'Revenge' recap: 'Plea'

This past week, ABC finally announced that Revenge‘s fourth season would be its last. The announcement wasn’t all that surprising given what the show has been doing over the past couple of weeks, but it was nice to finally get confirmation. It is with this knowledge that we viewed Revenge‘s penultimate episode, one that didn’t feel like it was barreling toward a series finale—save the brief return of Charlotte Grayson Clarke (Christa B. Allen) and a not-totally-surprising episode-ending death. Let’s dive into “Plea.”

The prosecutor is going for Emily for first-degree murder with special circumstances. Her father Dr. Hal Abbott defense attorney Lawrence Stamberg (Everwood‘s Tom Amandes) desperately tries to persuade her to take a plea, but Emily stubbornly refuses. In spite of being a flight risk and having no ties to the community she spent years terrorizing, the judge grants her bail, but with very strict conditions; she’s confined to her home and forced to wear an ankle monitor that will definitely clash with all of her stunning dresses.

Ben volunteers to fit Emily for her anklet and to monitor her because he knows she’ll try to leave the house for some revenging. He warns her to not even try, but, Emily being Emily, she ignores this advice. To prove Victoria is still alive and clear her name, Emily needs to find Mason Treadwell, so she enlists Nolan and Jack’s help. Nolan, using a photo from a surveillance camera, tracks Mason down to a trailer park. He also finds a way to clone the signal from Emily’s monitor so the police will think she’s at home when she goes after Mason.

Before leaving, Emily has two important conversations. The first with Jack, who stuck around to help David, who is going through a torturous chemotherapy treatment. Emily confirms that she did try to prevent him from leaving and that she wants to give “this” a chance once all of this is cleared up. The second is with her father, who finds out that she’s going to leave the house and tries to stop her. “I am your father, and I am telling you, you are not leaving this house.” It’s cute that David thinks this will stop her.

Emily heads to the trailer park and finds a trailer furnished with a bar that just screams “Mason (or Victoria) was here.” A couple living next door tells her that Mason, accompanied by a regal looking woman with nice skin, fled the park in a hurry hours ago. Unfortunately for her, Detective Ben isn’t as stupid as he looks. The police reset her ankle monitor frequency and realize that she has fled the premises. They track Emily to the trailer park, and she’s arrested.

Upside to all of this, however, is that Jack finds out that Margaux is involved because the license plate on her town car matches the one seen in the photo Nolan used to find Mason. Emily needs to interrogate Margaux, but she’s locked up. Thanks to a series of unfortunate events that includes Nolan and Jack framing her for trying to steal from a jewelry store, Margaux ends up in a cell right next door to Emily’s. Revealing her practical munitions training (the ability to turn anything in your environment into a weapon, a.k.a MacGeyver-ing), Emily threatens Margaux with a battery filled sock until she reveals her involvement in Victoria’s dastardly plot.

NEXT: Louise meets Charlotte

Emily gets the information she needed and calls Detective Ben to explain to him how Victoria faked her death. It turns out that Margaux was the one who attacked Victoria in the parking lot. Also, Victoria swapped out her medical records with those of Mary Gaines, a recently deceased woman in New Jersey, and placed Mary’s unclaimed body inside the house before it exploded. Unfortunately for Emily, Ben has been lied to too many times and doesn’t believe a word she says.

Meanwhile, Louise spends most of tonight’s episode grieving Victoria’s death and trying to plan her funeral. She tries going to the penthouse to collect some photos for the service, but the executor of Victoria’s will—Charlotte— has barred anyone from entering. Thus, Louise pays Charlotte a visit at rehab and is shocked at what she finds. She’s greeted by a healthy looking Charlotte who doesn’t have a kind word to say about her recently deceased mother and is done grieving because she grieved the first time Victoria “died.” Nonetheless, Charlotte agrees to let Louise into the penthouse if she stops calling.

At the penthouse, Louise runs into Nolan who, like Charlotte, says she’s being manipulated. Louise doesn’t pay either one any mind. However, as she’s going through Victoria’s closet, she finds a black hoodie that resembles the one worn by Victoria’s parking lot attacker and her wheels start turning. Like a good citizen, Louise immediately takes the hoodie to Detective Ben and his wheels start spinning too. As she leaves the precinct, Louise runs into a newly freed Margaux, who is visibly horrified upon hearing what Louise told Ben. Once she’s convinced Louise that Nolan planted the hoodie and sent her on her way, Margaux makes a phone call.

You know a character is in trouble on a show like Revenge when they become too good at their job. The black hoodie is the definition of circumstantial evidence, so Detective Ben travels to New Jersey, where he finds out the morgue has misplaced the body. He heads over to Mary’s home, breaks in and finds none other than Victoria Grayson getting out of the shower. Not to worry, Margaux has the situation handled because Courtney Love returns as a hit-woman and stabs Ben in the back as she creepily whispers “Never go to New Jersey on business,” in his ear. Will any of us really miss Ben? Probably not because there was no way he was making it out of this season alive, and he was useless.

Meanwhile, David pays Emily a visit and informs her that, following a seizure he had earlier in the day, the doctors discovered that the cancer has spread to his brain. The cancer is far too advanced, so David’s chemo has been stopped and he has, at most, six months to live. Not willing to admit to defeat, Emily vows that she and Nolan will use their money to fund all the research necessary to save her father. It’s a poignant moment because we see just how desperate Emily is and how she’s finally met something—cancer—that she can’t revenge scheme a way. Sometimes you have to know when to stop fighting, which is something Emily will probably learn in the forebodingly titled series finale, “Two Graves.”

EXTRAS:

• Earlier in tonight’s episode, Margaux rips into a writer and commands that every mention of Amanda Clarke reads “Alleged murderer Amanda Clarke.” You know she means business when she’s changing the style guide…
• There was no mention of Nolan’s recent break-up tonight, which means Tony might actually turn out to be a good guy. However, I won’t be surprised if it’s revealed next week that he played some role in helping Victoria escape. Not sure how the writers would pull that off, but I wouldn’t put it past them.
• Why did Victoria dress up so much to fake her death?