Last season, the Revenge finale was an explosive ending (literally), when Victoria Grayson’s plane blew up along with all the evidence to incriminate Conrad Grayson. Plus, Emily Thorne had a less literal bomb dropped on her when she found out that her mother that she assumed dead all these years appears to actually be alive. In other words, things were just a tad crazy in the Hamptons last May. Of course, in the world of Revenge, this is exactly how we like it.
The premiere kicks off with scuba divers, because how else would you expect our favorite primetime soap opera about revenge to begin? They’re investigating a wreck that you may assume is the plane that just blew into a thousand pieces, but sorry, you’re wrong. It looks like in about three months Revenge time (which could be any number of months in the real world) Jack’s boat, Amanda, does its best impression of Victoria’s plane. This opening scene serves up the first mystery of the season, but the next 60 minutes proceeds to pile on more and more crazy events.
Amanda’s Mom
Emily isn’t done with her revenge on the Graysons because, otherwise, they should think about renaming the show. It looks like Emily’s search for her mother is going to be one of the major storylines of the season, and I have a sneaky suspicion it won’t end with them having tea. The episode spends a good portion of the time revealing that somehow Emily’s mom went crazy, but then ends the episode making us think it’s all a frame job from those not-very-nice Graysons.
Why would the Graysons trick people into thinking Emily’s mom was insane and then trick people into thinking she’s dead, even before they apparently even met Emily’s father, David? We’ll likely be taken down a long and windy road towards the revelation, and maybe on the journey, the writers will try to make us forget David met the Graysons after his wife’s fake death.
Victoria’s Alive
After 30 minutes of no Victoria, it looked like the writers actually went through with killing her. Then after Emily finds her, I was ready to believe that Victoria and Emily were going to become a super team to take down Conrad. Instead, the white-haired assassin returns to reveal he is now doing evil deeds for Victoria, and apparently together, they’ve done a rather fine job of ruining the entire Clark family.
This is an interesting pairing because it makes me wonder if Conrad is secretly aware of this (now, don’t you be trying to find logic in a soap), or what exactly it is about the mother that is detrimental to Victoria, or if Victoria now really knows that Emily is actually Amanda. At points last seasons, Victoria was becoming a sympathetic character, but now it seems like she has gone deep into wicked witch territory.
The Future of Charlotte
Charlotte is the most sympathetic character in the entire series. Hopefully, her relationship grows with Emily, and maybe even discovers that she is her sister. This storyline has also firmly planted Conrad into evil monster territory, as he is ruining the life of his daughter in order to take her trust fund. He has ruined all chances of winning Father of the Year. It’ll be interesting to see how the character of Charlotte develops this season, and she should play a huge part in some of the major storyline developments. I also have an unsettling feeling that if any major character needs to actually go six feet under that it may be poor Charlotte.
Intentions of Takeda
In this episode, we learn that the best way to trigger childhood memories is to almost drown. Why didn’t Takeda alert Emily that a photo album may have been safer. Takeda has turned out to be even more of a mystery than last year. He seems to think that a pregnant and crazy Fake Amanda is a great ally for Emily. It is starting to appear he has something to hide and isn’t really helping Emily at all, and Takeda could know way more about the fates of Emily’s father and mother than he lets on. I may have just become leery of Takeda, because he is being played by the bad guy from Mortal Kombat.
Amanda’s Pregnancy
Relationships are a big part of soaps, even ones based on getting comeuppance against evil rich folks. The Jack and Amanda drama is the low point of the episode. Jack has become all mopey over the fact Amanda is now pregnant, which means he can’t end up with Emily. Hey Jack, why did it take you a dead dog to realize you had a connection with Emily? At least, Jack suddenly realizes at the end of the episode it might make sense to ask Amanda if the baby is really his (must have slipped his mind, no big deal). This of course means that crazy Amanda will now do something crazy, because the baby obviously isn’t his. The romantic life of Jack isn’t thrilling, but the Amanda crazy train will speed forward with awesomeness.
The premiere isn’t a home run, or really the best follow-up to the awesome season 1 finale. It has dropped hints to a whole bunch of crazy storylines. And it looks like both Charlotte and Daniel will have a chance to stand up to their parents and truly become likable characters. Emily is getting geared up for another massive showdown with the white-haired assassin while also trying to find out where-oh-where her mother has gone. This episode has been all about setting things up for the upcoming season, and it look like it will be more volatile and insane than anything served up last year. Of course, that is exactly why we’re all hooked on this show.
Chris Spicer
Contributing Writer
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
