He makes a sexist comment and she walks off. Later, she has been waiting for him at the club and suggests that he watch his back where Mason is concerned. She is truly concerned-- no ulterior motive at play.
Lily viciously insults Hilary and Devon defends Hilary against Lily's ire. Hilary takes the high road, hoping for forgiveness and leaves. Lily isn't pleased by Devon taking Hilary's side, but Devon affirms that he doesn't like Hilary. However, he winds up having drinks with Hilary (who noticeably blushes before looking at him) at the Underground while Mason is bartending. Hilary and Devon's interaction is light and cordial-- also too short. Mason, whose busily splurging with Devon's stolen credit card on the sidelines, isn't thrilled that Hilary is warning Devon about him. Hilary cares about Devon's welfare and not Mason's ego. Devon escorts Hilary to the exit and admits to enjoying her company. She giggles and walks out. Devon stares after her. This is definitely the start of something refreshing for both characters. Hilary is slowly gaining Devon's trust without pushing. Devon is seeing Hilary in another light.
So begins a beautiful restart.
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| Hilary and Devon become friends. Devon is the first to want more. |
On Hilary's aptly named "Buy A Billionaire a Beverage Night," she offers to treat Devon in the middle of some cute flirtation. Unfortunately, work calls. Hilary promises a raincheck. It is then a coincidence that Devon is arrested for trashing a club in Las Vegas. After Devon is released from jail, he encounters Hilary at the club, believing that she must love it. She, however, knows Devon would never act in such a manner and tells him so. An obnoxious camera flashing perp interrupts Hilary and Devon's moment. Devon is about to give him a piece of his mind, but Hilary valiantly puts her hands on Devon's chest to prevent further reputational injury and throws the paparazzi out herself. On Christmas Eve, Hilary buys Devon that drink. He tells her about the great Katherine Chancellor-- whom would have likely battled wits against Hilary. Hilary reveals knowing who has stolen his identity.
A shared New Year's Eve toast caps off Hilary and Devon's growing bond. In the new year, they are standing on friendship ground. Hilary suggests the theme for Delia's fundraiser, Devon walks in on Hilary changing for Chelsea's fashion show, Devon zips up Hilary's blue dress at that fashion show, and he looks at her walking down the catwalk (super awkward because Neil is too).
Things reach a boiling point. Hilary's misplaced gratitude enters a rocky road with Neil. Devon is pissed that she chooses his father and humiliates her in front of the rest of the family. Lily and Cane are shocked. Lily believes that Hilary will hurt her father (and she will be right). Yet, Hilary is not as conniving and vindictive as Lily believes. Hilary cares deeply about Devon. She takes him to the hospital after he drops a weight on his foot.
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| One of the best scenes ever. |
Devon reveals his feelings to Hilary and she admits the same, but still plans to marry Neil. Devon and Hilary share longing looks at the hot dog wedding. The next few days are the ultimate angst: Devon blurts out he loves Hilary in the elevator, Lily shoves Hilary in a pool, and Devon helps her dry off. The deep yearning simmers as Devon sees Hilary in a towel and proclaims the challenges of wanting forbidden fruit. When Hilary comes back to retrieve her clothes, Lily plays the petty game. That left Hilary and Devon to look themselves. Devon actually finds a style similar to her soaked jacket, but Hilary wants to know why Devon is anxious to leave town. She trips and he catches her. They kiss and walk to the tabletop-- Devon's shirt is gone and Hilary's top is almost ripped to shreds. Soon, Devon sits with Neil ad Hilary at dinner and impressively taps a dollar without dropping quarters. Neil is called out of town for business, leaving Hilary and Devon alone. Devon takes her home, but his car suddenly stops. They bond again with Hilary explaining a fear of cows and Greek mythology about Atlas and his seven daughters. Devon listens attentively. They then dance under the stars.
By August, Hilary professes her love to Devon in a bar outside of town. Neil's bad timing continues. At a recent purchased house (a gift for Hilary), Neil has electrocuted himself. He winds up blind and guilt stricken Hilary recommits to her marriage.
Hilary and Devon's need for each other is too impossible to deny. They make love. The affair travels over Genoa City and spreads to New York City and Chicago. Each time, Hilary is drawn back into the web of rarely expressed love. Their time spent is not about appeasing lustful appetite. Sure, Hilary and Devon are severely attracted to one another. Yes, the love scenes are glorious firestarters. Most importantly, their shared dreams and hopes for the future supplied by beautiful gestures make for sweet visuals despite the wrongness of their actions. Whether it is Devon and Hilary making up romantic fiction based in Miami or Hilary gently stroking Devon's face after telling him she wasn't pregnant or Devon putting a giant pink orchid behind Hilary's ear in the "office island getaway," these are special moments that matter. Hilary admits that when she sees a child in the future, she pictures Devon as the father.
Neil's blindness is miraculously cured after seeing Devon and Hilary together. This would begin Neil's three year revenge. First, Devon and Hilary plan for a wonderful Valentine's Day. Lily, Cane, Neil, Jill, and Colin along with Hilary and Devon agree to take a private plane ride together. Neil announces on board that he can see and outs Hilary's affair with Devon. The plane crashes in a horrendous snow blizzard and Hilary is badly hurt. At the hospital, Hilary pretends to have played them both in a vain effort to repair a father/son relationship.
For months, they're hostile to each other. Neil kills an unborn child and is almost sent to prison. Hilary saves him from the fate, but he shows no gratitude. Devon is indebted. They start to spend time together again including playing tennis. Hilary hopes they can be friends, but Devon seduces her. Hilary and Devon are back together. And they're the only ones happy about it. He proposes and she accepts. As they plan their wedding, obsessive Neil lurks in every corner, still plotting to destroy them after all that Hilary sacrificed for him. Neil has Devon drugged on his wedding night and terrifies the hell out of Hilary with dark, sadistic conversation. She looks fearful of him.
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| Their official wedding photo. |
Hilary and Devon are married in a breathtaking ceremony. They take off for a honeymoon in the mountains via private helicopter and spend a lovely day celebrating their next chapter as newlyweds. Unfortunately, Neil follows them, corners Hilary on the mountain, and causes her fall. Devon, who doesn't know her whereabouts, is left bereft and terrified. The police thinks he is responsible. For months, he searches for his beloved, offering a huge reward.
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| Married at last. |
Meanwhile, a sick, demented old man-- Devon's own father-- has held been holding comatose Hilary hostage in the house he bought for her. It is the sound of Devon's panic stricken voice on television that causes her body to move at last. After she is put of coma, she has a strange, twisted case of amnesia, forgetting Devon and the gratitude for kidnapper Neil is rehashed love. It takes a long, torturous while for Hilary to remember Devon. He is thrilled and they reunite. She wants to be part of the foundation, but clashes with Lily. Everyone finds out that Neil kidnapped Hilary and Devon still goes into business with him. Lily, longest standing grudge holder, blames Hilary for her own accident and doesn't blast Neil at all because she believes Hilary gets what she deserves.
Later in the year, Devon buys GC Buzz and Hilary hosts. He fires her because her ethics clash with his positive direction for the show. An angry Hilary gets an agent named Barry and convinces him to lie to Devon about job offers. Barry does say that Hilary has potential. She prefers to have her husband grovel instead. Meanwhile, Devon purchases a penthouse without Hilary's consent. Though she is reluctant--he continues making swift life decisions without her-- she loves the place. After a year and several months of marriage, Hilary and Devon finally have a home to call their own and it is not a hotel room. Then Devon agrees to let Hilary host GC Buzz and executive produce. Devon finds out from Lily that Hilary lied about other job offers. Hilary apologies and tells Devon that she wants something that is truly hers. Lily is furious that they're happy at the benefit. Hilary's part in Mariah's red carpet trip is exposed and Devon is livid. They have a massive fight. Devon's speeding causes an awful wreckage and horrified Hilary keeps a bedside vigil. He temporarily has amnesia. Hilary uses it as an opportunity to start fresh. Devon remembers and draws up divorce papers. Hilary refuses to sign and doesn't care about the money. She tries to change his mind, but he is listening to the crows of his family. She soon gives up and signs. She is devastated that Devon has moved on with Mariah.
They have their moments including Devon comforting Hilary after she becomes a victim of revenge porn. Their camaraderie picks up again.
Hilary wants to have a baby and asks Devon to be the father. He accepts. Lily and Cane lock Hilary up in the office, causing her to miss her scheduled appointment. Devon rescues Hilary and comforts her. They wind up spending the whole night and better part of the following morning making a baby the old fashioned way. Devon implies that it is just about a baby and nothing more. Hilary believes she is pregnant only to discover that she isn't. She is shattered. In a very mature act, she tells Devon that she isn't pregnant and asks for his help. He nods. Weeks later, Hilary gets her miracle and creatively announces her news to Devon-- their baby pictures + her.
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| Devon and Hilary are making sure that the baby is alright. |
Vicious, hypocritical Lily, who still hates Hilary and doesn't feel that she deserves the gift of motherhood, runs a red light. A car plows right into the passenger side of the vehicle-- right where Hilary is sitting. At the hospital, Hilary is rushed to surgery. Sadly, she loses the baby. She and Devon are overcome with grief that their time as parents abruptly ended. To add further tragedy, Devon discovers that Hilary will not make it either. He proposes marriage. Hilary is astonished that he wants to marry her so soon, in the hospital no less. She knows something is wrong, especially considering that people are visiting her and giving sob stories as if her hospital room turned into a confessional.
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| Hilary and Devon are married again. |
Phyllis tells Hilary that the doctors cannot do anything more for her. Hilary is beyond hurt.
"It's not fair. I want to marry him. I want to have his kids. I want to grow old with him."
Hilary receives one fulfilled wish-- marrying her soulmate, Devon. The ceremony is intimate, surrounded by family and friends; those who loved Hilary and those who had a strange way of showing love to Devon. She struggles through her vows. Alone at last, Devon has medical clearance to share celebratory champagne with his true love. They discuss everything-- dreams of a future that would be denied from them. Hilary chokes, hoping to have a celebration funeral with everyone wearing hats and for Devon to move on. Devon lays on the hospital bed, holding Hilary close as they reflect on their past, including seven layer bars and constellations. As Devon tearfully recites Hilary's mythology about Pleiades, she dies peacefully in his arms, her last words being, "maybe, maybe I did do something right, huh?"
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| Emmy nominee Mishael Morgan's chemistry with Emmy winner Bryton James will be infinitely missed. |
Bryton James and Mishael Morgan's charismatic portrayal as Devon and Hilary Curtis Hamilton will go down in supercouple history as two dynamic individuals who had a noticeable spark since their first meeting. They had truly brought to silver screen a wonderful, believable couple whose roaring passions ignited in love and war. Their tumultuous spats and steamy togetherness lit up afternoons. James and Morgan played fire and ice, the tension of forbidden, and the explosion of love to commendable heights. From the beginning to the last reprise, Hilary and Devon's once-in-a-lifetime romance is one of the best and it is all due to the brilliant performers behind these two incredibly layered characters.
