We have to hand it to The Young and the Restless’ Claire (Hayley Erin) as she has done a remarkable job turning her life around. When she first came to Genoa City, she was being weaponized by her deranged Aunt Jordan (Colleen Zenk) to target the Newman family in a misguided revenge plot. However, after she gained a moment of clarity in that infamous Oregon home, saving her "new" family in the process, Claire has been on quite the redemption journey.
Claire is now a bonafide member of the Newman family, with Victora (Amelia Heinle) ready to defend her against the world, Victor (Eric Braeden) prepared to protect her at all costs and Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) forgiving her and embracing Claire as her granddaughter. Unfortunately, one Newman who loathes Claire is Summer (Allison Lanier). Every time the two are in the same vicinity, Summer can’t help but look at her in disgust and doesn’t mind throwing some snide remarks Claire’s way either.
Summer’s contempt toward her cousin may have originated from the fact that Claire had a hand in almost killing their family members, but Summer’s dislike of Claire now is clearly rooted in jealousy. The Marchetti CEO can’t stand Harrison (Redding Munsell) is so attached to Claire, and that bond seems to be strengthening with Claire acting as Harrison’s nanny. Kyle (Michael Mealor) correctly pointed out that Claire makes Summer feel insecure about her position as Harrison’s mother.
In The Young and the Restless episode that aired on July 25, things between Kyle and Summer took a nasty turn after she shared that she found a judge who agreed with her that Kyle can’t take Harrison to Paris. When he stormed out of the Abbott Mansion to consult his attorney, Claire attempted to talk to Summer.
Claire was incredibly kind and simply told Summer how excited Harrison was about going to Paris, and how Harrison is starting to pick up on the tension between Kyle and Summer. The "newest" Newman even showed Summer a picture that Harrison drew of his parents. Although Claire meant well, Summer responded with a sour attitude and warned Claire not to interfere in her relationship with Harrison. Summer’s response felt incredibly unwarranted.
Then in the episode airing on July 26, as Summer celebrates her small victory with Phyllis (Michelle Stafford), Kyle stews in his anger, only calming down long enough to break the Paris news to his son. Once Harrison hears the disappointing update that he won’t be going to France, he leaves Claire and Kyle to talk.
With Kyle still needing to go to France to handle Glissade business, he asks Claire if she won’t mind keeping an eye on Summer. He wants to make sure Summer doesn’t try anything underhanded as it pertains to their custody dispute while he’s gone, and he pleads with Clarie to be his eyes and ears in his absence. She’s understandably uncomfortable with spying on Summer, and he tells her to forget he asked.
Claire may soon reconsider her position after she and Kyle run into Summer and Phyllis at the park on a trip to get ice cream with Harrison. Summer and Phyllis are arrogantly smug about Harrison not going to Paris, despite Kyle having been gracious enough to tell Harrison he’s not going to Paris because his dad has to work and not because his mom threw a temper tantrum about it. Claire doesn't seem to like what she witnesses.
We think that could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for Claire when it comes to Summer. Given her close relationship with Kyle and she sees how much he cares for Harrison, we can imagine her spying on Summer after all when Kyle leaves town. However, will Claire resort to some tricks Jordan taught her and go even further? It’s not hard to picture Claire concocting a scheme that makes Summer look like a negligent parent ahead of her custody hearing.
Perhaps Claire orchestrates a situation in which Summer doesn't pick Harrison up on a day she said she would, or maybe Claire creates a chaotic scenario for Summer while she's keeping Harrison and then calls child protective services on her.
Although we’d hate to see Claire regress in her self-improvement journey, we also wouldn’t mind Summer being taken down a peg.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
