Episode Report Card Pablo G: B+ | 25 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Natural Election
By Pablo G | Season 2 | Episode 21 | Aired on 05.12.2013
Ems and Nolan arrive at Takeda's. The establishing shot for the scene places Takeda's empty katana rack in the foreground. Nice touch. Emanda quickly spots the blood-soaked wooden pillar where Takeda was impaled on his own blade, then spots his body. Ems breaks down in tears.
FLASHBACK: Back in Takeda's dojo in Japan an auburn-haired Amanda answers questions from her sensei about her father. David Clarke meant everything to her. Takeda begins exploiting that truth so he can manufacture anger in his apprentice, asserting that David was a bad man. Amanda lunges at Takeda, who expertly sidesteps and quickly pins her face-down on the ground. Takeda: "I need that anger and confidence. You will learn to balance it with patience and observation." He explains that there are two paths to revenge: failure and being set free at journey's end. Ems has an epiphany: "And you're the guy who's going to show me the way?" /FLASHBACK.
Kneeling over Takeda's lifeless body, Emanda lets loose all the tears deserved by a beloved teacher. Nolan lets her cry on his shoulder.
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The mourning has come to an end, and Ems now switches into her investigative gear. Whoever did this was someone Takeda trusted, and they used a different katana from the one present based on the jagged cuts to her master's shirt. (Closed captioning here says 'kitana'... so, shout out to Mortal Kombat, I guess.) Emanda also notices that the body must've been moved. That would've been done out of respect after an evenly matched fight. Looking around the crime scene some more, Ems spots a pebble on the ground, finding its rightful place on a tousled wooden box on the coffee table. Emanda removes the lid to uncover photographs and documents. Nolan scoffs, "Takeda's infinity box?" There's a photo of a young woman and another photo of a young man with his head circled. They wonder if that could be Takeda's killer. If so, he could be after Aiden next... or Ems.
Victoria steps out of the backdoor of the pool house at Grayson Manor with the manila folder about Jack. She stuffs it into a dumpster, but stops when she notices a positive pregnancy test sitting near the top of the trash pile. I don't for one second believe that the Queen would ever touch a dumpster herself, let alone dig through the trash.
Declan makes it to Grayson campaign headquarters happy to see Charlotte, but then confused when Charlie's not happy to see him. Regina walks up with a big bruise on her face. Dec asks what happened, but Regina fires back with an accusation that he knows he did that to her when she told him he wasn't good enough for Charlotte. Dec, of course, denies this, but the wound on his hand from trying to bust open the glass door and the bail money Regina planted in his coat pocket tell a different story. Regina calls over security to escort Declan out of the building, and Charlie can only stare back at Declan with wide, confused eyes.