Revenge made its mid-season premiere last night with an episode called ‘Power” and with all of our Hamptons favorites vying for some of it, it didn’t disappoint. Let’s dig in!
The episode revolved around Emily trying to take out yet another high profile figure who had a hand in her father’s demise. The lucky guy? Judge Barnes. You see, he was the one in charge of David Clarke’s trial and gave him a guilty verdict. Clearly this man had to go. And as luck would have it, he’d be staying right next door with Emily’s new bestie Victoria. Gotta love when life works out like that.
We learned that Victoria is in fact trying to enlist Emily’s help as a way to yet again screw with her son’s feelings. She believes that Daniel is still in love with Emily (duh) and wants Emily to use that as a way to help steer him back in the right direction. And by right direction she means away from Grayson Global. Luckily for her, Emily is just as vindictive — even though she doesn’t know it– and agrees. Victoria also takes this as an opportunity to invite Emily to dinner, which both Daniel and Judge Barnes will be attending the night before her latest fundraiser. A fundraiser devoted to helping wrongly convicted people. Slightly ironic, no?
Daniel ends up going to dinner, mostly because he knows Emily will be there, but it’s not all sweet trips down memory lane. However, memories are discussed. Emily makes it a point to bring up the now deceased James Palmer, a man who she believed for some time was responsible for writing a letter to her father that ultimately got her through a lot of her rocky past. Judge Barnes’ wife Patricia clearly knows more about what went on with him, but the judge seems to have quite the hold on her — literally. The way he was squeezing her hand was NOT a romantic gesture. Emily also takes this as an opportunity to address David Clarke and his trial which is always a fun topic of conversation over dinner at the Graysons.
In the end, Emily gets to Patricia. She basically tells her how important the letter was to Amanda Clarke and that she knows Judge Barnes isn’t the man he pretends to be. This prompts Patricia to finally stand up to him in front of everyone at the fundraiser and not only exposes him for abusing his power as a judge, but abusing her as well. The highlight? Her publicly stating that the jury in the David Clarke case was tainted and the verdict was rendered. It should have been a mistrial. Emily is a happy camper. Judge Barnes, not so much. This does however signify the return of the red sharpie! Judge Barnes is crossed off the hit list!
Elsewhere at the Stowaway both Jack and Declan are still looking for ways to get out of their deal with the Ryan brothers. So when they sketchily have bags of coffee beans delivered to the bar, Declan takes this as his opportunity to play detective. Unfortunately he sucks at it, and while he does find hidden drugs, he leaves evidence which Nate Ryan realizes. Jack, who is only slightly smarter than his brother, decides to take matters into his own hands, but what the two of them don’t realize is that Nate knows they snooped. So, when Jack decides to have the cops ‘randomly’ show up for a drug search, it completely backfires. Nate who is a LOT smarter than the Porter brothers, moved the drugs onto The Amanda where they’re found while Declan and Charlotte are on board. Of course Jack doesn’t let Declan take the fall, so he’s arrested instead. Ah, the things we do for family!
Nolan on the other hand, has his own messes to deal with. Not only is Marco trying to get back in his good graces with dinner and a flash drive that could seemingly take down Grayson Global, but Daniel is having him use his nifty computer skills. He wants him to dig through the records of Grayson Global after Helen, the lady from The Initiative, ,suggested he look deeper. Of course she has ulterior motives and this ends up being a way for Daniel to find out more secrets about NolCorp. Another problem? Aiden wants access to this information too, but he ends up finding out more than he bargained for. The first information found ended up giving Aiden a chance to finally meet Helen where he learned a vital piece of information: his sister Colleen is allegedly still alive. This could dramatically challenge Aiden’s loyalty to Emily now don’t you think?
As if that wasn’t enough, Aiden’s emotions were already on high. In an effort to help Emily fool Victoria, the two staged a “fake up” at a restaurant where Daniel was conveniently eating in hearing distance. After making sure Daniel knew he was the reason for their ‘break up’ he goes to Emily’s house later that night — not knowing Aiden was upstairs in the shower — and asks Emily for her help. Knowing that Victoria is watching, she tells Daniel yes and he thanks her with a kiss which she unhesitatingly returned. Unfortunately Victoria wasn’t the only one catching a glimpse of this seemingly rekindled romance, Aiden saw it too and he did not look happy.
Some leftovers: Do you think Emily ever had genuine feelings for Daniel? Do you trust Victoria and Emily working together? Do you blame Aiden for being upset, or is it part of the job? What should Jack and Declan do about the Ryans?