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Hey Y&R fans! So, we’ve got Audra Charles ready to burn Kyle Abbott’s life to the ground, and she’s looking at Claire Newman as someone she might be able to use against him—that’s the vibe in recent episodes.
It’s Belinda from Drinkfood, and let’s talk about what Audra does to undermine Kyle. Please click subscribe if you haven’t, and now, let’s get into it.
This week, we have Audra boasting to Nate Hastings about how she pulled a fast one on Kyle. She’s still mad that Kyle tattled to Victor Newman about her telling Nate he bought GSA, and she wants payback so bad. Audra is feeling pretty invincible since she defeated Tucker McCall, but I think Kyle is a harder target for her to take down.
If you remember, Tucker was head over heels in love with Audra, and that’s how she was able to get close enough to him to pull off that epic betrayal. But Kyle doesn’t have any sort of romantic attachment to Audra, so there’s no soft spot for her to stab into. She bragged to Nate about taking a meeting on the sly that would undermine Kyle, her co-CEO, and as Audra was gloating, Kyle kind of slid up on them and absolutely floored her. Turns out, he beat Audra to the punch and took that meeting before she could snake it out from under him, and it sounded like he closed the deal. That will make her look weak to Victor.
When Kyle and Audra started bickering, Nate stepped away and joined Claire Newman, who was at the door. So, they sit at the bar, and Claire and Nate are watching this Kyle versus Audra showdown. Nate advises her to just let them do their business bickering, you know, for a few minutes. Claire was a little surprised to see this side of Kyle, where he was getting very hot under the collar, very angry with Audra. Nate was talking about how CEOs are power hungry, and of course, Audra and Kyle are co-CEOs, so both are power hungry.
Claire did tell Nate she’s not a fan of vendettas, and it’s pretty clear both Kyle and Audra have one against each other. When Nate and Claire finally rejoined those two, Audra commented that Claire looked put off by the argument. She seemed to be focused on Kyle’s new girlfriend. Claire told Audra that she understands people play rough in business, but then Audra said Kyle’s “not gentle with anything.” That almost felt like a dig about him in the bedroom, at least that’s the vibe I picked up.
At this point, Claire probably is aware that Kyle and Audra were bed buddies at one point. I can’t remember a specific conversation about it, but given how bothered Summer Newman was about Kyle being close to Audra, even on a professional basis, I feel like since it’s pretty recent history, Claire probably knows. And if she doesn’t already know that Kyle was bedding his co-CEO a while back, I’m sure Audra will be happy to spell that out for Claire.
After the two of them walked off together, Kyle asked Claire if seeing him like that bothered her. She said no, it doesn’t bother her. She was raised by her crazy Aunt Jordan, who was a power-hungry lunatic for revenge, and she knows how ruthless her grandpa Victor can be about business. Kyle admitted that things aren’t usually so nasty, but he and Audra just have a lot of animosity toward each other. Claire told him he doesn’t need to stoop to Audra’s level, which made Kyle feel better. First, she’s not put off, and second, she gently reminded him that’s not the type of man he wants to be.
I thought that was pretty interesting. Then, Audra rolled back up on Kyle to let him know she wrecked the deal he made and flipped it around to benefit her. She sold some idea of hers to the guy they were both trying to meet with, and Audra promised she would bury him.
Here’s what’s troubling: Claire has caught Audra’s eye, and we know from her past that Audra has no issue playing very dirty when it comes to getting what she wants. She’s used sex as a weapon before—that was part of how she snaked Tucker’s company out from under him. I do think there’s no level Audra won’t sink to, and now she’s looking at Claire.
I expect Audra to target Claire to get to Kyle, seeing that his former nanny, whom he’s now dating, is a point of vulnerability she can leverage. The question is, what will Audra do? Will she try and wreck Kyle’s relationship out of revenge? Anything Audra can do to weaken Kyle and make him vulnerable is one step closer to her getting rid of him as her co-CEO so she can take over GLAAD.
But I also think Audra is seriously underestimating Claire. How much does Audra even know about Kyle’s young and innocent-looking girlfriend? She might think, because Claire was a nanny and seems nice, that she’s just some squishy sweet girl she can manipulate. But Audra might need to check herself before she wrecks herself, because if she comes after Claire, I think she’ll find someone a lot tougher than expected under that blonde hair and sweet smile.
Even so, Kyle’s not going to like it if Audra starts targeting Claire—it could get awkward fast. If Audra figures out that Claire is very naive about romance and relationships, she might try to exploit that. I can imagine Audra being wicked, whispering in Claire’s ear about all the naughty things she and Kyle have done, trying to mess with Claire’s self-esteem.
I definitely expect Audra might try to sabotage them first out of spite and second to throw Kyle off his game in the corporate battleground. If he’s busy defending Claire from Audra’s mean-girl antics, he might lose sight of his end goal. It could actually weaken him.
