It's easy to forget that just a few short months ago, The Young and the Restless' Claire Grace lured Nikki, Victor, and their children to the Oregon lake house she grew up in so that she and her deranged aunt could poison them all. (Except Nikki. They just literally injected vodka straight into her veins -- a different poison.) After all, Claire is so sweet and well-adjusted now. Or...is she?
While it would have left more to speculation and the imagination had Y&R not shown that "that Jordan woman" chloroformed Claire before Claire and Harrison disappeared, knowing Jordan is the one who took them doesn't mean Claire is in the clear. She could still have issues from her traumatic childhood that are not buried beneath the surface.
Claire's fascination with children became apparent when she befriended a young patient at Genoa City Memorial Hospital during her stint in their psychiatric ward much of this past winter. It seemed like an interesting choice to make for a character who graduated from a top business school and managed to snag a top job as Nikki Newman's assistant in the blink of an eye.
While that was all part of the twisted revenge plan cooked up by Aunt Jordan, there has to be some aspect of the original Claire that was real. Making her so perfect so soon takes the edge away from the character, but has it all been done to throw fans off?
Even if Claire didn't take Harrison and is once again Jordan's victim, does that mean she doesn't have her own dark side that's waiting to come out? During her stand-alone episode dream, we saw that she still has a bit of that angry and manipulative edge, as evidenced by the chat with Adam as her dream came to a close.
Perhaps Claire and Jordan are operating with two very different agendas. Jordan still wants revenge on the Newmans for perceived wrongs done to her sister years ago. Meanwhile, Claire could still have her own demons hidden away and will do anything it takes to be accepted into the Newman clan for good. Sometimes, "anything it takes" could mean devious methods indeed.
Is Claire really who she appears to be now? Or is there more twisted tale to come as we march toward May Sweeps? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
