Episode Report Card Pablo G: A | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT First Blood
By Pablo G | Season 1 | Episode 5 | Aired on 10.19.2011
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Lydia chooses not to out the Graysons with her speech. Instead, she asks the crowd to simply recognize them for their outstanding efforts. She leads the room in applause for Lydia and Conrad, who stand and accept the ovation.
Off in Extraneous Land, Charlotte and Dec are going a million miles an hour in the Mercedes. Dec is incapable of understanding a parenting method that involves buying a child's approval and thus does not believe Charlotte is now in possession of this car. The joyride comes to an abrupt end when blue and red lights flash behind them.
Back at the gala, Daniel is at the bar with Conrad. He takes this father and son opportunity to tell Conrad he doesn't want to follow in his footsteps. This is all it takes for Dad Grayson to threaten to freeze Daniel's trust fund. Daniel tells Conrad to do what he thinks he has to do and walks away.
This scene, guys... This is what we live for. Victoria finds Lydia to compliment her on her speech. Lydia's genuinely happy to be friends with Victoria again, but it's short-lived because Queen Victoria has her guillotine hidden behind her back. She tells Lydia appearances can be deceiving, as Lydia should know. Lydia's face drops and it's like you can watch her heart slowly shrink. Through a smile, Victoria says to her: "Understand something, Lydia. Every time I smile at you across a room, or we run into each other at a luncheon or I welcome you into my home, let that smile be a reminder of just how much I despise you. And that every time I hug you, the warmth you feel is my hatred burning through you." She crushes a wilting Lydia in a tight embrace and says good-bye. Emanda watches all of this unfold, but is dragged away from it when Daniel finds out Charlotte's been arrested.
Lydia comes home to find Frank waiting for her in the darkness. He confronts her with the allegations the planted evidence supports, but she has no idea what he's talking about. She threatens Frank by pulling out her cell phone, which he slaps away, beginning a struggle. Amazingly, Lydia counters every move by Frank and gets in plenty of good hits before running up to the roof of her apartment, but all it takes is one good punch from Frank that sends Lydia tumbling over the railing of her roof and crashing onto the cab, as we saw at the beginning of the episode. Her eyelashes don't flutter this time.
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Nolan arrives at Lydia's apartment to switch out the employee manifest. Meanwhile, Emanda sits in the Southampton police station with Daniel, waiting for Charlotte and Declan. She gets a text from Nolan that everything is OK now. Back at Lydia's, Nolan decides to grab the whale figurine camera and also snatches the photo with Emanda in the background. That's when he hears police sirens. He runs up to the roof and looks over the railing to see Lydia's corpse on a smashed car with fire engines and ambulances arriving on the scene -- probably not what he expected to see. He runs downstairs. Back at the police station, Emanda asks if Daniel will tell his parents about Charlotte's arrest. He figures it's not a big deal to keep this secret, considering all the other family secrets and doing right by his sister is one more thing to make him feel liberated now that he's free of the burden of his $100 million trust fund. Daniel takes Emanda's hand in his just as Jack walks into the station. Awkward. Charlotte and Dec run out to Dan and Jack respectively, excited to be out of custody. Jack asks how much this is going to cost and Daniel speaks up that he covered it by saying Dec was part of the family. Jack grudgingly accepts this gesture, saying he owes Daniel one. How convenient for Dan -- he asks Jack if he can be considered for the bartending job at the Stowaway. Jack reluctantly tells Dan to give him a call at the bar before giving Emanda a look that says "I'd do this for you" before walking out with Dec.