After years of being sober, The Young and the Restless’ Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) now finds herself in a sad, yet familiar, situation drowning in her addiction.
From the moment Claire (Hayley Erin) strapped Nikki to that bed in Oregon and force-fed her vodka, the Newman matriarch’s thirst for alcohol has been unquenchable.
Even without Claire pumping the substance through her veins and Nikki being back in Genoa City away from captivity, Nikki has been unable to get back on the path toward sobriety. In the times she’s able to find solitude away from her family, she’s taken the opportunity to drink from either her flask or directly from the liquor bottles.
Up until now, Victor (Eric Braeden), Victoria (Amelia Heinle) and Nick (Joshua Morrow) have stayed in the dark about Nikki’s relapse. Any odd behavior they’ve witnessed, they’ve dismissed it as Nikki dealing with the trauma of what happened in Oregon. However, in an episode airing during the week of December 18, it appears Nate (Sean Dominic) catches Nikki in a compromising position leading him to believe she’s drinking it again. He then reports his suspicions to Victor.
With all of that said, it seems like only a matter of time before drastic steps become necessary to help Nikki get back on track. Although she’s attempted going to an AA meeting, we imagine that she will soon need to go to rehab, which ironically may lead to a deadly situation.
So as viewers know, Jordan (Colleen Zenk) is still very much a threat to the Newman family, especially Nikki. Eve Howard’s (Margaret Mason) sister has successfully managed to stay away from the eyes of police and Victor’s security team, while also tormenting Nikki with mysterious phone calls.
In the episode airing on December 19, Jordan puts on a blonde wig, glasses and a white coat, and pretends to be a doctor on her way to see Claire who is in a mental health facility. Her disguise has us wondering if was really developed to see Claire or to enact another part of her plan of attack against Nikki.
It appears unlikely that Jordan had enough foresight to predict that Claire would wind up in a mental facility, let alone one in Genoa City. So while Jordan’s costume is beneficial in aiding her to see her great-niece, it may not have been intended for that.
Instead, what if Jordan bought the doctor’s get-up anticipating that Nikki would soon go to rehab and that she could pretend to be a member of the medical staff at the facility? It makes sense given Jordan is well aware of Nikki’s decades-long battle with alcoholism and made sure she destroyed her sobriety.
If Jordan is able to find a way into rehab with her doctor disguise, she could take her mission to torture Nikki to a new level, possibly even trying to kill her. Poor Mrs. Newman would be almost defenseless at rehab without Victor and her children there to aid her.
Should our theory ring true and Nikki goes to rehab and Jordan weasels her way into the facility as an employee, The Young and the Restless fans may get quite the soapy showdown, Nikki versus the deranged villain Jordan. We aren’t certain whether this could lead to the ultimate arrest of Jordan or her death, but we do know it could make for some great TV moments.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.