Tonight’s the winter finale, and Conrad and Victoria are sending us off by taking in a target practice at the shooting range. There, we meet Mr. Salvador Grube, a Grayson investor. Of course, since this is “Revenge,” everyone’s always within a 10-foot radius, so Amanda, Nolan, Aidan, Daniel and Ashley are all there. Each team—Conrad and Victoria vs. Aidan, Amanda and Nolan—wants Salvador on their side. The Graysons want Salvador to put their money in Conrad retaining Grayson Global, while Emily and co. want them to invest in Daniel, because it means they’ll get more access to the initiative.
Elsewhere, Jack’s prepping for his baby shower (and Declan randomly calls him a “dipstick”). We learn that some of Jack’s dad’s old mates will be there. Then Jack invites Kenny and his brother to the shower, who not only accept but promise an open bar afterwards. Can I go?
Back at the shooting range, that initiative lady calls Conrad—she says that Conrad’s “usefulness seems to be running its course.” She threatens to kill Daniel if they don’t get their way.
So remember how last week’s episode ended with Daniel arranging a meeting with Marco? Well, tonight, we see where that led: Daniel calls a meeting with Nolan and Padma to discuss Grayson Global taking over Nolcorp, and oh hey, Marco’s there! This doesn’t go over very well with Nolan, who was also expecting Aidan to be at their meeting (Ashley says Aidan’s not technically a full-timer; it’s really a lie because Daniel doesn’t trust him). So they know about the missing half a billion dollars, but thankfully Marco didn’t tell Daniel that the money is with Amanda Clarke. Daniel makes Nolan an offer he can’t refuse: Invest 51 percent in Grayson Global, or we’ll get people looking for that money—and Nolan doesn’t want anyone to know that it’s with David Clarke and co., so we know how he answers.
Amanda and Aidan are spying on Daniel and Ashley, and they realize that Ashley’s trying to turn Daniel against Aidan. So what do they do? Get Daniel to turn against Ashley. And how will they do that? With conveniently incriminating video footage of her sleeping with Conrad. Yikes!
Time for baby Carl’s baptism! Amanda’s on her way to the church, and Aidan’s suspicious about who this Jack Porter character is. Is he just a friend? Something more? She’s honest with him, and he says she doesn’t need to keep secrets from him. At the shower, godmother “Emily Rebecca Thorne” looks on longingly as little Carl is officially welcomed into the church. In the back of the church, Jack’s dad’s old deckhand Matthew Duncan greets Jack. He sees the Ryan brothers in the church and warns Jack to get out of the business deal he’s in with them.
Victoria gets a hold of the incriminating video and confronts Conrad, who swears the affair happened before Ashley and Daniel got together. They think the initiative is behind it, trying to drive a wedge between them. Now, their mission is to help Daniel before he gets in over his head.
Emily pulls Amanda aside as she’s leaving the open bar at the Stowaway, and she’s got the same thought we all have: When’s all this craziness gonna stop? She saw how longingly she looked at she and Jack at the shower. She deserves a happy life just like them. Amanda says she’s righting wrongs, so I guess that’s our clue that this isn’t gonna let up anytime soon.
And now, the showdown I was waiting for, between Victoria and Ashley! Ashley begs Victoria not to ruin what she has with Daniel, and (almost a little presumptuously) tells Victoria that she would do the same thing if she were in her situation. Ashley says she would do anything not to screw this up, so of course, Victoria has something in mind: Sleep with Salvador to get him to vote for Conrad. Well, naturally, that doesn’t go well. We’ll get there in a minute.
At the Stowaway, Jack asks Nolan to run a background check on the Ryan brothers. Then, Marco shows up, and is suspicious about Amanda Clarke living in the bar when she’s supposed to have loads of money. He thinks Nolan is pocketing the money, and threatens to expose this unless Nolan gives him his job back.
Aidan has Daniel meet him at a hotel—he wants to know why Daniel didn’t trust him to include him in the Nolcorp proceedings from earlier. Daniel says it’s because he doesn’t trust him, and Aidan knows Ashley had something to do with that. Then, Aidan’s all like, “oh, you want to know about trust? Your girlfriend’s upstairs screwing this rich old dude, and by the way, she also screwed your dad!” Daniel storms into Salvador’s room, where he and Ashley are in bathrobes (I don’t want to think about what they’re doing). Daniel is furious with Salvador for even considering giving his vote to Conrad. He takes a picture with his phone and threatens to send it to Salvador’s wife is he doesn’t vote for Daniel. It’s all a big ugly showdown that leaves Ashley in tears.
The morning after, Victoria assumes they’ve got Salvador’s vote, but he tells them they don’t. They only have one hope left: Tell Daniel he’s in danger. Except when they try, he doesn’t believe them, because why would he? They’ve never really been straight with him in the past. Except this time they’re telling the truth that he’s in danger! It’s like the boy who cried wolf, except the boy is really a bunch of obnoxious rich people. They also tell him about how Ashley fit into their little plan, which sends him flying off the handrails.
The Stowaway subplot has gotten quite interesting. Matt Duncan returns, looking for Jack. He spots Kenny (or Nolan, I couldn’t tell) and heads in his direction. Then, he’s cornered by the two Ryan brothers. They think he killed their dad, and they want payback.
Inside the bar, Nolan calls Jack to tell him that indeed the Ryan brothers are bad news. Just then, Charlotte (welcome to the episode!) comes in freaking out—there’s a bloody body outside, somebody help! It’s Matt Duncan, and he’s badly hurt. Jack rushes to his aid and yells to nobody in particular to call 911, but Matt doesn’t want any cops on the scene. The cops think Jack’s dad killed the Ryans’ dad, but Matt admits it was he who did it, with the gun Papa Carl had on his boat. Later, the Ryans pay a very suspicious visit to Jack all alone at the bar, playing dumb about the whole incident (even though I think Jack knows what’s going on) and they drop Carl’s little black book on the bar. Inside is Matt Duncan’s info, crossed out in red pen, signaling that he paid what he owed to him. Ominous!
Daniel’s predictably named CEO of Grayson Global, and he tells Aidan that there won’t be a spot for him on the board. Sorry! Nolan and Padma sign off on a bunch of forms, and Padma apologizes because she feels responsible for all this. Just then, Marco arrives, and Nolan tells Padma that they’re finding a place for him in the company. She says that’s insane—after everything that happened with him?
Aidan and Amanda converse by the fire and she asks him if he thinks they could ever be happy. He says he’s happy in that moment, and that seems to be enough for her. Elsewhere, Jack finds presumably the murder weapon that his dad kept on the boat, and Daniel’s being watched by the initiative on an embedded camera (they’re everywhere on this show, I swear), whose leader asks the group if they should “put the plan into action” (to eliminate Daniel, I’m assuming). Then, Daniel deletes pictures of he and Ashley, but saves the ones of him and Emily, so I guess they’ll get back together when the show comes back.
Finally, Victoria calls Amanda to discuss what’s she says is a very grave matter about her son. What was that all about, Aidan wonders? Leverage, she tells him. Why wasn’t that the name of the episode? Anyways. That’s it til January, Revengers, so til then, I hope your holidays are a lot happier than anyone’s on this show.
