Revenge Review: It All Comes Down To This

at .

After going on hiatus following "Masquerade," Revenge returned throwing punches. Virtual punches, that is, as Emily and Nolan teamed up to take down the Fa1c0n. 

While making forward progress in the Revengenda, "Identity" also revealed new information about several of our main characters.

Desperate Nolan

The most important - and perhaps most anti-climactic - thing to happen tonight was that Emily and Nolan managed to take down the Fa1c0n thanks to her ego and Nolan's video game skills.

That's right. The Fa1c0n is a woman and Nolan Leslie Ross is a Street Fighter champion. 

Using Victoria's medical records, Nolan lured the hacker formerly known as Edith Lee out of hiding. Under the ruse of asking for her help in wiping information about himself off of the internet, he planted a program on her computer which allowed him access to her machine. Once he had her picture and enough information, he turned her in to the FBI.

But not before he and Emily used information gained from the Fa1c0n to embarrass and hurt Victoria on a live interview with Nightline.

Conrad, in his quest for the governor's mansion, scheduled himself a live interview just five days before the election. During the interview, the reporter asked about Victoria's firstborn son. Conrad played the role of concerned and defending husband and said he knows that if Victoria could make a different decision, she would have chosen life. 

Except she did choose life. Her own. And an art scholarship to a school in Paris.

When baby Patrick was six months old, Victoria was given the opportunity to study art in France. She chose to travel and gave her son up for adoption. 

It's not often that I feel sad for Victoria, but watching her utter the words "the story is true," remove her microphone and then walk off the interview made my heart sink. She's made some horrific choices in the name of whatever it is she's after personally. She'll drive her own child into paranoid delusions in order to protect him if she has to. Ruin her best friend on the opening day of the summer season, even!

But somewhere deep inside that cold, hard exterior, she feels pain and anguish over how aspects of her life have gone. I felt bad for her tonight, like she's a victim of the circumstances of her life and has done what she's done in order to try to make her life better but instead she's just made it a different kind of worse.

The same is happening to Emily, but for obviously different reasons. She's trying to make her life better, but in so many ways that's just not happening.

The further into this she gets, the closer she gets to her goal of taking down the Graysons, the greater her personal sacrifice. She's lost friends and loved ones and somewhere along the way, it seems she's lost herself. If she even really knew who she was to begin with.

Emily is struggling with the weight of her plan right now and it's showing. It's taking its toll on her. 

She has no guarantees that getting revenge on the Graysons for what they did to her father will make her feel any differently. Any better. She presses on, however, because she hopes to feel free. At peace. 

Aiden's words to Takeda, about revenge not fixing anything, is something I've often thought about as a viewer of the show. Once Emily takes down the Graysons, what then?

Does she ride off into the sunset with Aiden? Tell the world she's the real Amanda Clarke? Go about her life as Emily Thorne with no one by her side because she lost them all in the process?

Tonight she lost Jack and Carl. The longer she goes without Jack knowing at least part of the truth about who she is and what she's doing there, the harder it will be to regain his friendship. At this point, they both want the same thing. Keeping him completely in the dark regarding her plans to bring ruin to Conrad and Victoria only serves to alienate him when she could give him enough of the truth to appease him and turn him into an ally.

Other notes:

  • Oh, Charlotte. Poor, easily led Charlotte.
  • Declan. Please get a clue. Get a diploma from the fancy prep school, and then get a clue.
  • My heart broke for Aiden tonight when he slipped Daniel's ring on Emily's finger and told her to marry Daniel to get this plan over with. Broken. Heart. 
  • Nolan was all sorts of awesome tonight with his "Bruce Frickin' Lee" and everything else, too.

What did you think of "Identity?" Did you feel even a shred of pity for Victoria? Check out the Revenge quotes page and watch for the "Identity" Round Table. Until then, let's chat about tonight's Revenge-y goodness in the comments!

Identity Review

Editor Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
  • 4.0 / 5.0
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
User Rating:

Rating: 4.6 / 5.0 (188 Votes)

Miranda Wicker was a Staff Writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in 2017. Follow her on Twitter.

Show Comments
Tags: ,

Revenge Season 2 Episode 19 Quotes

[to Regina] I'm not hiding. I just don't have the luxury of being invisible.

Charlotte

A person's true identity can often be difficult to discern, even to themselves, causing one to question their character, their calling, their very existence. For most, time provides clarity, but for others, these questions remain unanswered for an identity cannot be fully defined when it is a guarded secret.

Emily