Revenge

Revenge

Episode 13: Commitment

By: Carlos Uribe

Revenge is a show about a girl who goes to the Hamptons to have revenge on everyone there.

Spoilers Ahoy!

Last episode ended with the juicy reveal that Charlotte is actually Emily's half-sister. This episode not only confirmed the reveal, but used the information against Victoria in the divorce proceedings. Conrad is given one of the Treadwell tapes, given to him by Emily, and a paternity test reveals that Charlotte is indeed the half-sister of Amanda Clarke. Surprisingly, Victoria does tell Daniel that Charlotte isn't Conrad's daughter. She lies and states that David Clarke raped her. She did this convincingly using the effects that the divorce has had on her to sell the story emotionally. At the end of this episode, when Jack is seriously hurt, Emily is scared to go through her revenge plan. She's thinking of putting the plan on pause to try and minimize the fallout. Once she hears that lie, Emily changes her mind. To make her father a terrorist is one thing. To make her father a terrorist and a brutal rapist is another thing. So why did Jack get hurt?

Emily decides to frame Amanda for the Treadwell arson. To do this, she decides to plant the tapes on her. When Victoria suspects Amanda of arson, she has a goon break into her apartment to find any evidence. He finds the tapes but Jack catches him. The thug beats Jack up and seemingly really hurts him. Amanda soon finds out the truth about the Graysons and is told that Victoria is trying to frame her for the arson. This causes Amanda to decide to finally listen to Emily and leave town. The thing is that Jack was never supposed to be hurt. He's not the collateral damage that Emily saw coming. She really cares about him and when he gets hurt she finally shows that she does care somewhat about the innocent people she's hurting. If Daniel hadn't been lied to or if he didn't tell Emily, then Emily would have probably switched to a new revenge scheme. Well done show. It continues to not only show how well Emily is at getting what she wants, but also all the negative consequences of her actions.

Such as the divorce. Victoria seems to have been doing rather well during the divorce. She managed to end the pre-nup to try and taking everything from Conrad. A problem is that this brand new revelation about Charlotte is hurting her. She can go to court, but doing so would be to reveal to the world that she had an affair with David Clarke and she had his daughter. It would be revealing to Charlotte the truth about her lineage, which would utterly destroy Charlotte. The girl can't even stand her own mother, and is already feeling betrayed by her father. If she ever found out the truth, it would drive her to a place she probably isn't mature enough to deal with. Victoria does love Charlotte and going to court is not an answer. The option she has is to go to court, or accept the pittance that Conrad is offering her. A pittance that will make her lose all her power and wealth that she so desperately wants. It's unknown if the divorce is far from over, but it's been great. When Victoria realizes that Conrad has her almost beat, it was some nice acting by Madeline Stowe. She's not down yet, and I wouldn't be surprised if she plans to use the rape charge during the divorce proceedings.

There is one somewhat good thing that comes out of this episode. That's Daniel's proposal to Emily. When he proposes to her, it's not because he needs to do it for his trust fund access. It's because he legitimately loves her. It's because he wants to spend the rest of his life. If this was any other show, it would be a good thing. The problem is that he wants to get married to a girl whose only using him. Emily might have feelings for him, but in the end he's just a pawn to get to Victoria. She plans to destroy what remains of his family until nothing is left. There was a part of me that was happy that their engaged, but there's also a part of me that wants Daniel to run away from Emily and to never see her again.

Overall, this was a great episode. This show simply loves showing not only what revenge tactic Emily uses, but the overall consequence of what happens. Not just on the target, but on everyone that got effected. It's too bad that the next episode isn't until February, because I really want to see what's going to happen next.