As Jordan escapes custody on ‘The Young and the Restless,’ is Nikki Newman safe?

"The Young and the Restless" never shies away from dangerous plots that keep viewers on the edge of their seats. But the daytime show's latest storyline has fans especially intrigued, and it's starting to get pretty dicey.

Over the last few months, the Newman family has been terrorized by an evil villain named Jordan Howard (Colleen Zenk), and she seems to have nine lives. After escaping custody once again, Jordan is out for blood. Will she wreak more havoc on the Newmans, or will they catch her before she does any more damage?

We’re breaking down everything you need to know to catch up on all the action as it unfolds.

Who is Jordan and why does she pose a threat to the Newmans?

Jordan is the sister of Eve, a woman who used to be romantically involved with Victor Newman (Eric Braeden). Jordan has held a grudge against Victor and his wife, Nikki Newman (Melody Thomas Scott), for ages and blames Victor for Eve's death.

As part of her quest to get revenge on the Newmans, Jordan kidnaps Claire (Hayley Erin), the biological daughter of Victor and Nikki's daughter, Victoria Newman (Amelia Heinle), and her partner Cole Howard (J. Eddie Peck). The former couple thought their daughter had died after she was born, but they recently learned that she is alive and was raised by Jordan.

While raising Claire, Jordan poisons her against the Newman family and enlists her to help execute a deadly plot against them. Claire gets a job working for Victoria's mother, Nikki, who's also the matriarch of the Newman family, and convinces her to visit her "aunt" while she's away on a business trip.

Jordan and Claire then kidnap Nikki and give her an IV filled with alcohol. Nikki is a former alcoholic, so this sends her into a tailspin. Meanwhile, the rest of the Newman family — Victoria, her brother Nick (Joshua Morrow) and their father, Victor — fly to Nikki's rescue and are drugged. Cole, who has been out of the picture for years, suddenly appears and is also drugged.

The Newmans engage in a struggle with Jordan and eventually convince Claire to give them the drug antidotes, which Jordan hid around the house.

From there, Cole and Victoria get a paternity test and prove that Claire is really their daughter. Claire manages to get sent to a psych ward for treatment instead of heading to prison, like Jordan later does, and has been building a relationship with her biological family.

What chaos has Jordan caused over the past few months?

After trying to kill the Newman family, Jordan initially gets away. She is later found and sent to prison. But she isn’t there for very long before she escapes and starts terrorizing Nikki again with mysterious phone calls.

Eager to eliminate Jordan as a threat for good, Victor devises a risky plan that involves using his granddaughter Claire as bait to lure Jordan out of hiding. He sees Claire as an important bargaining chip since Jordan raised her, but Claire is currently getting treatment in a mental health facility. So Victor plots to get her released early and lure Jordan out of hiding in the process. However, most of his family members aren't sure that his plan is entirely safe.

Meanwhile, Jordan schemes against Nikki and her family and even enlists the help of Nikki’s former sober sponsor, Seth (Brian Gaskill). She encourages him to rebuild a relationship with Nikki so she can keep tabs on her and tells Seth she's an old friend of Nikki’s.

When Seth tells Nikki that he’s been talking to her old pal, she suspects that it’s Jordan and encourages him to play along, saying that they now have the upper hand. However, Seth confronts Jordan and tells her she needs to come with him to talk to the Newmans and the police.

When they leave the bar they’ve been hanging out at, Jordan pushes Seth in front of a moving car, and he dies. Jordan runs back inside the bar and alerts the staff about the “accident,” saying that Seth told her to tell Nikki that he’s “sorry.”

Nikki gets a call from the police and rushes over to the bar with Victor, who suspects foul play and asks the police to lift DNA off of Jordan’s glass.

After she’s released from the mental health facility, Claire moves to the Newman ranch and sets Victor’s plan in motion. She calls Jordan but gets her voicemail. The villain eventually calls her back and tries to poison Claire against the Newman family once again. It doesn’t work, and Claire proceeds to pass along the message that Victor wants to talk to Jordan and put an end to all the chaos.

Naturally, Jordan is annoyed that Claire is receiving such a warm welcome from the Newmans and decides to set fire to Victoria’s house to send a message.

At long last, Victor and Jordan talk on the phone, and she agrees to meet him in person. Along with his lawyer, Michael Baldwin (Christian LeBlanc), Victor arrives in a shady alley, and Jordan suddenly appears and points a gun at them.

Victor offers Jordan $10 million, a deed to a house in France and a new identity so she can leave the country and leave his family alone. The offer seems too good to be true, and she’s skeptical that he’ll really let her escape.

To sweeten the deal, Victor offers to let her kidnap him and put him in a secret location that only she knows exists. Then, once she’s safe in France, she’ll call Michael and let him know to pick up Victor.

The only caveat? If she decides not to let Victor loose, Michael will alert the authorities and drain her new bank account.

Jordan takes Victor to a secret location, where she plans to imprison him. However, she doesn't know that his son Nick has been following them. He tazes Jordan and locks her up.

Nikki can't resist seeing Jordan one last time and goes to visit her with Claire and Victoria. Jordan pulls out a poisonous pill that she's been holding on to and takes it, saying that she's killing herself. Nikki calls the paramedics, and Jordan ends up in the hospital under police supervision.

Nikki says she doesn't regret saving Jordan's life because death is too easy of a punishment for her, but she soon learns that Jordan has escaped police custody.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com