By: Dan
I’ve just had the pleasure of watching the latest episode of Revenge, ‘Sabotage’.
Aiden’s sulking about witnessing Emily and Daniel kissing at the end of the last episode, and when she finds out that he saw, she reminds him that getting closer to Daniel means getting closer to The Initiative. I thought that Aiden might try to hide his contact with Helen from Emily, but he confesses all. Emily warns him not to believe Ms. Crowley’s claims that his sister Colleen is still alive, and though he says he doesn’t, it’s clear he’s mulling it over. Aiden also wants her to drop her Daniel seduction because his meeting with Helen has opened a line into the secretive organization – she’s not convinced.
Meanwhile, Daniel’s really ready to resume their old relationship, but Emily slows him right down. Instead of jumping into the sack, they instead plan a wine-auction fundraiser for a charity that helps foster children who’ve aged out of the system. The evening features several noteworthy moments. First, Aiden and Nolan have a cute, little Ian Fleming-inspired interaction in which Noles calls the Brit 007, which prompts Aiden to do a fair Connery-as-Bond impression and call Nolan “Q,” which you just know made the rich nerd’s week (and mine). Then, Daniel pays $1 million for a bottle of wine that he and Emily later find out has turned. Later, Helen shows up and pressures Daniel to buy Stonehaven United Solutions, which offers disaster-recovery services and which she happens to know is going to do quite well in the near future.
As Aiden accompanies Helen out of the party, their elevator stops suddenly and gas flows in through the vents. They pass out and wake up tied to chairs in a basement, where a masked and voice-disguised figure threatens them with a gun and wants information. Aiden breaks free and apparently kills the figure as another masked man comes into the room. We saw some of this in the cold open, where it appeared as though Aiden had unknowingly shot Emily, but when the second man pulls off his mask and reveals himself as Nolan, we realize that it was all just a ruse – albeit a ruse. We later find out that Aiden was in on it, too… and he’s still not happy about the fact that he can’t come over to Emily’s to debrief, because Daniel is there. So Aiden shows up anyway – just to fetch his things, he tells Daniel — and it’s awkward.
Elsewhere, someone tipped off Daniel to an abandoned NolCorp software-development project: the “cyber plutonium” Nolan and Marco discussed last week. The Grayson Global CEO wants to know what became of the project, which is called Carrion. Padma returns to Nolan’s side, and to Marco’s dismay, the blonde assures her she still has a job at NolCorp. Near the episode’s end, Nolan finds a ghost email to Daniel that makes it look like Marco was tipping him off about Carrion. Noles fires his ex — and we later see that the NolCorp employee feeding information to The Initiative is… Padma (not exactly shocking, but still).
Also, Ashley’s back and using her deep knowledge of Grayson chicanery to strike an ambiguous deal with Conrad that somehow has her back on the family’s payroll. Victoria flirts with Conrad’s longtime rival Jason Prosser in order to “accidentally” slip him the tip about Stonehaven United, which he promptly makes a plan to buy (she did this to try to scupper The innitiative’s use of Daniel). Amanda visits Jack in prison, and as they’re talking through the glass partition, he surmises that the cops tipped off Nate and Kenny and that’s why the raid in the previous episode went so poorly. He doesn’t want Emily or Nolan’s help in making bail, either. But if the cops trace the gun, she suggests, they’ll realize “that it was used to kill Kenny and Nate’s father six years ago and that it belonged to my dad!” Jack says exasperatedly.
The best part of the scene, however, is Amanda’s reaction once it’s established that the Ryan brothers are seeking retribution for their dad’s death. She gets the crazy stripper/murderer eyes and I am reminded how much more fun she was when she was a total freaking nutjob. Jack sees it too and forbids her to do anything about the situation. She promises… and later trades one of Conrad’s watches for a 9mm from the trunk of a car. She’s about to use it on Nate in the storeroom when deus ex Ashley-na shows up – thinking that the appearance of being a civic crusader would help his political future, Conrad has pulled some strings to get Jack’s bail reduced, so he’s home. And Conrad is upstairs at The Stowaway offering his help – if they’ll accept.
Overall, it was a strong episode. It’s put a few more things into motion, and revealed some extra bits of intrigue to follow up on. I’m looking forward to learning more.
Thanks for reading.
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