Revenge recap – Season 3, Episode 14 – “Payback”

The things we do for our parents.

Emily and Daniel on Revenge. Photo: ABC

Well, the evidence has been right there in front of us all along: you get your craziness from your parents.

Ever since Emily was shot by her new husband on their wedding night, she has been experiencing headaches, blackouts and what we previously thought may have been hallucinations. As it turns out, they’re not exactly hallucinations, but fragments of her memory. So, what did it mean when we were left off with Conrad getting dressed while Emily woke up in his bed at the South Fork Inn? Where do we begin with this giant jigsaw puzzle?

The murderous streak doesn’t fall far from the tree

We know both Patrick and Victoria will stop at nothing to protect their loved ones, including murder and cover-ups. Back when Victoria’s primary focus was still on protecting Daniel, she killed someone in cold blood and then wrapped her up in the pool house carpet and disposed of the body. Now, she sees her first-born is not so unlike her at all, despite a lifetime apart. In an attempt to draw out his birth father, Jimmy, Patrick sets fire to their gallery and then hires Jimmy to rebuild it.

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At first, it seems Patrick would just electrocute Jimmy – it would have been such a handy way to kill him off as an accidental workplace death – but Patrick has always allowed himself to be sweet-talked into other people’s sob stories. He falls for Jimmy’s hard-luck story about a former lover who took away his son against his wishes. But then when Jimmy finally catches on as to their true identities and makes the mistake of laying his hands on Victoria, an angry Patrick pulls him off his mother, then proceeds to slam his head against the wooden crates. Oops! Patrick tries (feebly) to right this wrong and asks Victoria to call for an ambulance but she sees this as an opportunity to finally get her revenge, as she leans over Jimmy’s dying body, and utters the same words he used on her as he raped her when she was a teenager.

Daniel Grayson takes another swing at his warring family

What does a rich former playboy do with his time when ousted by his own father from the only real job he’s ever had? Apparently, you can put a patch of grass in the sand and hit golf balls into the ocean to practice your swing. (Be honest, was anyone else thinking about the Seinfeld episode when Kramer did the same and one of the balls ended up blocking the blowhole of a whale that George ended up saving?). Thankfully, his sister, Charlotte, is turning 19 and in need of a party to help her forget her rejection by a design school. God forbid she should try to apply to other schools or get an internship on her own? Why do that when your family owns a magazine?

While Daniel busies himself by hiring an event planner to organize a last-minute party (pity Ashley isn’t around anymore because she would have done a splendid job), he is also busy gathering intel on his wife’s whereabouts. It is hardly a surprise to know that he has a spy at the South Fork Inn – I imagine the staff there could make a lot of money on the side by being spies for all the Graysons and any paparazzi – who informs him Emily has been spotted “conspiring” with Conrad. But what can they be doing?

Death by a single cut

I have to admit, I was shaking at the knees when I watched Niko practice peeling those mangoes in Nolan’s kitchen, saying she was practicing “separating skin from flesh” as she continued to seek her father’s murderer. And now that she has worked out that her beloved father died at the hands of the man who has scorned her, Aiden’s fate could not possibly be good.

There is poetry in Niko tying Aiden to the same beam in Takeda’s cottage where he was pinned by his own sword at Aiden’s hands. I was expecting her to start stripping him down and cutting him little by little until his skin falls off (perhaps I have been watching too many horror movies?) but, in fact, she was using him as bait to lure Emily to her den to take them both down. After all, Emily not only stole her man, she first stole her father’s affection and there was no more cutting words than when Emily says “only one of us was his favorite”. Seeing Emily return to her old fighting form was so exciting that I was a little sad that the fight ended so quickly.

Emily Thorne’s psychopathic behavior has a name: Kara Wallace Clarke

After so many years of determined plotting and being in control, Emily is losing it. With the constant blackouts, she has no idea what she is doing and often has no recollection of doing it. Thankfully, she still has Nolan in her corner, helping her look through twelve hours of CCTV footage from the South Fork Inn to determine what she was doing with Conrad in his hotel room. Apparently, they just talked, followed by him leaving her in his room while he went elsewhere (where did he go all night?), and at some point that evening, she also contacted the first Mrs Conrad Grayson, Stevie, who happens to be a divorce lawyer living on the west coast.

After getting confirmation from a brain scan that she has suffered no permanent neurological damage and that the “slight anomalies” in her scans are not the cause of her blackouts, this leaves only one possible explanation – Emily is having a psychotic breakdown, just like her own mother, Kara, did, at about the same age as Emily is now. Back then, Kara, in a delusional state, tried to drown little Amanda (anyone remember that is her real name?), resulting in her being committed to a psychiatric hospital while her husband, David, started an affair with Victoria. Does this explain everything that has been motivating Emily to seek revenge for her father’s murder instead of forgiveness, as David had wanted?

“Jack, I am your mother”

When Stevie turned up at the Stowaway, my first thought was that this little tavern that was in near-financial ruin not so long ago, had to have been doing reasonably well if it has such rich clientele. Her familiarity with Jack’s father’s signature cocktail shows she was a regular at the tavern “back in the day” but apparently she was even more familiar with Carl than anyone knew or suspected. Stevie’s sudden confession that she is Jack’s mother brings to mind a lot of questions: Why tell him now, after all these years? Was she already married to Conrad when it happened? If so, did he know? Was Carl married? Why did she leave without her baby? Is Conrad really the father and not Carl?

Oh, payback’s a b*tch, and it seems that, when it comes to REVENGE, payback can be a two-way street between parent and child. Nobody is safe!

Tune in for more Revenge on ABC Sundays at 10/9c.

Photo: ABC. Written by Valerie Leung. Share your Revenge theories with her on Twitter (@valshopaholic) and read her blog LibragirlRules.com.