In this photo, Victoria is probably contemplating how her life turned into such a s—show. Credit: ABC/Danny Feld
Poor Amanda! She’s still caught in this mysterious daydream/blackout/fog that has her waking up in a panic and stressing that she’s going after all the wrong people. In this episode, Amanda cuts up her father’s infinity carving on her porch. Now she’s going after her dad? What’s up with you, missy?
Jack’s not feeling much better. Stevie — who we learned last week is his mom! — stops by the Stoweaway, eager to start repairing their bond, but Jack’s not really feeling it (even when she presents him a box of his baby pics). Also not in a good mood: Patrick, who, at a memorial for dad Jimmy, can’t handle everyone saying nice things about his criminal of a dad. He loses his cool and tells the memorial-goers that Jimmy was a racist and deserves his fate. Then he spits on the big picture they have up of him! Burn! Well, no one else there is too happy to see that, so Patrick gets beat up. Victoria picks him up from the police station and tells him they seriously need to move on.
Speaking of Victoria, she’s still squabbling with Stevie over who owns Grayson Manor. Over at la casa de Nolan, Amanda is freaking out about the carving incident. Her next bold move, she decides, is to just kill all the Graysons. Jesus, what has taken so long?
In NYC, Nolan has tracked down Aidan to enlist his help in getting Amanda back on her game. And back at the mansion, Daniel has enlisted a PI to help him and Charlotte unravel the shady plot his dad has been up to lately. Charlotte, now interning at Voulez, asks Conrad about a mysterious phone call he received at his desk. It was someone trying to buy his share of Voulez for a very high price, but Conrad is unwilling to sell because he likes what he’s doing now.
Amanda, in her signature cat-burglar black leather, sneaks in to Conrad’s Stoweaway room, but not long before someone else with black leather gloves follows behind her. Amanda ducks under the bed, but it’s too late: She gets pulled out by her legs. But who did it?! Oh, it’s Aidan. He ties her up not because he likes things kinky (though maybe he does) but because he needs to bring Amanda back to her training roots. She’s flailing and needs a Takeda-esque refresher, which apparently consists of Aidan drowning her in a pool until her memories resurface and the two can explore them.
Nolan (in some awesome sunshine yellow chaps) is the chair of some art committee and holds a meeting about the event of the evening, the Hamptons Art Walk, at his pad. Victoria’s there. Apparently a big artist named Stefano Leoni or something will be at the walk. After the meeting ends Victoria lays into him about helping Patrick find his dad. Your plan didn’t work, she tells Nolan, because Patrick learned he was a child of rape and now as a result thinks he’s unworthy of love.
Jack visits his mom at the South Fork Inn. He’s been house-hunting, and it looks like his mom used some of her connections to get him his dream house. But he doesn’t want her help. She cries. It’s sad.
Nolan visits Patrick, who’s shirtless and beating up a punching bag, of course. Anyway, Nolan apologizes for the whole Jimmy situation, but he is curious about the shady circumstances surrounding his death. First the priest, now Jimmy — is Patrick the resident Hamptons murderer? What will stop him? Man, Stefano Leoni is gonna be bummed to miss you at the art walk, he tells Patrick. Patrick, our resident “Revenge” art-eest, is shocked. He set it up as a surprise for Patrick back when we were together, Nolan says, adding that he still wants good things for him, but that Victoria having her say over Patrick’s every move tends to get in the way.
Back in Torture Amanda Land, her latest memory is her dad running on the beach. He’s to blame for everything, she tells Aidan. Whoa, what? Isn’t he reason she’s doing all of this? That kinda came out of nowhere. Let’s see how they explain this…
But first, it’s time for (drumroll please) the “Revenge” Fete of the Night™, the Hamptons art walk! Victoria has hired a preservation/landmarks lawyer so that when Stevie says she wants to make Grayson into a halfway house she is outnumbered.
OK, now let’s hear Amanda explain this “it’s all daddy’s fault” thing. But first, she asks Aidan to untie her. Man, they have such a screwed-up relationship. We learn he carved the infinity symbol the morning he was taken. Flashback to Amanda as a little girl, the night before her dad goes to jail. He’s embracing Victoria. He doesn’t see Amanda spying on the two of them from the kitchen floor, but Victoria does. Amanda says she knew that Victoria couldn’t be trusted.Later, Amanda has the hugely traumatic and unfortunate experience of walking in on her dad and Victoria (blech), and when he sees her he yells at her and she runs away to the beach. He follows her outside and she tells her dad that Victoria hates her. Nonsense, he tries to reassure her — in fact, they are gonna be a family. Flashforward to the present and they are still family: Amanda’s a Grayson now. Well, this memory seems to somehow bring Amanda back to her senses. She tells Aidan that he’s the only person who could have saved her. “The only mistake he made was falling for the wrong woman, which means I still need to clear his name,” she tells Aidan, who encourages her to finish what she’s started. Then they make out.
Back to the “Revenge” Fete of the Night™! Victoria is surprised to see Patrick there. He sees his mom is stressed and she confides that it’s Stevie Grayson’s fault. She created the beast and now she must slay her, Victoria says. This unnerves Patrick. But all will soon be OK, because there’s Stefano Leoni, and wow, he wants to offer Patrick an apprenticeship in Tuscany on the spot! Because that happens often. Anyways, Patrick has some thinking to do.
Another flashback. This time it’s of her dad doing the carving and telling her nothing will break their bond as long as she knows he loves her. Back to the present. Jack drops by unannounced and tells Amanda about his mom returning to town (and, oh yeah, his mom is Stevie Grayson.) He doesn’t really know how to handle it, and Amanda suggests forgiving her.
Across the street, Victoria is listening to Patrick explain why he has to go. He’s afraid of his own power and doesn’t want anyone else to get hurt. At first it looks like Patrick is in his mom’s bedroom, explaining all of this to her in person, but then we see it’s really all taking place on a voicemail Patrick has left her.
At Voulez, Charlotte is eager to hear that Pasquale (Margot’s father) is on his way to the States from Paris. It’s all been prearranged by Conrad, who invites Charlotte to witness this little pow-wow for power.
Jack visits his mom, who confesses that she wasn’t able to be a good mom for him because she was an alcoholic. The Hamptons are full of triggers for her, she says, like Conrad and Victoria. But now she’s back and ready to face them. Jack invites Stevie over to officially meet baby Carl.
Nolan brings Victoria a glass of wine to toast to Patrick’s next chapter abroad. It looks sad, but then we learn that Nolan and Victoria orchestrated his move overseas. In order to save Patrick, they had to convince him that his mother was a monster. Nolan tells Victoria that his plan worked.
Daniel meets with the PI, who has photos of Amanda smooching Aidan. Jack says he never thought he’d be happy to see Aidan again. Amanda’s on the phone with Jack, who tells her the story of his mom’s 20-year sobriety as she’s taking the sheets off her furniture — when does she have time to focus on interior decorating, wondered my long-suffering boyfriend? Nolan drops by, with a shiny new revenge box for her. It’s even tech-activated: Only Amanda’s fingerprints can open it. This calls for a toast with a gin martini, Nolan says. But wait! That triggers something in Amanda. She pulls out her dad’s journal, turning to a page where he writes about receiving visitors. One day, he writes, a woman he knew instinctively couldn’t be trusted dropped by, calling herself a lawyer interested in his case. Her breath smelled like gin martinis. It must be Stevie, realizes Amanda! (Though honestly? Anyone could be into taking a gin martini with lunch. A bit of a longshot there, Mandy.) Anyway, Amanda makes her connection and vows to get to the bottom of every one of Stevie’s secrets.
So do we think Stevie will be a season regular on “Revenge,” or just another flash in the pan like so many before her? There’s another new episode next week, so we shall see what happens!
