The Young and the Restless spoilers: Clarie gets an influential new enemy thanks to Summer?

Many fans of The Young and the Restless, us included, have found themselves rooting for the refreshing new relationship between Claire (Hayley Erin) and Kyle (Michael Mealor).

So far, the couple just seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly. She’s helped bring Kyle back down to earth and has been a big influence on him in repairing his relationship with his parents. In return, Kyle has been the friend and confidant outside her family that she’s needed as she settles in Genoa City. As far as TV relationships go, they’re practically the perfect couple.

Unfortunately, their perfect relationship faces some major challenges ahead. For starters, Victor (Eric Braeden) isn’t the biggest fan of his granddaughter dating Kyle, and history shows when Victor doesn’t really approve of a romance involving one of his family members, he tends to meddle. Victor has interfered in almost every relationship Victoria (Amelia Heinle) has ever had.

The couple known as #Kylaire also faces a Jordan (Colleen Zenk) problem. The deranged woman is on the loose and she appeared less than thrilled to see her great-niece canoodling with the Abbott heir. We have every reason to suspect Jordan may try to end Claire and Kyle’s relationship, if for nothing else to steal something that brings Claire joy in this new era of her life.

Last but certainly not least, Claire and Kyle have to contend with Summer (Allison Lanier). The latter may be trying to save her own relationship with Chance (Conner Floyd) at the moment, but we can’t pretend that we haven’t noticed Summer becoming increasingly jealous of Claire, more so than usual. Summer already felt threatened by Claire given Claire’s close relationship with Harrison (Redding Munsell), but Summer has also shown a few signs that she can’t stand Claire getting close with her ex-husband.

Again looking to history, Summer has a bad habit of butting in Kyle’s romances that don’t involve her. Summer usually claims she’s over Kyle, but when she sees he’s in love with another woman, she does whatever she can to win him back. We still remember how she tried using an organ to manipulate Kyle into calling it quits with Lola (Sasha Calle).

Zeroing in on Summer, we think she’s again about to do what she can to tank Kyle’s new romance, and this time we imagine she’ll team up with the most influential person in Kyle’s life to do so — Harrison.

In The Young and the Restless episode airing on January 10, Kyle is talking to Jack (Peter Bergman) and Diane (Susan Walters) at home. Diane presses Kyle about the importance of telling Harrison about his relationship with Clarie if the two of them are serious, and if Claire is going to be spending nights at the Abbott Mansion. Kyle later tells Claire about his plans to tell Harrison, and the two of them seem to be under the impression that Harrison will welcome the news. But are Kyle and Claire going to be in for a rude awakening?

It’s not hard to envision Kyle and Claire telling the news to Harrison, and him initially being okay with the idea of them dating. However, once Summer is looped in on the conversation, she may start to plant seeds with the little boy that slowly makes him turn on the idea and on his good friend Claire.

Could Summer try to convince the boy that if Claire and Kyle are together, Claire will try to make sure Summer sees Harrison less? Or might Summer try to convince her son that Claire is actually someone to be feared like the “monster” Jordan?

Regardless of what Summer could say to manipulate her son, it’s a bit of a low blow. However, considering we are talking about the daughter of Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) here, we have to think Summer may resort to desperate tactics to destroy the love between her cousin and ex. And to be clear, if Harrison is strongly against the relationship, it may very well be doomed.

We’ll just have to wait and see what Summer’s next move is pertaining to Claire and Kyle, but we tend to believe there is in fact a move. Will Summer be able to win Kyle back this time, or is Claire more of a formidable opponent than Summer thinks?

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.