REVENGE: “Confidence”

Unfortunately, a picture just can’t do Barry Sloane’s accent justice. Photo Credit: Colleen Hayes/ABC.

Read on for Emily’s recap of Revenge episode 2×03, “Confidence,” aired Sunday, October 14th, 2012:

Revenge is back for third week and what a week it was. We finally got some background information on Takada’s other student, Aiden, who happens to be extremely good looking and used to sleep with Emily. The opening scene shows the two of them back in Japan a few years ago, training together with Takada.

In the present day, The White-Haired Man, whose name is apparently Gordon Murphy, is indeed dead thanks to Aiden. Emily and Aiden bicker over the items Murphy had on him, which include a cell phone. Emily, sick of Aiden’s meddling, clocks him in the head and leaves him in a dumpster with a ticket back to Japan. [Editor's note: I now dream of the day when I have occasion to staple an international plane ticket to an unconscious body.]

Instead of taking her not-very-subtle hints to leave town, he goes into detective mode, using a motel key he found on Murphy’s body. The key leads him to a motel where talks to none other than Emily’s mother, who appears to have been working with the White-Haired Man. 

Emily also investigates the late villain. She and Nolan try to get information off of his cell phone, which is unsuccessful. She also discovers that her mother and the White-Haired Man were together, romantically, or something like that.

Other lovers include Emily and Aiden, apparently. A flashback showed the two of them had been together while training with Takada, until Aiden left her there after promising to run away together. Emily did not take this betrayal well and now despises him. We all know how well this girl can hold a grudge.

Meanwhile, the plot with the Graysons thickens. Daniel mysteriously receives Victoria’s fake passport and learns that she faked her kidnapping. Once again, he tells her how much he hates her, blah blah blah. I give that anger two episodes tops.

Victoria has Emily banned from seeing any of the Graysons, which Emily immediately disregards. She sends Amanda in to give Charlotte a fake journal written by their father, which condemns Victoria. Charlotte then decided the best course of action is to throw a fit in front of a reporter, for some unknown reason. She told the reporter about her true parentage, so now Victoria has no choice but to go public.

I couldn’t help but rolling my eyes at Charlotte for yelling at her mother in front of a reporter. Did she really want to the whole world to know who her father was? That seemed like a terrible idea

At a press conference held at Grayson Manor, Victoria tells the world that Charlotte is David Clarke’s daughter and presents Charlotte, Conrad, Daniel, Amanda, and herself as a happy family. They seem to be back on top, as Ashley notes.

Daniel, shockingly enough, still wants Emily. Just before the press conference, Emily suggests keeping his hatred of this mother secret and play nice to beat her at her own game.  He takes her advice because, for once, he’s not an idiot.

I really liked this bit between Emily and Daniel. She finally let him in on her real personality, just a little. By telling him how to play Victoria, she gave him a glimpse beyond her typical bland, innocent persona. He seemed to like this version of Emily and that interests me. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I really want to see what these two are like together when the truth about Emily is out.

In subplot news, Nolan’s new CFO definitely has a thing for him. She thinks he’s dating Emily and gets sad about it while he remains oblivious.

Elsewhere, Jack tells Amanda to stay away from the Graysons, which she blatantly ignores. Jack sees her with the Grayson family on TV at the press conference and decides to end things with her romantically, while still being there for the baby.

This development made me respect Jack just a little bit. He definitely made the right choice by not staying in a relationship he didn’t want. Maybe this will free him to do something interesting. (I highly doubt this will happen.)

In subplots I don’t care about news, Declan gets caught stealing from a wealthy house and gets let off the hook. Yawn.

I think this episode presented some really fun plotlines going forward. I like Aiden as a new love interest/nemesis for Emily. I think the two actors had great chemistry and I am curious where the writers will take him. Ideally, they will take him somewhere that requires him to wear a suit. I would really enjoy seeing him in a suit. Get on that, writers.

What do you guys think? Now that Emily’s mom is back in play, will we see a mother-daughter reunion soon? More importantly, what does a girl have to do for a black-tie event that  puts everyone in fabulous gowns and suits?

Emily is studying journalism in Washington, DC. She spends much of her time watching TV and becoming emotionally invested in fictional characters. You can follow her on Twitter @EmilyGuilfoil.