Revenge - Season 2 Episode 5 - Recap and Review - Forgiveness
In many respects, Revenge has always been a show about forgiveness. Well, maybe not so much forgiveness as the lack thereof. Any revenge mission implies an unwillingness to forgive. There's an appetite for retribution that must be sated, and forgiveness doesn't really give you that full-stomach feeling the way orchestrating your opponent's downfall might. Really, that's what "Forgiveness" is about, and while it's an episode rich with subtext, it's too much of a mess to really mean much of anything. The first conversation between Emily (Emily VanCamp) and her mother, Kara Clarke (Jennifer Jason Leigh), should have felt more momentous than it ultimately did. This is not to say that there was no emotion there. There was tons of it, and moments in the episode really resonated, such as when Emily listens in on Kara delivering her tear-filled, compensatory speech to Amanda. I just can't be certain that the episode really had the effect it should have, and I'm beginning to wonder if the episode wouldn't have been better served by trimming some of the fat around the edges. Season two of Revenge has been more densely layered than season one, and while that's a good thing for those of us who like our plots as complex as our characters, it feels as if this choice was ultimately at the expense of the show's sense of fun, which made it such an addictive series in the first place.
Credit: ABC
Kara Clarke is back in the Hamptons, and naturally, she confronts Victoria (Madeleine Stowe) as a means of making amends, as if she's on some kind of Forgiveness World Tour. Victoria endures Kara's hug, fighting the urge to jam the pinking shears she's holding through Kara's back. And, of course, because she's immediately thrown by the surprise, and also passive-aggressive in her own right, Victoria invites Kara to lunch. And then immediately calls Conrad to shout at him because Kara Clarke is supposed to be dead, yet she's still alive, and so she's clearly the one behind the psych ward roll, and the journals. It's not that big of a leap to make, so I'm not surprised that Victoria came to that conclusion, particularly since we learn that, beyond simply being capable of zapping a guy with a tazer and leaving him for dead, she was married to the white-haired man, Gordon Murphy (James Morrison), the Swiss Army Knife of assassins who can't get the job done. We also learn that Kara is the one who told David Clarke (James Tupper) to tell their daughter that she was dead, and not simply something David Clarke decided to do on his own, as has been presumed. Though she was clearly unsettled, to speak kindly, in the past, Kara is earnestly trying to redeem herself. She tries to explain to Amanda (Margarita Levieva), who's awoken out of her coma, why she left, hoping for some small sign that perhaps her erstwhile daughter understands. Of course, Fauxmanda is in no position to impart that peace to the woman, given that it's not her real mother, and little Carl David isn't her real grandchild.
Credit: ABC
Emily, for her part, is seeking forgiveness herself. She confesses to Amanda that she lied about the pregnancy test results, that baby Carl David really is Jack's child. Amanda is overcome with emotion, enough to outweigh the immediate outrage it would inspire in just about any normal person. It's to her credit that she's as restrained as she is, stating that she knows all that Emily has done for her, but that she wants to know why. Emily responds to the effect that she thought it would keep Amanda on her side a little longer. I'm not entirely sure I buy that. Amanda has been useful to Emily, sure, but there was such an aura of subtle vindictiveness and jealousy in Emily VanCamp's performance when she first told Amanda that the baby wasn't Jack's. Emily is almost like a rudderless ship at this point (The Amanda?), unmoored by her lack of focus. She doesn't seem entirely sure what to do with herself, as she's in this weird position where she doesn't feel she can move forward with her revenge plot, yet she can't go around telling everyone the truth about herself yet either.
Aiden (Barry Sloane) remains intent on helping her see the mission through, even though she doesn't appear to want his help, and I'm sure there are plenty of people who'd love a swarthy Brit to constantly show up at their door whether they wanted him there or not. This week, he decides to ingratiate himself with Daniel (Josh Bowman) and Ashley (Ashley Madekwe) in order to infiltrate Grayson Global and wreck the operation from the inside, while also keeping tabs. Still, while this should be relatively interesting, it just comes across as hollow. He should be an intriguing character, a wrench in the machinery of Emily's past, but Aiden feels like the most superfluous addition to this show since Mason Treadwell (Roger Bart). Did I mention Mason Treadwell is back? Because Mason Treadwell is back, with his corny Matthew Lesko suit and a consistently smug little expression on his face that turns to a scowl on a dime, as if he learned he was just rejected as the villain of the next Batman movie. He pokes around to investigate Amanda's indoctrination into the Grayson family, and also the return of Kara Clarke, because he's always writing a book about something. Of course, he ends up getting on Kara Clarke's bad side, since it's impossible for him to really do anything else. Well, except put together that not everything is what it seems with "Amanda," who is missing a scar present on the real Amanda Clarke. Add another player to the Game of Thornes.
Also in the game is Padma (Dilshad Vadsaria), who Emily discovers has been researching David Clarke's employment records with Grayson Global, believing that because he was employed by Grayson Global when he invested in Nolan's company, the Graysons might actually have claim to a potential majority share. Nolan (Gabriel Mann) is curious as to why Padma would want to know about David Clarke, and my theory is that perhaps someone dear to Padma was on the flight that David Clarke was alleged to have been responsible for bringing down, and so Padma is on a revenge quest of her own. If that's not the case, I'll gladly eat my hat (it's high in nutrients and provides a great source of much-needed roughage), but I can't imagine why else she would do this, unless she's under Grayson employ, and we already have Ashley for that. I just hope this doesn't end with Nolan in the poor house, since at least a third of his appeal is his increasingly outlandish outfits (a Polo shirt with a popped collar within a button-up shirt with a popped collar? Popception!). That said, I hope they tie this into the main narrative a bit more fluidly as the weeks progress.
I almost forgot to mention the business with Jack (Nick Wechsler) getting grifted, as the man who Declan (Connor Paolo) allegedly stole from seems intent on buying the family bar, it would seem. It's still a storyline that's desperate for relevance, so I'm just going to withhold judgment until we get some better idea of what in the red, rugged hell it has to do with anything, especially since there are bigger fish to fry. Next week is the big wedding between Victoria and Conrad, the ultimate remarriage of convenience, since husband and wife can't be forced to testify against one another, which should provide a nice bit of protection in case the Initiative (or the government) comes after them. Should be the nuptials to end all nuptials, and a perfect excuse for another party, because we apparently don't get enough of those, between the Hamptons and Mystic Falls. That said, this wedding could be a disaster of historic proportions, so I'll be there with bells on. However, as for now, "Forgiveness" provides some much needed catharsis, even if it isn't the most engaging episode in the world.
