Oh Amanda! You’re such a disgrace to the Grayson name!
Credit: ABC/Richard Cartwright
Tonight’s all about disgrace, which Amanda is pretty much the picture of during her meltdown at the opera house. It’s all a flash-forward though. Let’s travel a bit back in time, shall we?
Daniel and Victoria are chatting about opening night at the opera, and Daniel shows mama the pic of Amanda and Aidan that the PI snapped last week. This is the proof Daniel needs to end his marriage, and Victoria couldn’t be happier.
Meanwhile, Nolan and Amanda go over Stephanie’s visit to her father in jail, which we learned happened last week. She used her maiden name to make sure Conrad didn’t find out she visited. Amanda is determined to find out whose side she’s on, but doesn’t want to bring Jack into it.
So remember how Pasquale was coming to visit? Well, here he is — and wow, it’s Olivier Martinez in the role! I guess supporting baby mama Halle Berry requires a steady income. Wonder how long his guest stint will last? Anyway, major plus that he speaks French so he and Margaux can communicate in secret. Such as when she says something like, “I’ll be here when you tire of him,” and he says, “You asked me to take care of Conrad, so let me.” A-ha! So Pasquale’s visit was totally orchestrated by Margaux. She’s not an innocent here.
Back in the Hamptons, Amanda confronts Stevie outside of her AA meeting, where Jack has I guess come to pick her up. Jack’s like, “leave my mom out of all this” and “just let me have this one thing” as he works to rebuild his relationship with her.
So back to sexy sexpot Olivier — err, Pasquale. He plays tennis with Conrad at a country club that apparently Victoria got the membership to in their divorce, so they shouldn’t even be there in the first place. Conrad asks for a high-ranking position and Voulez but Pasquale is not a fan of that idea. And there’s some sexual tension between Victoria and Pasquale — what’s their past? Well, she introduced Conrad and Victoria, but is there more to the story? Looks like he’s still got the hots for her, since he asks her to lunch. She is not into the idea.
Back in regular folks land, Carl and Margeux are hanging with baby Carol, who’s definitely now a toddler, at the Stoweaway. She got his mom a ticket to the opera so they’ll all meet. She tells him about how her dad is annoying her and he shares his own story about how his dad didn’t trust him with the bar at first.
Amanda and meets Conrad in a bar. It turns out Conrad orchestrated Stevie’s return. And speaking of Stevie, she’s of the opinion that maybe Emily would be alive if she had been around to help. “I met Amanda’s father once in prison,” she tells Jack, who wants to drop the subject. But Stevie’s onto something when she sees a picture of Amanda and Emily together in the wedding.
Back at Grayson Manor, Amanda is called into the study by one of Victoria’s newly hired staffers. Inside are Daniel and Victoria with the photos of her and Aidan. Daniel tells her they’re getting a divorce. But Amanda’s never one to fold. She goes into a sob story about how Daniel shot her and she protected him and how she couldn’t help but find comfort in the arms of someone else. But it’s all an act, she says — that’s just a little taste of what they can expect from her on the witness stand. She confides to Nolan about what happened — she can’t have Daniel tracking all her moves — when Stevie shows up and demands to know who she really is. I mean, first she gets called into town to arrange their divorce, now things are fine. What’s the real story? Amanda, still playing Emily Thorne, says that “Amanda was like a sister to me and what the Graysons did to her father makes me sick.” Hmm, all well and good, but then why are you married to Daniel? She thinks David Clarke is innocent. She tried to do something about it but then her DUI happened and she was stricken from ever getting involved. But now she’s back and she wants to find answers for Amanda’s sake. She meets with Jack and tells him there was a piece of evidence from June 1997, but that she couldn’t verify the source of it. But Jack knows a way.
Nolan comes home to find an intruder in his house — oh, wait, no, nevermind, it’s just a friend of his from prison who’s hacked his way out. Classy. The dude, who we’ll learn is named Javier, is a badass in a leather jacket, though it’s funny when he has scenes with Nolan because he is really small compared to Gabriel Mann. Anyway, Javier’s got nowhere to stay, so Nolan lets him crash for one night.
Victoria meets with Daniel’s private investigator, who looks and sounds like a young Billy Bob Thornton. Just then someone arrives at the house. It’s Pasquale! With a dress from their mutual friends, Dolce and Gabbana, of course! Ah, his charm won’t work on her, she tells him … but OK, fine, she’ll keep the dress, thank you very much.
So Nolan and Jack hack into the Graysons’ software under the pretense of Nolan visiting the HQ for a business meeting. Ah but, silly “Revenge,” why are they going in to pull off some shady stuff during regular business hours? Why is there a door clearly labeled “Archives” that Jack immediately finds? Why does he speak aloud looking for the June 1997 file? Drat, everything in the archived room is in code. Now he’ll never be able to get it! But wait, Nolan can help. He has Javier call him to break the code (too bad he breaks his probation to do so). Back and Voulez, Conrad has discovered that Voulez is losing money overseas. The success in America is thanks to me, Margaux tells her father. She wants him out. She’s tired of him trying to control her, especially now that she knows he’s not doing well with the company overseas. Conrad takes this lovely opportunity to point out that he’s still interested in that high-ranking job he mentioned earlier.
Jack brings Amanda the archived tapes but she doesn’t want his help. Victoria tells Daniel that since Amanda rejected their very generous settlement, she must be targeting the family and not their fortune. Daniel’s like, Jesus mom, give it a rest, I want that girl out of my life this instant. But Victoria’s not stopping till she gets the whole story.
Nolan visits Amanda, who’s pissed at him. Oh, yeah, he should have told her that Jack approached about getting involved. But don’t worry, he reassures her, my prison friend Javier had no idea what they were stealing or why. That’s comforting, I guess. They look at the files and there’s talk of a bomb and Amanda’s next target, but we don’t really know specifics yet.
Ah, here we are, the “Revenge” fete of the evening, the opening night at the opera! Everyone looks rather lovely all dressed up, especially Victoria, who chose to wear the Dolce and Gabbana gown. Charlotte’s there — we haven’t seen her all episode. She’s quite busy at Voulez’s new gossip girl. Oye. She introduces Amanda and Pasquale, who converse in French for a little bit. Pasquale notices Victoria in the gown and says that while the dress may touch her body, “you’ll never be so lucky.” BURN. Stevie and Margaux meet, as do Jack and Pasquale. Turns out he’s extended his trip, to the dismay of Margaux. She teams up with Daniel to say “let’s show our fathers what we’re capable of.” Uh-oh!
Charlotte gets a beep on her phone during the opera: It’s a TMZ-like leak of Amanda’s medical records, which prove her pregnancy was a fake. Victoria calls her out on it in the theater, then in the lobby, using all sorts of insulting language and telling her she’s done. And here’s where we pick up from the beginning, which Amanda having a meltdown as she races down the stairs. At the foot of the stairs, which we didn’t see at the start of the episode, are the paparazzi. They’re of course onto the leak already.
Presumably the next day, Jack hands Amanda divorce papers, this time with no settlement. Victoria is still keen on finding out why they’re the target of her mess. Meanwhile, Javier is wearing a wife-beater and eating pizza on the couch. I’m going to enjoy writing about this character. He put himself under house arrest at Nolan’s. How considerate. He even gets to wear a Lindsay Lohan-type ankle monitor! Nolan’s furious until he sees a pizza box with all this coding on it. It’s for an “anti-social network” that Javier wants to create, whatever that means. Nolan wants to help him with it.
Pasquale and Conrad have one final meeting tonight, where Pasquale essentially still won’t budge on the offer Conrad had presented. Aha, but what if he can get Pasquale something he’s never been able to get? Namely, Victoria? Now Pasquale’s interest is piqued.
Oh, dear readers, of COURSE the whole leaking of the medical records was planted by Amanda. She needed to create a public break from the Graysons, she tells Jack. Jack’s in it to win it now. He’s no longer sitting on the sidelines. Getting revenge for him is about getting justice for Declan and his dead wife. Amanda’s like, well, OK, might as well saddle up and review these tapes with me. On it is a letter to Conrad with the initials TWM in it — who is that? Sleuthy Amanda notices that the photocopy dimensions are off from standard American copy machines, so whoever copied this letter did so in Europe. Then, Amanda compares the handwriting of the note to a wedding card she got from Pasquale and, yup, they’re the same. So Pasquale is somehow involved here, which means, yay, maybe Olivier Martinez will be sticking around for awhile. Amanda’s like, the reason I didn’t want you to get involved is because you love Pasquale’s daughter. But that’s no matter to Jack, who just hopes for no collateral damage. Amanda’s confident that won’t happen – “he won’t even know he was hit.” Feisty! Our little daredevil always has something up her sleeve.
Do you think Jack joining her officially is a good idea? What’s Stevie’s role going to be in all this? And will Olivier Martinez be here til the end? We’ll unravel more of this complicated mess next week, so see you then!
