As we all breathed a sign of relief at the end of the  Revenge episode “Chaos” with confirmation that gorgeous Daniel Grayson (Josh Bowman) is not the tuxedoed corpse on the beach, the question remains as to just who pulled the trigger and knocked off nutcase Tyler (the awesome Ashton Holmes).  It comes as no surprise that Daniel is the prime suspect – after all, he did stumble on to the crowded crime scene covered in someone’s blood and he had no alibi for the period of time after he had a fight with Emily at their engagement party.

REVENGE Recap: Episode 15 “Scandal” – The gloved hand is revealed!

Flanked by his parents, Victoria (Madeleine Stowe) and Conrad (Henry Czerny) and his fiancée, Emily (Emily VanCamp), Daniel admits to the police when interviewed that he has no recollection of what happened because he was lying unconscious elsewhere. They aren’t charging him just yet without DNA evidence to place him at the scene but Conrad wastes no time to hire the best defence lawyer his money can buy to protect his son.

At his first opportunity, Nolan (Gabriel Mann) praises Emily for her quick thinking and smart move, returning to her house to fake a break-in to provide an explanation as to why her gun was used as the murder weapon.  But even her quick thinking does not help when she has no idea what Tyler may have told Daniel about her true identity before he was unceremoniously farewelled from this earth.

On their way home, Daniel sits in stony silence while Emily tries to get him to open up – a combination of genuine care and concern for his well-being and her own safety.  When they finally arrive back at Emily’s beach house, Daniel suggests that she take Sammy the Immortal Dog for a walk.  When she gets home, she finds Daniel crouched on the floor, revealing the secret hiding place where she had previously kept her Box-o-Secrets.  He tells her that Tyler had told him she had secrets hidden under the floorboards and demanded to know what was in there.  It’s a good thing that Daniel is so confused by the betrayal of his family and the murder charges he was sure were coming his way because Emily’s very simple “it must belong to the previous owners” and “Tyler was crazy” explanations are a tad too simple.  That aside, when you’re in love, you’ll probably believe anything that Emily has to sell you.

Meanwhile, one of “the innocents”, Jack (Nick Wechsler), is probably as confused as everyone else as to what happened at the beach.  He should be on his way to Haiti helping the missionaries, but instead, he has blood on his hooded sweater and he’s trying to find his beloved Amanda (Margarita Levieva), who has now disappeared once again from his life.  He explains to Emily that as he was about to sail off, he experienced engine trouble.  A smarter man would have just said “I will fix the engine and be on my way” but a heart-broken man who, if he is not careful, may be easily implicated in murder, decides to stay in the Hamptons and find his beloved.  Seriously Jack, RUN!

Not too impressed by Nolan’s failure to send Jack on his way as he was meant to do, Emily asks him for footage of the marina as Jack prepared to leave that was taken with the Shamu-cam.  They see Amanda’s sudden visit and equally-sudden departure, followed by a concerned Jack.  With Amanda nowhere to be found, their concern for Jack escalates – no doubt they also suspect Amanda of being the murderer.

With her family and her life crumbling around her, spoiled-little-rich-girl-turned-pill-popping-disaster-waiting-to-happen Charlotte (Christa B. Allen) is caught by her boyfriend Declan (Connor Paolo) chugging down pain-killers.  He tells her that taking those pills is not the solution to her problems.  Who knew Declan would turn out to be the smartest tool in the shed after all? Charlotte has indeed been through a lot in recent weeks, between finding that her father (Conrad) is not really her father, her brother (Daniel) is only her half-brother, her biological father (David) was a convicted terrorist, her half-sister (Amanda) may be a pyromaniac, and being a possible witness to murder, this girl really deserves a break.  She tries to find answers at David’s house, which happens to be her soon-to-be sister-in-law’s (Emily) house, who of course, is really her half-sister.  Confused yet?

Anyway, Daniel doesn’t remain free for long.  After confirming the blood on his clothes belonged to Tyler, the police arrive swiftly to place him under arrest for first degree murder.  In the presence of his attorney, Benjamin Brooks, and his family, Daniel admits to firing a single shot that night after Tyler approached him.  Ever protective of Emily (is he just love-struck or is he holding the cards up his sleeve given the evidence Tyler showed him about Emily’s revenge plot, or perhaps he is suffering from concussion from that blow to his head?), Daniel glosses over the details of what he and Tyler were fighting about and went right to the part where he fired the gun once before he was knocked out from behind.

Brooks confirms the coroner’s report indicates Tyler was shot three times, the fatal shot having come from behind, thus giving Daniel a possible defence that there was a third person present at the scene responsible for the murder.  When pressed about who else might have reason to kill Tyler, Victoria practically jumps out of her seat to offer up Amanda, which makes Emily all-the-more nervous and keen to find her “twin” ASAP.

It is not often that Victoria shows any heart to anyone, least of all to Emily, and at times, it is hard to tell whether she tries to be nice to Emily because she wants something from her or is genuinely happy that her son has someone who will stand by his side in times of need.  She brings over a big box, supposedly their engagement present, but tells Emily not to open it just yet.  Ever suspicious, Victoria mentions that she saw her run back to her house after they found Tyler’s body.  Emily quickly explains that she had gone back to get a change of clothes for Daniel.  And then another reminder that Victoria has not forgotten Emily’s imperfect past, she suggests that Emily’s past in juvie may just well become an asset for the family in Daniel’s trial, though how this can help, we will no doubt have to wait to find out.

Jack, still determined to find Amanda, instead finds a five million dollar check in the pocket of the jacket she left behind in his truck (it’s the blackmail money Emily paid to Tyler to get her Box-o-Secrets).  As much as he has tried, he has not been able to trace the origins of the check, so of course, he runs to the man who knows everything, Nolan.  Jack admits to having seen Amanda the night of the party and tells him that she is in trouble.  Although Nolan does not know who killed Tyler, knowing Amanda’s past record, he compares her to a “homicidal version of whack-a-mole”.

With Daniel now formally charged with first degree murder, Brooks, the lawyer, wastes no time in following up with all his possible witnesses – after all, that’s what you’d expect from a lawyer who probably charges more in an hour than the average worker-bee sees in a month.  He pays Emily a visit, checking to make sure she has no skeletons in her closet because he does not want any surprises at the trial.  He asks her about Amanda – does she hate the Graysons enough to frame Daniel for murder?  Emily explains that she only knows Amanda as the girl whose father used to own her house but diverts attention away from Amanda by revealing the truth about the Graysons’ pay-off to a judge the previous summer to downgrade Daniel’s car accident (the one in which the girl he was with almost died) to a DUI charge.

When Brooks confronts Victoria and Conrad about this bribery, they become defensive and accuse Emily of selling them out.  Brooks, however, is more concerned with the missing minutes of security footage from the engagement party – a fact which immediately pointed Emily to Nolan’s direction once again.  It would seem Nolan has been working with Takeda (Hiroyuki Sanada) since they met at the Graysons’ investor party.  Takeda had “recruited” Nolan, asking him to keep an eye out on Emily.  I guess that explains all the looks being exchanged between Nolan and Takeda at the party just before all the commotion with the murder.  I am curious to know how Takeda knew that Nolan could be trusted?  Did Emily tell him about Nolan?

With all the plotting and revenging that Nolan has been busy helping Emily with, he still finds time to hang out at the Stowaway Tavern, watching out for Jack, too.  The TV is on at the bar, with a makeshift press conference presented by Ashley (Ashley Medekwe) on behalf of the Graysons.  Now, when the show first started, Ashley was just a party planner.  Then at some point, she became Victoria’s second-in-charge.  And now she’s become their publicist?  Surely the Graysons can afford a more professional one?  Her character has always been a bit of an odd one to me.  She has admitted to being ambitious, and even Brooks does not take long to figure out she wants her fifteen minutes of fame during this trial.  And when photos of Daniel covered in blood on the beach surfaced, Nolan is the first to figure out their origins.  What has he got planned for Ashley?

It seems I’m not the only one who isn’t interested in watching Ashley front up with the press. Jack turns off the television but just can’t get away from hearing about the murder trial.  Brooks arrives to ask Jack about his relationship with Amanda.  His line of questioning is pretty ordinary with Jack offering up an alibi that he was working on his boat when the murder occurred.  Upon Brooks’ departure, Nolan quickly advises Jack to fix his engine immediately and sail away.  Do you think Jack will heed this advice?  Of course not!  Even knowing that Declan has found his bloodied hoodie (why didn’t he throw it out or wash it as soon as he got home for goodness’ sake?!) Jack still has only one thing on his mind – to find Amanda.  Gotta admire his determination – or stupidity (where’s the romance in that, right?).

When Daniel appears in court to apply for bail, it comes as no surprise that the judge denied him, citing the seriousness of the crime and the fact that his family have the ways and means for an easy escape for him to flee the country if they want.  As if being locked up isn’t bad enough, poor Daniel is being sent to maximum security prison to await his trial. Oh no! How will privileged boy survive in maximum security with all the “real” criminals?

Just as you think we may have to wait to find out who killed Tyler, we are given a glimpse, in the final minutes of the episode, into the events that happened immediately after Tyler’s body is discovered.  Yes, Emily rushed home to make it look like Tyler could have broken into her house and stolen her gun (the murder weapon).  When she got there, she was surprised to find Takeda waiting in the shadows for her. We see a replay of what happened on the beach: after Tyler threatened Daniel, they got into a fist-fight.  Daniel wrestled the gun from Tyler and shot him.  When he fell, Takeda knocked Daniel out cold with a rock, then picked up the gun and shot Tyler twice. (I knew it! It is just as I had suggested in my previous recap!)

And what of Amanda?  “She’s been taken care of,” came the simple reply.  What does that mean? When we last saw her, she got into Takeda’s car as he left the engagement party.  Where did he take her?  What has he done with her?  He knows she’s a loose cannon but did he kill her or did he hide her away on some far-flung island, chained to a wall so she could not escape?  And what does he mean about Emily saving “the other boy she has feelings for”?  Who is he talking about?  Jack?  Daniel?  If Nolan has been working with Takeda for all this time, does he know Takeda is the murderer?

Unfortunately, we have to wait till April to find out as Revenge takes another hiatus from our screens.  But in the meantime, I welcome your Revenge Theories!

Written by Valerie Leung. Find her on Twitter @Valshopaholic

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