Credit: CBS screenshot
Adam walks down into the jazz lounge and picks up a noisemaker. Sally saunters over and shows him how to use it, blowing in his face. He jokes she must have been practicing. They discuss how they rang in the New Year. She wasn’t throwing confetti and admits she watched the ball drop on TV but was restless so came down there. He did pretty much the same. He offers to buy her a drink for Auld Lang Syne.
Sitting at the bar, Sally and Adam recall their first New Year’s together watching North by Northwest while drinking vodka and eating caviar. Neither of them is big on doing what other people do, so he suggests they turn the clock back to 11:59. They have the club practically to themselves. She agrees and they count down with their glasses raised. Wishing each other a Happy New Year, they toast. They’ve come this far on the traditional New Year’s thing, he suggests the only thing left is to kiss. Although she thinks he’s pushing it, she kisses him on the cheek. He asks if they are dating. She tells him not to push it, but says she’s excited for 2024. It feels like her business is about to take off and her energy is back. Adam is optimistic about what the year holds too. Things are good with his father again and he’s sure they are on the cusp of something too.
Nick stops by Crimson Lights looking for coffee as Sharon and Esther are clearing up. They tell him about the rush of customers they had. Esther wishes Sharon would delegate more to her instead of slinging coffee. When Sharon asks Nick about his family, he says it’s been a rough couple of days. Esther starts asking why so Sharon suggests she go home and have a bath. Handing him a coffee, Esther exits and Sharon asks her ex-husband what happened. He fills her in about what Jordan and Claire did. She can’t imagine how hard this has all been on Victoria. He can’t imagine the emotional toll it will take on his sister to reconnect with the daughter she thought was dead. Sharon is sure that with time and the right therapist, Claire will be able to get past her anger. Nick wishes that Sharon could be her therapist. Sharon says that Memorial has some of the best psychiatric care in the country. She asks how he is holding up. Gulping his coffee, Nick insists that he’s good. His knife wound is healing and he’s putting his energy into helping the family; that’s how he’s helping himself. He’s not going through this alone and they will all get through this.
Sitting in the dining room of the Athletic Club with Victoria, Cole asks if he should order some bubbly since they missed the countdown. He wants to take her mind off of what’s been happening. She’s still exhausted after all that’s gone on with Claire. He says they will keep her safe now. She reminds him they said that before and then Jordan kidnapped her. Victoria fears their daughter could be slipping away for good. She has decades of brainwashing to deal with. Cole says they all need to be grateful to Nikki for getting Jordan out of their lives. They just need to make sure Claire knows she has them and isn’t alone. She says they can’t make up for what they lost with Claire. He agrees. They just need to be there to support her. Victoria thanks him for being such a positive force in all of this. It has been so long since they connected. He says it’s been too long and doesn’t think that either of them ever got over losing baby Eve. Cole can’t help thinking about how different things could have been for all of them.
In the psych ward at Memorial, Claire stares at the wall and runs through all that has happened, and how Jordan manipulated and lied to her. Victoria and Cole claim to care about her but there is fear in their eyes and she can’t imagine that ever turning into love. She’s nobody and nothing and always will be. She doesn’t want anyone to see what a monster she is and needs to keep everyone away. Claire stops herself from thinking of Cole and Victoria as her parents and tells herself again that she can never be the sweet baby girl they wanted.
At the ranch, Nikki notices all the booze is gone. Victor approaches her and explains he removed the temptation. She’s grateful but mad that he has to protect her from herself. As he holds her, she admits she doesn’t think she will make it this time. He suggests they stay up until the dawn. He’d love it if they could just sit up and tell stories. They sit on the couch and she starts recalling the bad times when she was at her worst. Her husband remembers how angry he was when he found out she had become dependent on alcohol as a way of self-medicating after her riding accident. They flashback to him finding and smashing her bottles. His anger wasn’t enough to stop her from drinking. He could have walked out on her but he didn’t. Victor assures Nikki that he will always protect her. She’s the love of his life. When Nikki gives him credit for getting her to go to rehab, he says she did all the hard work. She points out she didn’t stay sober for long because Maggie and Deacon happened. Victor forgot about “those two psychos.” They recall when Victor brought her jewelry with a Chinese symbol of courage and strength and promised that their strength would continue to hold their family together. Nikki says he knew what she needed to hear at that moment. Her husband reminds her that she got sober before and will again — they will work through this as a family. Victor has a lot of plans for their whole family in 2024.
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The next morning, Nikki comes downstairs after finally getting some sleep. Last night was the first time she didn’t have any nightmares since this whole thing started. He’s surprised to see she’s dressed for work and suggests they stay home and count their blessings. That sounds lovely to her, but she thinks it would be good for her to be at work. Nikki adds that she’s planning to attend an AA meeting on the way. Victoria arrives to check on her mother and is happy to see her well. She’s not sure she should be going back to work but Nikki says she’s faced worse and gotten through it. Victoria says it’s such an inspiration, the way they are always there for each other. Victor is sure they all know they love each other and can overcome any difficulties that life throws at them.
Sally is having coffee at the Athletic Club when she finds some decorations on the floor from the previous evening. She calls Adam and thanks him for curing her restlessness so she could get a night of sleep. He thanks her for salvaging the evening for him. Sally asks if he’s free tonight for dinner. The Newman asks if this is a date or a loophole. She assures him it’s an honest-to-goodness date. After jokingly checking his schedule, he tells her he’s looking forward to it.
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Victoria joins Cole at Memorial. When they look in at Claire sleeping, she notes they never got to do this — they never got to argue about her bedtime or read her stories. Cole reminds her that they agreed to only look forward.
After Victoria leaves, Cole goes in to see his daughter as she rests. Sitting by her bed, he says he’s sure she’s exhausted but he hopes she’s not going somewhere inside where they can’t help her. He tells her that there were parents who couldn’t wait for her to be born. They had so many hopes and dreams for her. Maybe they can finish that when she wakes up. Her parents will both be there for all of it.
At AA, Nikki tells the group that she hasn’t been sleeping because she’s been afraid of the nightmares. Drinking makes the thoughts worse and that only makes her drink more. Running through her gratitude list, she tells them what a rock Victor is and how he stayed up all night with her so she could cope with her thoughts. She knows that he can’t keep her sober, however. Only she can do that. It’s frustrating that people think it’s easy not to take a drink, but it’s not. If she doesn’t want to be a dry drunk, there are a lot of demons she has to face on the way to getting sober.
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Victoria goes to Crimson Lights for coffee, where Sharon tells her that Nick filled her in on everything that’s happened and asks how she’s holding up. Victoria’s not sure. Sharon offers to listen if she needs it. They get a table and Victoria admits she doesn’t know what she’s doing. Sharon assumes that’s not normal for her. Victoria says she and Cole would like to get to know their daughter but she was raised to hate them and she can’t imagine undoing that. Sharon urges her to think of it more as showing her who she really is — that’s not something that will happen overnight. The best advice she can give is for Victoria to look after her own psyche. Sharon is sure work would be a distraction but suggests Victoria consider taking some time off so as not to lose any more time with her daughter.
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In the Newman office, Adam is shocked to hear about everything that’s been happening in the family. Nick even refused to tell him about being knifed. How could they keep him in the dark about all of this?! Victor stops Adam and points out they are filling him in. Adam asks if his sister is okay to work. That sets Nick off. Their dad orders them to stop and says he’s sick of the two arguing. They will survive as a unit. Nikki joins them to say she’s optimistic about the new year. Adam has been filled in and is happy to help in any way he can. Nikki hopes they can all work together. Adam assures them all that they will get no trouble out of him. Victoria arrives next and wonders if there was a family meeting she didn’t know about. Adam says their dad was filling him in on all that’s happened. He tells Victoria he’s so sorry and asks how she’s holding up. Slightly taken aback, Victoria replies that she’s been doing OK, and thanks him. Nick asks about Claire and Vick says she’s sleeping. Cole will call her when she wakes up. She’s glad they’re all there and announces that she will be taking a leave of absence to devote herself to Claire’s recovery.
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Next on The Young and the Restless: Daniel gets romantic advice from Danny.
ICYMI: Schemes, shake-ups, and a slew of returns! Look back on Young & Restless’ past year in the gallery below.
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