Oh how I have missed you my happy happy joy joy blog of pointless TV recaps. Life has just been too upside down for the last couple of months that I just haven't been able to find a moment to come and revisit you. Not to say that I'm not overwhelmed at the moment right now as well, but after that season finale of Revenge last night, I was just compelled to get out my quill and get my Mason Treadwell on.
To anyone that is reading this that hasn't watched season 1 of Revenge, just close down this window now and go find yourself the episodes online. I'm sure that some of you felt the sting in how Lost ended and didn't really give us the payoff that we had hoped for. In this case last nights episode was a payoff well deserved and a fantastic set up for next season, and there will in fact be a next season of the show, you're safe to invest yourself a little bit.
So getting to it. I have to say that I thought last weeks episode was the worst of the season so I was riding a bit of fear as the finale rolled around, but by the time the opening credits played, I knew we were in for a good one. I'm going to start with Jack Porter, the too good for himself bartender with a heart of fools gold. Jack my poor poor soul, at least take the million dollars, sure you're "above" such things but you're going to keep your mouth shut anyway, take the damn money. Oh sure it might have looked a little strange considering that you were just making out with Emily in the last episode (a dreadful scene IMO) and that might have left you with some guilt towards Daniel, but come on it would have served you well in that college fund that you need to start saving in, more on that in a minute. And besides if you really wanted to go build schools in Haiti you could have turned evil money into good deeds. Oh well Jack is our paragon of goodness and will have to just keep on being a beacon of light among all those poor er I mean rich souls. A safe "Port"er if you will... Ok that was cheesy.
On to baby mama. First off if you didn't see Amanda's return coming a mile away then you really shouldn't be driving at night, but I don't think that her return was really meant to be a shock or even that she was pregnant to be a shock, to me the shock was how it devastated Emily, more on that in a minute. Amanda's return opens up a laundry list of questions specifically to where the heck has she been, and you don't think that Daniel is going to be a little worried to have Amanda back in the picture considering the murder trial where Amanda could have been a factor. Not to mention the fact that Jack gave Daniel back the money right before she walked back in the door. Sure Jack was doing the "right" thing, but the timing is going to look like Jack was giving it back so that Amanda would be clear to talk without that hush money there.
I'll get to Emily, but first I want to hit the smaller characters, next is Nolan. Ok first off Nolan, never ever try to go undercover ever again in what had to be the worst cable man impression ever. For his trouble he got his ass kicked and rightfully so, Nolan can't play with the big boys on the show and once again we see that while he has the best of intentions he just doesn't have that dark side the others have. Nolan is kind of a man child and I absolutely love the character. If Jack is a light in the dark, then Nolan is a compass. He's neutral to what is going on around him and anytime that he leans in any direction it just gets him in trouble. Thus that is Nolan's place, to let people know what path that they are on, usually that being Emily and trying to keep her humanity in place even as she is determined to let it go.
Let me give a token notice to Charlotte and her attempted suicide, she's not dead, too many story lines where she could go, like running to her pregnant half sister for support (that will be fun). How about when she learns her fake dad ordered the death of her real dad? And what about the return of Victoria? Really? You think that she's dead? Lydia fell off a building 5 stories and landed on the back of a taxi cab and lived, Victoria's death was faked.
Speaking of Victoria, I'm going to just go out there and say it, she's not dead. Witness protection program ladies and gentlemen. I find Victoria an interesting character, not because she is so devious, but because she's always one step behind everyone else. For everyone of her plans that she tries to employee, someone is always one step ahead and allowing her to think that she is getting the best of them. For example the gift that she got Emily for the wedding, an empty box. But then to go on and tell Emily that she knew that they would never work, oh she knew that Emily was scheming, but she was completely off on the real intentions. Victoria is so sure of herself and her superiority that she is completely blinded to what is really going on around her and in reality her plays at power are pathetic. To me Victoria is more a victim in this story who's soul has been taken from her and while she tries to play nasty with everyone that's all she can do, is just play, she just doesn't understand how far someone will go. She's kind of the opposite of Nolan in that sense, he at least gets how terrible everyone can be. And since I'm making comparisons to naval functions, Victoria is like the sail on a ship. Oh sure a sail makes a boat go, but the power of a sail will always be at the mercy of the wind.
Which brings me at last to Emily. The first line of the series states, "When you set out on a course for revenge, dig two graves. One for your enemy and one for yourself." In this case I'll take that as more figurative than literal because in the finale whatever Emily had left in her to go back to being Amanda was put to rest when baby mama showed up. But I'm getting ahead of myself, after a season of plotting and scheming it looked like Emily was finally going to get her revenge on both the Graysons and on the man that had killed her father. Oh sure she might have been chained up, but you knew Emily was expecting that, and used the opportunity to beat the white haired man to an inch of his life and then she had a flashback that made her think of the love her dad saw in her. While in practice I think that it was obviously a bad move to let the guy live, we as an audience have to root for Emily and that as a character that would have been the last bit of humanity slipping away from her, or at least we're supposed to think that, but let's just go with that.
When Emily returns home she is confronted with the other man boy in the show who is all upset that Emily might have been cheating him on with Jack. To me I thought this was funny, he's bringing up his little drama after she was just in a life and death beat down, Emily of course just had that whatever sense to her. Emily let Daniel believe what he wanted to believe about her, I guess at this point it really didn't matter, at one point she actually did feel something for him, but that was lost once he started down the dark side himself, a point that she reminded him of. If the show runs long enough I see Daniel becoming very evil but in the end finding redemption when he finds his old snow sled "Rosebud" we'll see.
But now with Daniel and her over, things with the white haired murder settled, and Grayson Global on the ropes Emily's work was done, she could now go back to being Amanda Clarke, after years and years on the road, plotting and training all of her work was done. As she told Nolan she was going to go find Jack and go ride off into the sunset with him, the perfect happily ever after (I wonder if the show hadn't been picked up for a second season if they would have allowed everything to play out with that happy ending? My thought is yes, and I think it would have still been satisfying). So there she is returning to the Stowaway and low and behold, there is baby mama... Guess what Emily, you are now Emily Thorne forever, that grave I was talking about, POW, the real Amanda Clarke just got buried in it. Oh sure Emily could reveal the truth (and at some point I'm sure it will come out) but she can't say a word to Jack, lest she break his heart. Here is Jack thinking that he's in love with his old sweetheart and a soon to be father, it would kind of break him to know the truth. But then again, hasn't our Mr. Lighthouse been holding that torch just a little too long anyway??? So Merry Christmas Emily, you wanted to get your revenge, all it cost you was the happiness that you could have had had.
In the end how did Emily do in her mission?
She was able to destroy the lives of some of the minor characters that played a role in her Dad's imprisonment, so very good there. It remains to be seen how much Grayson Global will be affected by everything considering that all of the evidence was blown to pieces on that plane (really they didn't have a back up? Good job Nolan). Meaning that if she wants them to be taken down she'll have to keep playing the game. But things got more complicated as we learned, not to very much surprise that there were people well above Conrad that were behind everything, like that wasn't expected. And how will Mr. Whitehair handle Emily going forward. He could have revealed her to Conrad but didn't, and based on that conversation and his little wink to the camera to Emily my guess is that he plans to stay neutral with her. If he wanted to have ratted her out or gone back after her, he'd have done that, honor among assassins?
So questions going into next year...
Is Victoria dead? No
Is Lydia dead? No (bitch has 9 lives)
Will Daniel and Ashley hook up? Yes
Will Jack find out the truth about Emily? No
Is Charlotte dead? No
Will the government continue it's case against GG? No the evidence was destroyed
Where is Mr. Takada and where did he have Amanda? Don't know but think we'll find out pretty quick.
Will Decklan finish school? Really? You think I care?
And who is Emily's mother? Tell me you didn't see this one coming a mile away too.
Until next season, Stay classy Montauk
