Revenge - Recap: Who Amanda Clarke Is
I fear I might be approaching hyperbole when I say this was the best Revenge in well over a year, but then I remember the events of "Impetus" and I think, "Yeah, sounds about right."
Credit: ABC
So the people who abducted Charlotte at the end of last week's episode? Yeah, totally Emily and Aiden. It's part of a plan to force Conrad and Victoria to call a press conference and confess to the bombing of Flight 197. It isn't exactly Emily's most elegant solution, but honestly, if she had known two years ago just how well it would end up working, she might have just kidnapped Charlotte from the get-go to avoid two years of backstabbing, close calls, hook-ups, and death. It's an interesting story for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it illustrates Emily's moral decay. In a scene that pushes us to disagree with Emily's methods, Charlotte is bombarded inside her holding cell with the world's saddest Powerpoint presentation, as Emily plays her a slideshow of all the people whose lives have been lost due to the actions of Conrad Grayson. Charlotte has a full-on panic attack at the sight of Declan among the other casualties, and tearfully pleads with her captor to stop, in what amounts of Christa B. Allen's best work on the show. Aiden feels Emily is veering dangerously close to using the same types of torture tactics used on his own sister, Colleen. And whaddya know? Jack (Nick Wechsler) agrees, believing that getting Charlotte involved is too much. Even Nolan (Gabriel Mann) seems uncomfortable with all this. This is all part of the ongoing narrative of Emily losing herself in the fiction she's created for herself. She's so completely Emily Thorne that, as she admits, "I have no idea who Amanda Clarke is anymore." But it all proves to be worth it in one of the best scenes this season, as Charlotte confronts Conrad about his lifetime of wrongdoing...
Credit: ABC
The show smartly sets us up to believe that Jack frees Charlotte out of his own sense of obligation towards her. However, it's revealed that this is actually a part of the plan, as Jack plants a wire on Charlotte while freeing her. He conceals his identity by keeping a ski mask on, and forcing Charlotte to wear a blindfold, and so the plan isn't compromised. This all ends up being for the best, since it gives us Charlotte vs. Conrad, the Daddy-Daughter Day of Reckoning. In a clear-eyed rage, Charlotte confronts Conrad about his illegal activities, from framing David Clarke to causing Amanda's death. Naturally, what's so intriguing about how Conrad responds is the result of just how genuinely concerned he was for Charlotte throughout the entire episode. In the early stages, he was practically beside himself with worry, telling Victoria that they had to obey the kidnapper's demands and confess to the bombing of Flight 197, and arguing that Charlotte shouldn't have to die for their sins. As he poignantly explains to Victoria, Charlotte is not his biological child, but even if she was born from betrayal, he won't allow her to die from it.
However, when confronted by the daughter he was willing to go to prison to protect, Conrad's fatherly concern completely vanishes. Gone is all memory of affection for Charlotte, as he proclaims that she's an "ungrateful bastard," and explains that he'll have her erased like so many before her if she dares to go to the authorities. Conrad threatens Charlotte by confessing to using David Clarke as a patsy, and being associated with an international conglomerate of terrorist associates. It's a majestic performance from Czerny, who turns on a dime and delivers the verbal down-dressing of a lifetime. And it's all caught on camera and broadcast live on national television. In a moment three years in the making, Nolan incredulously looks to Emily and proclaims, "You got him." And Emily's face tells the tale. Her mouth agape, tears forming in her eyes, a disbelieving smile streaked across her face, intermittently replaced by uncertainty, as if unsure if this is really happening. It's one of the best scenes of wordless acting I've seen on network TV all year. VanCamp just nails it. Doubly so in the aftermath, as she visits Conrad in prison and reveals she's doing all this in memory of David and Amanda Clarke. I mean, really, you could have ended the series right there. I'm not sure Conrad ever needs to know who Emily truly is, he only needs to pay for his crimes. Granted, Victoria needs to pay too, and this is what compels Emily to continue even though she's gotten the big kahuna. Although, for all anyone knows, Victoria may be the real threat Emily should have been worried about all along. Thanks to the DNA test of Carl's blood and Charlotte's hair, Victoria knows that Amanda Clarke wasn't really Amanda Clarke. More troubling still, she may just know who the real Amanda Clarke is.
Credit: ABC
As with any episode of any show, not everything is perfect. Daniel's redemption arc, in which he tries to atone for his sins by making certain Margaux, in her quest for justice in the name of Pascal, doesn't repeat them. And there's even a great moment where he gets punched in the face by Aiden! But it's not exactly the most substantive arc in an episode with so much else going on. It also gives us the most obnoxious new addition to the show in ages, as we get a new investigator on the Pascal murder. Agent Hosko (Tyler Jacob Moore) sounds like he walked right off the set of a 1940s screwball comedy, and not in the charming way. He just seems like a TV executive's idea of a cop, more cartoon than anything else. But his scenes are thankfully short, as he exists mostly to pester Emily about a partial print found on the wire Pascal was wearing. It just doesn't feel of a piece with the rest of the episode, coming across as more an annoyance than an obstacle to Emily.
Credit: ABC
But even with those minor setbacks, "Impetus" was as close to perfect as any episode could possibly come. That final confrontation with Emily and Conrad, her vow that she still has Victoria left to go, and the hopeful gleam in his eye, capped with a "Godspeed," was wonderful. And the hour that preceded it was every bit as good. The season finale is next week, and I legitimately have no idea where the show is headed now that Victoria basically knows who Emily truly is. On the one hand, I'm disappointed she figured it out on her own, because I'd long been looking forward to Emily finally having her big reveal moment to a dumbstruck Victoria. On the other hand, Victoria figuring out Emily's identity on her own illustrates just how formidable she truly is. She doesn't need the kind of resources at Conrad's disposal to get things done. While Revenge has tended to portray Conrad as the Big Bad that needs to "get got" by the end of the series, Victoria is really the one capable of doing the damage and tearing Emily's carefully laid plans asunder. And it looks like the clash three years in the making finally comes next week. So yeah, sign me the hell up.