While everybody gets the hell out of the way of Mad Men tonight, Revenge is taking a breather. It’s been a whirlwind few weeks for some, but not all of our characters, in the last three episodes–“Illumination,” “Victory,” and “Masquerade,” so let’s review.
Emily and Aiden
They’re still together but have relocated to another house to be less supervised by the Graysons. Emily gets bogged down with the arrival of her foster brother, Eli. First, he seems too good to be true, and then his real nature surfaces and admits that he’s made a life as a con man. He brings Emily in on a con against their foster mother, unwittingly roping Victoria and Jack into it as part of the foundation named in Amanda’s memory.
The truth also comes out that Eli reset the fire that sent Amanda to juvie, so as part of his mea culpa he agrees to move along after they makes their foster mother publicly pay for her abuses of the children in her care. He also tells Emily that the woman had kept letters from David, and that when he tried to get them back, she admitted that she’d sold them to Mason. Emily pays Mason a visit in prison and he tells her the letters burned in the fire at his home, but he gives her a useful bit of intel when he tells her that Victoria had confided in David that she’d surrendered a son when she was 16.
While Emily is wrapped up in this, Aiden tries to help Nolan with Padma and the Initiative but things go terribly wrong and she’s kidnapped. Something about all of it felt “off” to me, like she was in on it, but in last week’s episode, which took a six-week jump, Aiden gets Trask to take him to where she’s being held, only to find her dead, and then he kills Trask. The news devastates Nolan and hits Aiden and Emily hard, because their plan failed.
Emily and Daniel
Daniel calls Emily and clues her in that the Amanda foundation is a front for the governor’s fund. Soon after, he receives a surveillance photo of him with Emily accompanied by two bullets (courtesy of Victoria) so he cools things off for the six-week jump. Then he decides to test Aiden about an investment with the Initiative (unaware it’s Aiden’s play to get to Trask and get a seat on the Grayson Global board).
When Trask assures him the bullets weren’t from him, Daniel realizes he’s been manipulated yet again by his mother, so he invites Emily to her Halloween ball. Emily has plans of her own, though and starts dropping enough clues to make Victoria think her son has resurfaced. This leads to Victoria faceplanting at her ball. Emily then spends the night with Daniel and has to come home and tell Aiden that it doesn’t mean anything.
Nolan
Nolan goes on quite A Beautiful Mind bender looking for Padma—feeling guilty that their attempt to orchestrate the meet with the Initiative failed and that a version of Carrion is out in the world. He’s also rattled that another hacker, The Falcon, is working with the Graysons. The news of Padma’s death is compounded when the police tell him she was killed the day she was found. And he’s a suspect.
Conrad and Jack
Conrad’s making a full-court run at governor, and using Jack for the Everyman angle at every available turn. Jack finds out from Kenny that Conrad was essentially aware of the decision to kill Amanda if necessary, so he hijacks a press opportunity at the bar to playback Conrad’s recorded chat with Nate, and get a commitment to investigate David Clarke. He also later enlists Ashley’s help to bring Conrad down when she’s had enough of the Grayson machine. So, Jack is getting closer to whatever he’s going to be, but he hasn’t totally taken the gloves off yet.
Victoria
Victoria is flailing since she’s lost her grip on Daniel, and now her long-lost son may be back in the picture. She visits the convent and the nun who helped her. The nun tells Victoria that her son had visited once but she kept her word and told him nothing. Immediately after she leaves, Emily shows up and tells the same nun she’s pregnant and needs help.
Charlotte
Something’s going to give here soon, because she’s still reeling from Amanda, and then Eli, and when she hears a couple of people at the Halloween party bash Amanda, she takes a swing at one of them. As far as we know, she’s still clean, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she falls in line with Jack’s agenda pretty soon.
So, everybody’s busy busy.
I’ve said before that I like Aiden and Emily together, so I hope they still are when everything pans out. There’s also still the mother of all reveals to be had when Emily finally tells Jack who she is, but that could be a while away yet. I also think we’re due a visit from Takeda before the end of the season. He’s been suspiciously quiet.
I definitely think we’re closer to on track than we were at the beginning of this season, when we were sort of looking for the goal. Now that we’re past the initial premiere’s set up of the shipwreck, I’d guess the rest of the season will be about keeping Conrad out of the governor’s mansion. Let the games begin!
Revenge returns with new episodes on April 28th with the first of the last four episodes of the season. No word yet on a third season.