Revenge

Revenge

Episode 5: Forgiveness

Episode 6: Illusion

By: Carlos Uribe

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

Spoilers Ahoy!

Forgiveness:

When Revenge first started it made it perfectly clear that this wasn't a journey for forgiveness but one of revenge. It should come as no surprise that the one distraction that Emily has had in her plan to destroy the Grayson family is her mother leads betrays this. She found out her mother was alive and she decided to find her. It hasn't been easy and this quest has consumed a lot of time and energy. The last episode had the shocking reveal that Kara had tried to kill her when she was five. She had repressed the memory and it wasn't until the end that it came to her. It emotionally devastated her. This episode she manages to recover but decides that she needs to get rid of her mother. This makes sense. She feels betrayed and she's no longer interested in having her mom in her life. If there's anything this show has taught us, it's that Emily is not a very forgiving person. There's also Amanda's baby to consider. If Kara had tried to kill her own mother then what would stop her from trying to kill her own grandson? Getting rid of Kara is the smart choice for the baby's safety. Before Kara offers to leave, she offers an explanation. Kara explains that she wasn't well mentally and that she couldn't control her behavior. It was her decision to deceive her daughter into believe she was dead. It was in her daughter's best interest. She reveals this to Amanda but Emily is paying attention as well. Amanda is able to forgive Kara on Emily's behalf. This moment of honesty leads Emily to reveal that Jack really is the father to Amanda. This might not be a show about forgiveness but this was an episode that prominently featured it.

While this is all going on, Emily also has to deal with a dedicated Aiden. Aiden is trying to bring Emily's focus back to bringing down the Graysons but he's having a hard time. When he finds out that Padma is looking into Daniel Clarke's employment contract at Grayson Corp, he decides to use that information to his advantage. The show uses some business terminology that essentially means Grayson Corporation might have an exclusivity clause when David used his money to invest in Nolancorp. This means that Grayson Corp might own the controlling stake in this company and that might solve their financial problems. Of course this means taking away Nolancorp from it's current owner, Nolan. This threatens his wealth and it's not good news for him. Aiden doesn't care as he's not looking out for Nolan. Emily's interests happen to lie with Nolan but Aiden doesn't really care what Emily wants. The two may have the same goal but the way they're pursuing it has put them at odds. Aiden goes as far as to threaten that he's going to make a much bigger enemy than he was as a partner. What is Aiden's plan? Use this information to put Daniel in charge of the company and to join the board of Grayson Global. I am liking the friction between Aiden and Emily even though they're supposed to be on the same side.

This episode was made great with the Kara plot. The whole Grayson Corp plot is intriguing and it's a great way to make Aiden a threat to Nolan. Emily is Nolan's friend and by putting him in the cross-hairs, the show is able build the conflict between Emily and Aiden. The ending of the episode was pretty amazing. Mason came back this episode because he heard of Amanda's been welcomed into the Grayson family before proceeding to fall and he wanted to get the real scoop. He notices that there isn't a scar where there's supposed to be one and that sets off alarms in his head. He's able to discover that Amanda is merely a pretender. The only problem I have with this is that Emily herself does not have a burn mark. It's possible that she had the scar removed but it seems all a bit convenient. Still, it's a great cliff-hanger that is able to build interest into the next episode. Having a character, even a minor one, know the truth that could be a threat to Emily find out the truth about her identity is a great way to build tension. This is all to state I was really excited for Illusion.

Illusion:

Which is why I was almost disappointed when I saw it. There's a moment in the episode where Amanda tries to fool Mason into thinking that Amanda is who she says she is. It seems like he believes her and that the entire cliff-hanger had been a ruse. Which is why it was so satisfying to end the episode with Mason figuring out that Emily is Amanda. He might have been tricked earlier in the episode but he was able to uncover the truth. His discovery of Emily's real identity serves as the cliff-hanger of the week and it has me just as excited for the next episode of Revenge as I was for this one. It's tricky to essentially have the same cliff-hanger two episodes in a row and to make both of them work just as effectively. Any time you repeat yourself in a series, you run the risk of having diminishing returns. It's good writing that ensured that the series was able to pull this off twice. Part of the reason it worked so well is because the show pretended to back off from the first cliff-hanger before it fully committed itself. That I actually fell for this trick until the moment Victoria referenced Emily's juvie past helped make that moment work. Illusion was almost a disappointment but it managed to meet my very high expectations.

That entire arc with Mason wasn't my favorite part of the episode. That has to go with Aiden and Emily teaming up. The two have had a tough relationship that it's been difficult to see how they were before the strain. The two have worked together briefly in episodes but this is the first one where they seemed to actually be mutual friends. They're not partners since neither is really aware of the other's plan. Aiden is still hoping to use Nolcorp to get himself a position on the board while Emily is trying to protect her identity by distracting Mason. It's ironic that this distraction leads Mason to figuring out the truth about her. Aiden's quest to get on the company board is getting him closer to Daniel and this leads him to suspect that there might be more to Ashley than we know. It's elegant that there's two revenge plots in the episode and they manage to perfectly run parallel. Emily's plan is brutally effective in getting Conrad arrested but it fails it's purpose. This plan helps Aiden's plan as it pushes Daniel to make a move against his father. It also helps to draw out the Initiative, which is a good thing for both Emily and Aiden. What this entire episode has been suggesting is that Emily is getting back on her mission as she won't have her mother distracting her anymore. In the end, this developing relationship between the two and Emily's skill at scheming helped to make Illusion memorable.

It helps that the rest of the show is pretty much working well. Victoria and Conrad get married again this episode but their hatred towards each other is barely concealed. Victoria is all to happy when Conrad gets arrested but is disappointed to learn that he gets out on bail. Conrad's payment is that he's promised to devote his resources to an Initiative project. A project that the show seems to hint is worse than the terrorist attack they framed Daniel Clarke with. Conrad is forced to accept this in order to save his life. What's great is that this could be seen as a consequence of Emily's episodic plan. This series has always been great at showing the ripples that people's actions can have and this episode is a prime example of that. Illusion might not have the emotional power of Forgiveness but it helps the show be more like the first season Revenge than any other episode this season.

Other Notes:

In Forgiveness Jack gets the offer to buy the bar after they are able to pass the inspection. The Stowaway sub-plot is frankly rather uninteresting at this moment as it didn't get any more interesting in Illusion.