The summer is only just beginning in the Hamptons.  Everything is so familiar yet so different from twelve months ago.  Emily (Emily VanCamp) is back, more determined than ever to seek revenge and more – this time she wants to find out the truth about her mother.  Is she dead? Is she alive?

ashley madekwe

Right by Emily’s side as always is billionaire Nolan (Gabriel Mann) sporting a much tougher look.  After all the kidnapping, stabbing and near-death experiences from last year, Nolan has sold his mansion and taken up boxing.

So here are some things you need to know about “Destiny”:

Déjà vu

It may have been twelve months since the mysterious and wealthy Emily Thorne first arrived to make the Queen of the Hamptons, Victoria Grayson (Madeleine Stowe), lose her grip on her family, but the dramas haven’t gone away.  “Destiny” opens with the discovery of another dead body – this time underwater and in amongst the wreckage of the Amanda at the bottom of the ocean (the boat, that is, not the person) is a photo of the Porters – Jack (Nick Wechsler), Declan (Connor Paolo) and their late father – and an old watch which we later see in the possession of Jack.

What have the Graysons been up to?

After admitting that she had kissed Jack following the death of his dog Sammy, Emily and Daniel (Josh Bowman) are no longer an item.  Instead, social climber and former bestie Ashley (Ashley Madekwe), has made herself at home in Grayson Manor in more ways than one.  She has taken up with Daniel, consoling his broken heart while attempting to transform herself into the next Queen of the Hamptons.  Chemistry rating between Daniel and Ashley? Zero!

Meanwhile, poor Charlotte (Christa B. Allen) has not taken too well to coping with her mother’s death either.  After being found unconscious by her father Conrad (Henry Czerny) it appears poor little rich girl was sent to an expensive rehab facility to recover from her drug addiction. Pity the doctors care less about her than they do about Conrad’s money.

Who’s your (baby) daddy?

Poor Jack. In love with Amanda Clarke since he was a boy. Thought he found her again after all those years, then found himself falling in love with another. If only he knew the Amanda (Margarita Levieva) who now lives with him and is allegedly pregnant with his son is only Fauxmanda.  But is he really the baby daddy? Haven’t we all been having our doubts? And now Emily is asking the same question of Jack.

Mommy dearest

For the longest time, we all assumed Emily’s mother had died when she was just a kid.  She remembered visiting her mother (Jennifer Jason Leigh) in hospital and that she was sick and then she was gone.  Then we found out she might still be alive.  And now we know the hospital Young Amanda Clarke had visited was “Angel of Mercy” which sounds eerily like a place where you go to die (which may not be too far from the truth in this case) and it was the psychiatric ward that she had visited.  All of these memories have started flooding back, thanks to some underwater training Emily has been taking with her old Japanese sensei, Takeda (and if you’re wondering, yes, there has been a casting change).

Memorial Day is here again

Summer in the Hamptons means lots of parties.  Just because Victoria is gone doesn’t mean all the parties she used to host for all the charities she supported should suffer.  The annual Memorial Day art auction aboard the Grayson yacht must proceed.  And how about that awkward moment when Emily turns up unexpectedly, at the invitation of Charlotte (who still doesn’t know that they are half-sisters), and Ashley turns from being Queen-in-waiting back to the Queen’s former handmaiden? Ouch!  And what about that little sweet nothing Charlotte whispered into Emily’s ear just before she was hauled off by the doctor back to rehab?

The Queen lives!

Did we ever really think Victoria could be killed so easily? Of course not!  Apparently the Feds have had her locked up in a safehouse that only they and Charlotte knew about (until now) so they could continue to build their case against Conrad.  She’s convinced Conrad is trying to keep Charlotte locked up so that he would be given power of attorney over her inheritance and take control over Grayson Global again.  After all, he knows Charlotte is not really his biological daughter, so I guess money is thicker than blood that is not yours?

Bye bye whale cam, hello clam-cam

I have to admit. I miss Shamu-cam. But how clever of Emily to stealthily steal a clam shell from Victoria’s mantle during her visit at the safehouse and then ask tech-guru Nolan to put a camera inside!  And what new secrets do we learn from clam-cam?  It’s the return of the White-Haired Man (James Morrison) – the man responsible for murdering David Clarke (James Tupper) in a fake prison fight and who also tried to kill Nolan before he was rescued and subsequently spared by Emily.  Is Victoria responsible for locking up her lover’s wife?  How did she do that if David was presumably widowed when he first met Victoria at the Grayson party?

Let the conspiracy theories continue!

Revenge airs Sunday nights on ABC. Photo Credit: ABC Television

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Written by Valerie Leung. Find her on Twitter @ValShopaholic.

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