As The Young and the Restless fans everywhere wait to see who the man behind Aristotle Dumas is, after months of all of Genoa City talking about him, I find myself wondering about another character altogether.
Sure, it would be nice to see if my theory that Aristotle is Cane Ashby (now portrayed by Billy Flynn) is true, but there is another show return I may be more interested in watching — Claire (Hayley Erin). Before you scratch your head in confusion for too long, allow me to explain.
For starters, Claire hasn’t left the show to be missed. She lives with Victoria (Amelia Heinle) and Cole (J. Eddie Peck) in the tackhouse, she works with Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) at Chancellor and she’s currently experiencing her first love with Kyle (Michael Mealor). However, with that being said, this version of Claire is a completely different person from the manipulative and callous woman we met almost two years ago. Claire is no longer the individual that Jordan (Colleen Zenk) raised her to be.
Speaking of Jordan, when the deranged criminal was cornered at the tackhouse and opted to ingest poison rather than return to prison, she said something interesting to Claire. Jordan made it clear that while Victoria is her mother, Jordan raised her and will forever be a part of her. At the time, Claire dismissed the final words as something Jordan was using to get into her head. However, I found the sentiment a bit of foreshadowing.
With that being said, I’ve been waiting for glimpses of the old Claire to emerge, if only in spurts. I thought her continued beef with Summer (Allison Lanier) would have brought it out, but Claire remained calm and trusted her relationship with Kyle. But will Claire manage the same resolve when it comes to Audra (Zuleyka Silver)?
Audra is currently working with Victor (Eric Braeden) to break up Kyle and Claire. Although the latter duo suspect Audra is attempting to do Victor’s bidding in splitting them up, they don’t seem to think that Audra may be willing to seduce Kyle to make that happen (or at the very least, make it appear that way so Claire gets the wrong idea). Unfortunately for #Kylaire fans, I suspect Audra will prove successful.
If I’m right, it would be a great time to turn on that Jordan switch inside of Claire. To see Claire fight her worst impulses, only to lose to them, and activate a plan of revenge. Whether she goes after Audra, looks for payback against Kyle or even makes a play to take her overly helpful grandfather down a peg, I’d be interested to see what kind of chaos she could cook up. It’s worth mentioning that if Cole winds up dying from his current illness, the grief may only further push Claire over the edge.
On a final note, if Claire re-enters her dark era, we have to wonder who or what would bring her out of it. Would Victoria or Nikki be up to the task? Would Victor have to step in to stop what he set into motion? Or could a new romance with Holden (Nathan Owens) bring back her good side?
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
