It was once said, "You can't keep a good woman down," but on The Young and the Restless, the phrase is more applicable to villains.
Despite Jordan (Colleen Zenk) drinking a vial of poison in the episode airing on March 19, after a heated confrontation with Nikki (Melody Thoma Scott), Victoria (Amelia Heinle) and Claire (Hayley Erin), the deranged great-aunt is spotted handcuffed to a hospital bed at the end of the episode airing on March 25. That’s right, she’s alive.
As Nikki, Victoria and Claire recap what happened with Victor (Eric Braeden), Nikki explains that instead of just watching Jordan’s attempted suicide succeed, the Newman matriarch opted to call 9-1-1. Nikki claims she "couldn’t stoop to her [Jordan's] level," and supposes that she wouldn’t have been able to live with herself if she let Jordan die.
Of course, Victor (Eric Braeden) is furious with his wife's choice and perplexed as to why Victoria and Claire went along with the decision. The Mustache would rather see Jordan dead and out of their lives for good by her own hand, rather than have her still breathing with a chance to plot yet another takedown scheme against his family.
To Victor’s point, this woman has proven to be slippery and relentless. She managed to elude the police in Oregon after her plan to murder the Newmans failed, which allowed her to torture Nikki for weeks in Genoa City, almost ending with Nikki coming face-to-face with a bullet. Then when Jordan was finally arrested and hauled off to prison, she burned down the facility to again go after the Newmans. And when Victor finally catches the femme fatale, she again seems to have another move to make in this extended game of lethal chess.
Now what plan you say? Well, by her smug demeanor in the hospital bed, Jordan drank the poison but had no intention of dying. She correctly assumed Nikki or Claire would call the paramedics, and she believes being in the hospital gets her out of the basement where she was being held captive and more of a chance to regain her freedom. While she seemingly doesn’t know how she’ll escape the hospital yet, she’s confident she can make it happen.
With all that being said, what could be next for Jordan in her umpteenth act?
If we had to guess, she’ll take a page out of all-time great villain Sheila Carter’s (Kimberlin Brown) book, and sweet talk an orderly or nurse into helping her escape. Jordan may even get this mysterious person to spy on the Newmans and keep tabs on them, so Jordan has all the latest information necessary to strike again.
Unfortunately, when Jordan does strike again, we have a feeling she may change tactics and go after a younger generation to get to Victor.
It’s starting to look as if Claire will become Harrison’s (Kellen Enriquez) nanny. Although Summer (Allison Lanier) isn't keen on the idea at the moment after hearing what Nick (Joshua Morrow) and Victor shared, The Young and the Restless writers have dropped more than a few hints that Claire’s new position is a likely thing of the future.
We can imagine a situation in which Claire takes Harrison to the park, and Jordan kidnaps him to set off a panic for Claire, the Newmans and the Abbotts. Claire would likely become enemy number one in town, with people who blame Claire for Jordan’s actions or even assume Clare was in on the kidnapping. Claire being ostracized would lend to Jordan’s point to her great-niece that she will never be accepted. That could set Claire back mentally in her recovery.
Say Harrison isn’t kidnapped but rather Connor (Judah Mackey), who would be the perfect victim for Jordan. It’s Victor’s biological grandchild, and considering Adam (Mark Grossman) already doesn’t trust Claire, Adam is likely to explode on his niece if his child goes missing, again driving home Jordan's point that Claire is an outsider and not welcomed.
Although this kidnapping theory is just that, a theory at the moment, it’s one that would make for great TV if it rings true.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
