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Picking up where we left off last time, Nolan finally gets a hold of Emanda with news that Lydia is somehow in a coma and not dead after falling five stories onto a car. That's the bad news (always give bad news first). The good news is Nolan has footage of Frank all but knocking her off her roof. This footage is going to provide the perfect opportunity to organically breed some turmoil in the Grayson camp. Nolan and Emanda send the video over to Conrad to show that Frank not only lied about what happened to Lydia, but acted out of a stronger loyalty for Victoria. Conrad fires Frank and pays him off to leave the Hamptons, and shows the video to Victoria so she'll view Frank as a threat.
The big Queen Victoria event backdrop for this episode is a 4th of July party at Grayson Manor. Like all Queen Victoria events, this one is so important. Daniel's first day of work at the Stowaway happens to be on this day because Jack is taking out his unrequited Emanda love on Daniel through a teeny tiny power trip. Just another reason for Victoria to hate Emanda since, as Tyler is sure to inform Victoria, she is the reason Dan has taken on such an undignified job and won't be attending.
The night before the party, Tyler and Emanda finally butt heads at a dinner double date Tyler connivingly sets up when Daniel continues to play hard to get in response to his frat boy advances. Emanda calls Tyler out on telling grand lies and he storms out of the restaurant. Tyler responds by showing up at the Stowaway while Daniel is working, drugging him and then self-inflicting a gash on his forehead so he can tell Victoria and Emanda at the party that Daniel is out of control and beat him for just being helpful Tyler.
The whole Daniel being drugged thing is only possible because Jack and Dec skip out on working the bar so they can go to the party and try to woo Emanda and Charlotte respectively. Dec has no trouble getting Char to fall for his "can't buy me love" speech, but Jack's full declaration of his feelings to Emanda only elicits restrained teary eyes like always. She sticks to her guns and claims to be Daniel's girl, but is left in tears when Jack apologizes and leaves. He goes back to his poor, lonely existence only to find the man who's dating the woman he loves passed out at his own home.
Meanwhile, Frank ignores Conrad's threat to leave the Hamptons and sticks around to do some investigating on his own because he is pretty sure there shouldn't have been surveillance footage of his struggle with Lydia. He finds out through the apartment building's proper surveillance system that Nolan entered Lydia's apartment just after him. He shows up at the 4th of July party to threaten and question Nolan, who escapes when they're interrupted by Emanda and Tyler's exchange about Daniel's violence. Frank spies on Nolan and notices him talking to Emanda in hushed tones. This is enough reasonable cause for Frank to follow Emanda home from the party. Why? Because he's Frank; that's why. He calls Victoria, who is trying to hide her contact with him from Conrad, and tells her he thinks they're all being set up as he waits for Emanda in the shadows outside her house. Things are about to get Frank.
-- Pablo G. is some guy who lives in San Antonio, Texas. He co-hosts TWoP's original "Trailers Without Pity" with his brother Omar G. Check him out at Unp0ssible and Pablog and follow him @PendejoJoe on Twitter.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!It's the morning after Emanda and Daniel consummated their sham revenge relationship. Emanda is in bed with Daniel, wide awake and staring at the ceiling. Emanda voice-over: "They say vengeance taken will tear the heart and torment the conscience. If there's any truth to it, then I now know with certainty that the path I'm on is the right one." Daniel wakes up and pillow talk starts happening. Guh. Their making out is interrupted by some banging at the door of Casa Emily. It's Nolan, bursting with intel and gossip. Lydia is not dead, after all, just in a coma. Remember the eyelash flutter? Nolan's eager to show Emanda the video evidence he has of Frank's fight with Lydia, but it'll have to wait since Daniel's there. Nolan commends Emanda on bedding Dan and tells her to get rid of him so they can watch Faces of Death: Lydia.
Grayson Manor. Daniel comes home in the disheveled tux he wore last night to find Tyler dressing up in a suit in his bedroom. The adventures of the dressing/undressing together roommates continue. Ty's suiting up for work for Grayson Global despite it being Fourth of July weekend because that's just how Tyler sucks up. He tells Dan not to worry, though, because he's got a killer weekend planned for the two of them. No can do for Daniel because he's already got plans with Emanda tonight. Tyler is so bros before hoes about this. He worries for Daniel that if he hangs out with this Emily girl two nights in a row, she might start to think he's serious. "That's the idea," Daniel replies. Tyler fake laughs.
Casa Emily. Emanda and Nolan watch the spy video of Frank's struggle with Lydia from start to brutal finish. Nolan explains the big crash Emanda hears is Lydia falling five stories onto a car. They're both amazed she survived, but Nolan is freaked out that he could've run into Frank if he had just shown up a few minutes earlier. Emanda can't let thoughts like that creep into her plans. She simply tells Nolan it didn't happen that way and they got lucky. Nolan doesn't see it that way. There's nothing lucky about Lydia almost being dead and the possibility of her coming out of her coma and remembering the photo with Emanda in the background. None of this bothers Emanda. First, Lydia deserves to die for selling her soul to the Graysons, and second, they can easily frame Frank as the one behind everything with this video. Nolan suggests sending the video to the police, but Emanda expects the Graysons will handle Frank for them.
Ashley and Queen Victoria are walking around the courtyard of Grayson Manor as workers clean and put up Fourth of July decorations. Ashley asks how Victoria would like to acknowledge Lydia's absence from the party -- perhaps an empty seat at her table -- but Victoria is distracted by Conrad having an animated phone conversation down the hall. She tells Ashley to just arrange for some flowers to be sent to Lydia's hospital room and that should suffice. Victoria excuses herself. Ashley continues to wander around the courtyard, looking down at her modified-to-look-generic iPad until she runs into Tyler. He invites her out to dinner tonight and she accepts, but as she's walking away he lets out a fake, "Dammit," and pretends to remember he's supposed to hang out with Daniel tonight to support him after he found out about his father's cheating. Ashley cheerfully won't stand in the way of that; she'll just hang out with Emanda. Oh, but why don't they all just go out on a dinner double date, Ty suggests. Ashley can organize it with Emanda and he can make the reservations. It's going to be perfect!
Poor Porter Bar just before opening time. Nolan walks in on the Porter brothers setting up tables. Jack notes that by now Nolan should be well aware of their operating hours. Nolan: "Can't a guy hang with his broheim?" No, and Jack doesn't want to ever be called "broheim" again. Nolan starts in on Jack, asking what's up with him and Emanda. Despite Jack thinking he's just not her type, Nolan insists Jack just needs to compete with Daniel for her. The fact Jack's now Daniel's boss is a fortuitous power shift he could use to his advantage. Dec jumps in like he's an expert since he started to win Charlotte over. He's like, "Yeah, rich girls love poor guys if you're just a persistent wiener!" Just then, Nolan's phone goes off and the Porter boys can see the name on the screen says "Emily Thorne." Nolan chalks it up to creepy coincidence and excuses himself. Emanda asks if Nolan's sent the video yet, but he hasn't because he's encrypting it, which will take some time. He asks to make sure if this is what she wants to do, and she tells him to pull the trigger.
Conrad sits at his desk in Grayson Manor, thoughtfully reading a web article about Lydia's suicide attempt. There's an email pop-up. Subject: "The truth about Lydia." Conrad follows the link in the email to the surveillance video and watches in shock. "Oh my god," Conrad whispers to himself.
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Ashley is now in full party planner mode, directing decorators here and there outside Grayson Manor. Emanda walks up and is greeted with a lame joke about Ashley disliking having to organize an event for a holiday that celebrates the defeat of her home, Great Britain. She brings up the idea of the double date, but Emanda tries to decline by saying things with Daniel are still new and it's hard to get to known him with Tyler around. Ashley takes this as meaning Emanda hates Tyler, causing Emanda to backtrack and say she just doesn't know the guy. Oops. This is a perfect opportunity to get to know Tyler better, Ashley suggests. Dammit! Emanda agrees to the dinner date for the sake of making Ashley happy.
Outside of Poor Porter Bar, Dec's got a dolly full of boxes of liquor he's rolling down the sidewalk when he runs into Charlotte with her girl entourage. She's there because Dec texted her saying they needed to talk. Dec takes her aside to summarize all the terrible things that's happened to him since he's started courting Charlotte, but instead of wanting to end their "crime spree," as Charlotte puts it, he wants to take her out on a proper first date. Charlotte agrees almost before Dec can even finish asking the question. Charlotte is way too cute for Dec -- just my opinion. She invites him to the big Fourth of July party. He declines, but tells her he will hold her to a date. Charlotte says, "Okay."
Conrad has summoned Frank to meet him at a bar. Conrad appears nervous as Frank takes the stool to him, and wastes no time telling Frank he thinks it's time for them to go their separate ways. This comes as a shock to Frank. He's served Conrad for twenty years. Conrad tries to make this as amicable as possible, but Frank starts questioning why he's being fired, so he gives up and drops the truth on him. He doesn't like that Frank has chosen to show more loyalty to Victoria, and Conrad knows the only way she could've found out about the check he wrote for Lydia of $10 million was through Frank. So that there are no hard feelings, Conrad has written a big severance check for Frank and has his private jet standing by to fly him anywhere he wants. Conrad suggests going someplace far away. Frank takes the check and quietly leaves. That went pretty well.
Casa Emily. Emanda's getting dressed when there's a knock at the door. It's Jack. "I can't let this go on any longer," he says. Emanda's face drops in bewilderment. Instead of an outpouring of bottled up feelings, Jack points to her neglected bench swing on her porch and offers to fix it with the toolbox he's carrying. The sweet gesture turns bittersweet when Jack starts talking about remembering the swing from childhood, and how David Clakre always wanted to move the swing to face the sunrise, but never got the chance. Daniel interrupts the moment by swooping into the scene to kiss Emanda and throwing a, "Hey boss," Jack's way. Daniel's there to pick up Emanda for their dinner plans. She leaves the two guys alone while she goes inside to get her purse. The combination of Jack having the moment ruined and a little bit of condescension from Daniel probably leads Jack to take Nolan's advice from earlier and exert some of his power. He tells Daniel he can start work tomorrow -- the Fourth of July -- and asks if that's going to be a problem for him. It would be, but Daniel has to show he's serious about wanting the job, so he agrees to it. Emanda comes out and they leave Jack to go to dinner, Emanda looking longingly at Jack as they walk off.
Queen Victoria is watching the sunset from her balcony perch. Conrad appears behind her and says this is one of his favorite sights -- his wife and the sunset together in this beautiful place they share. Victoria's like, "Funny... I was just thinking it's the loneliest place on Earth." That is kind of funny. Victoria asks Conrad if he loves Lydia, and he does the standard cheating husband thing by denying he does and declaring he loves his wife. This sparks a "he said, she said" argument about what Frank has been telling Victoria. He's told her Conrad is obsessed with Lydia. Conrad suggests he told Victoria that to drive a wedge between them because Frank is obsessed with Victoria. When Conrad sees Victoria isn't buying any of this, he drops the bomb that Frank tried to kill Lydia. Cut to Victoria watching the surveillance video on a laptop in Conrad's office, completely shaken. Conrad pulls out a gun from his desk and tells a silent Victoria it's in case Frank tries to do the same thing to them.
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Dinner double date! Ashley's eager to partake in the expensive wine Tyler ordered because she's afraid she will get fired if the Fourth of July party sucks. All job security in Grayson Land went out the window with Frank's firing. Daniel's sure the party will be fine and he's sorry he'll have to miss it because of work. Emanda offers to visit him at the bar and teases that she tips well. Tyler jumps in to suggest that's a good thing since Daniel's been cut off from his trust fund, slyly implying Dan might be after Emanda for her money. Daniel brushes off the comment and says he'd rather Emanda go to the party and spend time with his mom -- a necessary evil. Ty raises a toast to "necessary evils." The four clink glasses as Emanda stares down Tyler.
Poor Porter Bar. It's a noticeably slow night, as far as business goes. Dec starts asking Jack odd questions about connections he might have at a fancy restaurant because he wants to impress Charlotte on their upcoming date. Jack's reaction is along the lines of, "You couldn't afford that even if you sold all your greasy, luxurious Declan hair." That's why Dec is now asking Jack if he can borrow a few hundred bucks. Legal guardian Jack joins the conversation and he's a bit surly when he suggests that Dec not waste his time with this girl who probably has a dozen Ivy League jerks after her. Declan thinks Jack is just bitter about his own rich girl problem. And... he's probably right.
Back at dinner, Tyler's talking big about wanting to buy an island in the Bahamas after an anecdote about showing people around some islands his parents own. Emanda starts asking rapid fire questions about the story and Tyler does his best to address them until Emanda's fact-checking seems to catch him in a big lie. Let's see, Tyler had said he and Daniel couldn't go to the island one December because of a hurricane, but Emanda points out hurricane season ends in November. Tyler had said they flew in on a $60 million jet to set up his guests in a tax haven, but Emanda notes most runways there are unpaved requiring a turboprop plane and privacy laws as pertain to taxes were stripped in 2006. Tyler says, "Forget it. I'm just trying to tell a story." Emanda retorts, "Oh, I believe that." Tyler stands up angrily and tells Daniel, "Why don't you tell your girlfriend to take a step back? Who does she think she's talking to anyways?" Cold Emanda: "That's a very good question." Daniel follows after Tyler, leaving Ashley with a stone-faced Emanda. Ashley turns to her and says, "I don't know what's going on with you lately, but you're becoming a real grade-A bitch," and elicits no response from Emanda.
By himself and in the middle of the night, Declan is out on an inflatable raft. He pulls up some cages from the water and has caught himself a few lobsters. OK, if he's catching lobsters to cook for Charlotte, that's actually really sweet.
Victoria is alone at night in her kitchen, going through the fridge. Doesn't she have servants to whip her up a midnight snack? She closes the refrigerator door and is startled by Frank. He's there to make sure Victoria is doing OK and is getting really uncomfortably close to her. He starts talking about how much he cares about her and Victoria has to cut him off to tell him she's seen the video of Lydia. Frank is caught off guard by the fact there's a video of what he did, but he did it for Victoria, he says. Frank leans in for a kiss, and we'll never know if Victoria would've let him because Conrad calls out from the room to her. She tells Frank he needs to leave and she walks away, leaving him spurned.
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Morning at Grayson Manor. Tyler is up bright and early, waiting for Victoria and Conrad at the breakfast table. Tyler takes this opportunity with Daniel not around to off-handedly mention Dan's new job at the Stowaway and explains to Victoria that it was all Emanda's idea for him to take a lowly job to build character. Daniel joins the table and Victoria expresses concern about his career choice. In light of losing his trust fund, he's proud to stand up for his decision to make his own money, but he has to admit to her that he'll be missing the Fourth of July party. Victoria can't believe he has a job that won't let him change his schedule. Daniel is defiant and doesn't want to change his schedule. He storms off. Tyler, always the helpful one, offers to talk to Daniel for Victoria.
At Casa Emily, Emanda's on the phone with Nolan. She lets him in on the news she got from Ashley last night that Frank has been fired. She's pleased that now she only has to deal with Tyler. They hang up and Emanda's headed out the door when she runs into Daniel. Emanda says she was just on her way to go apologize to Tyler for last night, but Daniel thinks it's not necessary, and actually Tyler just doesn't know when to shut up. So, Daniel's decidedly not upset with Emanda for being a bitch to his best friend. She must have really broken him off in the sack. Speaking of sack, Emanda pulls Daniel into the house and promises that being late to work will totally be worth it.
Frank enters the lobby of an apartment building and goes straight up to the front desk to talk with the security guard on duty. He pulls out at wad of bills and tries to bribe his way up to Lydia's apartment, but the guard says the police have blocked it off for investigation and no one can go up there. Frank notices a surveillance camera in the lobby and asks what the building's surveillance system is like. There are cameras in every hallway. Frank offers the money in exchange for getting to take a look at their surveillance footage.
Remember that romantic lobster dinner Declan was planning for Charlotte? Well, of course Dec's let us all down. He's actually selling the lobsters he caught at the docks to try and raise money for that fancy restaurant. Don't worry; we'll find the right teenage guy someday.
Emanda made good on her promise to make Dan late for work. He gets to the Stowaway and goes up to an angry Jack to apologize. Jack's still giving Daniel an out and doing the whole, "If you're not serious, I can find someone who is," thing, but Daniel says he simply got caught up in personal business. Jack sees lipstick on Daniel's neck. Uh huh. Personal business. Jack ignores it and introduces Dan to Bartender Bull, who'll be showing him the ropes. Outside, Declan is accosted by two grimy fishermen who claim he poached their lobsters. They're about to beat him up when Jack comes rushing over there with a baseball bat. Shades of Carl Porter. Jack makes Dec give them the money he made and they're still angry because he sold the lobsters for only half of what they would've made with that harvest. They're ready to brawl, but Daniel comes outside and offers to pay the men the difference plus a little more for their trouble. What have we learned here? The solution to all of life's problems is money. Jack takes Dec inside to lecture him about knowing better than to mess with guys like that. Dec says at least he's trying to fight for his girl, unlike Jack. They look over at Daniel across the bar and Dec tells his brother he's twice the man Dan is. Jack has had enough of his squirrely little brother talking trash. He calls out to Bartender Bull to ask if he thinks he and Dan can handle the bar tonight. Jack and Dec have a party to go to.
At Lydia's apartment building, Frank is watching surveillance footage from that night with the security guard he's bribed. He spots Nolan going into Lydia's apartment.
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Fourth of July party time. Emanda finds Victoria right away, as she always does. Victoria asks about Emanda not having Daniel on her arm so she can hear it from the source that he is working a crappy job because of his girlfriend. Victoria hugs Emanda and walks away after saying her piece about Daniel hopefully coming to his senses. Emanda finds Ashley to apologize for the way she behaved at dinner and asks for Tyler so she can supposedly apologize to him as well. According to Ashley, Victoria dispatched Ty to pry Dan away from work to come to the party. Jack and Declan enter the party with Nolan. The party planner in Ashley drones on, wondering what they're doing there since they're not on the guest list, while Emanda stares at Jack.
Tyler arrives at the Stowaway and apologizes to Daniel for belittling his job and need for money before. What better way to celebrate his first day on the job than with shots? Daniel eventually gives in to the idea. While he's grabbing some top shelf liquor, Ty slips some drugs into Dan's glass.
Back at the party, Dec spots Charlotte trapped in a conversation with some snooty old people. He pulls out his phone and pretends to be having a heated conversation about Asian markets being in a tailspin as he runs into Charlotte. He poses business questions to the old couple and then turns his attention to Charlotte, effectively warding off the aged ones and saving the day. Charlotte asks, "Asian markets?" Dec sheepishly admits he read "the Journal" on the way over to the party. Then, he launches into a speech about not being able to compete with any of this rich people stuff. He has no money and he probably never will. Charlotte's smile grows through the whole spiel. When he's done, Charlotte just says, "I'm rich. You're not. Who cares?" I think these kids are going to be all right. Elsewhere at the party, Nolan comments to Jack that his brother moves quicker than him. The devil's advocate thing finally works and Jack walks off to go talk to Emanda. She's surprised to see him and asks if Nolan dragged him out there. No, it was all his idea, he says. He asks if there's somewhere private they can go to talk. Emanda looks like a deer in headlights.
Dan is starting to feel the effects of the drugs Tyler slipped him. He spills a drink and generally looks like he's about to fall over. Tyler jumps up to the rescue and helps Daniel off to the side of the bar so he can take a seat, and chalks it up to all the stress and pressure Daniel's recently been under. Bartender Bull notices Daniel off on the sidelines and asks what's going on. Ty asks if there's somewhere they can take Daniel where he can lie down. The two men help Daniel up.
Jack has dragged Emanda away from the party down to the dock behind Grayson Manor. Fireworks light up the night sky. The stage is perfectly set for a romantic moment. Jack tells Emanda that ever since he first saw her there's been something he couldn't quite put his finger on until now. He actually puts his finger down on the railing as he says this. He then goes off on a long, ill-advised boat metaphor, but his heart's in the right place. Emanda's face looks like it's ready to potentially net you ten times the roll of the dice if you also own The Electric Company. Jack looks into Emanda's face for an answer. Though it obviously pains her to say it, she tells Jack she's the wrong girl and she's seeing Daniel. Jack says he knows the circumstance, but this feeling only comes around once or twice in a lifetime and he needs to know if he's alone in feeling this way. Emanda's eyes well up. She says she's so sorry. Jack apologizes and leaves. Emanda turns to face the ocean and lightly sobs.
Back at the bar, Tyler takes Daniel upstairs to the bedroom where they sit on the bed together. Ty tries to talk to a barely conscious Daniel again about Emanda being all wrong for him. Daniel is still defiant through slurs, so Tyler suggests he lie back. Then, Tyler kind of sort of maybe possibly puts a tiny move on Daniel before Dan shoves him away. "Fine. Have it your way," Ty declares. He goes downstairs and walks out of the bar to a random wooden pillar. He works himself up and head-butts it, creating a big gash on his forehead.
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Nolan walks around the food tables at the party, fueled entirely by awkwardness. He scores a bunch of mini beef wellington hors d'oeuvres off a server, but that victory is short-lived as Nolan is intercepted by Frank who has a gun hidden under his cloth napkin, which is terrible formal etiquette. He leads Nolan away. Meanwhile, Tyler finds Victoria to show off the gash on his forehead and claims Daniel did it to him when he tried to confront him. Victoria is shocked, as this is not the son she raised. Without missing a beat, Ty responds, "And it's not the friend that I love like a brother." Tyler excuses himself to go get the first aid kit in the pool house. Emanda has witnessed this whole exchange from a distance and follows after Ty.
In the pool house, Frank has a gun in Nolan's face and is asking about whose idea it was to film the video. Nolan asks if he means the Double Rainbow video ("Guy's a genius.") Ha ha. Frank understandably socks Nolan in the gut and asks how much Conrad paid him. Nolan seems ready to offer up something, but they're interrupted by Emanda and Tyler talking outside of the pool house about Daniel's supposed violence. Frank leaves just before Ty and Emanda take their discussion into the pool house and find Nolan on the ground. Nolan grabs Emanda and takes her back into the party to tell her what just happened with Frank. Bad idea because Frank is spying on Nolan and now sees his connection with Emanda. Nolan tells her Frank is better at this than they are and now she's on her own before walking away.
Silver Swans' "Anyone's Ghost" plays as Jack comes home to an empty bar except for Daniel sleeping on the bed. Emanda voice-over: "Like life, Revenge can be a messy business..." Jack shakes his head and rolls his eyes. VO continued: "...And both would be much simpler if only our heads could figure out which way our hearts will go." Dec and Charlotte sit together on "Amanda" the boat and share a kiss under the fireworks. Emanda gets to her front porch and stops to look at up at those same fireworks. She notices the porch swing has been moved to face the sunrise and takes a seat to watch the fireworks in contemplation. VO: "But the heart has its reasons of which reason cannot know."
Victoria also watches the fireworks from her balcony on the phone with Frank. He asks that she not be frightened of him and that she just answer one question. Who installed the surveillance camera? He thinks they're all being set up. Conrad walks out to the balcony, snatches Victoria's phone and threatens Frank before throwing it on the bed. Conrad is furious Victoria would talk to that killer, but Victoria responds that they're not sure at all what they're dealing with. She asks Conrad if he filmed the video. Of course he didn't. Then who? Conrad doesn't have an answer. Cut to Emanda still watching the fireworks from her bench swing. She appears worried. She should be because Frank is on her property, watching her from the shadows.
-- Pablo G. is some guy who lives in San Antonio, Texas. He co-hosts TWoP's original "Trailers Without Pity" with his brother Omar G. Check him out at Unp0ssible and Pablog and follow him @PendejoJoe on Twitter.
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