Episode Report Card Kelsea Stahler: B- | 45 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Cheaters Never Prosper
By Kelsea Stahler | Season 3 | Episode 8 | Aired on 11.17.2013
At that exact moment, Conrad is making sure his son knows he never has to worry about sorting who he has feelings for and who he should have feelings for (you know, like his future wife). He gives Daniel the tour of a secret clubhouse that’s been passed down through generations of Grayson men so that they could discreetly cheat on their wives. It even comes with a silent(ish) butler who’s sworn to total secrecy -- it’s practically medieval in there. Daniel says he’s not interested, but if this apartment isn’t this episode’s own Chekov Gun, I don’t know what is.
While Conrad is trying to ease Daniel into infidelity, Victoria is of course trying to force him into it. When she learns that Sarah has stopped answering Daniel’s texts, she brings the young woman in to implore Sarah to break up Emily and Daniel. Sarah is more principled than that and says she likes Emily, so Victoria does the only thing she knows will work: she lies and says Emily is after Daniel’s money (you know, that stuff she has plenty of and certainly didn’t use as an excuse to leave him when he was broke). It’s the perfect thing to say to an average Jane like Sarah who deplores wealth hounds and she agrees to act as the planner for Emily and Daniel’s engagement shower so she can tempt him in what is basically a sweet, but sexy maid’s uniform.
But let us not forget Charlotte before we get to all the good stuff. Though she’s supposed to be stuck at Grayson Manor for the shower, Charlotte flits in and out of the party. Earlier, she received a suspicious email asking for $40,000 in exchange for sensitive photos on her long-missing cell phone, so she asked Aidan to fix the situation for her. He calls her away from the party to retrieve her phone right before he beats the extortionist (a man who looks like jumped out of a Sin City comic book, rather than the featured extra casting book) to a pulp in front of the Stowaway. When Charlotte defends Aidan from Jack, who threatens to throw the guy out, Jack’s anti-Aidan fire has gone from flickering to raging out of control.
Victoria’s anti-Emily fire is looking like much of the same. Noting that Sarah’s presence might not be enough to tempt Daniel, Victoria includes a back-up party plan. She’s got a truly thrilling shower game in store; it’s called blindfold the bride or groom and tell them things about a surprise shower attendee who they probably should have invited in the first place. What’s next? "Guess Whose Champagne Flute I’m Holding?" Daniel gets an old college buddy and Emily gets her first husband, who it turns out, is very real and very much an idea planted in Victoria’s head in order to get public proof that Victoria had it out for Ems. You know, for that whole murder plot we’re working towards.