On one hand, Claire is family — and Victor is nothing if not all about family! On the other hand, she lied to them all for months and put grandma Nikki through hell. No one could blame Victoria if she wanted to form a bond with the daughter she thought she lost so many years ago. And yet… “It’s going to be a huge conflict between Victoria and Nikki and Victor,” headwriter Josh Griffith tells Soap Opera Digest, “because… this could be another Newman child and Victoria now has an opportunity to embrace that.

“But at the same time,” he adds, “this is someone who was instrumental in pumping vodka via an IV into her mother. That’s a great dilemma and conflict.”

Brown paper bag not included.

Credit: CBS screenshot

Her Saving ‘Grace’

What may ultimately work in Claire’s favor is the fact that when push came to shove, she proved that she has a moral compass: She administered the antidote to keep the Newmans from getting a family discount on heart attacks.

In the end, even Nikki may have to admit the profound impact that “programming” can have on a person. Having had her own mind warped by Ian Ward, she’d be hard-pressed to deny the affect of Jordan’s brainwashing on Claire. Who is the young woman when not having her strings pulled by her bonkers aunt? Nikki would have to be as curious as Victoria.