I think I’m going to like this version of Jack.
So, Amanda is in fact dead and Emily is reeling when we pick up with “Retribution.” She goes home and has to play dumb until Amanda is found—we’re to assume she swam home, I guess? Nolan and Aiden descend on the house and fuss over her but she’s having none of it. She goes upstairs for a quiet meltdown and then is called to the hospital.
Fairly soon, Amanda washes up and Charlotte IDs her, and it’s left to Declan and Emily to break the news. Jack sobs and weeps to hear it but his moment is short-lived because Conrad arrives and tries to ferret out what he knows about Nate and the laptop. Satisfied that Jack doesn’t know anything, he offers to pay his medical bills. Weirdly, Emily doesn’t offer to do that instead.
Once they’re alone, Jack tells Emily and Nolan about the computer and that Amanda had been plotting against the Graysons (I forgot this last week in my recap—apologies) and he asks for their help. He also later has a chat with Emily wheer she tries to reassure him that whatever game Amanda was running, she loved him and Carl and that was real.
Emily searches the apartment for the laptop but doesn’t find it, however she does meet Mr. Creepy from the Initiative, who’s also skulking around. She gets Jack brought home to convalesce (on Conrad’s dime–hah!), and after he settles in and is left alone, he breaks the beach glass jar in a fit of rage and grief and finds a locker key. Rather than ask Emily or Nolan to go fetch, he does it himself and finds not only the laptop but also letters between Emily and Amanda. He then crashes Grayson’s convenient dockside press conference and dangles the carrot that he wants to meet Conrad later.
When Emily realizes Jack has the laptop, she goes to see him before the funeral and he’s oddly calm until he just unloads all over her that she’s been lying to him this whole time (wait for it) because now he knows she knew Amanda in juvie (a reveal but not THE reveal). She tries to explain but he shuts her down with a case of “I’ll do this by myself” and then they go to Amanda’s funeral, which is full of awkward because he can’t even look at Emily during the eulogy.
Elsewhere, Aiden has been instructed by Emily to work his way back into the Grayson Global board and after he passes a test from Daniel to make an Initiative investment, he does just that. Then, during the funeral, he ransacks Jack’s apartment and takes the laptop. When he gives it back to Emily, she flings it into the ocean and says they’re starting over with basically just their wits about them.
Daniel’s also dealing with whether and how to continue with the Initiative as he uncovers increasingly unsettling things about how they and the Graysons have made all their money. In one show of backbone, he takes Helen’s camclock out of his office. Ashley is also trying to find her humanity when she confornts Conrad about whether he got Amanda killed but she can’t quite bring herself to leave his campaign.
Nolan confirms that it really was Padma’s dad’s finger that was sent to her, so he finishes Carrion and gives it to her with the warning that regardless of her dad’s dire straits, no good can come from this program out in the world. We don’t see what she decides.
Also—Charlotte can’t let it go that Amanda left no family aside from the Porters and her and Emily, so she takes to Googling (despite Victoria’s plea that she not) and turns up a foster brother, who arrives at Amanda’s grave in the rain long after the funeral and finds another visitor, Emily, already there. He can’t see her face because she’s concealed by the umbrella. That’s not going to bite her at all, right? Poor, dumb Charlotte.
So, I liked that Jack is FINALLY going to nut up after being played for so long. Nick Wechsler was BADASS on Roswell all those years ago and I’m looking forward to him taking the gloves off. I hope he does so with a mix of bravado and brains because we know nobody does well here when they make solely gut-driven decisions. I also really, really want to see what happens when Emily finally tells him everything.
Here’s a sneak peek of “Illumination,” which airs tonight at 9 pm E/8 pm C on ABC in the US and CityTV in Canada.
Photo courtesy of ABC/Danny Feld.
I’m a guy, so excuse this sexist comment: Emily/Amanda was sooooooooo HOT in the funeral garb!
Seriously that was not funeral clothing, it was more like a nighty chase meridan used to try and seduce val kilmer’s Batman in Batman Forever.
I agree with you, bout time Jack got angry!!! Lovin S2 of Revenge, wonder what the future holds for the show.
Keep up the great blogging.