Things got really complicated on tonight’s Revenge as “Guilt” was not only the title, but a common thread between a few key characters. What’s more, Emily managed to serve someone a second helping of revenge, but things didn’t quite play out the way she planned.
I have to give it to Emily. Lydia’s return and admitted determination to pay Emily back for her involvement in ripping her life out from under her may have presented a huge problem for Emily, however she managed to turn it all around. Last time Lydia was in the picture, Emily exposed the affair Lydia was having with Conrad. This time, she managed to push the blame of Dr. Banks and the senator’s scandals onto Lydia and away from herself. She basically steered a few enemies in the direction of a more immediate enemy and let the group battle it out, with her own hands coming out clean in the process. Of course, she hadn’t anticipated Frank’s temper.
After Frank found the evidence pointing toward Dr. Banks’ therapy session DVD nightmare and the Senator’s abrupt retirement in Lydia’s loft, which was planted there by Emily, he confronted the woman and got rough with her. This came after Lydia threatened to reveal Conrad and Victoria’s involvement in the terrorist embezzlement scheme to the families of the victims of the plane crash, which David was blamed for. She didn’t follow through with it, believing Victoria was going to let her back into the social fold. Of course, Victoria begrudgingly offered to do just that in exchange for Lydia’s silence, and only after giving Frank orders to handle the situation from his end. I don’t think that meant killing Lydia and to be fair, Frank didn’t seem to want to kill her. He seemed content with just beating her up, and when she fell back against the railing, he let her drop over the edge. Does it count as murder? I have no idea where the line is there, but he’s still a jerk who’s not above hitting a woman or letting her die. A gentleman would have put his hand out to help a lady if she were about to fall off a building.
So, Lydia is dead and she takes with her the blame for Emily’s revenge on the Senator and Dr. Banks. That puts Emily in the clear and free to move ahead. Of course, Nolan was at the scene of the crime, having snuck into Lydia’s loft not long after she fell to her death. That was just bad timing on his part, but he did manage to secure the evidence proving that Emily (or Amanda, as she was known at the time) once catered a Grayson party to sneak a peek at the family that ruined her father’s life. He also got his little figurine camera, which held on it the footage of Frank roughing up Lydia and chasing her up onto the roof.
How Lydia’s death is dealt with by Nolan/Emily and Frank/The Graysons should be very interesting, especially because this is one major issue that Emily didn’t account for in her scheming.
Tonight’s episode also served as yet another reminder of where things are headed. Not only did the episode start with the end, much as the season did, and then jump back two days prior, but when Lydia was dead or close to dying, Emily and Daniel was consummating their relationship. Lydia’s death wasn’t a part of Emily’s plan, and I still don’t believe Daniel’s will be either.
The theme of guilt was interesting, not only from Emily’s point of view, but from Victoria’s. The Victims United charity was set up to ease Victoria’s guilt. As shown in the flashback, while Grayson and Frank were busy seeing it as a way to make them look better, Victoria seemed genuinely upset over the grieving victims of the plane crash. This, added to her plea to the DA to use the evidence she had to help acquit David further demonstrates that while Victoria might not be the most moral person, her involvement in what happened to David may not be nearly as extreme as others’.
In other news, Declan and Charlotte are continuing to grow closer. The two spent some time cruising around in the $200,000 car Conrad bought Victoria as an “I’m sorry I cheated with Lydia and then gave her $10 million of our money” present. Charlotte ended up getting arrested for speeding (and stealing the car), but everything was cleared up in the end.
Also, Daniel’s now poor... kind of. After telling his father he doesn’t want to follow in his footsteps, Conrad decided to freeze his son’s trust fund. So Daniel’s going to work at the bar, which is probably not the best place for a man with substance abuse issues to make his money, but at least it puts him in the awkward situation of spending time with the guy who’s clearly into his girlfriend, so everything worked out fine.
Finally, Tyler’s sneakiness backfired after Emily cleared things up with Daniel over the dinner he saw her having with Jack. I guess Tyler didn’t account for Emily calmly and rationally explaining her side of the story, when he lied to Daniel about Emily’s phone call. Will Emily be able to get Daniel back on track and keep him sober, or will Tyler continue to try to lure Daniel back to partying?
Soapy moment du jour
Victoria and Conrad’s heated argument, which was accompanied but an excited orchestra, and concluded with an excellent slap.
Image ©ABC
