Revenge — Penance (S2E07)

(My review of the last episode of Revenge, Illusion)

Mason thinks he figured everything out, so he pays Emily a visit. But he made one little mistake, he believed that Amanda and Emily were lovers when they were in Allenwood Penitentiary. When he can’t get any information out of Emily about their time in prison, he gives Amanda a call. Amanda’s trust for Emily is diminishing by the episode, she doesn’t Emily her to be calling all of the shots and leaving her in the dark, but agrees not to meet with Mason. But when he brings Jack into the equation, she spills, Emily was in love with her since their time in prison and she masterminded the entire revenge plot. When Mason invites her to his place to show her the board of evidence, Amanda tries to kill him to protect her secret. Luckily for Mason, Emily barges in, stops her, and tells him the whole truth. When her dad was arrested, she only trusted him and he left her out in the cold. And now he needs to make amends to her and David Clarke.

Mason meets with Kara to tell her to get as far away from the Hamptons and the Graysons as she possibly can. But then he goes off script and tells her that David was innocent, he thinks it’s penance. Kara has been off her meds, and this bit of information was all she needed to push her over the edge. While Mason is busy, Nolan sneaks into his house to set him up for the murder of Gordon. The chain goes like this: Nolan and Emily framed Mason Treadwell to look like he framed Conrad Grayson who framed Gordon Murphy. After his arrest, “Benedict Clarke” visits Mason to coerce him into taking the blame for everything. When she deems it time, she will give a full confession, exonerating him. Because he does this he will have the opportunity to write the world’s best book and he won’t rot in prison for life (just for a few years).

Kara ambushes Conrad and Victoria with her new information and a gun in hand. They try to weasel their way out of the situation by blaming the Initiative, someone higher up caused the plane crash and they framed David in self-preservation. When Victoria shows Kara proof that Gordon killed her first husband, she takes out her anger on them. While Conrad tries to defend Victoria, Kara forces them to their knees (where they hold hands) and is about to pull the trigger. Luckily for the two, Aiden shows up in time and chloroforms Kara. When she wakes up, Emily is there to warn her that there are some people gunning for her, and Agent Mathis (Aiden) saved her life. She needs to get back on her meds and get out of town. Kara’s last message to Amanda was that she wished she could have been a better mother.

Emily finally appreciates Aiden’s reliable aid and shoulder to cry on. When she hears about Jack and Amanda’s pending nuptials, she realizes that she lost her chance with the boy she loved in her childhood. And who better to bounce back with than an old flame who has been beside her in her schemes and has been seeking her constant approval. When he comes to check on her after Kara left town, she embraced him with a passionate kiss.

Aiden helps Daniel acquire the evidence he needs of Grayson Global’s involvement in NolCorp to secure his takeover. Nolan has the only piece of evidence linking them, and he agrees to hand it over to Aiden because he swore to protect Emily. When Emily finds out, she tries to get NolCorp back for him, but Nolan insists that he cares more about keeping his family safe. Which leads him to threaten Aiden to never hurt her again. When Victoria reminds Daniel that she is his biggest advocate and he shouldn’t make any rash decisions, he has a hard time believing her. He lost any semblance of respect he had for his mother and won’t sway from his plans. While Conrad is giving a big speech, Daniel gathered the power players involved in Grayson Global to announce his discovery of their share in NolCorp. Though Victoria is furious, Ashley stands by him; now that she finally gains something from Daniel (a multibillion dollar corporation), she is loyal.

Revenge — Illusion (S2E06)

(My review of the last episode of Revenge, Forgiveness)

To prevent Mason Treadwell from discovering that Amanda isn’t who she says she is, she meets with him personally. She explains that she came back to the Hamptons after so many years, because she wanted to face the Graysons head-on, and then she rekindled her feelings for Jack, and now she has baby Carl. She doesn’t have to deal with revenge, because the Graysons will surely get whats coming to them. And she lets slip that Conrad and Victoria might have framed Gordon Murphy, hoping that he will bite. And he did. When he goes to investigate Murphy’s RV, he finds his corpse, left there as a gift to him from Emily. He alerts the police and gets a very inside scoop for his book.

As Treadwell is uncovering the Graysons’ (supposed) involvement in Gordon’s death, they are preparing for their second wedding. The bride isn’t wearing the usual white, though. Her dress is a light shade of gray to show off her impurity heading into this marriage. As a wedding gift, Conrad bestows upon Victoria a gun, so she can protect herself when he isn’t around. Or a final chance to get out of this marriage. Emily and Aiden attend the wedding together, to the displeasure of Daniel, but he gets a dance out of it. Even though he is in a happy relationship with Ashley, he always thinks about what could have been between them. But Emily shrugged off the relationship and tries not to dwell on the past (That’s totally what the show is known for, right?).

During the reception Conrad is dragged away for the murder of Gordon Murphy, and is quick to accuse Victoria of setting it all up. Though Emily set up the crime and planted the evidence, Victoria knew full well of her wedding gift from Mason Treadwell: not having to spend a single night with her husband. The Initiative were not pleased with Conrad’s method of handling the situation, they wanted to take care of Gordon in-house. But they will release him on bail if he gives them something in return. Though Conrad doesn’t know what that something will be, he knows that it won’t end well.

Daniel’s plan to take over Grayson Global with Aiden’s help couldn’t have come at a better time. Nolan isn’t done poking holes in Daniel’s business, though. When he confronts Padma about digging into his relationship with David Clarke and Grayson Global, she is quick to back down. But backing down is quite the opposite of Nolan’s goal, he wants to step further into Grayson Global’s business and will need her help to do so. Aiden is quick to remind Emily that Daniel is no longer an innocent anymore, regardless of any feelings she had (or still has) for him, he is a full-blooded Grayson and he will be collateral damage.

Jack steps further into business with the incredibly shady Mr. Kenny Ryan, which leads them to reopen the bar to a huge party. And afterwards, Jack pulls Amanda onto his boat and begins to reminisce. When they were little kids they thought they had found a treasure chest and Amanda’s eyes lit up with such wonder. And he would give anything to see that look once again, and to do that, he drops to one knee and pulls out a ring. Though he will never see that look from Faux-manda, he will be a happily married man. If they can both stay alive and keep themselves together for that long.

Kara has been nosing her way into everybody’s lives. She speaks to Emily about her relationship with Daniel, and she gets her to admit that she’s happy that she and Daniel broke it off. When you marry the man, you marry the family, and she wasn’t ready (and never would be ready) to marry into the Grayson clan. Kara promises that they will get what’s coming to them. She warns Jack not to let Amanda’s heart break, when there is hope that is usually the next step. And after so many setbacks in her life, she needs a good thing. And until Jack realizes that she isn’t the girl from his childhood, he will be a good thing; a great thing. She pushed Victoria for information about Gordon, but was horrified by the lies she spoke. But after Conrad is taken away, she tries to hurt Victoria by insinuating a reminder to her losing Gordon.

Mason doesn’t receive the credit that he deserves. He might be a self-serving jerk, but he is definitely an intelligent self-serving jerk. He has a huge web of the conspiracy mapped out with red yarn. And the hint from Victoria that Emily was in juvie with Amanda might be all he needs to understand their switch. And since we don’t get to see Emily crossing any faces off with red sharpie, maybe red yarn will have to do the trick.

(My review of the next episode of Revenge, Penance)

Revenge — Forgiveness (S2E05)

(My review of the last episode of Revenge, Intuition)

Kara wants everybody to know that she is alive, so she returns with a flourish. There seems to be a lot of that going around. When she arrives at Grayson Manor, Victoria looks terrified. As they hug, Victoria grips her flower pruners, seriously debating stabbing her. Kara tells her that she appreciates that they took Amanda in and treated her as one of their own, but you can feel the hatred bubbling just below the surface. The Graysons decide that her sudden reappearance is closely related to the appearance of David’s journals and Amanda’s sudden strength. And when they discover a phone with numerous outside calls to Gordon but none in return, they believe that she is feeding him (and possibly the Initiative) information. Victoria and Conrad plan on keeping their enemies close, so they invite Kara to stay with them, where she’ll be safe. Kara seems surprisingly unaffected by the discovery that Victoria was the “girl next door” that David fell in love with. She never really loved him, either.

Emily wakes up beside Aiden and he immediately reassures her that he is there to protect her, that was what he always wanted. He didn’t tell her about Kara’s return to save her from the pain of meeting her if she wasn’t who she expected. And this brings about the realization that her father lied to her about her mother’s death to protect her, as well. A little girl wouldn’t understand that her mother tried to kill her, and this was the best way to get the message across that she couldn’t see her anymore.

Aiden infiltrates Grayson Global by using his role as Takeda’s proxy to get the information Emily needs. He wants to ensure the safety of Takeda’s investment after the rift in the Grayson family has formed, and he is immediately given transparency into the company. This time Aiden is keeping no secrets from Emily. He lets her know that someone is looking into David Clarke’s involvement in Grayson Global. The request for information was sent by Padma, she wants to make sure that David wasn’t on the payroll when NolCorp invested in the business. But Daniel realizes that NolCorp hadn’t invested anywhere near that time, and is starting to get suspicious. And when Nolan brings up the check from David, she swear she didn’t do anything with it. How much does Padma know and how much will it screw Emily (and Nolan) over?

Amanda is welcomed by the sight of Jack and baby Carl when she awakens; they didn’t give up on her. But while she was in her coma, Kara identified herself to Jack, desperately wanting to be a part of her daughter and grandson’s lives. When Emily tries to cut Kara off from meeting her daughter, you can sense the hesitation that she feels being around the woman who tried to kill her. She does everything she can to drive the knife into the wound by telling her that Amanda never talks about her. And she makes sure that Amanda doesn’t recognize “her” mother.

In a private conversation with her daughter, Kara praises the woman that she has become, despite all of the odds against her. She apologizes for who she was when she Amanda was a little girl, she was sick and had no control of her actions. She was the one who asked David to fake her death. Amanda can’t help but forgive her, because it seems so genuine. Emily, who was crying as she listened, doesn’t mind the apology and tells Kara directly that she thinks that Amanda really does want to forgive her. Emily realizes that the truth is the only way to go now, so she tells Amanda the whole truth. The baby really is Jack’s and she only lied to try to keep her on her side, she has so few allies as it is. The real reason is that she still loves Jack, but she won’t even admit that to herself, let alone to Amanda. But telling Jack would break his heart all over again, and he really doesn’t deserve that.

After some threats from Amanda, Aiden reminds her that he is a much better friend than enemy. And now his allegiance is being questioned when he tells Daniel that Grayson Global might have a stake in Nolcorp. If he pulled it off, Daniel would become the new head of the much richer company. Is this aiding Emily in that it will screw over Conrad and bring Grayson Global to a new standard, or is he getting his own revenge against Emily?

Mason Treadwell, the biographer, is back to cause more trouble for Emily and the Graysons. He wanted to meet the deceased mother of Amanda and wife of David Clarke. While she was in the hospital gown he noticed that she was missing a scar that the real Amanda Clarke should have from a foster care fire. In private he hands her a file and tells her he knows her secret.

After his terrible judgement in the past, Declan asks Jack if they can trust any advice that Mr. Ryan gives them. Jack, whose head is somewhere else completely tells him that he’s a good guy. They use a cleaner that Mr. Ryan gives them, half the price and half the time! When he returns, he offers to buy the bar and forget about Declan’s debt. Even if it’s a significant amount of money, is that really what Jack wants? He’s poured his heart and soul into the Stowaway.

(My review of the next episode of Revenge, Illusion)

Revenge — Intuition (S2E04)

(My review of the last episode of Revenge, Confidence)

Emily is no longer following her plan, she is starting to get emotional and it won’t end well for her. Aiden is trying to help her maintain her usual level-headedness, but there isn’t much he can do. Now that she knows that her mother is alive, she isn’t just seeking revenge anymore. Aiden tries to approach Kara by himself again before he lets Emily get her hopes up. Gordon trained her well, so she quickly recognized that he isn’t truly an FBI agent under deep cover. No one would have that information besides one of the Graysons or someone involved in the Initiative, so unless she gets assurance from Gordon that Aiden is a good guy, she will leave him tied up.

Just as Amanda was going to quit helping Emily, Emily spouts out the truth, her mother is alive and she needed to use Amanda to get close to Victoria. This development is enough to pique Amanda’s interest and she agrees to help. Amanda agrees to give Victoria the journals that David kept if she told her the whole truth about her mother. At Amanda’s impromptu baby shower, Victoria gives the absolute perfect present. A baby journal with a $100,000 check inside as a little reminder of their agreement. Amanda and Victoria step off to the side for a private chat, Emily is dictating for Amanda exactly what to say. She confronts Victoria about her mother not dying at the institution. And as soon as the conversation becomes heated, Emily’s feed cut out. Victoria breaks the news to Amanda that her mother tried to kill her (Emily) when she was a baby. She tries to snatch the check back, but Amanda flips over the balcony with a brutal fall.

Amanda’s last request from Emily was to save the baby, so when the doctor tells the family that they can probably only save one of them, Emily jumps at the chance to pick the baby. Though she might have become attached to Amanda, her life would be so much simpler if she died. Upon Emily’s request, the baby is removed via c-section and is alive and fairly well, but they had to put Amanda under in a medically induced coma. Jack is guilt stricken that his last words to Amanda were so harsh, but somewhat thrilled to be a dad.

To make matters worse, Kara hears about Amanda’s fall on the radio and stops by the hospital in secret to see her poor daughter. Emily sees her mother in the room with Amanda and finally flashes back to what really happened when they were together: her mother really did try to kill her. One of the “games” they played was Kara trying to drown her daughter. So rather than having a tearful reunion with her mother, she runs home and cries into Aiden’s waiting arms.

By robbing houses with Trey, Declan didn’t just ruin his life, but Jack’s as well. As I suspected, Trey left Declan’s ID at Mr. Ryan’s house on purpose so he would have a chance to buy out The Stowaway. Now Jack is left with his sort-of-girlfriend in a coma, no job, and soon-to-be no home.

Daniel finally makes some headway with his father, or so he thinks. After realizing that Ashley was spying on him for his father he tells her the whole truth about who his dad really is. He overhears a conversation between the two that she won’t spy for him anymore. I wouldn’t trust her, though, it’s probably an even longer con to get herself wedged further into Grayson Global. Everything she does is for her, and this shouldn’t be any different. And now Ashley and Daniel are stronger than ever, and it just might be for the long haul this time.

When Nolan finds out that his dad died, he was distraught, but not incredibly upset. Padma makes sure that he gets the full force of this by taking him to the storage room that his father kept of all of his things. Even though he kicked Nolan out of his house when he created Nolcorp in high school, he kept every single piece of work of his. He has a binder filled with every news clipping that Nolan was mentioned in, kept all of his work from his days when he was younger, and all sorts of memories. Thanking Padma for showing him how loving his father really was isn’t enough, so he finally kisses her (after falling the first time, poor Nolan!) and whisks her off to France. When he comes back, he’s going to have a lot of catching up to do. Now that he understands the true affection of his father, he might be more inclined to help Emily with the revenge of the loss of hers. But will she need him now that she and Aiden have reconnected?

(My review of the next episode of Revenge, Forgiveness)

Revenge — Confidence (S2E03)

(My review of the last episode of Revenge, Resurrection)

The bodyguard that Takeda sent to watch Emily finally gets some background information. Aiden got involved with Takeda when his sister disappeared. After training with Emily for awhile, the two got together (Who could resist her?), but he was quick to leave her when he discovered a lead on his sister. He promises her that she can go with him to help him out, but he leaves her in the dust. Even after four years Emily hasn’t forgiven him and definitely doesn’t trust him. When they search the white haired man’s body they find ID that says Gordon Murphy. Though this probably isn’t his name, it’s easier than calling him WHM. Aiden still cares for her and says that he’s just there to help restore her faith. Faith in what, though? Humanity or revenge? He steals WHM’s motel key while Emily’s back is turned, but she, in kind, secretly nabs his pocket watch.

Emily, clearly not willing to play nice, knocked Aiden out and tossed him into the dumpster on trash day with a ticket back to Japan. He’s not that easy to get rid of, though. When he’s at WHM’s motel room, he finds the flight recorder from the flight that nearly killed Victoria. But when the motel manager asks him about it, he explains that he’s a detective and that WHM is very dangerous. The woman found Aiden to be very suspicious, so she checked in on his false story. The reason she didn’t trust Aiden: she knows WHM. The shocking twist: she got to know him after he kidnapped her. This is Emily’s mother. She has been so close to her mother, but had no idea.

The Grayson family quickly blows up when Charlotte and Daniel receive special gifts. Charlotte receives one of David’s (altered) journals that he kept when he was in prison. She learns that her mother was in a real relationship with her biological father and had him killed. Daniel receives Victoria’s fake ID with a note that says that her death won’t be faked the next time. Not only does Daniel learn that his mother is the conniving witch that he thought she was, but he is appalled that he was the only Grayson not to know that his mother was alive. Emily had Amanda and Aiden’s assistance on this, Amanda delivered the diary to Charlotte under the guise of full discretion among sisters. And Aiden, without Emily’s knowledge or permission, sent Daniel the letter to make it appear that WHM is still alive and well.

In the press conference that was meant to show that Victoria is alive and well, she shows much more than she was supposed to. She announces the truth about Charlotte: she is the daughter of an affair that she had with David Clarke, but she loves her nonetheless. She then invites Conrad up to join her, the supportive ex-husband. Daniel hesitates when she calls him up, unsure of where his allegiances lie. He decides that he is willing to put everything behind him and start anew with the family. Or maybe he took Emily’s advice and has finally decided to play Victoria and Conrad’s game. And here comes the startling part: she then requests that Amanda comes to join them on stage. Though Emily forced Amanda to stay for the press conference, even she looks shocked and confused about this. And to top it off, Conrad returns himself into the fold by announcing that he and Victoria will be remarried soon. Ashley puts it perfectly when she says “Oh my god, they’re stronger than ever.”

Emily just might have pushed Amanda too far this time. Jack nearly condemned Amanda from seeing the Graysons, he doesn’t want to be involved in their games and doesn’t want to see any of their money. Even if Charlotte is her half-sister, that’s not enough reason to let her enter their lives so easily. When Jack sees her at the press conference, he can’t stand it anymore. He breaks it off with her, though he will still be there for his child. Now Amanda has nothing to lose by spreading Emily’s secret. This isn’t over for her, and Emily will pay. If this isn’t enough to ruin Jack’s day, he learns that his kid brother is a robber. Declan and his “friend” Trey had been robbing houses to try to work up enough money for Declan to move into his own place. But when they robbed Mr. Ryan’s house, Declan seemed to have dropped his ID. The kid might be stupid, but I don’t think he is quite dumb enough to do this. Trey must have tossed the ID there just to get him caught.

Padma and Nolan have the opportunity to grow closer as they meet to discuss her plans as CFO. When he brings up the topic of dinner, she gets nervous and shy, she clearly has a little thing for Nolan. If Nolan will spend any time away from helping Emily with her plans, he might actually have a chance at love–and no, Tyler didn’t count. Nolan, even after almost being killed by Aiden, is there for Emily when she needs him. Emily believes that the antipsychotics WHM had on him were her mother’s. When Nolan offers to help her out in any way he can, Emily shuts him down. He’s already done so much for her and she can’t repay him as it is. This actually seemed quite genuine. Emily might try to tell herself that she wants to distance herself from Nolan, but I think that she really cares about him and doesn’t want him to get any further involved; she wouldn’t want to see him get hurt. I’ve had a suspicion that Emily and Nolan might be siblings, which would explain why David trusted him and asked him to look out for her. And this exchange furthers that suspicion.

(My review of the next episode of Revenge, Intuition)

Revenge — Resurrection (S2E02)

(My review of the last episode of Revenge, Destiny)

This is the episode where Daniel redeems himself from the low that he arrived at by succumbing to Conrad and his business last season. When Emily tips him off on Charlotte’s apprehension about Dr. Thomas, he immediately takes action by heading to the rehab facility and demanding that Dr. Thomas recants his negative evaluation of Charlotte. When he discovers he’s too late, Daniel reams his father, telling him that this is the most despicable thing he has ever done (which is really saying something!) and he wants nothing to do with him or Grayson Global. Charlotte assumed that Daniel was working with their father to screw her out of her money, but he proves that he’s the loving brother. He sets up a new trust for her that Conrad can’t touch with his entire inheritance. He doesn’t want his parents blood money. This is the kind of action that made Emily and the viewers fall for him.

Meanwhile, Conrad and Victoria stoop into even darker territory. When Victoria realizes that Charlotte’s money is gone, she stages her reappearance with Conrad’s help. With her reappearance she screws the White Haired man over, he’s now wanted for kidnapping and abuse and Conrad and Victoria gather together their insurance policy. And Conrad makes it out looking like less of a bad guy, the only reason he had to steal Charlotte’s money was to save the life of his ex-wife. Even Emily couldn’t see such a cunning and perfect plan coming. She is left with her own plan in tatters and only has one person to rely on to fix it.

The White Haired Man pays Emily a visit to get the footage from the clam cam that would exonerate him. WHM agrees to tell Emily more about her mother: she would have been able to prove David’s innocence, and that’s why she needed to be taken care of. But he didn’t follow orders and didn’t kill her. With the footage from the camera, he no longer needed Emily alive, so he pulled out a knife and tried to slit her throat. But before he had the chance, Takeda’s hired gun shoots and kills WHM. Though he saved Emily’s life, he executed the only lead that she had for information on her mother. She would have preferred to have a nice new scar and more information than be safe and clueless.

Hopefully Daniel realizes soon that Ashley isn’t with him for him. She was quick to rat him out to Conrad for looking into his financials, clearly just using him to get ahead with Conrad. But it looks like Danny-boy might not be looking at Ashley for a long term commitment. When Emily showed up at the rehab center to visit Charlotte, he looked relieved. And after he discovered that his mother was alive, he pulled her aside and thanked her for being so kind to his family, especially for looking out for Charlotte when he wasn’t there. This was not half-hearted, like Victoria’s appreciation. It was genuine, and there was definitely something still there between them.

NolCorp is being audited, which gives us the first glimpse into the workings of Nolan’s company. Padma, an accounting analyst decides to show up at Emily’s house to talk to Nolan in person. She insists that he needs a CFO to help run his company, but Nolan, being a complete control freak, refuses. No one can do the job better than he can. After some insistence, he agrees to a CFO, but only if she takes the job. She has no experience and no qualifications, but Nolan thinks that he can control her. Though this seemed out of place in the episode, if it brings a new love interest into Nolan’s life, I’m all for it. Here’s hoping that nothing goes wrong with the audit!

Amanda, worried that the paternity test will prove that it’s not Jack’s baby, goes to Emily for help. Though the baby truly is Jack’s, Emily tells Amanda that she had to fake it. When Jack realizes that the child is his, he appears relieved, but I don’t think he really is. All the love he feels for Amanda is from his memories, and he knows it, he just can’t admit it. Emily looked truly devastated when she discovered that the baby was Jack’s. If it weren’t, Amanda would might leave and she might even have another shot with the boy she lost. Is there another reason that Emily lied about faking the test, or was it just jealousy?

Declan seemed to have finally grown a brain this season. He was giving Jack some genuine advice about how he should deal with Amanda, telling her how he truly feels. And he tried to handle a real, mature conversation about what Jack would do if the baby wasn’t his. But he quickly returned to last season’s stupidity when he met with Trey Chandler. Trey promises to give Declan $500 if he holds onto an expensive diamond bracelet (which he clearly stole) for him. Declan, desperate for money because he’s trying to save up for his own place, accepted. Oh Declan, what have you gotten yourself into? Maybe we’ll at least get rid of him for part of the season while he stews in prison.

(My review of the next episode of Revenge, Confidence)

Revenge — Destiny (S2E01)

The season opens just as it did last year with a glimpse at the future, which we will arrive to by the end of the season: three months later The Amanda has sunk and there is a body within. To find out who is in the ship and why she sunk we will have to wait a few months.

This season takes place two months after the first season finale. In the present, we see Emily underwater tied to a pole, it appears that she isn’t going to make it out alive. It turns out that she asked Takeda (who is played by a new actor) to have her tied up so that she could try to unlock memories of her mother. When she is untied and dragged to shore, she is frustrated that she didn’t manage to remember everything she wanted. When she returns home she pays a visit to Nolan at the boxing gym, where he goes by Southpaw and is equipped with a new haircut. When she invites him to go for a drive, he thinks it sounds quite “revenge-y” and wouldn’t miss it. Together they discover that the psychiatric hospital that her mother was staying at was shut down by a dummy investment corporation two days after David was sentenced to prison.

They discover that Victoria signed into the visitor’s log under an alias about a week before it was shut down. And she didn’t bother to hide it well. The audience finally get the chance to see the video that Nolan last season. It announced David’s intentions of divorcing Emily’s mom, supposedly so that he could marry Victoria. I doubt that this is the case, however, because he knew that he had to keep his affair with Victoria quiet, she was still married and even though she loved David, didn’t seem too intent on leaving Conrad.

Daniel is the only person who seems to be taking Victoria’s death harshly. He is brooding and constantly mourning. Conrad is celebrating the fact that he no longer has to deal with the witch and that he just unlocked a great deal of money. However Daniel refuses to put his inheritance into the company. Ashley is thrilled that she gets to manage Grayson Manor and is now somewhat respected. And Charlotte knows the truth about her mother’s “death.” She is putting up quite a front, though, she has managed to stay 60 days sober and looks like she really cleaned up her act.

Jack hasn’t had a great couple months either. He has been hiding out on his boat rather than sleeping in bed with Amanda. He promises that things will change when the baby comes, but both he and Amanda know that’s not true. I’m not sure if Jack has been spiraling into his depression because he misses Emily or because he doesn’t want to be with Amanda anymore, but it’s really messing with him. When we reach the point where Declan is the one giving Jack advice, he’s very close to hitting rock bottom. Instead of taking Declan’s (surprisingly good) advice to tell Amanda that he doesn’t actually love her, Jack sends him to live in the boat while he goes back to living in the house.

To reestablish herself, Emily visits Charlotte at the rehab center, apparently they’ve gotten close over the hiatus, they’ve been sending each other postcards. And this is the perfect way for Emily to involve herself in the Grayson’s lives once more. She follows this visit with one to Amanda. Amanda threatens to tell Jack the whole truth, which clearly doesn’t go well with Emily. So when Jack walks in, Emily announces that she will be the baby’s godmother. Well, if she can’t be with Jack, at least she’ll be closer to him.

Jack stops by Emily’s to check in with her, they haven’t talked since the night Sammy died, the night they kissed. He promises that he wouldn’t have made any advances if he knew that Amanda was coming home, especially if he knew she was pregnant. Emily, the sweetheart that she is, tells him that she understands, but doesn’t want to see him get hurt. Jack takes her advice and questions Amanda about her disappearance. She consents to a paternity test, and if we’re lucky (which there is a good chance we will be), the baby won’t be Jack’s. After this Jack returns to bed with Amanda, but they can’t even look at each other. With any luck, he’s still thinking about Emily.

When Emily walks into the memorial, gorgeous as ever, she just smiles and waves at Danny. Conrad has to remind him that he’s with Ashley so he won’t lose focus. When she sees him she says, “Don’t worry Daniel, I promise not to spill [my drink] on you this year.” I was really hoping they’d reference their meeting a year earlier. When Ashley catches sight of her ex-best friend, she does just about the worst job possible of faking her happiness.

After Ashley gives a terrible eulogy, Charlotte steps up to the microphone and shares her two cents. It was surprisingly genuine, about how she realizes how much she needed and loved her mother now that she doesn’t have her. Before she gets taken away for having hydrocodone in her system, she manages to tell Emily that Victoria is still alive. Emily shows up at her door and explains that Charlotte sent her and that Conrad is in on some major conspiracy to keep her in rehab. Victoria had to fake her death in order to protect herself from Conrad. When they manage to compile enough evidence against him, she will come out of hiding.

Finally Emily realizes that Nolan is trustworthy and a very useful resource, so she tells him everything. Something that would have saved both of them so much trouble if she had done so previously. Emily returns to Victoria with research on Dr. Thomas, unsurprisingly, he has many lawsuits filed against him and has changed his name frequently. The real reason that Emily visited, though, was to leave a camera. When Victoria asks why Emily is being so kind, Emily responds with the absolutely perfect mischievous grin, “I’m just so happy you’re alive.” Through the clam cam, Emily sees Victoria order the white-haired man to kill her, she’s a liability. It’s not enough that she ordered hits on both of her parents, but Victoria is gunning for Emily next.

I don’t know about you guys, but I didn’t think that Victoria was dead for a second. Victoria is way too smart to get on that plane. The only place that could get her caught was trusting her daughter with the information of her immortality. And Emily’s discovery is going to be her undoing. Well, it looks like we have another intense, action-packed season to come. And that’s the best way to end the weekend. Dexter and Revenge back-to-back will give me the boost I need to start off the week well!

(My review of the next episode of Revenge, Resurrection)