On the episode of The Young and the Restless airing on December 18, the DNA test proves Claire (Hayley Erin) is the daughter of Victoria (Amelia Heinle) and Cole (J. Eddie Peck). That’s right, Claire is their once presumed-dead child Eve Nicole, meaning Jordan’s (Colleen Zenk) story about kidnapping Claire as an infant is true.
As Victoria, Cole, Victor (Eric Braeden), Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) and Michael (Christian LeBlanc) are at the Newman Ranch discussing Claire’s transfer to the Genoa City mental health facility, Cole receives the lab results of the test. While a sense of shock, yet relief, seems to settle over Victoria and Cole, Nikki and Victor look less enthused about having another grandchild.
We can’t see we blame the Newman matriarch and patriarch given Claire just recently tried to kill them and completely destroyed Nikki’s sobriety. It may be a while before the young “villain” is invited over to tea or a big Newman gathering.
Plus, Victor and Nikki aren’t as eager to know Claire with her deranged great aunt still on the loose and now in Genoa City ready to up the ante in her torment of Nikki. Jordan is adamant that the Newmans must pay for the demise of her sister Eve (Margaret Mason). Although Jordan’s plans in Oregon were derailed by Claire, the villain appears to have switched to her plan B, and so far it’s working.
Not only is Jordan successfully moving around town undetected, even checking into the Genoa City Athletic Club, but she’s managed to make continuous calls to Nikki pushing the Newman Media CEO further and further into addiction. Nikki has been drinking alcohol behind her family’s back, which is a secret bound to get out. It actually gets out the week of December 18 as Nate (Sean Dominic) catches her behaving strangely and reports his findings to Victor.
Back to Jordan. With her evading the police and Victor’s security team, it’s obvious he needs help to catch and stop her from doing any more harm to his family. This is where Clarie comes into play.
While Cole is also Jordan’s family, no one knows her better than Claire. Jordan raised Claire since birth, so the young woman likely understands how her great-aunt thinks and what Jordan’s next moves could be. Victor’s granddaughter could be the only person to help the Newmans get ahead of Jordan in this twisted game and end this crazy saga once and for all.
Additionally, a faked medical emergency with Claire could help lure Jordan out of hiding. Considering Victor has experience faking a medical emergency, he’d probably know how to work with Claire in pretending she had a health crisis that would attract Jordan’s attention. Jordan may hate that her great-niece ruined her plans in Oregon, but we tend to believe she still cares for Claire and would show up if Claire needed her.
Now if Victor comes to realize Claire’s importance like we think he will, the question remains if Claire will do it? Furthermore, will Victoria and Cole even want their daughter involved in a Jordan takedown plot knowing how mentally fragile she is?
We imagine initially that Claire will be a bit hesitant to help Victor. After all, despite being a manipulative liar, Jordan was the only family Claire had around her for decades. However, we think Claire will ultimately give in to help Victor set a trap for Jordan because Claire will want to redeem herself in her grandparents’ eyes and take any steps she can to bond with the Newmans.
Now as far as Victoria and Cole being on board with Claire being used to help go after Jordan, we can’t say we see them being thrilled, but they may ultimately find it necessary as Jordan is a very dangerous threat.
So if Claire does wind up being the key to trapping Jordan, we’ll see if this is what thaws Victor's feelings toward his newfound granddaughter.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
