I called it! Padma *is* a sneaky little shit. Now that that’s out of the way, I’m confused in other areas. Which isn’t hard to do, but there was so much chess maneuvering in last week’s episode, “Sabotage,” that I don’t know if I’m totally clear on who knows what and from whom and when they figured it out. So let’s just say some of this will be conjecture, and feel free to tell me in the comments that I biffed it.
In the aftermath of Emily and Daniel kissing and Aiden seeing that go down, Aiden’s a little less secure in his role in all this and seriously looking for another way to bring the Initiative down that doesn’t involve Emily anywhere near Daniel. He does admit he met with Helen and that she said she has Colleen but Emily talks him down that without proof of life it could all be a big lie, so they have to stay on course. “On course” this week is a wine auction to put Daniel and Helen in a room together in front of God and everybody.
Emily goes to see Daniel to get his donors’ list and then listens in on a call he has with Helen where Helen tells him to go after a disaster recovery firm called Stone Haven. Emily drops that morsel on Victoria and Victoria sets in motion her own play to bring one of Conrad’s former nemeses, Jason Prosser, to the table to pre-emptively make that acquisition not happen. It’s unclear whether Victoria may have had some sort of flirtation with the guy before, but he’s definitely interested in more than business when she invites him to the auction, or maybe that’s just because he’s played by Dylan Walsh.
Emily also overhears that Helen has directed Daniel to look into missing R&D at Nolcorp but we don’t see her pass that info along to Nolan. It’s possible there’s a long con being played offscreen there. Over at Nolcorp, Nolan is still avoiding Marco, who gets creepier and needier and shadier by the day, and he would also seem to be trying to keep Nolan and Padma apart (but I have a sneaking suspicion they are in cahoots). Padma outs Marco to Nolan for talking to Daniel about whatever Carrion is but she plays dumb and calls it “Carrie Ann” and acts like they were talking about a person. Nolan conveniently finds e-mails backing up Padma’s claim and tells a protesting Marco to get out.
The auction is a success and Daniel and Jason outmeasure each other with Daniel the victor at $1 million for a bottle of wine. Earlier, Emily played the surveillance in Daniel’s office to her advantage to get Helen to attend the auction, and at the event they make their polite intros and she leaves Emily with a check. (It’s also crossing my mind that Helen and Emily may be working a long con).
Then Aiden hops in an elevator with Helen as she leaves to get more info on Colleen, and it stops between floors and smoke fills the car. When they wake up, they’re tied and masked and being asked about Stone Haven. Then Aiden fights their interrogator and they escape. Then another masked man comes in and we find out the interrogation was a shell game being run by Emily and Nolan.
Emily cleans up and goes home and Daniel comes in with his bottle of wine. Aiden shows up to “get his things” and then he leaves.
Our last shot of the night is Padma calling Helen and telling her that yes, there is something to Carrion. Dun Dun DUN!
Oh, and over at the Porter House of Pitiful, Jack sits in jail and he spills all to Amanda and she spills all to Charlotte, who brings Amanda to her dad and he refuses to help. But then Ashley, who’s wormed her way back in by lording her trove of secrets over Conrad, tells him it’s good PR to help the Porters if he really is going into public service, so he gets Jack out of jail and tells them he’ll help them. Sidebar: At one point, Amanda says they need to bring in Emily or Nolan but Jack shoots her down. So at least *somebody* is thinking clearly. That is until she buys a gun with Conrad’s watch (after he said he wouldn’t help), so that’s going to jump up and bite somebody at some point.
We’re two weeks into the back half of the season and already spinning a lot of plates. Thank goodness. It took a little while to get back to form but I think we’re going in the right direction now to resume the first season’s momentum. We pick right back up tonight with “Collusion” at 9 pm E/8 pm C on ABC and CityTV.
Photo courtesy of ABC/Eric McCandless