Revenge
Episode 15:
Retribution
Episode 16:
Illumination
By: Carlos Uribe
Revenge is a show about Emily Thorne and her quest of revenge.
Spoilers
Ahoy!
Retribution:
The
immediate consequences of Amanda's death are felt in this week's
episode. Emily is more determined to bring down the Graysons. She is
angry at them and knows that they are indirectly responsible for the
attack on the boat. She also has to protect Jack. It's a poor episode
to be Jack. He not only believes that his wife was seeking revenge on
the Graysons but he finds out that Emily knew about the plan all
along. He doesn't know that he actually has the whole situation in
reverse but this major betrayal only hints at how he would react if
he knew the truth about the identity switch,. He might not feel like
he knew who Amanda was all this time but he does his best to find the
laptop and get into it. To his credit, he does find it but he can't
guess the password to get in. He has no idea about the infinity
symbol. Emily and Aiden are able to retrieve the laptop from him and
it's thrown into the water. There might be a lot of evidence to throw
away the Graysons but Emily considers that to be a distraction. She
wants to bring them down personally and that means no more
distractions. This gets complicated because Charlotte felt sad that
nobody from Amanda's past was coming to her funeral. She managed to
get into contact with one of her former foster brothers. There is no
doubt that he's going to be an obstacle to Emily.
There
were some movements with the Initiative as well. Daniel is sick and
tired of the Initiative so he decides to undermine them. He threatens
to fire Nolan if the carrion program still exists and he gives away
the clock with the camera to his assistant. When Aiden tries to make
a move to join the board, he decides to give Aiden a test. This is
because he doesn't know if Aiden is a member of the Initiative or if
he really has his back. He doesn't suspect that Aiden is merely using
him to get to the Initiative. His test is to have Aiden conduct the
sales that the Initiative is seeking. The idea is that the members of
the Initiative don't want to get get their hands dirty. Aiden won't
conduct the sales and he would be revealed to be working for them. If
he does conduct the sales then they know that they don't have to
worry about him being in the organization. Aiden passes the test with
flying colors when he puts his hands all over the sales. He might
have earned their trust and a place on the board but it might come
back to haunt him. If the Initiative succeeds in their plan then the
Grayson family is going to have an easy fall-guy. Since Aiden is the
one who conducted the sales, he's going to be the perfect person to
frame for any blame they might incur. He became their insurance
policy for when things go inevitably sour.
The
bad news for Daniel? Nolan ignored his warning. He wants to do his
best to help Padma. Once they confirmed that the finger belonged to
her father and (presumably) was cut off while he was still alive, he
finished carrion and gave it to her. He does give her his own warning
when he tells her that the Initiative isn't very good at keeping it's
word. It's a small plot development but it's pretty significant one.
If Padma goes through with it, then the Initiative will have what it
needs to accomplish it's goal. Retribution was a pretty good episode
that seems to promise that it will return to the focus of the first
season. Whether the promise is fulfilled or not will be up to the
future episodes but I'm pretty excited for the next episode...
Illumination:
Amanda's
death reaches into even this episode. The Grayson family decide to
set up a charity in her name that's going to help disadvantaged kids
get better futures. It's a nice way to honor her memory but their
intentions are less than pure. They're using the charity to channel
their money in there so that when the Initiation goes through with
their plan they don't have to worry about frozen assets. This is just
so dastardly but it fits Victoria and Conrad so well. They're so
interested in protecting themselves that it makes sense they would
set up a fake charity to protect their fortune. Emily and Nolan do
get the idea of hacking into the charity and bankrupting them but
they get foiled when the world's best hacker protects them. It's a
bit of bad storytelling when you build up the carrion as the world's
best hacking device but the first time it's used it ends up failing.
There is nothing wrong with having it fail but at least have it
succeed once or twice before doing so. It's always better to show how
effective it is than to simply tell us. At this moment, it seems to
be more hype than anything. It also makes sense that the only hacker
in the world that's better than Nolan would be able to stop carrion
but it feels a bit sudden to introduce this hacker. It would have
helped if at least one previous episode had a mention of the Falcon
so that it doesn't seem like a random plot obstacle was thrown into
the narrative. Which is really exactly what it feels like: as if the
writers wrote themselves into an area they weren't prepared to go to
so they fixed the problem with a last-minute idea.
The
Falcon isn't Emily's only problem as they keep adding up in this
episode. Her foster brother, Eli, quickly figures out Emily's real
identity. Emily basically tries to get rid of him in the same way
that she tried to get rid of Amanda: wiping the record clean and
giving him money. This predictably backfires as Eli isn't interested
in just cashing out and leaving. He claims to be sticking around
because he suspects Emily is up to something but it's likely that
he's hoping to use the advantage for a larger check. He's named the
co-chair of the foundation after he donates the money that Emily gave
him. He's going to be sticking around for at least a few episodes and
that's promising. So far I like Eli's character but I'm wondering
what his real motive in staying is. I'm sure that will be revealed
eventually. The one criticism I have is that some of the flashbacks
rang a bit false as the kid playing them couldn't sell his lines but
that's certainly forgivable.
The
other problem Emily has is Jack. He's not happy that his wife was a
part of the revenge plan and he's displeased that Emily refuses to
tell him the truth. He's even losing his faith in Nolan. He's even
starting to play the Graysons as he insincerely gives his blessing to
an Amanda Clarke foundation. Jack has always been a character whose
life has remained relatively separate from the Grayson world but his
anger is guiding him on a straight collision path. He has questions
about what happened that night and he wants revenge for what happened
to his wife. It's surprising to say this but Jack's agency is
actually really building up the narrative momentum the most. Eli's
brother was doing a fine job of his own and the serialized plot was
moving along decently but it's Jack that really makes me want to see
the next episode. Illumination is a good episode of Revenge that sets
up the latter half of the season with Jack and Eli while continuing
the Initiative plot.
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