After months of mystery on The Young and the Restless as it pertains to Claire (Hayley Erin), viewers finally get confirmation that her sweet demeanor is all an act during the week of November 13.
In the episode actually airing on November 13, Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) agrees to give Claire a ride on the Newman private plane to Oregon. The Newman Media assistant claims her Aunt Jordan had an accident and needs some temporary assistance. Since Nikki is headed out West anyway to visit her sister Casey (Roberta Leighton) in California, Nikki offers to drop Claire off along the way. When pressed, Nikki even says she’ll meet Claire’s aunt, who is allegedly a big fan of Mrs. Newman.
Unfortunately for the Newman Media CEO, this trip is going to prove to be one of the worst experiences of her life. As seen in the following clip, Claire injects her boss with a needle and subsequently holds her hostage in a way that is reminiscent of the film Misery starring Kathy Bates.
Nikki is in BIG trouble! 😱 #YR is new this week on @CBS. Watch the latest episodes on @paramountplus. pic.twitter.com/byUQOIWRDCNovember 12, 2023
While The Young and the Restless fans still have questions about who Claire’s aunt is and what her issues are with Nikki, it’s abundantly clear that Nikki is in trouble. So how will the Newman matriarch get out of this latest crisis? Who will be her soap hero?
Victor
Victor (Eric Braeden) is the obvious choice. He’s played her knight and shining armor plenty of times over their decades-long relationship. Even when they weren’t together and with other people, he’s been there to help her in her time of need. Considering Victor is the one who knows that Nikki planned to visit Casey, if Victor gets word that the Newman plane never made it to California or he reaches out to Casey and she claims not to know where Nikki is, The Mustache may go on the hunt to find his wife.
As Victor recently displayed in his faked mental decline plot with his kids, his mind is as sharp as ever. It may not take him too long to put the pieces together that Nikki is in trouble and Claire is not who she claims to be. Once Victor gets a picture of what’s going on, he could leap into action.
Victoria
When Victoria (Amelia Heinle) and Nikki last speak before her trip, their conversation doesn’t end well. Victoria is still rather upset with Victor for lying about his health and with Nikki for keeping that information from her. Considering Victoria has called her mother her best friend time and time again, we can understand why the Newman heiress feels betrayed.
However, because of their mother-daughter bond, Victoria may get a sense that something is not right in her mother’s absence. Let’s imagine that Claire and her aunt force Nikki to keep in loose communication with her family via text messages or brief phone calls. Perhaps Victoria picks up on just the slightest variation in the discussions to know that her mother is in trouble.
Should that occur, we think Victoria would rally her father and Nick (Joshua Morrow) to help rescue Nikki.
Audra and Nate
This may serve as a wild guess for some fans, but allow us to explain. It’s true that neither Audra (Zuleyka Silver) nor Nate (Sean Dominic) are favorites of Nikki, and it’s probably the case vice versa. However, we can picture a world where the pair provides the assistance Nikki is going to need.
For Audra, she is the only one in Genoa City who has been skeptical of Claire from the very beginning. Although Audra is knee-deep in Tucker’s (Trevor St. John) plot to take over Jabot, she still technically works as the COO of Newman Media and may find it odd that Nikki and Claire have gone off the grid to a degree. She may do a little digging and start to figure out that things aren’t adding up.
Additionally, considering she was doing some research on Claire before this latest ordeal, she may pick it back up and discover Claire’s identity and run with that information to her buddy Nate. Audra could tell Victor, but she may want to play it safe until she knows something for sure about a missing Nikki.
On Nate’s part, he could hear out Audra’s concerns. While he may initially dismiss Audra’s worrying as unnecessary, he could soon find proof that her concerns are valid. With that, Nate may run to Victoria or Victor and share what he knows in hopes that the family will rescue Nikki in time.
Although we’d like to think Nate would help out in this scenario with the purest intentions, we also have to consider Nate playing hero is an angle he could work to change the Newmans’ opinions of him, even his own family. Obviously, we have to also think that Nate being the hero gets him a job offer to work back at Newman while also helping Audra keep her position at Newman Media should this Jabot takeover be a bust.
Nikki
Nikki may prove to be her own hero. After all, the show’s writers allowed Sharon (Sharon Case) to effectively save herself from Cameron Kirsten (Linden Ashby) with an assist from Nick and Chance (Conner Floyd). Depending on how everything pans out and what Aunt Jordan and Claire want, Nikki could be her own Genoa City Wonder Woman.
We’ll have to stay tuned to see how all this plays out. However, one thing is for sure, the Newmans have been through quite the ups and downs in 2023, and look to close out the year on a dramatic note.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus.
