Revenge - Recap: Three-Card Monte Carlo

It's not necessarily that what Emily (Emily VanCamp) and co. are up to isn't interesting, but rather that their big plans are pretty much on hold because of all the new wrinkles that keep getting introduced into the situation. Last week, it was the revelation that Pascal LeMarchal (Olivier Martinez) was in league with Conrad (Henry Czerny) in framing David Clarke. This week, it's the reveal that not only is Pascal attempting to trick Emily into revealing her secrets via secret wire tap in his office, but also that Pascal just might be responsible for framing Aiden's father as well. All these new developments require new approaches. Taking on wealthy denizens of an upscale place like the Hamptons is one thing, but taking on an independently wealthy, international multimedia mogul is another matter entirely. And so we have "Addiction", an episode that doesn't provide the explosive drama we may have come to expect, but an episode that still manages to keep stakes high for everyone involved. All in all, I'd argue it's a damn solid, if occasionally unspectacular, hour of TV.

Credit: ABC

Emily decides the way she's going to get close to Pascal is by funding Monte Carlo Night, a casino celebration benefiting Pascal's charity for childhood leukemia research. She settles on this plan after swiping a mysterious coin from Pascal at the bar -- a chip that turns out to be a million dollar buy-in chip for a high-end gambling club in Macau. Emily, who preys on the vices/weaknesses of her targets, is wise in setting up a night that indulges Pascal's preferred excesses. But she doesn't expect the inevitable arrival of the Graysons, who show up in full regalia, despite not having been invited to the gala event. The arrival of Daniel (Josh Bowman) and Victoria (Madeleine Stowe) is motivated by animus against Emily, but also by ambivalence towards Pascal, as Victoria can't seem to make up her mind as to whether or not she's still intrigued by the guy. We're told about a thousand times throughout the episode that they once dated when Victoria was 16, before her visa expired and she returned to the States, prompting a heartbroken Pascal to send an orchid to her for every day they were apart. Eventually, she flew back to Paris to surprise him and found him in the arms of another woman, and so Victoria has essentially treated the entire relationship like one massive mistake ever since. Not that this deters Pascal, who attempts to buy her affection with an expensive piece from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. However, Victoria insists she's not something that can be bought, and so she tells him off, culminating with her inevitable arrival at the Monte Carlo night, in which she ends up in a high-stakes poker game against, of all people, Emily herself.

Emily had planned on playing against Pascal, but the multimillionaire ceded his spot to Victoria, leading to a game that is basically a representation of their combative relationship. Emily in vixen red vs. Victoria in faux-innocent white, both lying about their respective hands as the stakes rise higher, with Victoria making a six-figure bet while Emily puts up Daniel's engagement ring as collateral to match the wager. Victoria has the winning hand but folds, allowing Emily to win and believe that she's done so fairly. When questioned by Pascal, Victoria reveals that she wants to see how the rest of Emily's "plan" plays out, since this Monte Carlo fiasco is merely one facet of a larger scheme. Of course, Emily knows that Victoria knows, immediately sussing out that Victoria let her win. She also quickly realizes that Pascal was recording their conversation after the game, as he and Emily discuss business, as well as the Grayson family. So not only is Emily up against an exceedingly wealthy man, but she's also been pitted against someone who's nearly as good at this whole manipulation thing as she is. Case in point, Pascal is able to obtain the deed to the Grayson home, which he gifts to Victoria, along with the promise that he will never betray her again. Victoria, essentially proving that she can be bought, admits that while she isn't one to forgive and forget, she's certainly open to trying. Cue Victoria and Pascal picking up where their romance left off some thirty years earlier, as they kiss and, presumably, get to rolling around in the proverbial hay. But not before he places a "blonde dragon" in her hair, a rare, extinct orchid that sounds, for all the world, like it describes Emily Thorne.

Credit: ABC

Of course, the question remains as to how Pascal obtained the deed to Grayson Manor, and we have our answer in a strangely poignant scene. Conrad finds out that Stevie (Gail O'Grady) is the biological mother of Jack (Nick Wechsler), prompting him to realize that she'd been cheating on him during their marriage, since the timing places conception of Jack during their marriage, but after the point at which they stopped sleeping together. The reveal that Jack's father was the affair and not Conrad is surprising in itself, although not nearly as stunning as Conrad's visit to Stevie at the South Fork Inn. In a wonderful performance by Henry Czerny, making Conrad to be as forgivable as he is despicable, Conrad finally lays out all the long-buried pain surrounding his and Stevie's marriage. He reveals that he truly did love her, and that she pretty much broke his heart, saying that he deserved to know about Jack since he was her husband. Stevie notes that although she did make mistakes, two good things did come out of her faults: Jack and Carl. She makes a note of how far she's come, and she inevitably relents in her hatred of Conrad, particularly after he gets all warm and fuzzy, noting that although things have grown cold between them, he truly is happy for her. As he turns to leave, Stevie asks him to wait. And next thing we know, Conrad is on the phone with Pascal, with the deed to Grayson Manor in his hand. Has Stevie been turned back to Team Conrad? It seems like a bit of a leap, although she's clearly troubled, visiting Jack at the Stowaway and nearly falling off the wagon. She pours herself a drink but eventually tosses it away, as the conflict continues to brew inside her. Is it ambivalence? Guilt? Fear? She's barely been around for a month, and Stevie is already one of the most interesting recurring characters this show has introduced in a long time. I feel like she could go in almost any direction, as far as her loyalties and motives are concerned.

Credit: ABC

Someone whose loyalties seem similarly foggy at the moment are Margaux's (Karine Vanasse). Accepting the loss of Voulez to her father, Margaux mulls over a job offer in Rome, and Jack even encourages her to take it, not wanting to hold her back from something that would make her truly happy. But Daniel, who intends to make Emily suffer by turning the ones she loves against her, convinces Margaux that Jack and Emily are more than friends, and that he's trying to get rid of her so he can be with Emily. And so he offers her an alternative, they use the info of Pascal using Voulez as a tax shelter in order to blackmail him into giving up the company. And it works. Both for Margaux, who wanted the company, and for Daniel, who wanted to upset the proverbial applecart. When Jack defends Emily to Margaux, she can now see that Daniel might be right after all; thus develops the rift between Jack and Margaux, and it wouldn't surprise me if Jack laid all the blame at Emily's feet once again for ruining his life, before all is said and done.

The Jack/Margaux/Daniel stuff isn't all that interesting in isolation, but I'll take a thousand of those storylines over the developing romance between Javier and Charlotte (Christa B. Allen), who flirt at Monte Carlo night. Charlotte is immediately taken with Javier thanks to his honesty (he openly admits to being an ex-con), while Javier is smitten with Charlotte's beauty (having already used her likeness as an avatar for the creepy, Siri-like app he's developing). I really don't see it ending well, although the story does provide us the chance to be around Nolan (Gabriel Mann), who offers up some snark while also revealing he'd planned on partnering with Javier on his social media project, but is less enthusiastic about teaming with him now that he's making a public spectacle of himself, having kissed Charlotte out of nowhere. It feels kind of low-stakes right now, mostly because we know very little about Javier or how his social media program will fit into the rest of this season's narrative, if at all. However, not every storyline has that same problem...

Before the charity event, Emily takes a flight down to Bermuda to track down Aiden and ask for his input on the note Pascal wrote to Conrad all those years ago. Aiden isn't exactly happy to see her, since she's violating their agreement to remain apart. But there really is no letting go of Emily Thorne, as Aiden soon discovers when he actually takes the time to go over the note. Emily had been seeking the identity of "TWM," which Nolan has been unable to decipher after a thorough search of Pascal's databases. The answer itself doesn't come until after the charity event, when Aiden bursts into Emily's home, fresh off a flight from Bermuda. He reveals that he knows the meaning of TWM: Trevor Warren Mathis, the airport employee convicted of placing the bomb on Flight 197. He also just so happens to be Aiden's father. Thus, Pascal is not only in the business of framing one revenger's father, but two. And just like that, Aiden is back on Team Emily, which is becoming a far more formidable force for revenging just on the basis of these two weeks alone. Pascal had better watch his back.

Credit: ABC

Revenge is setting up the dominoes so Emily Thorne can start knocking'em down, so while "Addiction" wasn't the most exciting episode, it felt necessary. The story is moving forward in big ways, and I can imagine that certain things that seem innocuous now will have a whole new import in just a few episodes. Well, I'm hoping so, anyway. As Emily's schemes get more complicated, and her villains more formidable, the story becomes more dense and harder to keep track of, in some cases. But I trust the show implicitly, since I can't really think of a time this season (other than during the unfortunate amnesia storyline) where the show has let me down. So I don't feel weird giving Revenge the benefit of the doubt, especially since, ultimately, I did enjoy "Addiction" overall.