Revenge

Revenge

Episode 2: Resurrection

By: Carlos Uribe

Revenge is a show about Emily Thorne and her quest of revenge.

Spoilers Ahoy!

Let's talk about Conrad. He's a character who decides to cover up that his company is bankrupt by stealing his daughter's trust fund. He's just the worst, isn't he? He was a pretty bad guy but even Daniel admits that this is just a whole different kind of low. It's so low that I tend to agree with Victoria when she calls him the devil. It makes sense that he's desperate and wants to rebuild his family fortune but that he's so despicable as to take advantage of his own daughter is just casting him to be a major villain. He succeeds in getting the courts to think that Charlotte is mentally unstable but her doctor does recant his testimony to the judge. This is because when Victoria does nothing with the knowledge, Emily sends the information to Daniel. He threatens the doctor to either release Charlotte and admit she's stable or Daniel will reveal the truth to the public. The doctor decides to pick the latter and then promptly disappears. Charlotte is free to go but where will she go. To her dead mother? The two had been planning to flee the country but now that Charlotte's broke, the plan is halted. Charlotte doesn't even want to go when she learns that Amanda, who she thinks is her sister, is pregnant and that she's going to be an aunt. It's heartbreaking to see Emily have to allow Amanda to pretend to be sisters with her actual sister.

Charlotte having no money happens to impact Victoria's plan in more than one way. Victoria doesn't just have any money and the white-haired man is asking for his promised cut of the money. Victoria's decision is to reveal that she's alive to Conrad and the rest of the world. She has Conrad beat her up and then attempts to frame the white-haired man as someone who kidnapped and held her for ransom. Conrad makes up a story about how it's this ransom that bled the company dry along with most of Charlotte's trust fund. This excuses his action to Daniel but the audience knows the truth. If anything, it makes him even more despicable. Considering that Charlotte knows the truth about Victoria, I don't think she's going to be as forgiving about her father stealing all her money. The white-haired man becomes a wanted one but he goes to Emily's home. He knows that Emily has a recording of what really happened and he's hoping that she'll give it to him. She does ask for something in return and that's the truth of what happened to her mother. This is becoming a major element of this season for Emily and the white-haired man tells her that he disobeyed orders and allowed Emily's mom to live. He then attacks Emily but he gets shot in the back by Takeida's student and Emily's new guide. Emily is safe if a bit startled. It's a bit surprising that she didn't see the attack coming but her mother is really getting her off guard. One thing that Revenge does well is show how one plot can have surprising repercussions and this episode proves it. Conrad's plan to steal Charlotte's money sets of most of this in motion. It helps to establish a familiar status quo: a Grayson family that is barely holding together. Tragedy can bring anyone together.

In an interesting piece of information, Jack finds out that he's the actual father of Amanda's baby. He's delighted by the news because it means that the dark cloud of doubt is no longer hovering over him. This isn't what's interesting. When Amanda calls Emily to see if Jack's actually the father, Emily tells her the news that he isn't. This upsets Amanda because of it's implication. It means that the love of her life isn't the real dad, that he's been deceived, and that she was wrong. This isn't what's interesting. What's interesting is that Emily then reveals to Nolan that she had lied to Jack. Why? One can only wonder if she's hoping that the guilt will eat away at Amanda and leave Jack to be single. It's certainly a lie that reveals a lot about Emily: she still cares for Jack and she's no happy that he's with a different person. We knew she liked him but this episode manages to explore her feelings a bit better through this action.

Revenge delivers a pretty solid episode. The title refers to Victoria's supposed coming to life and her revival of her family. The whole story with Amanda still isn't the most interesting one but Emily's feelings about it might make it more worthwhile than expected. The premiere didn't make me want to see the rest of the season immediately. I still haven't been hoked into this season but this episode brought me closer.

Other Notes:

Declan gets a story where he's being paid money to hide stolen jewelery. This might get interesting but so far, boring.

Nolan also has a story in which he hires a new CFO. The story makes me wonder how he can be so controlling of the company and yet never be there.