Once again, Emily continued down her path of revenge tonight. While she was busy crossing another person off her vengeance list, another character had an opportunity to serve up some vengeance, but they chose not to take it. Revenge isn’t for everyone.
The most interesting bit of information tonight is what we learned about Victoria. While everyone else in her world seems to have played a part in David’s conviction, Victoria was in love with Emily’s father. We learned last week that the two were having an affair, but tonight we saw that she was actively trying to keep David from being convicted. What evidence she had to prove his innocence, we don’t know, but Emily does know about her efforts. So, does this mean Victoria’s not on her list? Or does Emily have some other reason to target Victoria, if she is indeed going to do that at some point?
Senator Tom Kingsley...
Tonight’s victim of Emily’s quiet wrath was Senator Kingsley, who also happened to be the district attorney that convicted Emily’s father. That alone shouldn’t make him a villain, considering it was his job, but Victoria had some evidence that David was innocent, but he didn’t use it. Whatever it was didn’t hold up against Conrad’s argument that convicting David would make him a public hero. It would appear that Kingsley put his career aspirations above another man’s life and dismissed whatever evidence Victoria had, because he went ahead and got David sent to prison. Knowing this, Emily had reason to blame him for her father’s imprisonment as she did everyone else that was involved.
Proving once again that she took a lot of measures to set up these plots for revenge, Emily worked as a volunteer on Kingsley’s first campaign. Clever girl to get in on his political career at the bottom. It gave her access to him, and inevitably the knowledge that he was having an affair with a woman named Erin. All she had to do was buy the building and install cameras to get evidence of the affair. Easy-peasy.
Here’s where I’m a little fuzzy on what happened, and maybe you guys can chime in with your opinions. Either Emily was sending emails and wiring money to Erin on Kingsley’s behalf, and she sent the dress and the invite to the party to the pregnant former-mistress as part of her scheme to expose him, or Victoria did. At first, the whole thing seemed like part of Emily’s plan, however we didn’t actually see Kingsley click on his tablet to read the speech she’d written for him. And the only thing I remember Emily asking Nolan about was accessing his tablet to redo the speech. Or, was she also sending emails and making paypal transfers too?
The end of the episode had security-guy Frank telling Conrad that the emails came from their house and then alluding to the fact that Victoria would have reason to want to pay Kingsley back for what he did to David. Then we cut to Victoria flashing back to a cuddly moment with David where he gave her some earings. So, was it Victoria who sent for Erin? Did she beat Emily to the punch? Or is that just what Emily wants people to think happened? She did know enough about the situation to set it up that way and it would keep the blame away from herself. Plus, judging by her smile when Kingsley announced that he was retiring, she didn’t seem confused or surprised by Erin’s arrival.
Emily isn’t finished with Kingsley. While she’s pleased to know his political career is over, she still intends to release the videos. She doesn’t just want to ruin his job, she wants to ruin his life.
Daniel remorseful...
Last week I speculated that Daniel might have done something to justify Emily messing with his emotions as part of her revenge schemes. I thought for sure she’d have some reason to make it ok that she’s pretending to have feelings for him. Otherwise, she’s just using him as a pawn, which is a bit ugly. Tonight, we found out that Daniel does have at least one skeleton in his closet, but I’m not sure things played out quite the way Emily thought they would.
Emily had Daniel take her to some out-of-the-way steakhouse, where Patrick, the brother of a girl Daniel used to date, was working. Did she want Patrick to stab Daniel? You would have thought so, considering she sent the man over to the table to replace her steak knife, knowing he had unfinished business with Daniel. Patrick did clutch the knife for a moment when he set eyes on Daniel, but he didn’t stab Daniel. He took his rage out on the man’s car, which is fitting, considering Daniel practically crippled Patrick’s sister Erin in a drunk driving accident the previous summer.
Maybe Emily thought Daniel didn’t care because he’d never gone to visit Erin. But he did care, and he told Emily that, after his parents paid off Erin’s medical bills, they forbid him to see her in the rehab center where she’s still recovering. Is that a cop-out? Sort of, but he did seem to feel really bad, and when Emily advised him to go visit her, he did, despite his parents’ wishes. So once again, I’m starting to think Daniel’s not such a bad guy. Maybe Emily is seeing that too, or maybe there are even more reasons to use him the way she is.
The cherry on top of Emily and Daniel’s moments tonight, was his promise that he’d always be honest with her. I sort of believe him. But I also think there’s even more to Daniel than we know.
Porters...
Declan and Jack’s father died of the heart attack and the two brothers are trying to deal with it. While Declan is riddled with guilt over calling his father a loser moments before the man died, he’s also pining over Charlotte. Nolan comes to the rescue by giving Declan access to Adam’s web-cam. If only Emily had Nolan’s brainy computer skills. She wouldn’t have needed to buy a whole building just to get naughty videos of the Senator and his mistress. Back to the point, Declan didn’t have to wait long to get a video of Adam getting it on with some random blonde girl.
When he sent a video to Charlotte at the end of the episode, it seemed like he was going to take the Emily route in exposing Adam, but he didn’t. Instead, he sent a charming video of himself on the dock with the sunset in the background, letting her know he wished she was there. How sweet. It was also smart. Truth is, if he sent her the video of Adam, all he’d really be doing was exposing his own sneakiness, not to mention there’s probably no way he could prove the video was current. Not a way to win the girl’s heart. Then again, Emily’s not direct-emailing her revenge plots to her targets. Perhaps that video will make its way to Charlotte in a more anonymous fashion. Or maybe Nolan will find out about it and, either, to meddle in other people’s business (as we know he’s not above doing), or because he’s trying to be Declan’s friend, he will send it to Charlotte himself.
Soapy moment du jour...
Emily leaves her handgun in a partially opened drawer, where Daniel finds it, takes it out and then suggests they go shooting sometime. A lot of suspense for just a random moment, though he did put his fingerprints all over the gun. Was that her intention all along?
