Revenge recap: What’s a little attempted murder between friends?

Emily with a tears hangover.

So it seems like Emily is still trying really hard to come off as a hard-ass bitch despite the fact that she is pretty much an emotional train wreck right now. Before this season, if you had told me that Emily can cry I would have laughed and told you that her tear ducts dried out years ago. Then the last three episodes happened. At the start of the episode she wakes up basically spooning with Aiden after breaking down in his arms the night before (aww) but then she tries to write it off like, “you could have been literally any person on the face of this planet and I would have let you comfort me. Victoria could have walked through the door and I would have sobbed onto her cold, perfectly postured shoulder.” I get why Emily is pushing Aiden away and all, what with his past betrayals and the general question of whether he is really on her side, but come on. Look at him. And his face when he’s like, “are you ok?”

Nolan’s feels are a bit hurt when he finds out that Kara is back, and he shows up to find out WTF is going on and make her feel like a terrible person because she didn’t even know that his father died. Nolan’s new lady friend is cute but does him no favors when she shows up at Grayson Global asking about David Clarke. When David gave Nolan the start-up money for Nolcorp he was under contract with Grayson Global, meaning that Grayson Global may have a stake in Nolan’s company. Here’s where Aiden starts losing points with me. Despite Emily making it perfectly clear that Nolan is off-limits, Aiden approaches Daniel about using this connection to advance their respective goals – a seat on the board for himself, and a seat behind Conrad’s desk for Daniel. Seriously, Aiden, do not mess with Nolan. Emily and I will never forgive you. There are a couple of things I like about this, though: 1. Emily getting defensive of Nolan to Aiden was cute; 2. Nolan’s girlfriend has a place in the main plot now. Come on, Declan, I know you can get there!

Speaking of Declan, Charlotte stops by the bar to be all friendly and he is kind of standoffish. Am I remembering last season wrong or did she have more reason to hold a grudge than him? He also bought right into Douchenozzle’s plans (what is his name though, really, I didn’t write it down and I care so little) and fixed up the bar, and now Jack is going to make a deal so that Assface can buy into the bar. That actually doesn’t seem like a terrible idea, except of course there will be more to this guy’s plans and he will try to screw Jack over somehow. I’m still waiting for this setup to pay off.

The more interesting story for Jack is, of course, his connection to Amanda, who is not dead or in a coma! Yay! I actually weirdly love Amanda this season, and it seems like Emily kind of agrees with me, because there was real emotion exchanged between them in this episode. First of all, after Amanda expressed the guilt she was feeling due to the belief that her baby wasn’t really Jack’s, Emily came clean about the paternity. With what seemed like genuine shame she admitted that she thought she had to do something to keep Amanda on her side. Amazingly, Amanda actually understood that she has essentially stolen the life Emily secretly wants for herself. What, mutual respect and understanding between these two?

“You can definitely trust me with this baby, I’m over that drowning children thing.”

The other major role for Amanda in this episode was dealing with Kara, who believes Amanda is her daughter. Emily explains about her memory of Kara trying to kill her as a child and she and Amanda agree that they will send her away. But when Amanda sits down with Kara and listens to her express her remorse over being basically the worst mother ever, Amanda breaks down and tells her that she forgives her. Emily is on the other side of the door listening, tears running down her face. I don’t even know how someone like Emily is supposed to emotionally process something like this. It is probably a good thing that she’s trying to forgive her mother. Am I weird for kind of wanting Kara to be evil though?

Back on the scene this week is Mason Treadwell, snooping around in other people’s business and totally onto everyone’s secrets. Screw you, Treadwell. Remember when Emily took you down? Yeah, I totally wouldn’t mind if that happened again because I can’t stand this guy. Burn it to the ground, Emily!

“Great to see you! We totally didn’t try to have you killed!”

Victoria and Conrad have Kara over for lunch to find out what Kara knows about [insert one of the Grayson’s many sins]. Kara is fishing for information about Gordon Murphy’s whereabouts. I am pretty much dying to find out more about her relationship with Gordon and how much she does know. Conrad also finally convinces Victoria to marry him again so that they won’t have to testify against each other if the poo hits the proverbial fan, and it is mostly awesome because of this tiny, impressed half-smile Victoria gives him, like her Evil Stamp of Approval.

Final thoughts: If Nolcorp and Grayson Global end up in a death match I am Team Nolan all the way, I don’t care how attractive Daniel and Aiden are (or how awesome it would be to see Conrad taken down by the two of them). The softer side of Emily has been really interesting this season, but I still feel that her lack of focus makes the show feel a little less focused. It seems like she may be getting back on the track of avenging her father, and I think that’s a good thing. This season is fleshing people out and sending their characters in new directions, which is always nice – Daniel getting revengey on his dad, Amanda becoming a mother, Emily becoming more human and less vengeance machine, Nolan going to work sometimes. All in all, this was another great episode.