The Young and the Restless spoilers: Claire’s big plan for Jordan backfires?

From the moment The Young and the Restless’ revealed the villainous partnership between Jordan (Colleen Zenk) and Ian (Ray Wise), we’ve been eagerly anticipating when Jordan would come face-to-face with Claire (Hayley). Well, the wait is over.

In The Young and the Restless episode that aired on January 14, Claire followed Jordan in a blonde wig to the park suspecting it may be her deranged great aunt, and when Jordan stopped to turn around, she greeted her great-niece with a chilling, “Hello Kitten.” Claire was understandably left stunned.

As the show picks up on January 15, something strange happens. After Claire expresses her disbelief that Jordan is standing in front of her, especially considering Claire verified with the prison that Jordan was still locked away, Claire shockingly doesn’t panic but remains incredibly calm. She then flips the script and starts talking about how lonely and lost she’s felt being with her new Newman family. Claire goes on to talk about how the Newmans use money, power and manipulation to get what they want.

This is all of course music to Jordan’s ears, and she’s quick to tell Claire the age-old “I told you so.” Jordan is further elated to hear Claire say she has no intention of calling Victor (Eric Braeden) to report Jordan is out of prison, as Claire doesn’t want Victor to hunt Jordan down, not knowing what The Mustache might do.

Then Claire makes a "heartfelt confession" that Jordan is the only person she should have ever trusted. Jordan gets a little emotional, and Claire capitalizes on the moment and tells Jordan that she should trust her too, noting she followed Jordan to the park alone. Additionally, Claire pitches the two of them make amends. Although Jordan questions Claire about her relationship with Kyle (Michael Mealor) first, Jordan eventually comes to embrace her niece.

We think there is a strong possibility that Claire is playing Jordan in an attempt to buy time to figure out what to do next. For months now, Claire has truly embraced her new life as a Newman, and we doubt she’s been faking her love for her new family and Kyle.

Plus, Claire knows Jordan is apparently a world-class escape artist/magician having snuck out of police custody and prison multiple times. So it’s likely Claire is pretending to be unhappy and avoided calling the authorities right away assuming it’s not the right solution in dealing with her aunt. Also, there’s a chance that Claire may suspect Jordan is responsible for Sharon’s (Sharon Case) disappearance, so Claire may try to get close to Jordan to find out for sure.

So if Claire is faking her dynamic with Jordan, we have to wonder what she’ll do next. It’s been said that during the week of January 13, Claire will update Victoria (Amelia Heinle) and Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) on her Jordan meeting. Once the younger Newman does, we think Claire will urge them not to loop in Victor, fearful his approach will send Jordan into hiding again.

After getting her mother and grandmother to agree to a secret pact, we can imagine Claire wanting to lay a trap for Jordan that deals with her once and for all. Now we aren’t sure if that means killing her, sending her to an “inescapable” facility or making a makeshift prison like Victor once did for Jordan, but we believe Claire may want to do something.

Unfortunately, plans aren't usually executed without a hitch or some major consequences in the soap world. In this case, it’s not hard to imagine Claire pushing Kyle away in an effort to keep him and Harrison (Redding Munsell) safe from Jordan. If she doesn’t tell the Abbott heir the full story, he may grow frustrated with his new girlfriend, and that frustration could lead to him sleeping with Summer (Allison Lanier), who we already know is jealous of the #Kylaire relationship.

We also can’t rule out that Jordan becomes suspicious of Claire and retaliates by going after something, or someone important to Claire. Could Jordan attempt to kidnap Kyle? Could the show villain try kidnapping Johnny (Paxton Mishkind) and Katie (Sienna Mercuri? Or will a desperate Jordan try killing Victoria, only to kill Cole (J. Eddie Peck) instead (we’ve suspected he may be on borrowed time)?

Like you, we’ll just have to stay tuned to see what happens next in this latest saga. But something tells us that someone in the Newman or Abbott orbit won’t make it out of this unscathed.

New episodes of The Young and the Restless air on weekdays on CBS. If you miss an episode, you can catch up on Paramount Plus.