Life is so much more interesting in the Hamptons. At least, it is in the soap world of Revenge, where it’s a high-class hotbed for the exploits of the rich, beautiful, and irrevocably corrupt. Though it’s quite different for the beguiling Emily Thorne (née Amanda Clarke), who’s returned to the Hamptons of her childhood with a hefty agenda: to learn the truth about her past, and retribute those who framed her father for a heinous crime he didn’t commit. We’re keeping weekly score of Emily’s endeavors, and the many others of our favorite Hamptonians, by calling each episode’s winners and losers. After yet another hiatus, we’re left reeling with Emily and Nolan from the worst honeymoon in Hamptons history, and mourning with Jack and Charlotte at fake Amanda’s funeral. Discover last night’s winners and losers – since it was pretty grim again, we started with the latter – and let us know if we played fair in the comments.
LOSERS
Jack: Poor Jack Porter’s the biggest loser again, as he wakes up in the hospital to learn that his wife has died. What’s more, he’s still being lied to, and he’s now more involved in the revenge plot than ever before, as he takes on what he believes to be his late wife’s vengeance project. We know that Jack’s tied up in the wrong revenge loop and so things are bound to go wrong, though it will definitely be interesting to see this new, more conflicted, less vanilla Jack in action as he too plans to take the Graysons down. Though he’s just lost his wife, he’s already starting to put together his own revenge plans, all handshakes and smiles to Conrad’s face and sheer hate on the inside. Back at home, out of the hospital and in in a bout of anger, Jack smashes the jar of pebbles he once collected on the beach with Amanda. Among the detritus, he finds a key to a marina locker, inside of which is Conrad’s laptop, which Amanda did indeed steal. Though he can’t get into the laptop without the right password, he potentially has a lot of information at his fingertips. Yet Aiden swipes that information before he can get to it, breaking into the Stowaway to retrieve it while Jack’s at Amanda’s funeral. Of course, Jack holds the Graysons accountable.
Charlotte: Distraught after her sister’s death and intent on drawing together a few more than a handful of mourners for Amanda’s burial, Charlotte’s set on finding her faux sister’s foster family. She does a pretty standard Google search and manages to find Amanda’s foster brother, Eli James – who is, we know, really Emily’s foster brother.
Emily: Giving the eulogy at her friend’s funeral, along with Amanda, Emily buries a part of herself. She’s calmer here than she was at the start of the episode, when Nolan nearly had to stop her, shaking Amanda’s blood off her hands, from marching over to the Graysons and ending it all then and there. Emily also feels incredibly guilty for the pain she’s causing others; in her scenes with Jack and Charlotte, in particular, it’s as though she’s telling them the (half) truth. Jack’s upset with her for lying to him about her connection with Amanda from juvie, which he’s found out from his wife’s stuff, and wonders what else she’s been lying about. This seemed like the perfect segway into a confessional, but alas, we might have to wait a few seasons more for that. As for the laptop with incriminating footage of the Graysons, Emily chucks it into the ocean, reasoning that the dirt she has on the Graysons is superfluous, and it’s not about that; it’s personal. “No more distractions,” she vows to Aiden. Free of those particular distractions – though we’re sure she’ll find more – she’s presented with another problem: people will no doubt become suspicious of her again, as Charlotte begins diving into her past and finds her foster brother, Eli, who Emily bumps into that night at the cemetery.
WINNERS
Conrad and Victoria: Ever the opportunist, Conrad uses Amanda’s death for a spot of political marketing in a lofty statement to the people of Montauk, and he and Victoria establish a charity in Amanda’s honor. However, Conrad is none the wiser that Jack has taken a turn for the darker and is now onto him – as is the new guy from the Initiative, Mr. Trask. If power equals the number of enemies one has, then Conrad’s got a lot of it. Victoria – another opportunist – also manipulates the situation to get what she wants, using Charlotte’s grief to get closer to her again. Of course, when she gets a text message from Daniel, Victoria need only say, “It’s your brother,” and walk out of the room as though her daughter weren’t in it. This mother may be good at covering up murder, but she’s exceptionally bad at concealing who her favorite offspring is.
Aiden: Aiden regains Daniel’s trust at Grayson Global this week, as he vies for a job higher up in the company where he can gain better access to information about the Graysons and the Initiative. Also, having managed to outsmart Daniel – Emily’s ex – is as much a personal triumph as it is a professional, vengeful one for Aiden.
Padma: A fingerprint test that Nolan administers confirms that the finger sent to her by the Initiative in the last episode was indeed her father’s, and with that information, Padma finally acquires the Carrion program from Nolan which should relinquish her father. Still, when does anything in Revenge, save Emily’s hair, work out smoothly?
(Helen Hunt: Perhaps the biggest surprise of last night’s episode, which was still recovering from the madness of the one before, came in the credits, which noted that Hunt directed it.)