Episode Report Card Pablo G: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Sour Grapes
By Pablo G | Season 2 | Episode 11 | Aired on 01.13.2013
As night falls on Grayson Manor, Ashley returns to have a face-to-face with Conrad. More accurately, she wants to blackmail him into bringing her back into his employ because she feels her secret-keeping skill will be wasted elsewhere. (Is that something you can, like, put on your résumé? "I'm good at being a liar. Or am I?") Hiring her back on wouldn't make any sense with Conrad no longer being CEO of Grayson Global, but it just so happens that he has that pipe dream of going into politics. He agrees to let Ashley put her skills to good use.
After hours, Emanda has returned to Daniel's office at Grayson Global for some late night Chinese takeout. She tells him she was able to get in contact with all his investors except for Helen. Cut to a close-up of a small camera implanted on a nearby clock in the office. With very little regard for appearances, Helen immediately calls Daniel's phone after the mention of her name and watches her video surveillance feed as he answers. Ems motions that she'd like Daniel to let her get a word with Helen. He politely asks and Helen obliges. On speakerphone, Emanda invites Helen to her charity auction, but she tries to decline, citing her private nature. Ems goes in for the kill, saying it would reflect very well on Daniel as the new CEO if she were in attendance. Helen grudgingly half-commits and hangs up. Dan congratulates Ems on Helen's video screen while she sulks in her dark villainous headquarters. It can't be that bad of a party, can it, Helen? Maybe you'll meet a handsome, enterprising villain.
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Nolcorp. Nolan closes the door to his office behind Marco so they have a private meeting. It's odd to Nolan that Daniel would come snooping around and asking about Carrion right after Marco unearthed it. Marco denies having anything to do with that, and goes as far as to suggest that Padma reemerged at the same time as well. There's no way Nolan is going to trust Marco over Padma at this point, so they're at an impasse.
Emanda's wine event is underway. She and Daniel greet guests, eventually being met by Jason, who commends Dan on acquiring Nolcorp while simultaneously trash talking about Conrad. Daniel humbly credits his father for his acumen until Victoria appears, revealing to Daniel that she was the one who invited Mr. Prosser. She takes Jason off to the bar, leaving Daniel to fume about his mother's probable motive of inviting Jason to show him up at the auction. He storms off. Nolan swoops in to get into Emanda's ear. He notes that "Faux-mance: Part Deux" is going well, and asks how Aiden's taking it as they walk toward the bar where he's standing. He's handling it as well as could be expected, Ems says. Nolan greets Aiden cheerfully, pointing out he's all "gussied up" like 007. Aiden responds with a cheesy Sean Connery impression that gets a small chuckle from both Emanda and Nolan. Oh... we have fun, don't we? Nolan plays the role of Q and shows off that he has tapped into the building's wireless utilities system and can control lighting and such from his tablet. Sensing a slight tension, Nolan excuses himself to go look for Padma so Ems and Aiden can have some privacy. Emanda's certain Helen will show up out of curiosity about Aiden. Her only concern is whether Aiden is ready for this because he seems distracted. "On with the show," he says.