Revenge - Season 2 Premiere - Recap and Review - Destiny
Revenge was last year's biggest surprise, coming out of nowhere to earn high ratings, a loyal following, and even some awards traction, as Madeleine Stowe earned a Golden Globe nomination for her role as Victoria Grayson. The series also became the highest-rated ABC series in the Wed. 10pm timeslot since Lost's 2006-2007 season. So how does ABC react to that sudden success? By moving the show to Sundays at 9pm, filling the slot held by the late Desperate Housewives. ABC looks to make Sunday nights its programming cornerstone, and it's hard to argue that the presence of Revenge isn't a huge factor in why. The series is maddeningly addictive, yet, unlike many similar soaps, it's not without substance. There's a lot going on beneath the surface, assuring that there's something even for high-minded TV snobs to enjoy, even as they find themselves utterly enthralled by the more salacious elements of the narrative. Frankly, it's just plain great TV. It's like Pretty Little Liars from the perspective of "A." Except "A" isn't some "A"-hole doing it for lousy reasons.
Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp) is still seeking revenge against those responsible for the false imprisonment and murder of her father. What had initially been a story of one woman's myopic war against one of the Hamptons' wealthiest families quickly ballooned into a far-reaching conspiracy. And because things have to get worse before they can get better, Emily discovered that the friend with whom she traded identities in juvie, Amanda (Margarita Levieva), is pregnant with the child of her girlhood love, Jack Porter (Nick Wechsler). As if that's not enough for her to handle, Emily's mother, presumed dead, could well be very much alive.
In brief, Revenge isn't screwing around. It's a uniquely active drama, and the premiere does nothing to disabuse the world of the notion that this show won't hit the ground running every chance it gets. That said, the show is also considerably more mature now, both in presentation and in how its characters have developed in the intervening weeks, in-universe, since the season finale took place. The premiere opens with the same framing device of season one, a flashforward to a point three months into the future, which this first half of season two will build toward. It's a clever fakeout, as we're given to expect that the divers are searching for the remains of last season's plane crash. However, we quickly see that the wrecked vessel at the bottom of the ocean is the Amanda, and the body discovered sleeping with the fishes looks strangely Jack-esque. Although the body on the beach in season one looked a whole hell of a lot like Daniel, so it would be foolish to make any predictions as to the direction the story might take.
In fact, it's always been a zero-sum proposition to try and guess where the show is headed. The opening moments of "Destiny" have no interest in comfortably reorienting you into the world. Nearly every character's introduction subverts some expectation the audience might have formed in their heads off of the series' freshman year. Nolan (Gabriel Mann), once mischievous and soft-handed is...well, he's still mischievous, but he's curled those hands into fists, taking up boxing to keep himself in shape (likely owing to any number of perilous situations he found himself in last season. The guy is like catnip for trouble). Daniel (Josh Bowman), once ambitious but goodhearted, seems to be utterly devoid of any urge but to sit around all day, downing drink after drink until he's wetter than Wildwater Kingdom. He's also shacked up with social-climber Ashley (Ashley Madekwe), because it's the logical progression of a downward spiral. Emily's other flame, Jack, is more or less a bum, laying around with Amanda (on The Amanda) all day while the family-owned bar falls into disrepair, leading to Declan (Connor Paolo, and thank GOD for haircuts) to step up as the man of the place. Even Emily has changed, after a fashion. She's still as driven as ever, but she's clearly rattled, more so than we've seen before. This is an Emily who's as vulnerable as she is capable.
The temporal shift in "Destiny" makes the narrative occasionally hard to follow, but the misdirection often reads as a subversion of expectations. We open in Japan, where Emily is trying to keep her head above water, literally. She's tied to a post as the tide rises, trying to induce a vision of her dead mother (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Emily is seeking answers in the training of her former mentor, Takeda, though the answers she finds only make matters worse. Unlocking memories of her mother as a patient in a mental institution, Emily and Nolan visit said institution, discovering that, along with David Clarke, Victoria visited as well.
Victoria (Madeleine Stowe), presumed dead from the plane crash, is far from a beautiful corpse. She's in hiding, having anticipated Conrad's (Henry Czerny) murder plot and gotten the hell out of Dodge. Emily discovers this when, after being setup to fail a drug test, Charlotte flips out at an auction selling the paintings of her "late" mother's British beau and whispers the truth into her half-sister's ear as she's being dragged away. Yeah, Charlotte's suicide attempt only got her sent to rehab, where she's done swimmingly, kicking her habit, and also keeping in contact with her mother through a burner phone. Charlotte still isn't all that interesting by herself, but placing her in direct correlation to the intrigue surrounding Victoria's disappearance holds promise for her character, going forward.
Even more promising were the scenes between Emily and Victoria, in which it appears the two might start working together, a temporary alliance, but an alliance many have been hoping for since early in season one (since it's a better pivot than having Emily slowly become Victoria). However, Emily remotely spies, via discreet surveillance, that Victoria is simply using Emily, and that she's simply using Emily. Worse still, she's working with "the white-haired man" directly responsible for murdering David Clarke. Victoria confides in the man that she's leery of Charlotte giving Emily, whom she still doesn't trust, so much intel. She tells the white-haired man to "eliminate the liability." Emily takes this to mean that the white-haired man is coming for her, but the order is vague enough, not specifying who "the liability" is, exactly, which leaves room for the white-haired man to go after Charlotte. But then, I think I said a thing or two above about trying to predict this show, so I'm just going to shut up now. Hell, I actually thought it would be Daniel, dead on the beach last season.
Revenge is still every bit as salacious as it was when we left, with the promise of getting even more scandalous before the half-season is through. The Porter sections were a bit of a slog, but maybe it's simply because I hate "Fauxmanda," who went as far as to threaten Emily with exposure if she tells Jack the truth about who she really is. Weaker still are the continued inferences of Takeda's sinister motives, since we don't really need to be adding to the show's mythology just now, given that it tells personal stories so well. That said, the introduction of Emily's mother, if only in flashback, is pretty great, as are any scenes in which Nolan opens his mouth ("You think Victoria is somewhere looking up at us?"). The stakes are higher than they've ever been, and we have more pieces in motion on the game board than at any other time. Season two looks to be an unpredictable ride, and I hope the show continues to surprise us while also telling a story that rewards attentive viewership from week-to-week.
