Revenge Visits Scandal, Doubt, and Justice

It’s funny sometimes how a show can lose its momentum or lose its way altogether when the back nine of a first season commences somewhat separately from the initial 13. Revenge is a little bit different because it didn’t start wobbling until episode 16 and then it just got silly before it pulled out a last-minute twist that made the deviation forgivable.

The last episode before the break two months ago, “Scandal”, veered off into ripped-from-the-headlines pacing (and camera work) as charges were filed against Daniel in Tyler’s murder, and then the return in April with “Doubt”, almost two months later, had the crisis averted with Daniel returning home with an ankle bracelet but leery of his girlfriend while his mother was off gallivanting with her long-lost first love, Dominik Wright.

That Victoria spent the previous day ordering Lee, the same guy who attacked Jack, to deliver a beat down on Daniel that would get him a house arrest release while awaiting trial, was just a little above and beyond. Emily puts the pieces together after she follows Victoria and sees her paying Lee off. Later, she sashays, dark wig and all, into the bar where he hangs out, liquors him up, and then lays her own beating on him.

Treadwell comes back into the Grayson fold (at Nolan/Emily’s behest) long enough to help with tabloiding Charlotte’s pill problem after Declan outs her and discredits that she saw Jack on the beach the night Tyler was killed. This goes against the intent of bringing Treadwell in to live blog a defense for Daniel, so he’s one episode and out. In other news, Ashley has evolved into the family spokeswoman.

When we picked up last week with “Justice,” we’d jumped a few months ahead and landed on day 15 of the trial. (If the math holds, it should be a few weeks after Thanksgiving but there’s nary a Santa in sight, although there is snow.)

Jack has been driving up and down the East Coast looking for, but not finding, Amanda. This has all been an elaborate ruse orchestrated by Nolan and Emily to keep him out of the Hamptons. Declan is summoned to testify, so Jack hauls ass home. Declan is also reeling from Charlotte’s post-outing parting nugget that he failed his entrance exam at school but was granted a placement thanks to a check from Grandpa Grayson.

Victoria strongly suggests that Charlotte make peace with and “convince” Declan to change his testimony so she saunters into the bar really late at night and really underdressed but doesn’t close the deal because Nolan interrupts to tell Declan to do whatever he feels he has to do. When Jack gets home, he’s in a twist because Nolan’s babysitting job hasn’t kept Declan out of court (but Declan jokes that it has helped him in precalc).

Emily welcomes Jack with a fireside chat and then when Nolan tells that her Jack has a bloody sweatshirt, she enacts her own plan on Lee and steals the shirt, trashes Jack’s room, and plants the sweatshirt in Lee’s car so he’s arrested. This is after Victoria tries to have Lee scare a juror by threatening to kidnap her child (as they did with David Clarke’s trial when they killed the wife of a juror to throw the verdict).

Victoria’s lover gets a backstory that they worked together conning the rich with fancy forgeries, including one they sold to Conrad way back there. Conrad confronts Dominik and tells him to hit the road or he’ll reveal him and Victoria to everyone. Conrad of course then drops a hint on this to Victoria and she goes racing to stop Dominik but finds his loft abandoned.

Meanwhile Daniel falls into the bottle again because his doubts get the better of him and he confronts Emily in a rage and gets thrown back in jail when he violates his house arrest by going to her house.

The wrap up lands a stunning piece of news on Emily, though, when Lee “suicides” in jail after Victoria cuts him off, admits what she’s done to Conrad, and Conrad makes a call. Then the penny drops for Emily that her dad’s death in custody was not as simple as it seemed and was yet another Grayson power play. Lee’s death also opens the door for Daniel’s release because he conveniently confesses to Tyler’s murder before he “hangs himself. “

BUT, there are still four episodes left.

This week, Tess Harper’s in the house wielding a very big gun and Emily looks like she’s smacking the crap out of Nolan.

I was seriously concerned we were getting off track with the speed up/fast forward/amping-up-the-preposterous change in tone, but the reveal about David’s murder was very well played. Points to the show. I was right there with Emily when her jaw hit the floor. Here’s hoping they keep that momentum for the last four episodes. The show seems a lock for a second season, so get ready for a cliffhanger!

Photo Courtesy of ABC

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