Given, well, everything, what goes down in “Ambush” is the only way things could go on Revenge when it comes to Emily and her father. Every step she takes to get answers about what her father was doing all those years he wasn’t dead seems to just be one more nail in the coffin so that the only outcome is her blurting out the truth in a highly emotional state. That’s exactly what happens, and it only takes seven episodes after David’s “return” from the dead.
Also in this episode, Louise shows why she needs an express train ticket back to Claremont, and Margaux proves that she’s not stupid. Ben thinks he’s earned some celebratory drinks after he and Jack find the dead body of the guy Charlotte killed and a knife matching the one that killed Conrad conveniently hidden under some newspaper clippings about the Graysons. And Nolan comforts himself with a pretty elaborate purchase after his name goes viral in the worst way possible.
All in all, it’s another hour of Revenge, and hey, even Daniel is tolerable (at least when it comes to his conversations with Victoria and Emily), much like Charlotte was last week. Maybe only one of Victoria’s children can be somewhat likable at a time? There’s a storm raging, and at least one person is in for quite the shock. It’s a very busy 20 hours.
ABC Sets Winter Finales and Returns, Plus Agent Carter Premiere and Trailer >>>
Daniel Finally Gets a (Big) Clue
It does only take Charlotte actually telling him, but now he too is in the “Emily is really Amanda” club, but his membership only earns him the opportunity to confront the women in his life about the hell they’ve put him through because of it. Daniel can’t help but wonder what Victoria’s plan is when Emily tell David the truth, reminding her that she betrayed him, but Victoria doesn’t seem all that concerned.
Daniel is just concerned with staying out the crossfire, and that means tracking her down — he has a guy, he explains when he joins her in the elevator at the bank — and pulling the emergency stop button. After a comment about how weird it is that they share a sister (not terribly important to them, considering how long that part of the conversation lasts), he explains that he just doesn’t want to be part of any of it when it all goes to hell, and he has no problem playing the “I’ll call my girlfriend and the truth will start trending” card.
When the power goes out and the elevator stops right after she starts it up again, he sits down and relaxes and asks her if any of it was real. She focuses on getting out of there and climbs out of the elevator because his timing has ruined her and Nolan’s timing for a pretty important plan. Maybe the feelings were real at some point, she admits, but then he chose to side with his father, and what’s also real is how she climbs right over him and leaves him there.
Relaxation Can Be Deadly
Crazy Louise and Margaux have become tennis partners/sauna besties, to Daniel’s dismay, because he probably worries that as soon as they’re alone together, Louise will spill his secret and it will all be over for him. Louise does do what she does with every conversation and steers the topic to Victoria. When she realizes that Margaux has what she wants so desperately — a connection to Victoria — she makes her excuses and leaves the sauna, only to then be spurred on by a conversation with her mother (who is not really there, ticket for Claremont ASAP!) to lock Margaux in the sauna and turn up the heat.
Margaux saves herself when no one hears her screams, and all the owner of the club can do is say that it’s never happened before and you would need a really small pin to lock the door. Nolan just happens to be walking by for a well timed “meet the bitch, karma” statement. Margaux figures it out and calls Daniel to tell him that his client is insane, and when he then calls Louise about what happened, well, the lady doth protest too much, methinks. She throws in a compliment about his performance because “pretty boys generally don’t try very hard,” before going back to Photoshop photos of her with Victoria.
Daniel then makes the mistake of suggesting that maybe Louise didn’t try to kill Margaux, which tips Margaux off to the fact that he’s trying to hide something. She’s not an idiot, and she realizes that Daniel slept with her. She throws a drink in his face and leaves, and this may be Margaux’s best move yet.
Nolan Gets His Well-Deserved Peace and Quiet
Nolan escapes to the health club — no press, no TV and plenty of eye candy — and sets up shop to help Emily out as she searches for answers, and that’s where he also meets Louise. She assures him that, soon, people won’t care about him and will find something else to gossip about and offers him time on her yacht or on her private jet. He can have “anything” he wants, she tells him, and that’s not something many people can say. All I can hope is that Nolan’s alarm for crazy is going off loudly in his head after that encounter.
As the storm gets worse, the owner informs Nolan that they’re closing early, so Nolan offers to make his rough day a bit better by buying the club. It’s the place he’s felt most at peace in a long time, and he’s willing to offer quite a lot of money. The only catch is he wants to keep drinking. Done and done. Now, Nolan’s just going to have to do something about the crazy lady who seems to be attached to that bar.
2015 People’s Choice Awards: Grey’s, OUAT, Bones, Supernatural and TVD Lead TV Nominations >>>
Emily Breaks
Ever since Emily found out that her father is alive and hasn’t been able to see him, it seems like everything has been piling up so that the only way it could end was with her to unravel and yell it at him at an inopportune time. That happens in “Ambush.” She sneaks into the beach house at night and finds the knife that her father probably used to kill Conrad and tasks Nolan with hacking into Conrad’s murder file and figuring out what lock the key she found next to the knife opens. “Is it ever?” she wonders when he comments it won’t be easy.
After David stops by to see Jack, who tries to do the damage control that Emily can’t/won’t for Nolan, he goes to see Emily to meet Amanda’s best friend. “Emily Thorne? I’m David Clarke. I thought it was time we met,” he greets her when he just shows up on her doorstep. Emily manages to keep it together long enough to tell him that she and Amanda were close and to fill him in about the baby shower, but after, she goes to Nolan, upset he didn’t recognize her and more determined to find answers. He discovered that the key is to a safety deposit box, and with a 3D printer and Nolan’s 5D intellect, they have the master key to open it.
When David asks Victoria about the baby shower, she says it was just an accident, as anyone else there would tell him, and so David tracks down one of Amanda’s stripper friends. She corroborates Victoria’s story, including that Victoria stopped by and tried to help Amanda, but hey, anyone will say anything for a fancy necklace like the one Victoria gives her.
Daniel confronts Emily just as she and Nolan are putting their plan into action to get to the safety deposit box, but she manages to improvise and get the job done in time. She takes the USB drive that’s inside the box (and there is also a lot of money in there), and it’s what’s on that USB that drives the final nail home in the coffin: photos of Amanda, Amanda and Jack, and Amanda and Carl.
Emily storms over, in the middle of the storm, right into the beach house and orders Victoria to get out. Victoria leaves, and Emily shows him the photos she printed from the USB. If he had been there, if he had come for Amanda, she would’ve known, she says. Emily has had enough, she’s lashing out, and it is emotional and as it should be and positively glorious. Once just one week passed without her telling him who she is, this is the only way it could happen. “You could’ve come for me, but you didn’t. You taught me to be strong and brave, but you’re a coward!” she yells at him. “You could’ve come for me!” When he grabs her wrist, he sees her tattoo and realizes she’s Amanda. Emily VanCamp is amazing in the entire episode, but she is absolutely brilliant in this final scene.
Their reunion is very short-lived because outside, Victoria gets zapped when she goes to open her car door, thanks to the power line across the hood.
Now it’s all a matter of what’s next. Will Emily be able to convince her father that everything he thinks he knows about Victoria is a lie? Will there be a happy father/daughter reunion, despite all the secrets?
Revenge season 4 airs Sundays at 10pm on ABC.
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
If it’s on TV — especially if it’s a procedural or superhero show — chances are Meredith watches it. She has a love for all things fiction, starting from a young age with ER and The X-Files on the small screen and the Nancy Drew books. Arrow kicked off the Arrowverse and her true passion for all things heroes. She’s enjoyed getting into the minds of serial killers since Criminal Minds, so it should be no surprise that her latest obsession is Prodigal Son.
