Thank you ABC for giving us Revenge, I'm not sure how I knew from the promos back during the summer that this show was going to be as awesome as it has become, but it is great television. The plot twists and set ups are on the level with Lost, sure there isn't the sci-fi aspect of it, but with writing this good who cares. This is the roller coaster that I want to ride for a couple of years, now all we need is for ABC to pick it up for next year.
Initially I thought the first half of the episode was a little weak, but it was all just a set up for the chaos that was set to go by the end of it. Our little heroine Emily arrived on the scene back in the pilot with discipline and a plan, but by the end of last night it was clear that she was no longer in control of the runaway train. As she eluded to when Nolan asked her what was on the tape, "it could be a Pandora's box." how fitting that by the end of the episode "Emily's box" had been stolen the hole in the floor left open and as the closing narration told us, "the monsters have been let out." Pandora's Box has been opened upon the Hampton's and Emily can no longer control what she opened. How fitting that the title for the next episode is Chaos. Oh and wouldn't you put that box someplace a little safer?
This episode was titled Perception, and after reading the EW recap, which I highly recommend it gave me a new look at how I precieved the episode last night and the show as a whole, it's clear why that writer is writing for EW and I'm writing to the 5 people reading my blog (come on people if this freelance writer thing is going to take off I need your support) (I'm kidding, sort of.. =) ) The article centered on the different perceptions of what we think is going on in the story and how several of the characters see what is going on in the story. When you get down to it, all of them saw something last night in a different light. And after trying to write this week's recap I am seeing things in a different light the more I look at the episode and show as a whole.
Rather than try to get into everything that took place last night because that itself would require a large white board and a novel's worth of writing, I'm going to keep it to the theories as much as possible. First theory, Emily no longer has any control over what is going on. Oh sure she broke the dam at the beginning of the season by exposing Conrad's affair, but after that the Greyson's have done a great job of tearing themselves apart. Oh sure Emily had her moments where she would intervene but honestly that was more like a town trying to hold back the flood waters with sandbags, you might be able to save a house or two, but the entire town is underwater and you can't prevent that. To that effect, once the ball got rolling the plot took on a life of it's own, now instead of just ruining a wealthy privileged family that had no soul, we've learned that Daniel is a pretty decent guy. Charlotte's a spoiled princess, but her world came crashing down last night. Jack the "everyman good guy" has started to take a turn to getting equipped with a red light saber (oh poor Anakin). Nolan while once enjoying the game of the plot now is the conscience of Emily constantly nagging at her reminding her that she is destroying innocent people's lives in the process... Indiscriminately destroying the lives of innocent people, sounds like a terrorist to me... I'm just guessing but I don't think that daddy David Clarke was as innocent as we're led to believe.
Speaking of people that aren't as innocent as we're led to believe, let's talk about Ashley. I read a great theory on her on EW (no really go read it, I can't take credit) As Conrad astutely asked her what her deal was. She was too refined to be a grifter, too smart to be a lacky, so he called her an opportunist. We already knew that there was more to her than just the event planner when Tyler confronted her, but why??? The theory that I read suggested that she might be out for revenge on the Greyson's as part of her own motivation, maybe her family was killed in the crash, or to go way out there, maybe her family was a part of the terrorist organization that who's funds were cut off by GG after the plane crash? It would be hard to find a redeeming value to Ashley if she were connected to the terrorists, but maybe we're just going to need another bad guy, a badder bad guy. Totally stealing from the EW theory, look at Lost. At first it was the others, than it was Ben, then it was Widmore, than the smoke monster. Are the Greyson's the others, and Ashley, Ben? I'm guessing that Ashley will continue to be much more shadowy than our main characters, until the season finale when she'll do something big. Keep an eye on her, something is coming.
As we go into next week, we can expect the answer to two very big questions:
1) Who shot Daniel?
2) Who broke into Emily's box?
To me there are only two real suspects, Amanda and Tyler (thank you Dede). Amanda might be sick of Emily's crap of telling her what to do. Seeing that Jack is tearing himself a part about losing Amanda (and I'm sure no one has ever loved her) I think she is more than capable of throwing Emily under the bus and taking her man and running away with him. But there are a couple of problems with it being her. First she isn't a plotter, she is a doer, she isn't going to leave a note for Emily. Second she can't reveal who she is or else she risks losing Jack over the lie that she has been feeding him. Third, she has nothing to gain by throwing Emily under a bus.
Which is why all signs to me point to the return of Tyler. Tyler knows the truth about Emily so he could very easily have written that note because he found her stash. Also Tyler has no love of Daniel anymore so could our resident crazy man go out and shoot Daniel, oh yeah.
BUT I am 90% sure that Daniel won't die, he's too good of a character and there are way too many possibilities that remain open by keeping him around. For example Daniel ends up in the hospital and Emily realizes that this has gone beyond just ruining lives, people are actually dying (Frank was a baddy anyway). Does she do a 180 and now try to just defend herself from what she started? With a new main plotter, oh I don't know Ashley??? Not to mention that we got to watch Lydia fall 5 stories only to land on the top of a car and survive, not even paralyzed. Is it that hard to believe that Daniel could take two in the back and still live?
So the person that is going to die is Amanda, I am 90% sure on this one. Oh Tyler will probably come back to shoot Daniel, but somewhere in the episode Amanda is going to die. Why? Simple, she has lost her purpose, and she is much better suited as a tool to propel the story along. Amanda dies and then Jack totally goes off the reservation in his grief, the only one that can save him would be Emily, but at the risk of herself, sounds like a great character dilemma to me. It moves the story away from the Amanda Clarke trying to undermine the Greysons for a while, while we get to see a divorce trial and murder investigation and attempted murder investigation. But it allows for Emily to be exposed later on for who she really is when the story needs it. And how long could Nolan hold out on telling Jack the truth if Jack was going crazy over the loss of Amanda? I'm still convinced that Jack was in love with the memory of the little girl that was Amanda rather than the stripper that he was actually with, case in point see his reaction to the video.
So if Tyler shoots Daniel, who shoots Amanda (yes I am predicting a double homicide)? My guess, Victoria's henchman. He failed to get all of the videos when he broke into Jack's house, now that Victoria knows this, she is going to get on him to finish the job. Hence fake Amanda will die, and eventually giving Jack a reason to get revenge on Victoria as well once he discovers it.
What happens if Emily discovers that her dad really had something to do with the terrorist plot and that she has destroyed the lives of the men that she loves Daniel and Jack for no reason? We aren't there yet, but by the end of the season, both men might pass the point of no return.
Fun stuff...
Oh and I almost forgot, did Emily get her phone back from Grandpa? I don't think that she did, keep that in mind.
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