Revenge-exodus-01

The main problem with Revenge‘s midseason finale is that it took forever to get to that certain plot point. You know, the one they’ve been teasing since the premiere. And then again in all the promos since ever. In fact, I’d be surprised if we got more than 60 seconds past Emily getting shot of new footage to hold on to. We know Emily was going to get shot for real, which in effect makes that certain cliffhanger moot.

But what is interesting is just who shot her: Daniel. In a postmortem with TV Line, Revenge showrunner Sunil Nayar said that he hopes audiences completely bought that Daniel was in a place where it made sense for him to shoot Emily — that he had been cheated out of a life with his true love, who just tried to attempt suicide, because his wife lied and said she was pregnant. That’s all very fine and dandy, but I don’t think that particularly screams murder. The unfortunate thing with Revenge is that it doesn’t always hold up with the details. What’s much more compelling would be that Daniel heard she was a fraud and saw Aiden use chloroform on his mom. Daniel said that he heard everything that it would only make sense he heard that too, but it just doesn’t appear that he did. And if he didn’t see all that, then I’m just at a loss for logic.

But once again, logic isn’t always prevalent on Revenge. And that’s fine. Truth be told, I had Charlotte pegged as the shooter. And in some weird Revenge-y way, it makes sense that Daniel did it. I think Revenge has had a great stretch of about seven episodes, and I don’t think they particularly stuck the landing here (coupled with spoiler alert what appears to be an amnesia plot next), but the grooves to getting there is part of that Revenge charm I love so much.

And I especially loved the scene between Victoria and Emily. I don’t know why, but I just live for that kind of stuff. Or maybe I do know why: Madeleine Stowe and Emily VanCamp just make it so much fun to watch. It’s also felt like the first time on the show with any real gravitas. When Jack found out Emily was Amanda in the season two finale, we just knew that he would keep that secret a, uh, secret. With Victoria having some of her suspicions confirmed, her drive is going to be that much more revved up. Just how is Emily going to get out of this one? And how will this change the show going forward? All questions I want to see answered, quite honestly.

The postmortem also makes me hopeful that the next batch of episodes won’t be as bad as I’m thinking they will be. Revenge always loves to get much darker after its flash-forward scenes take place and winter begins to set in, as it originated in season one. And while some of that is tempting, part of what makes Revenge good is that it’s frothy fun. But Nayar says they’re going to be doing some things differently. I’ll be waiting for the three-episode stretch in January.

What did you think?