Although The Young and the Restless’ Claire (Hayley Erin) is now showing her true villainous colors, viewers are still wondering what her issues are with Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) and who Aunt Jordan is.
In the episode airing on November 14, Claire takes an unsuspecting Nikki to Aunt Jordan’s home. As the ladies make pleasant conversation, Claire offers Nikki some tea allegedly prepared by her aunt. Nikki sees the gesture as nothing but wholesome hospitality and gladly takes a cup of tea. Unfortunately for the Newman matriarch, the beverage was seemingly drugged and she soon finds herself out of sorts with Claire standing over her displaying a sinister grin.
But the question that remains is why?
Now we’ve previously proposed the theory that Claire’s mother could have been the long-lost relative of Nikki and Casey (Roberta Leighton). It’s entirely possible that Nikki and Casey’s dad, Nick Reed (Quinn Redeker), fathered another daughter whom Nikki didn’t know about. Unlike his oldest two daughters, Nick Reed perhaps didn’t sexually assault a theoretical third child as he did Nikki and Casey, and therefore, the unknown daughter viewed Nick Reed as a saint. Making Nikki a cold-hearted murderer walking the streets freely (Mind you, Nikki killed her dad in self-defense.)
However, should none of that prove true, we believe it’s because Aunt Jordan is really Meggie McClaine (Sean Young).
If you need a gentle reminder of who Meggie is, back in 2010, she was a bartender Victor (Eric Braeden) met in Canada while on the lookout for Adam who faked his death. She eventually helped save Victor’s life when he crossed paths with a thug named Shaw (Don Swayze). Although Meggie felt an attraction for Victor during that time, he only had eyes for Nikki, even though the on-again-off-again couple were not officially married then.
Once Adam was located and Victor and Nikki were back at the Newman ranch continuing to rekindle their romance, Meggie showed up seeking help as Shaw was after her. Victor offered to let her stay at their home, much to Nikki’s chagrin. It didn’t take long for Nikki to see Meggie had a crush on Victor and was taking advantage of his kindness, and Nikki confronted her about it.
The two women eventually found common ground when Meggie was being ambushed by Shaw and Nikki rescued her by hitting Shaw over the head. Nikki even made Meggie her personal assistant. However, Meggie was not to be trusted as she plotted to get Victor to marry her rather than be with Nikki.
Part of Meggie’s scheme was lacing Nikki’s tea with alcohol which was a disaster given the latter was a recovering alcoholic. The goal was to get Nikki to fall off the wagon again so Victor wouldn’t want to be with her. Once Meggie convinced The Mustache to wed her instead, she would eventually kill him to inherit his fortune.
Long story short, Victor discovered what Meggie was up to in large part due to Katherine Chancellor’s (Jeanne Cooper) husband Murphy (Michael Fairman), as Murphy recognized Meggie as the woman who murdered his son. When it was all said and done, Meggie was hauled off to prison.
So is she back all these years later to exact revenge on Nikki for helping to send her there? Possibly.
Meggie could be upset because if Nikki wasn’t the love of Victor’s life, Meggie may feel she could have officially been Mrs. Newman and had access to a fortune. It’s also worth mentioning the irony in the fact that Claire is Nikki’s assistant and poisoned her tea, just like Meggie was Nikki’s assistant and laced her tea. A coincidence?
Not to mention, Meggie could have helped raise Claire and told her all the reasons that Nikki was a bad person and should be dealt with. If Claire is blindly loyal to her aunt, it’s easy to see her doing Meggie’s bidding.
For those wondering about the little fact that Meggie is supposed to be in prison, allow us to point out that Cameron Kirsten (Linden Ashby) managed to be a free man and torture Sharon (Sharon Case) and Nick (Joshua Morrow) just this summer. So prison bars can’t keep a good villain down.
We’ll be watching to see if Meggie is indeed Aunt Jordan, and who will be the person to rescue Nikki.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus.
