Revenge Season 2, Episode 1

Revenge is one of the best shows on TV right now, despite being a soap opera so bombastic it makes other soaps weep.  When we left season one, Revenge had taken a cue from Covert Affairs and blasted Florence and the Machine to convey just how serious things were. Victoria was dead in a plane crash, Emily had learned that her mother might still be alive, Charlotte overdosed on pills, Daniel was distraught about Emily’s cheating and Jack and Fake Amanda were expecting a baby. 

Things are as grim as ever as we see search and rescue workers scouring the ocean for what we can only assume is Victoria’s plane. However we soon realise this isn’t the case. They are looking at the Amanda, Jack’s boat and a dead body who could possibly be Jack. Like the first season we’re going to have to wait to find out.  Back in present day Emily has returned to her special revenge training and is tied to a pole in the ocean, nearly drowning in an attempt to remember something about her mother.  Soon she is hauled out of the water, furious that her memory was interrupted. Her mentor muses that the fear of death is not the only fear there is. Indeed, the cold and calculating Emily from the first episodes of season one is gone and if she isn’t careful she’ll be in danger of going too far.

Over on depression boat, Jack is drinking away his problems, mainly that he doesn’t love his girlfriend, his brother can’t shut up and their bar is about to be inspected. As if there was any doubt about which way that would go, the bar gets shut down for water damage. 

Meanwhile at chez Grayson, Ashley hasn’t wasted anytime in scooping up Daniel, even as she plans a memorial for Victoria. Charlotte is in the world’s poshest rehab centre but something has changed. There is definitely something calculated and in control about Charlotte, as if she has taken a page out of her mother’s book. She asks if she can attend the memorial and Dr. Thomas, who’s definitely up to no good, agrees but only on the condition that he accompanies her.

After his near death experience, Nolan is bulking up by taking boxing classes when Emily shows up to give him his job as partner in crime back. They head over to Emily’s casa to plot when Nolan suggests they live together. Personally I think this would make their various nights of plotting the demise of basically everyone they know a lot easier but Emily doesn’t agree. She does head over  to visit Jack and Amanda where she not-so-subtly threatens Amanda. Poor Amanda, she just wants a chance for happiness but her baby daddy doesn’t love her and her friends are calling her out on it. 

Nolan and Emily also go visit the mental hospital where Emily last saw her mother.  It’s now defunct and suitably creepy.  Apparently the last person who took Emily to see her mother was Victoria, who has, sadly, passed on. So what happened to Emily’s mother? Was she kidnapped by the Graysons? Nolan doesn’t think so.

At the memorial, Ashley dithers on for England about how generous Victoria was and a bunch of other stuff that she made up on the spot. Charlotte can’t handle it and gives a very convincing (if not genuine) speech about how her mother was so special to her. Conrad  doesn’t approve and has his henchman, Dr. Thomas, interrupt with the information that Charlotte is still using drugs and must be whisked away to rehab immediately. Charlotte isn’t going down without a fight though and tells Emily that Victoria, to no one’s surprise, is still alive. Emily pays Victoria a visit in her witness protection program abode where they discuss the fact that Dr. Thomas is indeed working for Conrad and trying to keep Charlotte and Daniel silent so he can get their inheritances. 

Meanwhile, Jack pays Emily a visit. If there’s one aspect of this show that I’m not particularly fond of it is the romance between Jack and Emily.  I just don’t buy that these two are in love and that they are doing the right thing by letting Amanda get hurt. Emily asks Jack if he’s sure the baby is his, something we’ve all been thinking and I think we can all agree that the baby is not his.  Later as they lie in bed Amanda looks sad as can be and I can’t help but feel sorry for her, especially after Declan’s speech about how Jack should leave her. 

Emily and Nolan rig a camera up to watch Victoria. Victoria is onto Emily though and soon she is talking to the uber bad man about how Emily has to be taken care of, “just like her mother and father before her”. Uh-oh.  Emily isn’t worried though, she’s going to get her revenge, no matter what.