Monday, October 15, 2012

'Revenge' 2.03 Review - Confidence



This Sunday’s episode of Revenge was all about ‘Confidence’.  It made me question if we should be confident in one character’s weird storyline, another’s pending romance, and the possible real paternity of yet one more character.


I’m going to start off this week talking about Declan, a shocker considering his storyline has been so thin the past few episodes that I’ve omitted him from my past two reviews.  When we last left Declan he was considering holding onto a necklace for a guy for some money, which in this episode escalated quickly into Declan ROBBING a fucking house.  I’m starting to worry that Declan is suffering from the ‘crap, we don’t have a storyline for this character quick throw something at him syndrome’ (ala Terry and Arlene the past two seasons of HBO’s True Blood.)    I wound up having a tiny bit of faith in his storyline however, just because it seems to have brought Mr. Ryan (Teen Wolf’s JR Bourne, and speaking of Teen Wolf it was apparently have a guest star from Teen Wolf night on ABC as Sinqua Walls was on Once Upon a Time the previous hour) into the fold as the man Declan stole from.  Part of me is wondering if Mr. Ryan and Trey know each other and are trying to bring Declan into some kind of criminal fold, but maybe that’s just me being optimistic.  If not then Connor Paolo is being screwed over i the story department.  


I’m also totally sympathizing with Nolan this week when he almost got choked out by Aidan. Despite his valiant effort to fight back he still wasn’t good enough to keep himself from getting hurt.  But I’m also sympathetic toward him because we’re still hurtling toward the zero chemistry relationship that is Padma and Nolan.  This isn’t coming from a fangirl place of “oh Nolan’s bisexual but I totally want him to only be with guys thanks.”  Last season Nolan and Ashely were oozing with chemistry and I was actually pulling for them to be a thing when we picked back up in season two.  However, Ashley clearly saw her opportunity to be the queen bee of Grayson manor and pounced on it. Smart girl.


We also find out in the episode how Victoria escaped the plane crash... if you want to believe that chain of events.  As of right now I’m going to as she was talking to Daniel, who was the only one who didn’t realize she’d faked her kidnapping, when we saw that little flashback.  What’s far more important to me, and to the show as a whole, is a small line she has a little later on when talking to Charlotte. Charlotte bought ‘Amanda’, her “half sister if that” according to Victoria, quite the pricey gift card to get baby things.  A comment Victoria shrugs off when Charlotte questions it.  Now this could mean a couple of things: either Victoria knows that Amanda isn’t the real Amanda which I think the show is hoping you’ll take it as, or that David Clarke had his doubts about Amanda’s real paternity as well.  Is the man that sent Emily on her mission of Revenge not her real father?  Now that my friends, is juicy.


Queen Victoria calls a press conference to attempt to give a middle finger to the White Haired Man, who we now know is called Gordon Murphy, as well as the initiative that he works for.  Which would have been a decent plan if she only had  just Emily working against her, but Aidan as well is against her now.  When I saw the passport come into Daniel’s hands I assumed Emily was behind it and the grand Grayson war of words that came after it.  But it seems Emily was only concerned with trying to separate Charlotte from Victoria, and it shows how she’s still off her game after the revelation that her mother was still alive.  In that one swoop Aidan did what Emily was trying to do all of season one by really getting Daniel to turn against his mother.  Emily needs to get her head back in the game, before Takeda and Aidan do all her revenging for her.


At least Emily does seem to remain on the ball when it comes to trying to subtly drive a wedge between Amanda and Jack.  I don’t think she planned that Victoria was going to call ‘Amanda’ on stage which is how Jack found out that she lied to him about where she was going. She certainly capitalized on it when she saw it coming though.  Right now Victoria is a woman with nothing to lose, and that is someone who is truly dangerous.  She’s going to continue to be a wild card this season and I don’t think anyone is going to really anticipate what she’ll do whenever she’s backed into a corner.  Such as the corner that Conrad is pushing her into when he takes on the whole truth telling trend as his chance to tell one visiting reporter that he and Victoria are getting married again. Now Victoria won’t  be able to walk away from him as she threatened to do at summer’s end.  Which makes me wonder is our body in the ship going to wind up being Conrad after he freshly renews his vows with Victoria?  Our possibilities keep on growing in regard to who winds up being the victim from that flashforward.


Emily has taken an emotional beating this episode and the hits keep on coming when she finds out that her mother is still alive and holed up in the motel where Aidan found the plane’s black box. What’s worse is that she is also very much in love with Gordon Murphy.  Really, she should have watched Alias during some of her training to know her momma was bad news instead of canoodling with Aidan and she’d have seen that coming.  Speaking of Aidan, I hope it’s more than just a broken heart that’s keeping her distant and cautious of him.  I’m wondering if the sister he ran off to save was involved with the initiative as well and how high does this all go beyond the two of them?  But I’m pretty sure we’ll have to wait until season three to find all that out.  Until then we’re headed toward a mother and daughter reunion that’s going to be very nasty.


In the end this episode has really kept my confidence in the direction that Revenge is going in for season two.  At this rate I’d be surprised if it suffers from a sophomore slump, probably because Emily Thorne will kick the very notion of that right in the face.

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