For a season of television that has been filled with ups and downs, this Revenge season three finale has certainly served up plenty of OHEMGEE moments befitting of a show that always promises many twists and turns (though it doesn’t always deliver as well as it did tonight). So, let’s begin.
Revenge Season 3
Revenge Season 3 Episode 21 “Impetus” Recap
Emily utters those three little words
For the longest time, we all wondered if Emily truly loved Aiden. After her long-held childhood dream of love with Jack that came and went, nobody, including Emily, was sure where her heart’s desire truly belonged. But at long last, she uttered those three little words to Aiden: “I love you”. That was music to Aiden’s ears and all our hearts went aflutter at this. But perhaps we should not have wished for this, because there is never any fairytale ending when it comes to the life and many loves of Emily Thorne (remember when we once thought she might have even been a little in love with Daniel for real?).
R.I.P. Pascale LeMarchal
One might have easily mistaken Pascale LeMarchal to be some sort of important statesman with his casket draped in the French flag as it is slowly wheeled from a private hangar to the plane that would bring his body back to Paris for burial, instead of a ruthless, cold-blooded murderer who was himself slain by someone more ruthless, and more cold-blooded than him. One might have also assumed that, as his casket is accompanied by his daughter, Margaux, that they would have been headed straight for the air, instead of just a ceremonial march towards the plane during which Margaux confides in Daniel that she cannot keep up with the charade (of pretending that their parents aren’t murderers) for much longer and Victoria tells Daniel that she will not rest until Emily suffers the same kind of pain she is suffering.
A man who defends himself has a fool for a lawyer
I was a little disappointed to see that Conrad wasn’t in an orange jumpsuit when he appeared in court to apply for bail. Finally, a judge who sees through the Grayson B-S, refusing to accept Conrad’s explanation that his on-air confession was the result of blackmail and coercion when he believed his daughter had been kidnapped and was in danger. Not only does the judge call him out on his pathetic excuse for what it was, he also declared that the David Clarke case was to be reopened in light of the new evidence provided to the courts proving David’s innocence, and more importantly, of Conrad’s guilt.
The prodigal sons come home
Just as Margaux confirms Daniel as her second-in-command of her newly-inherited media empire, Pascale’s prodigal son, Gideon, turns up to interrupt the gaiety. He wants to make nice with Margaux and accompany her to fly their father’s body back to France (again, why aren’t they in the air already?!). At the same time, Javier comes crawling back to Nolan with his tail between his legs, asking for forgiveness – by trusting the Graysons, he had, in one fell swoop, lost his app, his girlfriend, his friend and mentor. Should Nolan take Javier back? Hmm… But maybe it would be less dangerous than to get into an alliance with Gideon who, after all, still has some LeMarchal blood in him and could be as murderous as his father was?
Victoria has worked it out
Armed with DNA evidence that Amanda Clarke was definitely not Amanda Clarke, Victoria is out to prove her theory that Emily Thorne is actually the real Amanda. So she sends her henchman out follow Emily to get her blood sample so she can do another secret DNA test. It is unusual for Emily to be so careless and not know that she was being followed to the cabin that once belonged to her grandfather. She had barely stepped foot inside the cabin, where she hoped to find out who has been living there and sending letters to Charlotte, when the thug tried to take her out while taking her blood sample. Of course, he was no match for Emily, though she did take a pretty good whumping before she TKO’d him.
Victoria gets blood on her hands – again
With Conrad behind bars, likely to face life without parole, Team Emily turn their attention to Victoria and how to take her down, starting with those Emily had taken down with her red Sharpie before who still have leverage over the Graysons. Aiden’s first stop is to visit the psychiatrist, Dr Banks, who had once convinced young Amanda that her father was evil and guilty of all the charges he was accused of. While Aiden is sipping on his cup of tea, the good doctor excuses herself to go retrieve her files on Victoria. The doc walks out and the Queen walks in, taking Aiden by surprise just as the toxins in his tea begin to work its paralyzing effect on him. Victoria slowly explains to him that Emily has taken away her last chance for love (I’m sure she has said that before of another past lover, Dominik Wright) and so she is doing the same to Emily by taking away her true love. With his final ounce of strength, Aiden charges at Victoria and tries to strangle the life out of her. Unfortunately for him, that was just not enough (maybe he skipped class the day Takeda was teaching his pupils how to strangle someone to death), and as he lay gasping for his last breath, Victoria leans over and smothers him with a cushion. R.I.P. Aiden Mathis.
Emily’s new motivation for revenge
While Emily is getting the happy and long-fought-for news that the FBI have officially posthumously cleared David Clarke of all his charges in relation to the bombing of Flight 197 and Jack is busy buying everyone at the Stowaway a round of drinks to celebrate, Victoria is leaving Emily a present in her beach house in the form of a very stiff Aiden sitting by an open fire. When Emily gets home, ready to celebrate with the man that she loves, she finds him cold with open eyes. Aiden’s death saddens me greatly – loyal to Emily even with his dying breath, he did not deserve to die at the hands of Victoria in such a cowardly way. Emily has no doubt who is responsible, as if she needed any more reasons to want Victoria to pay.
Danger! Danger!
One of Daniel’s biggest flaws is that he believes he is smarter than everyone else. Clearly it is his big Grayson ego doing the thinking for him. Gideon takes him drinking, telling him that he intends to start his own company now that his sister has stolen what he believed to have been his birthright from him. Next thing you know, he has passed out and is lying in a hotel room somewhere, next to a dead girl. He is woken by a phone call from Margaux and he still doesn’t even know what is going on. We don’t know how he is going to explain this or get rid of the body (because you know that’s his M.O.) but Gideon has photographic proof of Daniel in bed with the dead girl because this is his doing. Or, as Gideon explains to Nolan, he did not plan for the girl to die – she asked to be “paid in coke, she just doesn’t know her limits”. This is the kind of cold-blooded killer Nolan is getting into business with? Oh dear…
When will Charlotte figure out who’s on her side?
Poor Charlotte – she must feel like the dumbest person in the Hamptons. After being fooled all her life about who her father was, she still hasn’t figured out who is actually on her side and who’s not. She knows Victoria cannot be trusted and she is a little less sure of Daniel after he broke up Jack and Margaux. She still thinks Emily is evil for deceiving Daniel with her fake pregnancy and I’m not sure she would be any more pleased if she ever finds out that Emily is really her half-sister, Amanda because that will probably be when she finds out Emily was the one who kidnapped her. But she always thought she could trust Jack, until she finds out that Jack had taken her father’s ring and given it to Emily, who gave it back to her. Just as Jack grabs her shoulder to try to calm her down, she suddenly remembers the man who returned her to the beach whom she believed to have been the same man who abducted her, had touched her the same way. Before you can say “let’s not jump to conclusions”, Jack is getting taken in for questioning by the police. How will Jack explain this one?
When the past catches up with Conrad
With all the evidence piled up against Conrad, it would seem that his prison chapel confession to God might be his last. He was destined to have a long and insufferable time in prison…or is he? It would seem that money can still buy Conrad his freedom although one would have thought a mass murderer like Conrad (as he surely should be classified as such) would have been in some high security supermax prison instead of being able to walk out so easily, dressed as a priest, with the help of a prison warden who, only moments before, had been seen roughing him up in his cell. But freedom is not to last long for Conrad. As he whistles down the road of freedom, a van pulls up behind him. Thinking it is his ride, Conrad stops. The driver gets out. Conrad stares back in disbelief. “David?” The man takes out a knife and stabs Conrad. Could it really be David Clarke? He certainly looks like him. But if he has been alive all this time, then are we, the audience, supposed to feel a little cheated that he has put his daughter through all this pain to do his dirty work for him to take down the Graysons?
When the past catches up with Victoria
Emily tells Charlotte that whoever has been sending her letters as David Clarke is an imposter and that she should move her father’s grave. Charlotte refuses to believe a word of it. So Emily tells her she will do it herself. And that is where Victoria finds Emily – at the grave, digging. She confronts Emily with her theory that Emily is the real Amanda and tells her that the man they each remember are very different people. This surprises me – but I guess that is how the writers have been misleading us all along. Seeing how easily David, if that is indeed David Clarke alive and well, stabbed Conrad, it may very well be that David Clarke may not have been as clearly innocent as we, and Team Emily, had thought. Emily could easily have killed Victoria right there at her father’s grave. Emily has been digging up Amanda’s grave – perhaps now it is time to avenge Amanda’s death, too? As she points out to Victoria, nobody would miss her or mourn her if she was to suddenly disappear. But clearly Emily has bigger plans in mind as she takes her shovel and whacks Victoria over the head with it.
Victoria finally wakes up, battered and bruised, in a hospital bed with Emily by her side. Her arms are strapped to the bed. She is in a psychiatric hospital. How futile are her words now as she screams “She is Amanda Clarke!” to her attending physician even as Emily explains to the doctor that Victoria has been obsessing over her conspiracy theory for months, even digging up Amanda’s grave, where Emily found her. Victoria’s fate appears to be sealed as Dr. Banks, now clearly under Emily’s control, hands her over to the hospital with evidence of her history of mental instability. Now, why didn’t someone think of this earlier?
Has Emily finally triumphed over the Graysons? Is David Clarke really still alive? How will Nolan’s new alliance with the cunning and deadly Gideon affect his relationship with Emily? Will Jack be able to get out of trouble with the police? What will Daniel do with the dead body lying next to him? Is Conrad really dead? Will Pascale ever get his burial in Paris?
Hopefully all these questions will be answered when REVENGE returns for Season 4!
Photo: ABC. Written by Valerie Leung. Share your Revenge theories with her on Twitter (@valshopaholic) and read her blog LibragirlRules.com.
