Reven8e - Let's be Frank for a minute

The episode the other night made one thing clear, if you don't have a secret life going on, then get off the train. It's almost like how a character on Lost was safe until they made amends to their past, then as soon as that happened, they were dead. Enter Frank, Frank for the last 20 years had been living the lie of always having a thing for Victoria, and then last night he pretty much went all out saying, "I'm going to redeem myself to your, or die trying." Instantly you knew what was going to happened next, he was dead meat. I'm sorry but you don't get to be completely honest on this show.

I've decided that rather than rehash plot details, let's just dive into the insanity that is going on behind the plot, it's a lot more fun. Starting with the talented Mr. Tyler, the former rich boy now turned poor boy. Tyler confesses to Nolan that he was not whom he pretended to be and that the Greyson's were his ticket back to the other side of the tracks. I don't buy it. Oh I believe that Tyler is poor and that he is trying to get to the other side of the tracks, but I don't believe the story that he gave to Nolan. Why? The story that he told Emily during the dinner about flying to that private island, Tyler got the details wrong and Emily caught him on it. The thing is, if he had ever been rich, he'd have still gotten those details right in the story. Even if it was a purely fabricated tale, he would have known a thing or two about private jets if the poverty happened only a couple years before. My real thought is that he got some dirt on his former gay lover (Nolan? Really?) and used that to pay for his ticket to Harvard. Tyler has no morals and will do anything to get ahead, this seems more plausible than just reveling himself to Nolan 100%. Besides Nolan isn't socially smart enough to know that he's being played.

Which leads us to Ashley, Tyler's new sister in crime. If Tyler is the sith apprentice than that makes Ashley the jedi padawan. Ashley is trying just as hard to move her way up the social food chain, but as of now she is trying to it the "honest" way. But just like everyone else she has a double life running as well, not so sweet and innocent anymore. Ok maybe she's more like a sith than a jedi, but so far she hasn't been a tool to anyone, just a tool for Emily.

Speaking of Emily's tools, how about Emily's work with that crowbar!

Oh you thought I was going to talk about the other Emily (this is all getting very confusing), well she was kind of pedestrian in this episode if you ask me, sure she was in a lot of it, but everything seemed to be going on around her. So instead let's talk about her mom, Victoria.

Much like Tyler I get the feeling that the Hamptons are a lot like Shrek and onions, you have to keep peeling back layers to get to the truth. Victoria is just screaming that there is more depth than we are getting. I can't remember the exact moment, but there was a moment when Jen and I looked at each other and said, "Daniel and Emily are brother and sister." Look we already had a woman fall off a 5 story building and survive, along with a bunch of other crazy stuff, would it be that hard to believe? While there is one major hang up in this potential plot turn, like how does Emily not know that Victoria is her mom, there are a lot of reasons that it can be inferred.

1) Emily's mom has not been talked about, if anything I think that she was supposed to be dead.

2) Victoria and Emily's dad had some sort of relationship going on in the past, but as Frank said, "You made your choice." Might that choice have been to abandon her daughter for a life of comfort with Conrad? Might Daniel be a love child between Conrad and Victoria, or maybe Emily's dad is also Daniel's dad.

3) Victoria is very protective of Daniel almost like she needs him to be perfect to validate her decision to be with Conrad. Daniel seems to be the only one that she really loves.

4) Charlotte is an after thought to Victoria, she sees her as part of the charade.

What if Daniel was not Conrad's child, but Charlotte was? Victoria sees the man that she really loved in her son, but not in Charlotte, whom she sees Conrad. Let's go one further... Victoria spoils Daniel to no end, as stated in the interview by Charlotte, yet her dad spoils her to no end. Sure this could simply be mom's boy, daddy's girl, but is anything on this show that simple?

5) Victoria always has that strange look that she gives Emily, like she knows something, but just can't put her finger on it. Like maybe the child that you abandoned??? Might that be an extra reason that Victoria saw to it that Emily never got out of juvie? Don't want to risk that wild card kid showing up and blowing her whole plot of security with Conrad?

6) Daniel even asks Victoria why she doesn't like Emily, something we have all asked at one time. The show is basically screaming to you that Victoria's dislike of Emily isn't natural, there is a deeper reason that she doesn't want her son with her.

So is that kind of gross, yep, would it be an awesome plot twist, oh heck yes! The best part is that if it's real it wouldn't have been a cheap plot twist, they would have been setting it up since the beginning.

Anyway I've spent too much time already spinning crazy tales, need to get going.

Reven8e - ADT Home security and you

After last week my mind was just blown, there is just so much going on in this show that it's hard to keep up with it. And I thought that Lost was tough. Additionally last week annoyed me a little bit because I really hate misunderstanding plots. It turned out that it all worked out just awesomely, but there was that moment with Tyler and Daniel and the phone that just bugged me. But I got over that one pretty quick.

So on to this weeks action packed roller coaster that is Revenge. Oh and if this show doesn't get an Emmy for best writing, it's a crime. Oh and one more thing before I get to it, you know what makes a good show to me, addressing the 4th wall (the audience). Remember back to Lost when some crazy stuff would happen and then you'd be left wondering, "Well how is that supposed to work, or well what about this?". Then the next episode they would address that specific plot question and you'd think, "Oh ok I get it now." (Granted Lost left a lot hanging, but hopefully you get my point.) Last night Revenge did the same exact thing. Jen and I keep asking ourselves, "Why is Emily so mean to Nolan?" Thankfully he asked her last night and she said, "It wasn't part of the plan." There was something else but I forget it now, point is it was there, that makes me happy.

On to the plot of last evening. It seems like the hinges are beginning to come off for Emily. The earlier plots at revenge were pretty simple, do A in order for B to take place, wash hands and move on. But things didn't go according to plan last night. Lydia popped up at her house demanding it back and threatening poor sweet Emily. Emily was then put on the defense, calling an audible looking at how to take care of Lydia once and for all. I wonder if the original plan was to go ahead and take care of Victoria in this episode by throwing Lydia at her at the event. It makes sense since she convinced Ashley to center the event around Victoria, which obviously Victoria was able to side step. At the same time Emily set up Lydia by giving her, her little revenge folder. Emily probably didn't know which one was going to go down in flames that night, but figuring that putting the two against each other, knowing that she would have Frank go look at her place was a safe bet that one would take the other one out.

In the preview for next week there is a clip where Emily says that Lydia dying was not a part of her plan, but I'm not so sure. Maybe it wasn't originally for anyone to actually die, but with the pressure that Lydia was putting on Emily it seems like she may have had to put her in a position to be killed. Getting Frank to do it, all the better, in what had to be the ugliest murder in TV history, leave enough evidence behind there Frank? Speaking of evidence, hey Nolan, good job leaving your fingerprints all over the apartment, good thing you have a video of what happened, probably going to keep you out of jail. Question, is Frank at the reception party???

And seriously, she got 10 million dollars, install a security system for God sake!!!

One more indication that Emily's plan might be getting away from her, she had to actually show some personality in her scramble to get all the pieces where she needed them. Oh sure a chess board is easy when all the pieces are lined up at the beginning of the game, but things get a little tricky when all the pieces are in play. Having Nolan go to Lydia's apartment so that she could wrap herself around Daniel was most assuredly not part of the plan.

And what is up with Daniel? I'm getting the impression that he is a pretty decent guy, sure he's had some issues, but he seems to be looking to set his life right. Wouldn't that be the ultimate wrench in Emily's plan if the boy that she set out to destroy was a decent human being? Sure he is a Greyson but he didn't have anything to do with her father or her. I'm sure the plan was to destroy him as part of her destroy Victoria plan, but could she do that if he were a good guy? I guess that has to do with the end sequence and how guilt was a beacon for her to carry her forward, as she's lying in bed with Daniel. Meaning she that why she's going to feel guilty for it, she still plans on ruining his life.

So let me ask this question based on my speculation, is Emily evil? We as the audience have been put in the position to embrace her, but are we being deceived, is she just as reprehensible as the people's lives that she is looking to destroy? If Daniel is a good guy and she ruins his life (or even gets him killed, as maybe seen in the pilot) how can we not say that she's just as bad as the people that she is punishing. It's one thing to give people what they deserve, it's another to harm the innocent. Sounds like something else in this show... Terrorism.

Terrorism is based around the idea of harming the innocent in order to make a point, scare the innocent out of their safe lives. When the plane in the show crashed, 280+ people were killed, all of them innocent victims. Victoria felt so bad about what happened (I don't think they were behind the plot, I'm sure they got wrapped up into funding it somehow, there is no profit in terrorism) that she set up a charity foundation for the victims through her guilt. Interesting that through the episode the theme of guilt created different results in each character. Victoria felt bad for the victims so she tried to help. Emily said herself, that she uses her guilt as a sign that she's doing a good job. Nolan told Emily's father that he would look out for her, which allows him to get caught at a murder scene. Conrad's guilt (if there is any) buys his wife a fancy car, which in turn gets his daughter in trouble with the police. Do we see a trend here???

And one more little piece of symbolism for you. Emily's last name is pretty easy to see the connection, thorn, how about Victoria, Greyson. Sure that seems like a pretty fitting rich people name, but symbolically it's grey!!! Not black or white, but grey!!! Is she actually a good human being in there, is she the she devil the show makes her out to be? Quite literally she is grey. So is her grey son, Daniel Greyson.

Good times.

Revenge - IP addresses and you

I like a show that demands my attention, not asks for it, but demands it. It's part of the reason that I loved Lost so much, and it's a good part of the reason that I'm really liking Revenge. If by some chance you are reading this and haven't watched the show, do yourself a favor and check it out, with so much going on on it, it makes for a very entertaining hour of television.

The show is doing one heck of an effort to appeal to the average American isn't it? The pilot showed us bad people getting what was coming to them, a great premise. Week 2 was the take down of a Wall Street executive, the new arch-villain replacing lawyers in our daily lives. Week 3 (this week) a corrupt politician that isn't buying what they are selling, pro-life and thinking he was paying for an abortion. (Paging Senator Edwards) Next week will undoubtedly be an insurance company or something along those lines.... I'm kidding, but my point is that Revenge, really wants you to like it, it's trying to gain your trust. Take some of the most hated archetypes in society today and throw them on the barbecue, and we'll eat it all up. Again is it too much to think that the show is working us the viewers on some meta-level? Earning our trust so that we'll believe everything we see, only to pull the rug out from under us at some later point? My bet is yes.

Another sign that it might all fall apart on Emily, the dream that she had at the beginning of the episode. I think that Emily knows that in the end she is going to be found out and everything will come crashing back down on her, it's kind of a bad word but I see her as almost being a martyr for her fathers life. Seriously at some point someone is going to put 2 and 2 together and figure out what is going on, Victoria thought that she knew, but was thinking way to small. Eventually it will come back and get Emily, even the quote before the pilot about digging two graves when one seeks revenge, I think she knows it's a one way ticket and she's just trying to take as many down as she can before she is caught. And wouldn't that be a twist if she martyrs her own life only to find out that her Dad really was financing terrorist martyrs himself... Again dad wasn't squeaky clean, he was having an affair with Victoria. Adultery and terrorism are obviously a little different on Santa's naughty list, but you get the point.

But you know who is on the good list? Decklan (however you spell it). Would it have been too obvious if Decklan had just forwarded Adam's sex tape on to Charlotte? (seriously that just sounded weird to write) I think we thought that was coming, but it didn't instead he took the high road. He was going to get her to like him through honest means, rather than resorting to the quick and effective method of destroying Adam's relationship with her. I think the show is trying to show us that not everyone here is evil, not everything is based on hatred and quick and easy revenge, there is the opportunity for morality and decency to exist. Heck even Victoria tried to save Emily's father before he went to jail, granted it was too little too late, but the moment was there to show us that she can be a decent person, maybe she is, or was...

The problem with doing naughty things is that over time those actions that you perform are who you become, or at least seem to be. Emily has had some big plans for Daniel since the pilot, which I'm sure were to get him to fall in love with her and then turn on him like a black widow, naw more like a praying mantis (have you seen what they do to their mates?) But something changed in the little Italian steakhouse, and I'm not talking about Amanda Knox's verdict. The plan was for Daniel's ex's brother to show up and well, cause some damage, not sure if the goal was the car or something more, probably just the car, murder in a public restaurant would be a little much. In the end Daniel confesses his guilt to Emily and goes about making amends (as best he can I guess) for what he did. My take is that this threw Emily for a loop, how can she punish someone for a crime they didn't commit (her father) if they might actually be a decent person? Can she still use him in her plan? By the end of the season they are engaged, but in what context? Ah such mysteries...

We were also presented with a doozy of a mystery last night as well involving the senator and some online content, the mystery of course being, what is an IP address? For anyone that doesn't understand what an IP address is, it is the ID of your computer when it accesses the internet. All computers have an IP address and they are unique to your computer. If someone has access to your IP address (it's generally a 12 digit number so don't worry about it) they can essentially access your computer in any way they want. So what Nolan was doing with Adam's computer, that is very real.

The real mystery of course is who was sending the messages to the senator? Since Emily told Nolan that she bought the building and that's where the video came from it seems likely that she was the one behind the senator's fall from grace. But in the final scene with Victoria we see her wearing the earrings that Emily's dad gave to her as a present, meaning that she was thinking of him when the good senator was hung out to dry. My thought, both of them were working to destroy the senator. That Victoria was involved seems a little less probable, but not unlikely, we'll have to see. The obvious choice is that it was Emily all along, but how would she have access to the computer in Victoria's house over the last two months? Additionally she needed Nolan to hack into the senator's computer, they weren't in contact at that point, so it makes Emily unlikely.

Two months earlier I think that Emily was working on a different plan, and that is securing her old house, through destroying the marriage of the Davis's, forcing them to divorce and sell their house. Victoria could tell that Emily was up to something by being a member in the art society, problem is, she was thinking way way too small. Emily wasn't involved in the affair, Emily was the one that started the affair and then walked away. Emily is thinking on a bigger scale then anyone would expect (for now) that's why Nolan asks her, "You just destroyed the man's career." And her response is, "I want to destroy his life." She's working on a much bigger scale.

And seriously why is she such a bitch to Nolan? I like Nolan. He's on her side and helping her, so what is her deal? Maybe she knows that shes dammed in the end and its a way to protect him?

Oh and when are we going to get to see Emily show a little emotion?

One final question, is the dog on the show Vincent from Lost?

Revenge - How's your 401k doing?

Are you in for the ride? Are you here to have a good time? Are we going to invest in TV viewing and fun speculation like we haven't in a long time? Who's with me? Give me a Hell yeah!

Are you pumped? I said are you pumped? Ok let's get to this!

First off let me say, this is not a blog about facts, this is a blog about speculation (as in this is not a story about forgiveness, this is a story about revenge) I'm going to do what I do 4,596 best on the web, and that is speculate about crazy stuff in a fictional world and hopefully take you with me to the Hampton's for a couple minutes to indulge in polo matches and life on the other side of the economy.

Dede had brought up the idea of doing a blog for this show yesterday, but I told her that two things needed to happen, the first being that it continued to be awesome, check. And that people were actually going to watch it so that it was worth my time to write up my blog (I am an attention whore afterall =) ) Well the show is awesome and I don't see it getting cancelled anytime soon, so why not go all in on it. If people read my blog cool, but if nothing else it gives me a place to play my little guessing game with myself. And with everything that is going on in the little details of the show, oh yeah there is a lot to play guessing games with.

First little item that I'm going to throw out there in my little guessing game speculation, the man killed in the pilot isn't Daniel, it's that punk rich kid Adam (irony, it burns it burns). Here is why... We see that the shooter appears to be Jack (normal Joe who's father owns the sinking bar) sure a lot could happen between now and then, but with a show titled revenge, wouldn't it make more sense to see Jack getting revenge for some punk kid basically killing his father from the heart attack? Sure it's early and there isn't a lot to go on, just kind of a hunch, it's the type of twist that would make sense, since we're all supposed to think that it's Daniel. Oh and before I forget, "Welcome to the OC Bitch!" Anyone that watched the OC will get the joke, I hope....

Second little piece of speculation, Nolan was on the phone with Jack's voice mail when Emily showed up in his car. They went on to talk about very bad things happening to rich people and I wonder if that might have been recorded. Sure Jack seems like a good guy in all of this, but if I'm right on my first thought that he is going to shoot Adam, who knows.

Third how are we to know that Emily's father really was a good guy? Let's say that he really was guilty of the stuff that he was convicted of, except that he was the only one that went down for the crime. We're being told to believe that Emily's dad was this great paragon of goodness that was wrongly convicted and thus ruining Emily's life. However is there one redeeming person in all of the rich characters on the show? At this point, no they're all evil, why not her dad? The main theme of the show is revenge, you know the second theme? Betrayal, what better way to get that point across to us the viewers than to betray our trust by telling us one thing and then flipping that around on us later on down the line. How would Emily respond to knowing that all of her revenge activities were based on a flawed premise?

Let's go a little further down that rabbit hole for a second. Let's say that Emily spends the majority of season one ruining the people's lives that she thought were to blame for her father, only to find out in the end that he was just as guilty as they were. That conviction that she has for destroying them would be shaken to the core and she'd be forced to question all of her motives. But the worst part of it for her would be that she had already committed so many acts of vengeance against the people in the Hampton's that she would be too far down the dark path to turn back. At that point her acts aren't about vengeance, it's about survival.

Speaking of survival, Victoria is a great character, there is just something menacing about her where you know that she can destroy a character at any moment if she wants to. Emily might have some power, but that is based on surprise and secrecy, Victoria is in your face and can crush you at any time. Victoria also sees Emily for what she is, maybe she can't place her finger on what that is, but she recognizes it, birds of a feather... As the investigations into Emily's past go on we'll see her get closer and closer to the truth of what Emily really is, and who she is.

Another thing to take into consideration as the show moves along, as the metaphorical body count rises, it's going to become more and more obvious who is behind what is going on. My guess is that the characters, especially Victoria are going to get wise to the events and see the correlation eventually. Taken with my other speculation that Emily's dad wasn't such a great guy, I could see these two possibilities coming together at about the same time.

One thing that stands out for me is that the writing here is really good. Sure there are instances that are a little contrived, for example: If they were able to buy all that stock so fast, how come they couldn't sell it all so fast too? But in the end it all works, for me at least. What I really liked was that Lydia didn't just disappear, she showed up demanding some money since her pre-nup kicked in and she was going to be without anything. Anyone notice that she had a file with pictures taken I'm guessing by some third party? Emily didn't need the pictures, she got what she wanted, so was Lydia's husband already tracking her? There was some suggestion that Emily and Lydia's husband might have had a thing since they were on some NY art board together, my guess, that's going to end up being nothing, it's too obvious. Besides why would Emily just hand that piece of information over to Victoria in their little tea session? My guess is that Emily hasn't left a trail, just a false trail meant to be found as a wild goose chase, the character is too smart.

What is fun about the show is that there are just so many directions that it could go in. I might be right, or I could be so far off that it's not even funny. Thankfully the plot isn't obvious, sure there is some cliche in the poor kid having a crush on the rich girl, and that could be a disaster, my gut tells me it's setting something up, like a murder in the season finale....

Let's hope the show keeps the bar high, I like liking TV.

I could have found the clip of Homer Simpson hugging the TV asking they they never fight again, I would have placed it here.

Thinking about it, the show isn't perfect, but when it's so much fun to watch, who cares. Case in point. If they could have bought all of those shares as fast as they did to drive up the price, how come they couldn't sell them just as fast?

Revenge - Best served cold, with Awesome Sauce!

Once upon a time I was in love with a TV show, we'd get together every week and it's dizzying plot would keep me riveted week in and week out while I would try to pour over everything that it promised me. Over the years friends of mine (like my wife) would try to warn me that it wasn't real, but I held on, I knew we had something special. But as the years went on I found myself working to convince myself that what was once there still in fact was. Oh sure we were still having fun together, but the thought that it was going to betray me was in the back of my mind. In the end I was let down, the show failed to deliver on the majority of the things it promised me. I was heartbroken, despondent to anything on the TV except college football, left to play alone on my computer for any sort of entertainment value.

Initially I was in disbelief, "No I liked the ending of Lost." But deep down I knew the truth, I had been lied to. I also thought that maybe I could find love in another's arms, so I went out on dates with Flashforward and a blind date with The Event. Call it a rebound, but neither of them could deliver the same type of fascination that I had had with Lost. Oh sure I tried to give myself to those shows, but the love just wasn't there. The plots of both were trying so hard to be something they weren't, they were trying to be Lost, to replace Lost, but in the end they were just jumbled up messes that pushed me even further away from serialized drama.

After the rebounds I took some time off for myself, I went out on some dates with the Bachelorette and we had a really good time together. But those were just flings, one night stands if you will. We knew there was no real love between us, but sometimes it's not about love, it's about having fun. In the end the Bachelorette helped to get me back on my feet so that when the next show came around I would be ready for it.

This summer I had been looking up something online and I happened to come across ABC's fall lineup, filled with all sorts of new show trailers just waiting to be released. One of them caught my eye, it was a red titled show that just had a special darkness about it, it immediately caught my attention with it's catchy name, Revenge. I told my wife that this might be something good, so I kept an eye on it, waiting to see when it was going to premiere.

So last Wednesday Jen and I sat down to give the show a try. After an hour we were both blown away (ok I was blown away, but Jen really liked it too). Here it was, a serialized drama about bad people getting what they deserve all being served up by a main character that herself was pretty evil by her own right. Not to mention a list of characters that you just didn't know where they were coming from, were they your basic douches or were they all demons by their own right. Then to top if off, writing that I think is just exceptional in how it uses the characters and moves the plot. Oh sure we think we know where the plot is going, but with so many possibilities on where it could go, it's tantalizing. I was expecting a let down last night, instead I got more of the awesome sauce that I tasted in the first episode.

After every love there is heartbreak, but in time wounds heal. I'm not sure where this new relationship is going to go, but I'm sure willing to find out, Revenge has my attention like no show has since Lost and knowing that it's getting great feedback online it's going to be around for a little while. Jump on board folks, there is plenty of awesome sauce on this polo pony for everyone!