Flowers may not be the only thing in bloom this spring, as The Young and the Restless canvas could soon see another couple in Genoa City. Of course, we mean Kyle (Michael Mealor) and Claire (Hayley Erin).
When the two officially met during the week of March 18, in a chance encounter at Crimson Lights, it seemed as if Kyle grew an instant fondness for the recent Newman addition. While he was mostly drawn in by her ability to win over Harrison (Kellen Enriquez), he also seemed to enjoy her friendly demeanor.
From Claire’s perspective, she just appeared happy to meet people (Summer [Allison Lanier] was also present) who didn’t know of her sordid past kidnapping Victor (Eric Braeden), Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott), Victoria (Amelia Heinle) and Nick (Joshua Morrow). After everything that’s happened involving the chaos with Jordan (Colleen Zenk), we imagine it would feel pretty good to have people look at you with kind eyes not biased by knowledge of your heinous past deeds.
Following their encounter, Kyle was at the very least prepared to see Claire on a frequent basis as he shared with Summer his desire to ask Claire to become Harrison’s babysitter. Although she never stated she wanted the job, Claire has mentioned a few times now that she loves working with kids, so Kyle just assumed it would be a natural fit for her.
Unfortunately, Summer opted to do a deep dive into her cousin’s past, and after talking to her father and grandfather, she was adamant that Claire not be hired. So for some, not us, it seemed like the possibility of Claire working for the Abbotts was null and void.
Then in The Young and the Restless episode airing on March 28, Kyle and Claire have another chance encounter, this time at Society. They exchange pleasantries, with Kyle trying to learn more about Claire, until it becomes obvious that Kyle is caught up to speed on Claire’s murky history. Claire calls him out on acting differently, and Kyle cops to hearing her story. However, he then does something that serves as a major clue that a love connection is on the horizon — he smiles and offers to hear her side of things.
Although the episode cuts off shortly thereafter, that’s all we needed to see to deduce that the writers have something romantic up their sleeve regarding these two. Considering Kyle ended a tumultuous marriage and immediately followed that up with a sordid fling with Audra (Zuleyka Silver) within a year, he could use a new romance that’s not tainted by lies or manipulation.
Sadly, Kyle and Claire practically have a full deck stacked against them. For starters, Kyle and Summer are exes, and Summer is Claire’s cousin. Summer is not likely to be happy about her family member getting involved with her ex-husband (although if you ask us, the Newmans often tend to have overlap in romantic partners). Plus, given Summer is Phyllis’ (Michelle Stafford) child, we can only imagine the lengths she’ll go to in order to break up their potential relationship.
Then there is the little problem of Jordan. Claire is Jordan’s great-niece, and the villain again escapes custody in the episode airing on March 28. Since Claire has sided with the Newmans over her, it’s fair to assume that Jordan will soon go after Claire. We tend to think that means Jordan is going to kidnap Harrison, which would set off a chain reaction of events. Could a Kyle/Claire pairing survive a deranged woman who keeps getting out of police custody?
We’ll be staying tuned to the future interactions between Claire and Kyle, but we admittedly don’t know who the bigger threat is to their romance. Do you think it will be Summer or Jordan?
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
