Revenge 1.4: Duplicity

Editor: Please welcome back guest author Estelle with a review of ABC’s Revenge.

Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers.

Things got a little personal on Revenge this week when we learned that Emily was out to sabotage Dr. Michelle Banks, therapist to the Hamptons elite (including Victoria & Emily). Seems that before Dr. Banks reached her level of success she worked for child services and was, of course, overseeing Emily/Amanda’s case after her father was first apprehended.

I pretty much pegged her for the worst therapist ever when she told Amanda she was only “pretending” to be a good girl just like her father was pretending to be a good man.

I should have realized by now there is always more to a story.

Way back when, Victoria guaranteed Dr. Banks her own practice if she promised to keep Amanda and her dad permanently separated and have Amanda institutionalized. (I love how little Amanda still believed so much in her dad’s innocence despite what the adults were saying. She was always one smart cookie.)

Bam. Present day, Banks has money, fame, and time, to do charity work (for children, of course). She also secretly tapes her sessions with her patients. This all comes unglued in the middle of a mother/daughter tea (anyone else freaked out by the matching dresses?). during another hijacked presentation. Emily knows how to make a splash in a public forum and even added her own therapy session to the Hamptonsexposed.com reel.

Another party brought to an abrupt close. Although Banks’ punishment was not over — she knocked unconscious and locked in a storage unit for quite some time until an anonymous tip saves her. (Emily feeling guilty?) The police believed Victoria to be a suspect, and the on-hand security man creepily insinuated that he and Victoria were sleeping together during the kidnapping. (Where did this come from and why do I always forget his name?)

Truth be told, this might actually be the closest that Emily gets to being caught. Victoria found out from the party planner/Emily’s friend, Ashley, that Emily was the one who helped her locate the eye-opening DVD when it had gone missing. Ashley, of course, reminded them of Emily’s own appearance on Hamptonsexposed.com and how there was NO way it could be her.

This girl is so good at covering her tracks but could she have slipped up here? We’ll have to wait and see.

(Speaking of Ashley, does she know what Emily is doing?)

In the meantime, I was giddy for the small Jack/Emily bits we got to experience in this episode. Jack has decided to keep his dad’s bar running through the summer (much to Declan’s chagrin) but is “hoping to find a really good reason to stick around.” Cough, Emily, cough. Apparently Nolan is quite a fan of these two as well because he sort of tinkered with Jack’s obvious interest and pointed him into the direction of Hamptonsexposed.com, where Emily was talking about meeting a new person she could be falling in love with. Ya know, Daniel, not Jack. The love triangle continues…

Speaking of Daniel — his college buddy, Tyler, is a real tool and I am left to wonder why he wants to meddle in Daniel’s life so much. He’s the devil on his shoulder — forcing him to drink, stealing his phone and deleting Emily’s calls, telling Daniel that Emily cancelled on dinner plans when she didn’t (Emily thinks Daniel stood her up leading to the above Jack moment). To Daniel’s mom, Tyler is the angel on the other shoulder. Pretending to be all innocent when it comes to Daniel’s drunken shenanigans. So what is Tyler’s deal? Like everything else on this show, who knows?

A few other tidbits: Conrad is still sleeping with Lydia and Victoria doesn’t know (although I’m sure she suspects it). Declan may be getting somewhere with Charlotte (how sweet were they swinging on the swings?) and I’m happy to see we may actually have a genuine relationship to follow soon. Emily also has the nicest wardrobe – loved her yellow dress at the mother/daughter tea. There was also a lot of “scary music” this week – anyone love it as much as I did?

At the end of the episode, we are left with more intrigue and another flashback: this time of a young Amanda hiding behind a counter as she watches Victoria steal David’s laptop. She hands it off to her security right hand man just as David catches her downstairs. Security man disappears. Victoria falls into David’s arms and he whisks her upstairs but not before Victoria realizes that Amanda has seen everything.

So it all starts to make sense. Why Victoria paid so much to keep father and daughter separated. But why did Victoria go against the man she loved in the first place? What does Conrad — the mastermind of this whole crazy mess — have on her?

All I know is it better be good… I’m too invested at this point to be disappointed by a weak storyline.

Until next week…

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Revenge is on Wednesday evenings at 10pm on ABC. Check out www.abc.com to view the full episodes you may have missed.

Estelle, a TV junkie with a jam-packed DVR, loves theatre, cupcakes, and all things Disney. Check out her blog at www.thishappyplaceblog.com and follow her on Twitter @thatsostelle.