As a rule, I generally dislike flashback episodes. They’re usually too long and don’t help add anything to the story I started watching when the series began. I think the series that does them best, currently, is actually The Secret Circle. But in Revenge, we may have a very close runner-up.

But first, let’s talk about the hair. This is something that I would have been unaffected by before I entered the Internet fandom — which just seems obsessed and consumed by people’s hair. But whatever, now I’m sort of engulfed and should join Follicles Anonymous or something. When I first heard that the show was doing an entire flashback episode, I was nervous about what they’d do with Amanda’s hysterical wig. Turns out, they were just going to keep it hysterical. Because, seriously. And Jack apparently took a page out of the Dan Humphrey hairstyle book. Meanwhile, Nolan seemed to be living a bit too much in the past with the amount of L.A. Looks he had to slick his hair.

Okay, I’m done.

Now, onto the actual episode: it was quite well done. It was mainly a way to get everyone that has either (A) “disappeared” or (B) outright died and combining elements from the series that we’ve seen before to create a very coherent and imperative episode. I love the idea of finally understanding what happened in that picture so many New Year’s Eves ago, other than Amanda being a creeper. Personally, it’s comforting to know that a show has a longterm plan (which this show certainly has; creator Mike Kelly has been talking about how season three is going to begin around the blogosphere). But more so, as I’ve been mentioning the stark dark transition in the past couple of episodes (the promo during Apartment 23 called the show “everyone’s favorite guilty pleasure,” which it has definitely not been recently), it’s always great to see the moments in which Amanda is incentivized to exact revenge. That said, after such a driven cliffhanger last week, in which Amanda revealed she is out for blood, it was a bit anticlimactic to fall back a decade ago.

But even so, it reminded us and showed Amanda that the Graysons are — truly — despicable people. I don’t even think I can actually sympathize for Victoria, who at this count has deeply loved about three different men, none being her actual husband. The flashback, within the flashback, showed how Victoria met and fell in love with David Clarke. But we know that this is post the artsy guy and before Frank (or is Frank just in there somewhere as well?). I thought I’d just mention that not even the double flashback is as crazy as Victoria’s love life. And therefore, it’s getting easier and easier to see why she would frame him as a terrorist.

Overall, a good episode to present us with why Amanda began her plotting and how the relationships and dynamics were established…but, we still don’t know all that much of what her plan(s) is(/are). More so, if she’s planning on killing her father’s murderer — who is he? He’s just a white-haired person for now.

I guess there are two more episodes left to find out.