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It's Daniel's birthday, and with all the crazy stuff going on -- what with his parents getting divorced and his best friend revealing himself to be some sort of insane person -- he'd like to do something kind of low-key. Emanda suggests a clambake. Oooooo, goodie! Nothing bad ever happens at a clambake! As preparations are made for the party, Emanda goes and makes amends with Nolan so they can get back on track with setting up Tyler for a fall. She manages to snag the whale web cam from the pool house without Tyler catching her, and also comes across his empty anti-psycho meds bottles. Some sleuthing from the information on the bottles gets her and Nolan in contact with Tyler's brother who is a doctor, and reveals Tyler's doctors and family have been searching for him for weeks, ever since a violent outburst. Nolan arranges to have Dr. Barrol flown to the Hamptons immediately to diffuse the situation.
The rush is because Tyler is not going to be happy at all when he realizes the whale camera has been taken from him. When it becomes apparent to Tyler, he goes to confront Nolan at his Fortress of Solitude. Nolan is caught by surprise because he had been tracking Tyler through GPS on his phone, but Tyler caught on and shipped his phone to California to make everyone think he had left town. While threatening Nolan with a knife, the live feed from the whale camera comes up on Nolan's laptop and reveals to Tyler that Emanda has been conspiring with Nolan against him. He leaves Nolan gagged and tied to a chair as he heads to Emanda's house.
While everyone is seated at a table on the beach for the clambake, Tyler intercepts Emanda inside her house when she's getting Daniel's birthday cake. He snags her gun and leads her out to the table, eventually holding everyone hostage to a game he invented called "Truth or Die." The rules are quite simple. Tyler asks you a question. If you lie, he shoots someone. Now we're having a clambake! While this is going on, Dr. Barrol arrives at the Fortress of Solitude and frees Nolan. They arrive at the party just as Tyler is getting ready to put a bullet in Emanda's head. The momentary distraction of Tyler seeing his brother is just enough for Jack to tackle him to the ground. Dan is right behind Jack and disarms/knocks Tyler out. The cops come and take Tyler away.
On the Grayson divorce front, Conrad is pushing for full custody of Charlotte. That's not cool with Victoria, and her lawyer Ryan Huntley is worried things are so contentious the matter might have to be resolved in open court. Victoria appears to be at the mercy of a prenuptial agreement she signed when she married Conrad, but Huntley points out that she was pregnant at the time and that would make the contract null and void under the legal concept of duress. The problem with that is Victoria lied about being pregnant. That's OK because Ryan manages to get a doctor to manufacture documents saying Victoria had a miscarriage at the time. Wonderful.
-- 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 The YES and NO and Pablog and follow him @PendejoJoe on Twitter.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!You can tell we're starting out in the middle of shit already being real because we open with Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata." We're close-up on a birthday cake sitting in front of Emanda that reads "Happy Birthday Daniel." We pull back from an outdoor table on the beach at night full of food with all our favorite people seated around it -- Emanda, Daniel, Mr. and Mrs. Grayson, Ashley, Dec, Charlotte, Jack and Amily. Other than Nolan, the only person missing is Tyler... because he's standing beside the table, causing the looks of fear and shock on everyone's faces on account of the fact he's holding a gun. Emanda voice-over: "Defense lawyers use the term 'duress' to describe the use of force, coercion or psychological pressure exerted on a client in the commission of a crime. When duress is applied to the emotionally unstable, the result can be as violent as it is unpredictable." From across the table, Tyler swings his arm in a wide, slow-motion arc and points the gun straight at Emanda. He walks over to stand beside her, cocks the gun and trains it at the side of her head.
Two days earlier. Morning at Casa Emily. Emanda enters the kitchen to find Daniel with two cups of coffee. This is the first time they're seeing each other since Dan spent the night with his mother at Grayson Manor. Ems asks if there was any trouble with Tyler, but it's a non-issue because he never showed. All things considered, Victoria is holding up really well, Daniel says, and she has probably now diverted her focus from the divorce to Daniel's birthday, which is today. Daniel's worried about being in store for a spectacle since his mother is notorious for big parties. She did hire Cirque du Soleil for his 21st birthday, after all. Emanda suggests that a clambake might be a nice, small way to celebrate. Dan loves the idea and knows he needs to pass it off as his own to his mother for her not to hate Emanda forever and ever. There's a knock at the door, and it's Conrad, wanting to speak privately with his son, so Emanda excuses herself. Conrad's there to ask that Daniel not shut him out completely because of the divorce. For Daniel, that seems to depend largely on what Tyler's status is in the company. Conrad senses how important this is and offers the concession that Tyler's as good as gone. Good enough for Dan. He even suggests he might take the semester off to focus on the business. When his dad is gone, Daniel pulls out his phone and calls his mom. He tells her that he's given his dad the impression that they've made amends, but really he's just positioned himself in the company so he can get his mother any information she needs for their divorce. He adds that Tyler is out of the company, so Victoria now plans on asking him to move out of the house. Dan then lets his mom in on his wish to have a clambake on the beach for his birthday. Victoria is, of course, perturbed.
At Grayson Manor, Victoria is met by Ashley, full day planner in hand, wanting to get started with concepts for Daniel's birthday. Victoria cuts her off to tell her they will be having a clambake. Ash is as dumbfounded as Victoria is mortified. Queen Victoria tells Ashley she can offer her vastly overqualified party planning skills to Emanda.
Fortress of Solitude. Emanda slowly sidles up to Nolan who's lounging by his swimming pool -- shirtless, no less -- and sheepishly declares she Googled "friendship" on the "Interwebz" and learned she's supposed to apologize when she has a fight with a friend. Nolan is unamused and tells her to leave the joke cracking to him because she sucks at it. Hear, hear. Nolan is pretty guarded. He's been hurt before. Ems says she obviously has trouble trusting people and finding out about Nolan getting cozy with Tyler caused a flight response. Nolan admits she was right about Tyler, and now he has the whale camera and enough evidence to blackmail the Graysons. Emanda thinks this could be a good thing since Tyler will probably hang himself with this much rope anyway. What about Amily? Victoria is now very aware Amanda Clarke is back in the Hamptons, Emanda tells Nolan, so they only need to concern themselves with Tyler. Nolan pulls out his nondescript iPad, which shows a map and a GPS signal being tracked from Ty's phone. Good enough. Ems gets up to leave and Nolan reminds her she hasn't said she's sorry. She gives him a genuine, "I'm sorry."
In the parlor at Grayson Manor, Victoria and Conrad sit across the coffee table from each other to their respective lawyers. They're trying to divide up their assets rather unsuccessfully. Victoria's lawyer, the Emanda-conspiring Ryan Huntley, tries to simplify Victoria's demands. She wants the mansion, some artwork and custody of Charlotte. Conrad's lawyer jumps in to clarify that he is filing for full custody of Charlotte, as Conrad cites his daughter's recent plea to stay with him. Victoria defends herself by claiming Conrad has been programming Charlotte her whole life to prefer him over her. That's not really necessary true when there's a video circulating on the Internet of Victoria saying she wishes Charlotte had never been born, Conrad retorts. That's an argument that should hold up in court, I think. Mr. Huntley has heard enough of this bickering. He suggests tabling the discussion for now and Conrad's lawyer agrees, but adds they will be using the prenup Victoria signed in 1986 for future discussion. Ryan's done his homework, though. Victoria was pregnant at the time, meaning she could be considered to have been legally under duress and the contract would be null and void. She should be entitled to half of everything. Conrad's like, "Duress? Marrying me is the best thing to ever happen to that woman!" Victoria wears a huge smile as they all agree to adjourn until mediation.
Conrad enters his office at Grayson Manor only to find Tyler sitting at his desk. Smugly, Tyler lets him know he has decided he doesn't want to work for the hedge fund anymore. Conrad gets brave and thinks Ty's evidence against him isn't incriminating, so Tyler starts describing the videos he has of Frank's attempted murder of Lydia and her conversation with Conrad about framing David. He asks Conrad to make his best offer to keep the videos out of the hands of prosecutors. Beaten, Conrad calls Ty a son of a bitch, which is entirely fair in Tyler's estimation. Tyler: "It does appear that you despicable people are starting to rub off on me." He stares down Conrad.
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Victoria and Mr. Huntley walk and talk through Grayson Manor. After seeing how contested their demands are, he thinks they should be prepared for this dispute to go to trial. That's going to be a negative from Victoria. She doesn't want to risk losing her children in a nasty battle in open court. Ryan is getting frustrated with Victoria's reluctance to do whatever necessary to win this case. She had agreed she'd be willing to get her hands dirty. Being reminded of this prompts Victoria to admit she already has. She lied about being pregnant when she signed the prenup. This is news to Ryan. He asks what Conrad knows about this fake pregnancy. As far as Conrad knows, Victoria miscarried at 10 weeks. That's enough Grayson for one day, Ryan must be thinking to himself. He takes his leave of Victoria after reminding her she can't be keeping these kinds of secrets from him. The doorbell rang in the background during all of this and Emanda enters as Huntley exits. They pass each other, but Ryan doesn't notice her. Emanda definitely notices him. FLASHBACK: This is a rehash continuation of teenage Amanda confronting Ryan Huntley after hours at his office about dropping her father's appeal. She holds him just as responsible for his death as the man who stabbed David to death in prison, she says as she pulls out the infinity x infinity box. Ryan asks what it is and she explains it's all the evidence he could've used to prove David's innocence. "They got to you, didn't they?" she asks as he stares at her quizzically, "they" meaning the Graysons. /FLASHBACK. Emanda finds Victoria and asks for help tracking down the first photo ever taken of her and Daniel as a couple from Victoria's Memorial Day party. Emanda's making a scrapbook for Dan's gift. They get to talking about the joys of simple things which gives Victoria the opportunity to make a dig at the simplicity of Emanda's clambake idea. Ems responds by asking if it's OK with Victoria to invite Jack and Amily. She asks if Victoria remembers Amanda Clarke. "Vaguely," Victoria replies, the Botox draining from her face. Queen Victoria tries to project cheer and obliges Emanda's request. Ems excuses herself to go grab Daniel's squash racquet from the pool house.
Emanda is already talking with Nolan on her phone when she enters the empty pool house. She has him tap into the feed from Shamu the whale camera so he can help her figure out where Tyler has stashed it. Nolan advises it's "hiding in plain sight, Dora." Emanda eventually finds the camera and pauses, despite Nolan's warning that Tyler's GPS signal is fast approaching the pool house, because she spots one of Tyler's empty prescription meds bottles. She hangs up with Nolan and places a call to the phone number on the bottle. She poses as a doctor and asks to speak with Tyler's doctor, but he's not around. The man on the other end of the line seems like he doesn't want to be very helpful until Emanda mentions she's calling in regard to Tyler Barrol. The name is an immediate red flag for the guy. He offers to patch her through to a detective because they've been searching for Tyler for weeks. Emanda manages to exit the pool house unnoticed just before Tyler enters and immediately starts looking for Shamu. When he realizes it's gone, he loses his shit, destroying everything in the room. Not since Adele has so much fuss been made over a whale. Finally, Tyler finds the framed newspaper article about Emanda and Daniel being a couple he had smugly gifted to Dan and throws it against a mirror hanging on the wall. He stares into his fragmented reflection, huffing and puffing. That's good visual metaphor.
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Fortress of Solitude. Emanda explains to Nolan that she found strong anti-psychotic medications in Tyler's name and figures he's very dangerous if he's off his meds. She left Shamu on her mantel at home so she can be aware if Tyler tries to pay Dan a visit. After tracking through records of Tyler's psychotic episodes, Emanda decides they should bypass the police and go straight to contacting his family so they can diffuse the situation without Tyler hurting anyone. Nolan places a call to Tyler's brother who is a doctor. Dr. Barrol advises Nolan that they need to keep Tyler calm because he is, in fact, dangerous. He can fly in tomorrow to bring his brother home. Nolan's like, nuh uh... I'll have a private jet fueled for you today.
Victoria knocks on Conrad's hotel room door and asks for Charlotte. Alas, their daughter is out buying a gift for Dan. Conrad invites his wife in to talk. He reveals Tyler is blackmailing him with Lydia's speech and video of Frank's attack on Lydia. This is a shock to Victoria, and she wonders if they've been victims of extortion since Tyler arrived. Conrad thinks it's been going on since Ty met Dan. Bingo
Casa Emily. Ashley and Daniel sit in the kitchen together talking about tonight's clambake. Emanda enters distressed. She claims she just had a bad run-in with Tyler. She shows them Tyler's prescription and says he trashed the pool house. Daniel valiantly declares he's going to go talk to Tyler and instructs the girls to stay behind. Our hero.
We're at the docks outside of the Stowaway. Oh right... we remember that place. It's still a sunny afternoon when Dec walks up on Amily, who's shucking clams for Dan's party. Dec not-so-subtly expresses his surprise that not too long ago Jack was crushing on Emanda and now he's gladly helping throw her boyfriend a birthday party. Jack replaces Dec in the conversation with Amily unaware of what he's walking into. His stripper wastes no time in asking if there was ever anything between him and Emanda. He assures her she has nothing to worry about because she's the girl he's been waiting for his whole life. Hyperglycemic kisses.
Night at Grayson Manor. Dan walks into the pool house to find Tyler ominously sitting alone in the dark. He says he's waiting for Dan... always waiting. Creepy. Ty brushes off Dan's concerns and says he's already booked a flight for Cali. He wants Daniel to come with him. Instead, Dan says he's done with their friendship. That's impossible, Tyler says. He knows way too much about Daniel and his family. Dan perceives this as a threat, calling Ty out for being a worthless parasite. He pulls out his phone to call the police. Tyler realizes Dan must really be afraid of him and commends him on not being as stupid as he thought before shoving him up against the wall and telling him to have a nice life. Ty grabs a packed bag and walks out of the pool house.
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Close-up on a pile of seaweed encircled by stones. Jack is showing Emanda how to get a fire going on the beach. She asks how things are going with Amily about as genuinely as one can expect of someone who is asking the love of their life how it's going dating someone who's essentially supposed to be them. Jack says things are good, but he says sometimes he can see her pain and anger. FLASHBACK: Little Amanda and Jack are having a water gun fight on the beach. David walks up into the crossfire and happily hands them a bucket of clams. /FLASHBACK. Emanda tells him to be careful with her. Jack watches Amily from across the beach and says he's not going to let anything else hurt her. Ems has had enough. She gets up and walks off with the thing in her chest that pumps blood hurting.
She enters Casa Emily and finds Dan grabbing her gun. He figures they could use protection from Tyler, blaming himself for not seeing Ty for what he is sooner. Emanda's phone rings with a call from Nolan. His tracking of Tyler's GPS shows he is in fact on a flight out west. Ems invites Nolan to the clambake which he notes is for friends and family only. Emanda verifies she didn't overlook that when making the invite. Aww. Best Revenge Friends Forever -- BRFF. They hang up. Nolan shuts his front door and cautiously locks it, only to find Tyler behind him with a knife. Ty demands all copies of the videos that were on Shamu. Tyler thinks Nolan has it all backed up and doesn't buy that Nolan didn't steal the camera back. He puts the tip of his knife to Nolan's throat and continues demanding the videos, but Nolan is completely seized with terror. Ty hacks at Nolan's arm with the knife and his laptop inadvertently comes up with the feed from the web cam at Emanda's house. She happens to be explaining to Dan that Tyler is on his way to Cali. This verifies Tyler's suspicion that he was being tracked (what, other than crazy, crazy paranoia, would've made him suspect that?), so he shipped his phone to Cali. Again, crazy. The link between Nolan and Emanda being apparent now, Tyler plans on going to confront her himself, but he asks himself aloud first what he'll do with Nolan.
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Ems pulls out a gift from her dresser and hands it to Daniel who's sitting on her bed. It's a little leather-bound scrapbook. The first page is the photo from the day they first met at the Memorial Day party. Emanda asks if Dan remembers the poem he recited to her when they first started dating. They recite it together. The scrapbook is a collection of poems Emanda has been saving since she met Daniel because he feels like home to her. They share a kiss.
Nolan is tied to a chair in his dark living room, gagged by a handkerchief. He rocks his chair back and forth and falls on his side, letting out a long, pained groan. This is pretty standard hostage fare.
Back at Casa Emily. Conrad gives pleasantries to Ems. She walks over to Ashley and asks how she's holding up with this Tyler business... having been dating Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Ashley is annoyed by Emanda's lack of empathy and reminds her Tyler isn't a monster before she storms off. The dude just hacked Nolan's stringy bicep with a knife. He's a monster in our book, Ash. Victoria enters the scene. FLASHBACK: Victoria and David are on the beach together. They talk about the tension of things as they prepare for Victoria to leave Conrad. David is excited their future life together is really happening. He can't wait for her to meet Amanda. They kiss and their hands unclasp in slow-mo. Victoria stops David as he leaves to tell him she loves him. /FLASHBACK. Victoria asks Amily if she plans on sticking around in the Hamptons, which she does. Emanda gets the idea to get up and go help Jack, but Amily quickly volunteers to go instead, sensing an opportunity to keep Ems away from her man.
Tyler's brother knocks on Nolan's front door but doesn't see him writhing on the floor tied to the chair. Meanwhile, Dec and Charlotte arrive at Casa Emily. Victoria's never happy to see Declan, but she does her best to fake it. Emanda asks everyone to head down to the beach now that everything's ready. Tyler enters through a side door as everyone has exited. Back at the Fortress, Nolan's yelling gets the attention of Dr. Barrow. Nolan manages to get his gag loose and tells Tyler's brother where there's a spare key.
Emanda and Amily get an opportunity to compare notes on Jack. Ems generously tells Amily Jack's a keeper while Conrad finds Victoria and asks if she was aware Amanda Clarke is there and has been back in the Hamptons for a while. Victoria says she didn't tell Conrad sooner because she wanted to get a look for herself and so far isn't very impressed by this cheap-shoe-wearing girl. The word she's looking for is "stripper."
Now freed from the not-fun kind of bondage, Nolan places a panicked call to Emanda, but foolishly blurts out his warning that Tyler's on his way before waiting for her answer. Instead, Tyler has answered Emanda's phone. This is totally going to be in one of those AT&T commercials for 4G LTE where everyone's an asshole because they get info first.
Back at the party, Conrad has Declan's attention and apologizes for Victoria's bribery attempt. He's obviously trying to win Charlotte's favor ahead of Victoria through her greasy boyfriend. He tells Dec not to hesitate if he ever needs anything. Emanda stands up at the head of the table to give a toast to the Grayson family. Dan follows up with a toast of his own to Ems becoming a part of their lives. Victoria takes this opportunity to hand over her gift to Dan. It's a huge scrapbook she's supposedly been making since he was born. Not sure if genuine or stolen idea. They have a heartfelt hug. Emanda figures this is as good a time as any to go inside the cake. Not like there's a homicidal maniac waiting inside or anything.
Tyler is inside rifling through cabinets. He stops on the rug where Emanda has the infinity x infinity box stashed. Before he can open the secret compartment to see what's inside, Emanda walks in. Ty comes up behind her and demands the web cam. She plays dumb and suggests he leave. He calls her a bitch and advances on her, so she gives him a good shove back. Sensing she needs to distract this maniac, Emanda tells him the Graysons don't like him and Dan's always known he's a leach. She says she's always seen him for an impotent misfit who's always going to be on the outside looking in. As she says all this, she holds his gaze and creeps closer to him, slipping something into Ty's pocket. Tyler steps back and opens up the desk, pulling out Emanda's gun. How uncharacteristically careless of the girl with the infinity tattoo.
Outside, everyone's having awkwardly biting banter. Emanda emerges with a cake full of lit candles and everyone's faces light up with glee. It takes a while for everyone to notice Tyler is following behind Emanda with a gun trained on the back of her head. They even start singing "Happy Birthday." Tyler picks up where their shock cuts off their singing and completes the song psychotically all by himself. He instructs Emanda to sit down and invites her to make a wish before blowing out the candles himself. He returns his aim to the side of Ems' head.
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Tyler condescendingly talks to Emanda about her always having a target on his head, but for the whole table to hear. Daniel implores him to just put the gun down, but trying to reason with crazy never works. Ty turns to point the gun at Dan, and gets the idea they should all play a game he came up with called "Truth or Die." It's played like this: Ty asks you a question, and if you lie, he shoots someone. I wish they had this when I was in college -- my class rank would've probably been higher. Conrad decides to be bold and predicts Tyler won't be shooting anyone. That means Conrad just volunteered to play first. He has three seconds to tell everyone the real truth about David Clarke. Conrad stays silent for way longer than three seconds. Tyler pulls back the hammer and puts the gun to Emanda's head. She looks like she's about to hyperventilate. Just as he's about to pull the trigger, he hears his name called by his brother. Dr. Barrol and Nolan emerge from around the corner. Ty is still defiant, thinking they're just going to lock him up if he goes home. His brother insists they just want him to come home. It distracts Tyler just enough for Jack to run up and tackle Ty and hold him down. Dan socks him in the face and knocks him out.
Cut to cops taking Ty away. Conrad shares with Victoria that they found Frank's wallet on Ty (what Emanda planted on him earlier), which clears Conrad of everything. He tells Victoria to expect a battle of a divorce. Elsewhere on the beach, Nolan asks Emanda if she feels like a mere mortal now and questions the fact her gun had no bullets in it. Nolan: "You never cease to amaze... and terrify me, maestro." Ems gives Nolan a look that's half apologetic and half endearing. She runs into Ashley as she walks off and offers an apology about Tyler that Ash pretty much shrugs off. Nolan and Ash wallow for a minute in their both being duped by this yahoo and walk off together arm in arm. Emanda is in a full embrace with Daniel as Lissie's cover of Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" begins to play. Emanda looks over Dan's shoulder and locks eyes with Amily who's in a walking hug with Jack. Emanda voice-over: "Duress impacts relationships in one of two ways. It either tears people apart or strengthens their connection, binding them tightly in a common objective." Conrad stands in the doorway of Charlotte's bedroom and watches her sleep. A small smile forms on his lips when he exits and closes her door behind him. Victoria stands alone looking out her window, sipping from a wine glass.
Jack is walking Amily home and asks if she's ok. Amily says yeah and then backtracks. She asks Jack what Ty was getting at about "the truth about David Clarke." She wonders if maybe there's more to the story than they know. Uh... Shouldn't you, his daughter, know the truth? Maybe?
Dan climbs into bed with Emanda. He counts himself lucky to have met her and says he can't imagine his life without her. She says he won't have to and they kiss.
A servant leads Ryan Huntley into the study of Grayson Manor where he finds Victoria still sipping her wine. He says she'll be pleased to pay his house call fee because he found a doctor who's willing to manufacture documents to prove her miscarriage and ensure the prenuptial agreement will be null and void. Finally, a happy ending.
-- 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 The YES and NO and Pablog and follow him @PendejoJoe on Twitter.
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