Revenge recap: Aftermath

As the title of the episode suggests, tonight’s Revenge dealt with the repercussions of Victoria’s apparent death inside of Emily’s home. Sadly, the aftermath is just as predictable as we expected: Victoria intends for Emily to be convicted for her murder. Let’s just dive into how we arrived at this lackluster revelation.

Following her meeting with Mason Treadwell, Emily returns home to find firemen sifting through the wreckage of Grayson Manor. The firemen find a body, but it’s been charred beyond recognition. They recover some conveniently remaining teeth and are able to match them to Victoria’s dental records. Victoria’s death is ruled a suicide because Margaux and Louise find a suicide note waiting for them on Margaux’s door. Sadly, this will soon change.

“Ding dong, the bitch is dead,” says Nolan—who didn’t hear the explosion because he was having too much fun with Tony—once Victoria’s body has been identified. Victoria’s “death” means the end of revenge for Emily, and Nolan hopes this means she’ll borrow his private jet and go after Jack. Her happy ending will have to wait just a bit longer because Mason Treadwell is back and she has to meet him later that afternoon.

Airplanes are flying cesspools, and it appears as though Mason has learned just that because he shows up to his meeting with Emily in her car sneezing and coughing all over the place. Once he’s done spreading his germs all over the car, he presents his demands to Emily: He wants her to clear his name of Gordon Murphy’s death, or else he’ll release a book tentatively titled One Big Lie: The Amanda Clarke Story. Yes, it’ll be a case of he said-she said, but it would still open up a public, and police, inquiry into all of Amanda Clarke’s actions as Emily Thorne.

With Nolan’s help, Emily forges a paper trail that connects Conrad Grayson to Gordon’s death. She presents said evidence to the Department of Justice claiming to have found it in a fireproof briefcase she unearthed in the wreckage of Grayson Manor. The DoJ agrees to look it over, which means Mason will receive a pardon in no time.

As Emily puts out one fire, another one ignites some place else. Margaux and Louise, who are both distraught over Victoria’s death, discover evidence of a struggle in Victoria’s penthouse. They inform Hamptons PD, and Victoria’s death is ruled a homicide. And, who are the two main suspects? Emily and David Clarke.

News of Victoria’s death quickly reaches California, and both Jack and Stevie are immediately worried. Jack’s concerned that Emily had a hand in Victoria’s death, while Stevie is worried that this will draw Jack right back into Emily’s web. The latter ends up being true because Jack, realizing the timing of his departure was suspicious, returns to the Hamptons for questioning.

NEXT: Nolan’s happy ending slips away

Hamptons PD doesn’t care about conflicts of interest and allows Detective Ben to question both his ex-girlfriend and his ex-partner who also happens to the guy his ex-gf dumped him for. Emily tries to use Mason as her alibi, but he doesn’t answer his phone. Her last resort is to let Ben search her car for Mason’s fingerprints to prove her story. During his tension-filled talk with Ben, Jack finds out that Emily dumped Ben and ran after Jack’s plane, but missed it. This leaves Jack feeling a tiny bit bad because before he went in for his interrogation, he coldly told Emily that he was heading right back to California when he was done and wouldn’t stop by to talk to her.

For the most part, Nolan was pretty much sectioned off from many of tonight’s proceedings. His relationship with Tony has him on cloud nine, and just to make sure it works, he wants to take Tony on a piña colada-filled vacation away from the Hamptons. Tony’s definitely on-board—until he receives a call that he’s been approved for adopting a baby and that said baby boy will arrive in two days. Becoming a single dad not only puts a hold on the vacation, but on Tony and Nolan’s relationship; Tony says he needs to give his child 100 percent of his time and won’t have time for a relationship. Nolan is one of the few people on the show who has earned a happy ending, so it’s kind of sad to see his barely started relationship come to an end so quickly. (Although, I’m still not convinced Tony isn’t a bad guy. No one on this show is so kind-hearted and down to earth!).

Upon her return to the Clarke beach house, Emily receives a call from Mason. The DoJ has issued his pardon; however, he has decided to remain under the radar and to not provide Emily with an alibi—because this has all been part of his plan with Victoria. After Emily’s tell-all interview, Victoria reached out to Mason and asked him to pass on a message to Emily after her death. In a video message that self-deletes once it ends, Victoria reveals her plan to frame Emily for her death. Declaring herself to have won their war, Victoria explains that this checkmate move was inspired by Emily’s own plan for her wedding night to Daniel, which she discovered in the documents stolen from Nolan’s computer.

Right as the video ends, Ben bursts in with several cops and arrests Emily. They searched her car and found Victoria’s hair and traces of her blood, obviously planted by Mason earlier on. How will Emily Thorne get out of this sticky situation?! It’s not going to be too easy because Margaux is also planning a full-on LeMarchal media assault on Emily.

Extras:

• Emily finds out about David’s cancer because it’s his alibi for the night of the explosion.
• “That bitch set me up,” Emily screams as she’s put into a police cruiser and Jack looks on.
• Didn’t Mason’s pardon came through unrealistically quickly?
• “Crazy Capote is back!” —Nolan on Mason