Despite the fact that it’s Thanksgiving Eve, gratitude wasn’t high on anyone’s list of priorities tonight. Everyone seemed to be too busy scrambling to position themselves ahead of their enemies to offer thanks to anyone. But that’s Revenge for you!
”Inside the viper’s nest, you must be a viper too”
Tonight’s episode introduced a new character. Emily didn’t go into her revenge scheming without thorough planning. That’s probably stating the obvious by now, but we learned tonight that she’s been working with a Japanese man named Satoshi. He paid a visit to the Hamptons to attend an investment party thrown by the Graysons. While he presented himself as a potential investor, he was there to share a few words of wisdom with Emily. He didn’t really offer much tonight, but I’m assuming this is Emily’s way of calling for back-up. Given how much has shifted since she began exacting her revenge, stepping back and regrouping may be in order.
Graysons
Victoria and Conrad are very quietly at each others’ throats. This includes chatting heatedly in the middle of the South Fork Inn about Frank’s death, which had Conrad threatening to drag Victoria down with him if she tries to frame him. Yes, the spotlight seems to be on the Graysons over Frank’s death as far as the official investigation goes, which is a good thing for Emily and Amanda-Kara or my favorite, Nolan’s choice: Fauxmanda. (Just a reminder that fake-Amanda is being referred to as Amanda for the sake of avoiding any confusion in this recap.)
Lydia, who can apparently stand on one leg, but still can’t get around without her wheelchair, spent most of the episode distrusting Victoria, and wishing she could leave. When Conrad returned to the house, she begged him to get her out of there and he did. The mistress has left the building! Where she went, who knows? I’m sure she’ll be back soon enough, though.
Fauxmanda
Amanda didn’t leave, which we already knew. She spent the bulk of the episode “in the same boat” with Jack. Since last week, I’d been wondering how long it would be before Amanda decided to use her knowledge of Emily (real Amanda) to be her own namesake’s impostor. Sure enough, she didn’t waste any time. After a romantic boat smooch, Amanda told Jack she was his long-lost childhood friend. And now she’s going to have all of those amazing moments with Jack that Emily should have had with him and might have had, had she chosen the forgiveness path, instead of the viper’s nest.
Emily now knows what Amanda’s up to and something tells me Nolan’s cautionary words to Amanda will prove to have been good advice.
Nolan
I realized tonight that I’m rooting for Nolan as much as I’m rooting for Emily. His part in the game seems to be mainly for sport and perhaps for his connection with Emily’s father. I was actually concerned that Nolan might develop feelings for Tyler but so far, he doesn’t seem to be easily persuaded by Tyler’s charm. At least, not enough to let his guard down.
Nolan’s part of the episode had him recovering the shredded document that Tyler stole, which turned out to be Lydia’s unread speech about the Graysons. Not only did Nolan get the original, pieced-together document back, but he also managed to out Tyler to Ashley. Tyler was quick to smooth that situation over. After Ashley reacted to witnessing Tyler and Nolan’s kiss by dropping her glass and storming off, Tyler caught up with her and appealed to her sneakier side. In short, he came clean... kind of. I don’t think Tyler has any intention of showing Ashley all of his cards, but he did make it clear that he’s in it to win it and if she wants to get ahead, she needs to start playing ball too.
Tyler and Ashley
I can’t say I saw this whole arc with Tyler and Ashley playing out the way it did tonight but I still think there’s a good chance Ashley is going to end up in a mess because of this, either emotionally, or legally. If I had to pick a patsy right now, she’d be it. She’s the last to board this mess and the least prepared. But who knows? Maybe she’ll prove me wrong. In the meantime, her first attempt to join this drama party had her offering a few vague tidbits about Emily to Victoria, which resulted in her receiving a brunch invite from her boss. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes.
Tyler and Daniel
Conrad challenged Tyler and Daniel to close a high roller at the investment party. Right now, it’s looking like Tyler won the challenge as he thinks Nolan is going to invest twenty million dollars, but that offer from Nolan was on Emily’s orders and it’s supposed to fall through. We’ll see if it does. In the meantime, the only win Daniel got was on the sand when he bested Tyler’s team in volleyball. Side out!
Flashbacks
Flashbacks included Emily and Amanda exchanging money and identities. Given that Emily gave Amanda a large amount of money in exchange for her name, it’s hard to feel any sympathy for the girl who is now, not only trying to inch her way back into Emily’s life, but also using real-Amanda’s memories to help win Jack over and essentially steal his affection. On the bright side, it makes whatever payback she gets from Emily that much sweeter when it inevitably happens, especially since Nolan gave her fair warning.
We also saw a brief flashback between David and Victoria that revealed that Victoria was planning to leave Conrad, and David’s laptop was missing. So, nothing too revealing, although I’m still convinced that Victoria was pregnant with David’s baby at the time all of this was going on. If that theory turns out to be true, Charlotte is Emily’s half sister.
Declan and Charlotte
Victoria decided to take matters into her own hands with regards to her daughter’s relationship with Declan. This included a visit to the Stowaway to bribe Declan to leave her daughter alone. Declan refused the money, of course, but he apparently also told Charlotte what her mother did. Smart move! Charlotte got in on the plan and told her mother Declan broke up with her. This earned Declan a check for $25k, which is apparently the going rate for Charlotte’s affection, though Declan asked for $100k. Now he can get his own place and the two can sneak around all they want. Considering how busy Victoria is, what with the dead security guy, the resulting investigation, the hidden mistress, and all of the time she spends staring down at Emily from her tower, Declan may have no trouble sneaking around.
That about wraps it up for the week! It’s really getting hard to keep score in this game as everyone seems to be maneuvering themselves around the board. It’s looking like ABC will air a rerun next Wednesday (Boo!), which means we have two weeks before we find out what happens next.
Soapy Moment du Jour
Victoria staring down at her son as he exchanges morning kissies with Emily. Then Emily noticing and kissing him more.
