Hope you are all tucked into your PJs and bracing yourselves for the storm! Let’s hope Sandy stays far away from our friends out East…
What’s this? An episode about forgiveness? This is a show based entirely on payback! How can this be? Let’s dive right in.
Tonight begins with Amanda dreaming about the time her mother tried to drown her. What we didn’t see last week was her dad trying to resuscitate her, and telling Kara, her mom, not to help (he’s, let’s say, very pissed she tried to kill her). Amanda wakes and she’s on the couch with Aiden. He spills to her that Gordon Murphy was her mom’s husband. Amanda seems to be warming up to Aiden a little bit.
Well, well, well, a very warm welcome back to the Hamptons, Kara Clarke! She visits Victoria and instead of hating on each other immediately, Kara and Victoria embrace and Kara tells her how glad she is to see her safe. They chit-chat, it’s all fake Hamptons BS and they’re both not bringing up the fact that Victoria was fake-kidnapped.
Meanwhile, Conrad and Aiden are in a meeting, and Aiden tells Conrad he needs to be in the loop on all Grayson affairs. During their meeting, Victoria calls Conrad to tell him that Kara Clarke is still alive and he freaks — wasn’t she supposed to be taken care of (aka killed) years ago? On the contrary, she’ll be staying at his house instead. What fun!
At the Stowaway, Charlotte returns Declan’s jacket and invites him to the hospital where Amanda is. Just then, the dude they robbed (whom we discovered last week was really a bad guy, in on it the whole time) visits and gives Declan a Department of Health hookup that’ll get them back in business quicker. Declan wants to know why that guy would help him, and he says it’s so he can get his money back faster. Whether that’s the truth or not remains to be seen.
Nolan visits Amanda, Jack and the new baby, Carl, at the hospital. Jack tells Nolan that Emily’s mom is back. Nolan’s mad he’s so out of the loop.
Someone wants to get a hold of David Clarke’s contract from Grayson Global…and it’s Padma! Could this be tied to the big check she found in Nolan’s dad’s storage unit last week? Padma wants to make sure that David wasn’t an employee of Grayson Global when Nolcorp invested in them. The whole terrorist connection looks bad to the outside eye, ya know.
Emily gets out of her coma and meets her baby for the first time. It’s nice but still bittersweet for her because she thinks the baby isn’t Jack’s. Also at the hospital is Amanda, and she has an important flashback of herself in the hospital, and her dad telling her that her mom was very sick and not strong enough and therefore not here with us anymore. We’ll find out more about that later. Back in reality, Amanda invites Emily to stay at her place while Jack gets the Stowaway back in business. When Emily and Amanda are alone, Amanda tells her that her mom is back, and Emily says she’s glad this at least wasn’t all for nothing.
Kara and Victoria bond over the fact that they were both duped by David Clarke. Charlotte hears that Kara is staying with them and thinks that maybe her mom isn’t such a bad person after all. Padma meets with Daniel about David Clarke’s contract, and Daniel records the conversation so Papa Grayson can take it all in.
Finally, after all this time, Amanda gets some face-time with her mother — only she doesn’t let her in on the fact that, hello, she’s talking to her own daughter. She asks what Amanda was like as a child — her vulnerable side comes out again. Oh! Also at the hospital paying a visit? MASON TREADWELL! I thought he died? Or maybe it was just his house that had an unfortunate ending. Anyways, he’s back, up to his super-sleuthy ways again, not really buying that Kara’s been “away” for some time. Then there’s a shot of Emily’s back, noticeably bare, which will come into play later.
Amanda drives her own mother home and they talk. She tells her she can’t believe David would be capable of anything he’s accused of doing — he was her high-school sweetheart and her first love (but not her only love, she points out).
Ashley, Daniel and Aiden go out for swanky drinks (guess he’s really taking his job of infiltrating Grayson Global quite seriously). He tells them he was advised by Takeda to look up Emily Thorne on arriving here for a date. Oh, how little they know! Back at Amanda’s house, she learns that Padma is investigating David Clarke’s contract, so she gets a hold of Nolan (who’s having a lovely morning-after breakfast on the beach with Padma) and tells him. He promptly hangs up.
Emily and Amanda engage in some girl talk and Amanda tells her about the memory of her mom trying to kill her, saying that she did in fact drown her and it was her dad who had to save her. The best course of action now is to get Kara out of the picture.
Aiden and Daniel have a little tete-a-tete and find out that David Clarke had exclusively worked with Grayson Global, meaning they’re now in business with Nolcorp. So that explains the check I guess? Friends, this subplot is confusing me, so if any of you can explain it better, please do so below.
Mason barges into Grayson Manor wanting to know the truth about Kara. Victoria says he doesn’t realize the threat she poses, and that she can take them all down. Elsewhere, Emily and Kara chat, and Kara gives this really nice speech about how despite the odds Emily (thinking she’s Amanda) grew up to be “an amazing young woman,” and that she was very sick and not in control of herself for a long time, and that her father and she made a choice: So begins another flashback, this time of David and Kara, when they decide to tell little Amanda that her mother died, to spare the pain of knowing that’s locked up in the psych ward. Somehow, Kara says, David forgave her, and Emily then says she forgives her too. Who’s waiting in the wings but Amanda, tears streaming down her face, longing for a real connection with her mom. Sad!
A shady business transaction seems to be brewing at the Stowaway, as the bar reopens thanks to the health department hookup, and the robbed dude tells Jack he was always interested in owning. He presents a compelling case: Wouldn’t you rather be with your family more than taking care of this bar? They shake on a deal. Something wicked this way comes, I sense.
Oh yeah, in addition to all of this, Victoria and Conrad are getting married again. Now we know it’s so they are legally bound to one another so they’ll never have to testify against one another should more of this go into court, now that Kara’s here again.
Then, whoa, Amanda told Emily that, oops, yeah, Jack really is the dad of her kid. Emily knew Amanda had feelings for him! When she asks why she lied, Amanda says she needed her to still be on her side. They talk about telling Jack, but Amanda says that telling him now would basically just ruin his life, so they should just keep him blissfully in the dark.
Amanda hits the beach, recalling a memory of playing with her dad in the surf, when Kara joins her. She asks if her daughter (whom she doesn’t realize is standing right there!) really forgives her, and Amanda says she thinks she wants to. Just then, a tidal wave comes and washes the two of them out to sea, never to be seen again.
Kidding!
Back on the porch where Amanda and Emily just were, Mason strolls up. He’s curious about the scar he knows Amanda Clarke used to have on her back — he didn’t see it on her in the hospital earlier. Emily says she had it removed, but Mason’s not buying it: He knows she’s not really Kara and David’s daughter, slamming a manila file onto her chair. Will we get to see what’s in that file next week? Maybe, maybe not, but it looks like the damage is already done: He’s onto her!
Til next week — stay safe!
