When it comes to The Young and the Restless’ Newman family, they’ve not been able to catch a break during this holiday season. Over Thanksgiving, Victor (Eric Braeden), Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott), Nick (Joshua Morrow) and Victoria (Amelia Heinle) were fighting for their lives in Oregon after being held hostage by Claire (Hayley Erin) and Jordan (Colleen Zenk).
Even after Claire had a change of heart, leading to the family’s ultimate rescue, the Newmans didn’t have time to recover as Victoria and Cole (J. Eddie Peck) had to determine if Claire is their presumed-dead daughter (which the DNA test results proved she is), Nikki slumped further into her alcohol addiction and Victor has largely been left trying to figure out how to protect his loved ones. Not to mention, Jordan has been on the loose and still tormenting Nikki.
Then just in time for Christmas, in the episode airing on December 21, Victoria walks into the mental health facility to visit Claire, only to discover she’s missing. The only clue Victoria finds about where Claire may have gone is Jordan’s bracelet, which Victoria recognized from her time in captivity. The Newman heiress immediately tries to get to the bottom of what happened to her child, and she reaches out to the facility’s security team and Cole.
A member of the facility’s security team eventually shares that a woman wheeled out Claire from the building, and Victoria goes into a panic thinking about Claire’s fragile state and what Jordan may do to her.
It’s not until the end of the episode that it’s confirmed that Jordan has Claire. The new Young and the Restless villain calls Nikki, and after taunting the Newman matriarch about falling off the sobriety wagon, Jordan says she took Claire and is willing to return her, but there’s a catch. If Victoria wants to see Claire again, Victoria must be willing to hand over her mother in exchange for her daughter. The proposition leaves Nikki horrified.
Surprisingly, this is where things can get even more interesting. There is a strong possibility that Nikki doesn’t relay Jordan’s message to Victoria and instead offers to just give herself over to her rival. Nikki loves her daughter and may want to spare her from having to make such a choice. Plus, Nikki receives the call from Jordan while alone at the Newman Ranch, so there is no one around to stop her from making such a sacrifice.
If Nikki gives herself up and Jordan accepts the offer, we picture Jordan managing to keep both Claire and Nikki hostage, leaving the Newman family in disarray. But as a silver lining, granddaughter and grandmother being held against their will together may cause them to bond as they eventually find a way to escape Jordan’s clutches.
Allow us to add another layer to this scenario. Let’s say Jordan does wind up keeping Claire and Nikki hostage, but instead of the latter two ladies finding a way of freeing themselves, Victoria springs into action.
Just as Nikki loves her daughter, Victoria loves her mother, and Victoria is likely willing to risk it all to make sure she’s rescued from Jordan. Additionally, Victoria thus far has kept her anger with Jordan for kidnapping her child at birth relatively tame. Now that Jordan has taken her again, Victoria is likely about to tap into a motherly rage that will stop at nothing to destroy Jordan — even murder.
We can imagine a scenario in which Victoria, with the help of Victor’s security team, is able to track down where Jordan is holding her mother and daughter and releases a fury like never before.
Nikki and Nick have both been willing to kill to protect Victoria from J.T. (Thad Luckinbill) and Ashland (Robert Newman) respectively, is now the time Victoria steps up to kill for her family? We’d have to wonder if this murder winds up happening, would people believe she did it just to save Nikki and Claire, or would they accuse Victoria of getting payback?
It’s also worth noting that there is a possibility that Nikki doesn’t get taken by Jordan, and instead, Nikki shares with her family Jordan’s demands. Victoria could still ferociously leap into action to save her daughter, not wanting Jordan to hurt her anymore. Victoria could still track Jordan down and murder her.
One thing for sure is it will be interesting if Victoria does kill Jordan. That would likely complicate things for Claire to have her biological mother murder the woman who actually raised her.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
