Revenge - Recap: Gas N' Go

"Allegiance" reveals that Victoria (Madeleine Stowe) is finally onto why Emily (Emily VanCamp) has seemingly targeted the Graysons, as well as on whose behalf she's doing this. Getting revenge can be tricky enough when your enemies don't suspect a thing, but it can be an entirely new can of worms once you're on their radar, and I imagine that's where much of the drama in the last few episodes of the season is going to come from. But until then, we get another classic, Season 1-style takedown, in which another former Grayson Global employee finds himself on the wrong end of Emily's red sharpie. I've often said that the show was never better than when it operated as a sort-of procedural, in which Emily took down a different target each week while navigating the social landmine of The Hamptons. "Allegiance" is a return to that incredibly effective formula, and it produces an episode that is pretty satisfying as a revenge story, and worthwhile as an exploration in just how hard it can be to hold everything together when you have enemies coming at you from every corner.

Credit: ABC

The story this week is a revenge tale centered on Luke Gilliam (Tim Dekay), the head honcho of a clean gas company that swears by its natural, non-toxic processes, all while secretly using chemical agents that kill the environment and pollute the water supply. And yet, even with all of his unethical, profit-mongering practices, Gilliam might have escaped Emily's justice altogether if he hadn't let slip his involvement in the David Clarke frame-up. Without even realizing it, Gilliam has made a powerful enemy capable of taking him down in a very public fashion. Of course, the story would be plenty fun on its own with just Emily engineering Gilliam's takedown, but this is the first major revenge case in which Jack (Nick Wechsler) is directly involved. Here, he serves as a wingman of sorts to her plan to get Gilliam to give her a job. When Emily meets with Gilliam to discuss a job offer, Jack plays the part of a belligerent environmentalist, arriving on the scene and loudly accusing the CEO of purposely harming the environment to make a buck. To prove that his chemicals are on the up and up, Gilliam produces a vial from his satchel that he claims to be the actual chemicals they use. He then drinks the entire vial, proving that the contents are harmless. While this is happening, Emily is switching out the vials with a replacement concoction of her own making. Once finished, she steps up and defends Gilliam from Jack's accusations, thereby winning Gilliam's trust.

Credit: ABC

Not that she'll really need it for much longer. At a public ceremony, Gilliam drinks from his own vial to assure the audience that his chemicals are safe, but as Emily had planned, the vial ends up poisoning him and exposing him for the fraud he is. The powerpoint presentation on the screen behind him reads, "You just drank the real chemicals," which essentially lets the rest of the audience in on the setup. While a ruined Gilliam recuperates in the hospital, he receives an encoded transmission from an anonymous Emily, who blackmails him into revealing what he knows about Conrad's involvement in the David Clarke conspiracy. In one fell swoop, Emily has some solid evidence against Conrad. It may not be a smoking gun, but Emily admits to Jack that she feels closer than she's ever been to finally having her revenge. This was an artful takedown, honestly, and one of Emily's best, since it seems we hardly get to see her do any real revenging anymore. This was a throwback to season one, right down to the red sharpie crossing out Gilliam's face. For her part, Victoria appears as satisfied with Gilliam's downfall as Emily, and with good reason. She brought him into the open in the first place, in order to draw out Emily and confirm her suspicions about what Emily is up to. As she reveals to Pascal (Olivier Martinez), Emily isn't after the Graysons. She's out for revenge in the name of David Clarke. And if Victoria knows why Emily is doing what she's doing, it shouldn't be long before she figures out just who Emily really is. And that should make for a genuinely explosive moment on par with last season's finale.

Credit: ABC

As for Victoria, she's briefly miffed at Conrad's assertion that Pascal profited over David Clarke's death. But Pascal is able to calm her down by assuring that Conrad is just trying to drive a wedge between them. However, we all know good and well that Conrad isn't lying, especially after Pascal confronts him and blackmails him into silence by revealing he recorded their conversations in 1993 about David Clarke. When Conrad tries to call Pascal's bluff by arguing that the tapes implicate him as well, Pascal boastfully responds, "I control what the world hears, which means I control you." And so Conrad turns to the only person he knows who could really help: Aiden (Barry Sloane). He tries to hire him to retrieve the recordings, and although Aiden rejects him outright, Conrad is confident the sly Brit will come around. Of course, it's not as if Aiden doesn't have his own problems this week. He and Nolan (Gabriel Mann) track down Oscar Chapman, who's been living in secret as a woman named Brenda (I love it when this show gets silly). Aiden learns that his father didn't knowingly plant a bomb on Flight 197. Rather, he thought he was planting, and the guilt that wracked him following the Flight 197 tragedy completely broke him. However, he did plan on facing judgment, meaning he didn't commit suicide. He was murdered. By Pascal. And, by episode's end, Chapman joins Aiden's father on the list of Pascal's victims, taking a bullet in the chest for his troubles. And because things need to be more complicated, it turns out Conrad was the one who revealed Chapman's whereabouts to Pascal in the first place, making him at least partially responsible for the ex-reporter's death. Poor Aiden, so close to answers. But hey, at least this should lead to Aiden taking some initiative in his own attempts at avenging his late father.

Credit: ABC

Another person taking initiative is Nolan, which is actually a bit surprising, considering he's taking about the anti-Grayson cause in the name of Javier (Henri Esteve). As part of his ongoing campaign against Emily's friends, Daniel (Josh Bowman) has Charlotte (Christa B. Allen) convince Javier that joining up with them would be in his best interest. I suppose it isn't all that surprising that all it took to get Javier to turn his back on Nolan was a McLaren, some nookie from Charlotte, and a few well-placed, anti-Nolan rhetoric ("You can either be next to Nolan Ross, or you can be the next Nolan Ross."). But Nolan is at least understanding of how his protege's mind was polluted, and so he approaches the Grayson siblings at their home, and frightens them by making the lightbulbs on the patio burst in unison (a cool little "This is just the top of the iceberg" threat). Nolan declares, "This is war," which -- I mean, I'm definitely interested to see what a vengeful Nolan will look like (since we didn't really get all of that with the Padma storyline), but I wish it were all in service of a better character than Javier. Although I do like that the show is attempting to parallel Javier's quick ascension with Nolan's own, when he was just a hacker with a chip on his shoulder. And, at the very least, it's more interesting than the slow implosion of the relationship between Jack and Margaux (Karine Vanasse), who gets an earful about how she's letting Daniel manipulate her. However, Jack doesn't seem to care all that much that things are going sour, telling Emily that, surprisingly, he's okay. I'd imagine it's because he thinks he might have a chance with Emily? Eh, easier said than done, with Aiden back in the picture. But then, a good love triangle could give the show an added shot in the arm.

Credit: ABC

"Allegiance" is a solid hour, one that takes Revenge back to its roots in entertaining fashion. As we head towards the final episodes of the season, all of Emily's ducks are in a row, and I'm hoping this leads to more takedowns like we saw tonight. One would think Pascal is in for a downfall, but with this show, it's hard to know one way or the other. Hell, it could be Emily who finds herself on the wrong end of a sharpie, now that Victoria has one (and it's black, of course; and she's apparently using the same Grayson Global photo Emily has been using. Parallels!). I'm definitely excited to see how (or even if) the show is able to stick the landing on Season 3, since the majority of it has been a real return to form.