Revenge

Revenge

Episode 7: Penance

By: Carlos Uribe

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

Spoilers Ahoy!

Revenge delivers a pretty great episode where Mason Treadwell is finally taken out of the picture. This isn't a complete thing since Mason is such a delicious character but he's become too big of a nuisance for Emily. The previous episode had Mason figuring out there's a connection between Emily and Amanda. His first thought is that the two were lesbian lovers in juvie and that's why she's been bankrolling Amanda's entire revenge operation. He goes to Emily with this idea but she doesn't give him any answers. It isn't until he goes to Amanda that he starts to get closer to the truth. Amanda is worried that Mason is going to ruin her new family. Jack has just proposed to her and she doesn't want to allow anything that could even potentially threaten her life with him to continue to exist. She's convinced by Emily to not take a gun to his head and she tries to avoid him. It isn't until Mason threatens to talk to Jack that she agrees to meet with him. Mason shows her the board he's put together and Amanda is about to bash his skull in when Emily arrives at the last minute. Emily is able to save Mason and send Amanda away. Amanda doesn't understand why but we'll soon figure out the answer in a moment.

Once Amanda is gone, Emily reveals the truth to Mason. That entire reveal is simply perfectly done. Emily's delivery of the line that Mason has figured it all out except the one thing under his nose is simply great acting from Emily Van Camp. Mason tries to ask forgiveness for what he's done but Emily isn't interested in mere words. She's interested in action and words that actually help her. This is why when Emily finds out that Kara doesn't leave town like she's supposed to, Emily decides to take advantage of this. Mason talks to Kara about Gordon but he goes off-script and reveals to Kara that Daniel had been framed by the Graysons. This sets off a chain reaction that I'll get to in a minute. What Mason doesn't know is that his house is being searched by the police because they have a warrant. He only arrives in time to discover that they discovered a black box from an airplane. Emily's ultimate plan is revealed: she didn't just frame Mason for framing Conrad for killing Gordon. She also framed him for framing Daniel Clarke over the entire terrorist mess. That's right: Emily is sending him to prison for practically the same reason as her father had been sent. Mason is doing penance for his crime and he's paying big time.

What's even more imrpessive is that Emily knows Mason so well that she's able to convince him to confess to both crimes. A full confession that renders a trial to be unnecessary. If he doesn't confess, she threatens him with too much evidence to overcome and a confession from her own mother. She does offer something in return for Mason keeping his mouth shut. Emily promises that she'll set him free one day and allow him to write a book that details her entire revenge scheme. She's going after his hubris and desire to write the ultimate book. Emily claims this is the book that they both knew he was destined to write all along. Mason accepts. It's a genius plan because Emily doesn't have to tell him everything that she did. She doesn't have to give him full access. That means that she can tell him as little as she wants. In other words, Emily is a genius and anyone that tries to get in her way better watch their back. She's simply the best.

As for Mason going off-script? Kara is shocked to learn that the Graysons are even worse than she imagined. She's not on her medicine which means she's unhinged. She decides to go to the Grayson manor and disable some security cameras. She holds Victoria and Conrad hostage and tries to get them to confess. Just as it seems like she's going to execute them, Aiden shows up and stops her with choloform. Nobody sees him and he's able to safely get Kara away. Emily convinces Kara to go away but we all know how characters have a difficult time staying away from this show once they've been on it.

Penance is a pretty great episode that featured Emily at her best. She's able to competently take care of the Mason problem, get Aiden in touch with an Initiative agent, and send Kara away for safety. The only thing she couldn't do is keep Nolan safe. That's because she wasn't alerted to Aiden's request for proof of Daniel Clarke's investment on Nolcorp until he had already given it up. That's because Aiden had used Nolan's loyalty to get the outcome he needed for Daniel Grayson to take over Grayson Corp. Overall, Penance is an episode that moved the plot along while giving us some of the avenging we've come to love this show for.