Revenge recap: Justice is served

Yay, welcome back, Revenge! The holidays nice and all, but why do my shows have to go on hiatus? There are only so many things to decorate and cookies to eat before you want to sit down to some pretty people exacting cold hard vengeance. Hope everyone had relaxing and relatively scandal-free holiday break.

When we left off before the break, Emily and Aiden had hooked up and were making out on a regular basis, and that very agreeable trend has continued this week. An episode that opens with a sexy sparring-match turned into a sexy…um…sex between our favorite revenge ninjas can’t be bad. Side-note: I was MIA during the last couple of episodes before the break due to Life Things, so I didn’t get to comment on how heartbreaking and adorable it was when they snuggled after Emily asked if they’ll ever be able to have a normal life. I like their relationship, so I find the rest of the episode a bit distressing.

The Initiative

So the Big Bad of this show has shifted from being the Graysons to The Initiative. We’ve seen a much more sympathetic side to the Graysons this season. We’ve seen Conrad standing up for Victoria and their (rather dysfunctional, but still) loyalty to each other. We’ve seen Victoria face some of her past demons, and we’ve been reminded that she will go to any (misguided) lengths to protect her kids. I think having this illusive, ultra-powerful organization to contend with, one that is ultimately responsible for what happened to Emily’s father, is a way to stretch Emily’s quest for revenge. It makes sense, but I find the Graysons to be a much more interesting foil to Emily.

The Initiative seems weirdly omniscient in this episode as they manipulate the paths of the two men in Emily’s life – Daniel and Aiden. Helen Crowley, the main face for The Initiative thus far, tells Daniel to look for hidden investments and money within the company. He enlists Nolan’s help, and then Helen tells him that Nolan would have left the digital fingerprints necessary to find secrets in NolCorp. Because she knew Daniel would ask for Nolan’s help, and not his (less pissed over getting screwed) IT department I guess?

Aiden is seeking out Helen because of her connection to his sister’s death, but she finds him first. Sort of. Aiden and Nolan catch her on secret Grayson video and lip read a password and…what? And then she knows exactly who Aiden is because…yeah they lost me on this. This is either explained but way too convoluted, or they’re taking the assumption that The Initiative knows and controls ALL OF THE THINGS a little far. The point is, she drops the bomb that his sister is still alive. They have gone through the effort of keeping her alive just so they could manipulate him, apparently. And if he tells anyone about this, they’ll kill her, and apparently they would totally know if he secretly told Emily. So now he’s keeping something from Emily, which will only lead to her feeling betrayed, and he just got her to trust him. Boo, I don’t like this.

The Love Triangle

A love triangle starts to solidify this week, largely thanks to Victoria (who by the way, is perfectly fake sweet in this episode). Victoria’s last hope at getting Daniel out of the company, and therefore out of the grasp of The Initiative, is to get Emily to reach him. Everything Emily has done to the Graysons is now being conveniently blamed on The Initiative, so she’s kind of off their radar in terms of being a threat. When Emily finds out from Victoria that Daniel is still in love with her (um, duh), she’s presented with an opportunity to get back on the inside with Grayson Global. Can I just say, I totally knew they were going to do this, that a fake relationship with Daniel would complicate Emily and Aiden. Anyway, she stages a very obvious and public breakup with Aiden. At the end of the episode, Daniel approaches her with a job (heading the charitable department at Grayson Global) and a kiss. Aiden broods in shadows during the kiss, another sign that his relationship with Emily is about to go downhill. Daniel is becoming kind of an ass in this season. He’s become disillusioned and cynical. Does he remind anyone of Gossip Girl’s Nate a little? Like, just a little too naive, even when he’s trying to be a hardass? Still, I wonder if being with Emily will inspire some change, even though he doesn’t know she’s using him (again/still).

The Stowaway

The latest on the Jack and Declan front: The Ryan brothers are trafficking drugs through the bar, hiding them in coffee beans. Charlotte distracts Sam from Battlestar Galactica (ok, I’ve forgotten his name again…) while Declan snoops and finds the drugs. She is flirty and he is kind of creepily receptive to it. Declan leaves a very cliché SINGLE COFFEE BEAN on the floor after a huge spill that would have taken forever to clean up, and this clues the Ryans in to the fact that he’s been snooping. So, they plant the drugs in Jack’s boat, currently inhabited by Declan.

Meanwhile, Jack has tipped an old cop friend off to the fact that there may be drugs in the bar, so when the dogs sniff out the boat, Jack ends up getting arrested. He owns the boat and assures the police that Declan knew nothing about the drugs.

Speaking of Jack, he and Amanda have an actually really lovely scene earlier in the episode. Jack has called the cops and knows things might get ugly, so he asks Amanda to take the baby to Emily’s for a while. Amanda is reluctant, and Jack says, “I know you don’t like running away from a fight.” Amanda’s desire to stand up for her family, and Jack demonstrating how well he knows her, is really sweet. Unfortunately, they have a kind of ridiculous scene as well when Amanda talks about how bad it is to lie to each other. Ok, “Amanda.”

The Takedown

This was definitely the strongest aspect of the episode. I hate to be that person who says “you should just stick to the formula from last year,” because I think TV shows need to be living things that change and develop. But…I really liked the formula from last year. I like seeing the corrupt get what they deserve. I like the moral ambiguity of the cold, manipulative way Emily accomplishes that. This week’s target: Judge Robert Barnes, the corrupt judge who ruled on David Clarke’s case, now up for a spot on the Supreme Court. Emily has a letter she assumes is from the court clerk on the case, a man by the name of James Palmer. The letter expresses that the writer saw the justice system fail in the case of David Clarke. Shortly after supposedly sending the letter, James Palmer was killed.

Victoria has invited Judge Barnes and his wife Patricia to stay with them while they’re in town to help improve Conrad’s public image (although he seems amusingly content with his retired life). Patricia Barnes has a charity which provides legal help to people who have been wrongly accused of crimes. When Victoria invites Emily to dinner in order to get her close to Daniel, Emily has the chance to grill them about the trial. When she asks whether Patricia’s charity ever looked into David Clarke’s case, Patricia nervously replies that her husband’s rulings are beyond reproach. That’s the first sign that she’s aware of who her husband really is, and she isn’t on board.

It turns out that she is the one who sent Emily the letter. James Palmer was a friend of hers. She is abused by and terrified of her husband. Emily approaches her and tells her that she knows Amanda Clarke, and that the letter gave Amanda hope and saved her life. With Emily’s encouragement, Patricia publicly announces that her husband knew that the jury was compromised in the David Clarke trial and reveals her bruises. It’s a pretty dramatic revelation. I really liked this character, I liked that she was strong and empowered in the end. Needless to say, her husband’s career is over. We get to see Emily cross out another face.

Despite a couple of somewhat annoying details, I thought this was a strong episode thanks to the takedown. I want a better explanation as to how The Initiative apparently sees and knows absolutely everything, and why they have such an interest in Aiden. Any theories or thoughts on the episode?