REVENGE
Season 4, Episode 7
“Ambush”
GRADE: B
Besides the vaunted face-to-face meeting between Emily and her father, David, we’ve seen many characters making plans for the coming apocalyptic showdown between Emily and Victoria. They’re jockeying for position, taking shelter or making back alley deals to prevent being the victim of absolute collateral damage. For instance, last week’s episode saw Charlotte voluntarily going into rehab after seemingly making up with her sister. Before she did, you’ll recall that she told her brother, Daniel, the truth about Emily Thorne.
This week, we get one of those “ending is the beginning” type openers with mysterious images of sparks falling, culminating in Victoria waking from a dream and hearing squeaking floorboards downstairs. Because she’s suddenly unable to fully investigate anything larger than what’s in her immediate view, David simply tells her to come back to bed and Victoria dismisses it as “hearing things”. Of course, it was Emily the whole time! MWHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Also, Daniel confronted his Mom, repeating what Charlotte had said: he wanted no part of his Mom’s war and swore he’d make a deal with Emily, herself, if that’s what it took. That’s just what Daniel does. While stuck in an elevator with him, Emily basically proclaims that, yes, she did have feelings for him but those went away when he stuck by his late father, Conrad. Daniel mugs his way through the scene and tells Emily that he’s ready for bygones to be bygones. He’ll back off if her “blast radius” doesn’t include his personal space. Emily agrees to this as struggles to leave the elevator car via the top vent. David has the line of the night here:
“If I knew you were that flexible, things could have worked out between us.” He oozes.
Emily, in response, uses Danielle — literally, climbing on his shoulder to leave and says, “You want real? That was real,”
It was a nice little blow-off to a feud that’s been going on, unsettled, for months.
Meanwhile, Louise attempts to kill Margaux by locking her in a steam room at a local club. There’s nothing much to this plotline, except that Louise is obsessed with Daniel because they slept together once and now she wants to kill a woman that Daniel really isn’t all that fond of, except that she would help line his pockets. She did it because of her Mom’s urging. Her Ghost Mom, that is. That’s right: Louise is now being lead to murder by her hallucinatory Mom. Sounds like her and Dexter have a lot to talk about. The whole affair, of course, leads to Margaux throwing a drink in his face and storming out because that’s what all them louses deserve.
As for Nolan, he’s still smarting from his punch in the face from David, though his face still looks just fine. He’s been vilified, of course, by the press, (they care so much, they actually sent vans and news choppers) forcing him to move his self-proclaimed “Revenge Batcave” to another, more discreet location. So, what does Nolan do to cool things with the press? At the urging of Louise, he uses a million dollars of his money to buy the yacht club he so hates. Though, he does his good deed for the week to help Emily figure out the story behind her father’s sudden appearance. Emily brings Nolan a knife and a mysterious key that she swiped from the Clarke Malibu Dream House — coveted evidence that might be of help to Good Cop Ben in his quest to figure out who murdered Conrad Grayson. Nolan spends the episode, forgetting the stress of his life by ditching his cell phone and kicking back with a drink and a roaring fire.
Speaking of the good cops BenJack…or…JackBen or…Back. Or Jen. Wait, no…anyway, they bust the case wide the hell open by finding tattooed wrist guy in Charlotte’s former room — along with a knife similar to the one that ended Conrad’s life.
What Emily discovers with the key (which ends up being tied to a safe deposit box) is shocking: a series of photos tracking the fake “Amanda Clarke” and Jack as they go through their average day of running a bar and sailing. She can’t wait any longer and bursts into the beach house, furiously telling Victoria to leave — which she does at David’s insistence. Emily tearfully asks him why he didn’t just reveal to her that she was alive instead of skulking in the shadows and accuses him of being a coward. David has no idea what she’s talking about until she lunges at him…and he grabs her wrist…and sees the Double Infinity tattoo. David realizes that his daughter is alive and well — but their reunion is cut short when they hear a pop and an explosion.
Victoria’s on the ground, outside. She’s been electrocuted by a wire that was cut from a nearby pole and was in direct contact with her car.
Despite my mockery, I really enjoyed this episode. The big story, of course, was the big reveal and subsequent reunion of Amanda and her father. And not some Lindelof “technically, it was ‘Emily’ talking to David” bullshit. This episode delivered what many fans have wanted since the show started. Of course, the first reunion was the Lindelof tease and payoff and I guess that had to happen because we’ve all waited about three years and six episodes. What’s 40 more minutes?
The downside to this? We have more questions than answers and about 17 more episodes, at most, to figure out where this is all heading. At the very least, there seems to be a prevailing sense of finality hanging over the proceedings.
