Charlotte tries to help Amanda remember on “Revenge.”
Credit: ABC/Colleen Hayes
Welcome back from what I hope was a much happier holiday that Amanda and co. had on “Revenge!”
To refresh our collective memory: Last episode, Amanda was shot by Daniel on their wedding night. Amanda went overboard, and didn’t show up at her designated meeting spot on the beach for a reunion with Aidan (but her bloody wedding dress did!).
So tonight, we pick up where we left off. There’s, naturally, chaos in the aftermath. The press is going nuts over the case. Conrad, as former governor, gets to dispatch all the Coast Guard to find her. Meanwhile (as if we had any doubt), Amanda is indeed alive! (God knows how, though, I mean, she was shot in the stomach!) Anyways, she’s clinging to life, literally — we see her latch onto a buoy, which happens to have the incriminating Conrad briefcase handcuffed to it. She’s thankfully got a Hunger Games-esque tracker to let Aidan and everyone know she’s still kickin’.
The cops are questioning the Graysons, and Charlotte is quick to recognize that someone close to the family must have shot Amanda — after all, she was shot on the boat, which only had her wedding party on it. Charlotte blames Victoria, while the police zero in on Daniel. Meanwhile, Margaux presents photos taken at the wedding to the police for evidence, and they thank her and advise her not to discuss the case. She of course won’t do this. And Lydia, knowing that there’s no proof she was indeed in the cabin when the shots were fired, lies about her whereabouts to the police. Victoria won’t speak without a lawyer, making her look ever so suspicious.
Amanda, meanwhile, hitches a ride on a random boat, unbeknownst to its captain. Aidan knows, though, and he communicates with a very cold and out of it Amanda that she needs to get to a hospital. She just wants to be with Aidan, she tells him, but he won’t accept that. Once she passes out, he makes a racket to alert the captain that there’s a stranger out cold on his boat. The captain then discovers our heroine and calls mayday. And that’s how Amanda winds up in the hospital!
Jack and Aidan fill in Nolan. Aidan’s all like “now what will we do?” and Jack, speaking for all of America, is like, “Jesus, give it up, your plan is over.” Of course, Aidan won’t listen to this. And neither will Nolan. They’ll get answers about what happened. To start the process, Aidan instructs Jack to speak with Margaux about what transpired in her eyes.
Victoria, officially a person of interest, gets Patrick on her side to prove her innocence. Daniel gets questioned, and when the cop brings up Lydia’s story, he calls her “one step above a call girl” and not to trust her. Fiery!
At the hospital, the doctor tells everyone that Amanda is badly hurt but will “pull through.” Oh, about that baby, uhh…yeah, she wants to talk to Daniel alone about this one. Daniel, she tells him, your wife was never pregnant. Well Daniel looks a big steaming pot of rage upon getting this news. Mom was right!
Elsewhere in the hospital, Patrick is forced to choose between helping his mom keep Nolan away and helping Nolan get answers. He goes with his mom, and Nolan is angry, to say the least. He leaves the hospital, but not before dropping his smartphone on a desk.
Lord, I can’t believe this show is really using the “amnesia plot line,” but here we go, or, as my poor long-suffering boyfriend said tonight, “here comes the best acting of all time.” Daniel visits his bride and oh no, she doesn’t remember anything — not her name, nothing. But wait! Maybe this is all part of her plan, and maybe she doesn’t really have amnesia! We’ll find out sooner or later.
Nolan left his phone to create a hot spot so he can hack into the hospital’s computer system, in true Nolan fashion. When he and Aidan access Amanda’s records, they are kinda spooked to see all the scary diagnoses. But Aidan’s convinced that Amanda is really fine, just pretending to have amnesia for the time being to continue her plan.
Outside the hospital, Jack meets with Margaux, and she shows him pictures from that fateful night that she didn’t show the police. Huh. In all of the pictures, Daniel’s nowhere to be seen. Guess we have a suspect. And at Grayson manor, Lydia and Victoria engage in a major catfight (complete with purposeful red wine spilling!) over Victoria’s presumed guilt.
OK, back to Nolan and Aidan in the hospital. Nolan is ushering Aidan through when, oh no, here comes Patrick barging into Nolan’s house. He knows Nolan and Amanda aren’t as innocent as they appear. He saw the Revenge box after all! Nolan and Patrick fight, with Patrick walking out the door. Nolan tries to be all tough but he’s really sad to see his lover leave again.
Aidan finally makes it to Amanda’s room, and is bubbling with excitement when he bursts through the door. There’s an ambulance waiting to take them out of there, he tells her, so they can escape — but wait! Amanda has no idea who Aidan is or what the heck is going on. So, it seems, Mandy wasn’t faking anything — she really does have (groan) amnesia. They tell Jack, and Nolan, brains of the bunch, pipes in with some research he’s done in his spare time: Amanda’s condition is as much psychological as physiological, and she can get her brain back if they make an emotional connection with her.
Daniel visits his mother and confesses to the shooting. He says he won’t let his mom take the fall for him and plans to turn himself in. Well, Victoria, mommie dearest, won’t let her dear son pay for his crime. She goes to Margaux and looks over those wedding night photos she has. Lydia isn’t in any of them. Victoria will now make it look like Lydia was behind the shooting. When she tells this plan to Conrad, she rubs it way in his face — how does it feel to have to betray someone you love? They’ll bring Lydia down to spare Daniel, and Conrad is not happy about it.
Back at the hospital, Charlotte is trying to jog Amanda’s memory by showing her wedding photos. Charlotte yammers on about Amanda’s strength, blah blah blah, where did you get your strength from honey? My roommate, boyfriend and I all predicted the next line: “my father.” Another groan. Anyways, Charlotte’s like, who’s your father? What do you remember? And Amanda, bless her heart, says “David Clarke.” Plot thickening! Charlotte tells Jack about Amanda’s curious word selection, and Jack’s like “haha…yeah…that is weird…maybe I should go see her, just to be safe!”
At the South Fork Inn, where every scene is laced with seediness, Conrad tells Lydia what’s going on, and then when she heads out, phones Victoria to say she’s gone. But surely she’ll be back, right? This is “Revenge,” people!
Annnnd again at the hospital, there’s a (maybe) evil nurse! Amanda doesn’t see her toying with her fluids, but we do. Who is she? Why she’s Niko, a doctor (?) who saved Aidan when he got shot. He owes her a debt, he says, and is weirded out that she’s on this case. Anyhoo, he warns her to stay away from the Graysons (even she knows that), and then, um, she kisses him? What was that about? And since she muttered “Nothing’s changed” after their liplock, just how close were they before (or after!) Amanda was on the scene? Things are a little foggy here, but we’ll hopefully know more in the coming weeks.
Conrad gives Daniel a stern talking-to, somehow involving religion (“Your earthly father is finished with you!”), about how he practically gave up everything to save his ass. Daniel’s like, “uhh, Dad, you didn’t have to help” and they spar. Things aren’t looking too good for Father’s Day 2014. But things look better for Victoria. She’s got Patrick back on her team, who tells her all about Nolan’s “Revenge” box. Victoria immediately recognizes the interlacing circles Patrick describes as the tattoo on Amanda’s wrist. They plot to take down everyone who’s wronged them. Yikes!
In the final scene, Jack finally visits Amanda. He gives her his dead wife’s necklace and tells Amanda that even though she doesn’t remember it, she was there when she died. He then apologizes for “holding onto pain and anger” that resulted in all their drama over the summer. He kisses her forehead and is ready to walk out. But that necklace triggers a couple memories for Amanda — cradling Emily as she died and then coming up for air on the buoy after being shot. Before Jack can get out the door, she stops him. “Daniel shot me,” she says. Oooh!
Friends, where do we go from here? Let me know what you think below. I give tonight’s episode an A-. It’s good to have the gang all back, with enough drama to fill the Amanda boat (and then some). Until next week!
