As The Young and the Restless’ Victor (Eric Braeden) not so subtly points out in the episode airing on April 29, Claire (Hayley Erin) may be running out of time, which means the hunt to find her needs to be kicked up a notch.
While Jordan’s (Colleen Zenk) reign of terror seemingly nears its end with Victor having captured her and now holding her in a makeshift prison, and Harrison (Redding Munsell) safely back with the Abbotts, Claire is still somewhere suffering, unable to get back to her newly acquired family.
Claire’s abduction and subsequent disappearance onscreen, has left many viewers like us wondering, "Where is Claire?" Since Jordan wasn’t holding her in the same seedy motel where Kyle (Michael Mealor) found Harrison, the Newmans didn’t have much of a clue about Claire’s whereabouts.
Then in The Young and the Restless episode from April 26, Victoria (Amelia Heinle) received a muffled phone call where the only word she was able to hear was "mom." Unfortunately for Victoria and Cole (J. Eddie Peck), as they recap the barely audible conversation with Victor, again in the episode airing on April 29, The Mustache delivers the bad news that his team isn’t able to pinpoint Claire’s location based on the brief call.
That leaves Victoria and Cole feeling completely helpless in rescuing their daughter. They get the idea to go to the motel room Jordan was staying in to see if there was a chance the police missed something in their search of the room. Their search eventually pays off as they find a creepy doll housing a pair of keys.
As Victoria stares at the keys, it finally hits her that they look familiar. Of course, the episode cuts off before viewers get to see why the keys are familiar to Victoria, and where she and Cole subsequently race off to next. But based on the brief scene involving Victoria’s key revelation, we started to think of a few possibilities the keys may unlock, and more importantly, where Claire is waiting to be rescued.
Our first guest is the Abbott Cabin. The cabin is on the outskirts of Genoa City, so it’s close enough that Jordan could have stashed Claire there before taking Harrison to the motel. Plus, considering Jordan was inside the Abbott Mansion, it’s not inconceivable that she would have grabbed the keys to the cabin while kidnapping Claire and Harrison. Now if you’re asking how Jordan would even know about the cabin, considering the Abbotts are a high-profile family, she probably found out all she needed to know about it via a simple Google search.
From Victoria’s perspective, considering she was married to Billy (Jason Thompson) and has been to the cabin herself, it would make sense for her to recognize the keys. So Victoria and Cole could be on their way to see if their daughter is being stashed there.
However, if Victoria’s "aha moment" wasn’t about the cabin at all, perhaps she recognizes the keys for another reason. Could they unlock the infamous boathouse where Billy once found himself being held captive years ago?
To give a brief synopsis, back in 2019, Billy was suffering a mental health crisis which was fueled by his grief for Delia and his hatred for Adam (Mark Grossman). Billy’s emotions were so strong that he began to suffer from dissociative identity disorder, and he attempted to kill his rival.
Chloe wound up (Elizabeth Hendrickson) kidnapping Billy and stashing him away in a boathouse to save him from becoming a murderer. She eventually filled in Victoria on what she did, and Victoria went to him and helped ensure Billy got the help he needed. So could Victoria now in the present recognize the keys she found as the very keys to the boathouse?
Now if Claire is at the boathouse in need of help, it would be an interesting development. Billy recently discussed his issues with dissociative identity disorder when talking to Traci (Beth Maitland) about Ashley (Eileen Davidson), who is also having her own bout with the condition. Could The Young and the Restless writers have been dropping breadcrumbs for Claire’s storyline in a roundabout kind of way? That may be a stretch, but it’s something to think about.
All in all, we’ll just have to keep watching The Young and the Restless to see where Claire turns up.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
