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Amily has reported back to Emanda that Mason Treadwell is pulling at the loose thread of her false identity after he's noticed that a distinguishing scar is missing. Ems provides Ams with fake documentation that proves the scar was surgically removed, and advises her to feed Mason the juicy tidbit that she witnessed Conrad in close phone contact with Gordon. They must've been working together, she advises. Amily provides Mason with a phone number, and he contacts Nolan to hack into its records. There is never any doubt in Emanda's mind that Mason will do the legwork if it means he'll get the attention for blowing the lid on the Grayson scandal.
What better timing for all of this considering that Conrad and Victoria are ready to spring their second wedding onto the world. At the reception there's some awkwardness as Ems shows up as Aiden's date, to Daniel's surprise. Dan asks for a dance with Ems, leaving Ash and Aiden to mingle yet again. Does anyone else see a swinger's party in the making? Also, Nolan decides to confront Padma at the reception about blowing the whistle on David Clarke's investment in Nolcorp, but she agrees to do whatever it takes to protect what's Nolan's. So that's supposedly settled. All of that may be a little awkward, but the real awkwardness is when detectives lead dozens of police officers into Grayson Manor to arrest Conrad for the murder of Gordon Murphy. The assumption in the family is that Victoria was responsible because she happened to off-handedly suggest to Daniel earlier that he should be gearing up to run the company, but that suspicion is short-lived because Conrad gets bailed out immediately by the Initiative. He comes home to Victoria and they brace for how he will have to repay them. They will also have to beware of Kara now that she knows they played some sort of role in the death of her husband, but so far she hasn't tipped her hand.
Re-opening night of the Stowaway coincides with the wedding. Charlotte chooses to ditch out on her parents' sham wedding to go support Declan. They're totally on track to getting back together when Conrad's arrest gives Charlie just the emotional push she needs to get back in bed with Dec. Meanwhile, Jack takes a talk with Kara about the Clarkes' troubled past to heart and decides to take it upon himself to give Amily a good life. He proposes to her and she accepts. Good for them?
Everything seems to be going just as planned in Revenge Land, but as Emanda posits in voice-over, all it takes is one small detail to be out of place for the whole illusion to come crashing down. We may remember, a long time ago, Ems was forced to admit to Victoria that she was once locked up in juvie. Victoria mentions this to Mason in passing, which is just the right bit of information for the wrong person. It sends him back to his drawing board, and he makes the connection between Emanda and Amily. The thread is unraveling.
-- Pablo G. is some guy who lives in Austin, Texas. He used to co-host 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!In slow motion, a seamstress works on Victoria's gray wedding dress. No illusions of purity here. Emanda voice-over: "If we choose to, we can live in a world of comforting illusion." Oh... well maybe I was wrong about illusions of purity, then. Charlotte sits behind her mother thumbing through the scrapbook from her parents' first wedding. VO continued: "We can allow ourselves to be deceived by false realities." A slight smile turns up the corner of Charlie's mouth. VO: "Or we can use them to hide our true intentions." Cut to Daniel giving his father a silent stare while the two men have their pants hemmed in Conrad's office at Grayson Global. Aiden sort of barges in the room without knocking and is greeted by Conrad, who asks how the vetting of his company is going. Coolly, Aiden figures they're about halfway done and asks what they're getting all dressed up for. Wedding or funeral? Conrad throws out an invitation to the wedding. Mr. Mathis will be there and he asks if he can bring a date, throwing a glance over at Ashley (who's needlessly in the room) to verify her fear that he'll likely be bringing Dan's ex-fiancé. Once Conrad's pants are finished, he and Ash exit, leaving Aiden alone with Daniel. The pageantry quickly washes away, Aiden noting that Conrad is the emperor with new clothes. Coldly, Daniel says it's only a matter of time before the world sees he's unfit to lead.
Casa Emily. Emanda lays out photos and manila folders for Amily, drilling her on the details of her supposed cosmetic surgery to patch up the burn scar missing from her back. Ams couldn't be more disinterested. Emanda insists that Amily just needs to get the facts straight and this intrusion by Mason Treadwell will all blow over very quickly because she's about to send Mason on the trail of the Graysons.
Sitting at her vanity, Victoria pulls out the photo snapped of David in prison on the day he died from her jewelry box. She folds it in half just as Kara comes wandering in with that vaguely psychotic friendliness she's so good at. She figures Victoria must cast an enchanting spell to have four chances at true love in her life. The spell... from HELL! Speaking of love, Kara asks what Victoria and Gordon spoke about since he supposedly came to see her every day that she was held hostage. Victoria claims there was no talking, just torture, and he was pure evil. That's obviously not the man Kara knew and loved. FLASHBACK: Gordon lies down to Kara in bed and lays a flower on her chest. He tells her he loves her. /FLASHBACK. See? Victoria says he's revealed himself to be a coward, so Kara suggests that maybe she can leave Grayson Manor now. Not so fast. Victoria reaches to say they're still not completely sure he's no longer a danger and she should stay.
As Aiden walks out from his meeting with Daniel, his phone rings with a call from Emanda. She's in her black mischief attire in a walk-in freezer. Ems ignores Aiden's pleasantries and asks if he has the gun he used to kill Gordon. He'll give it to her if she agrees to go to the Grasyon wedding with him. Deal. Meet her at the freezer immediately and bring gloves. She has a long-term plan she needs to take off ice, she says. Ems opens up a large box to reveal a filled body bag. She unzips the bag to reveal the corpse of Gordon Murphy. Emanda zips it back up in disgust.
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Later in the day at Grayson Manor, Ashley's fretting over what dress to wear to the wedding while Dan's doing his best to tune her out and reading his email. It turns out all documents pertaining to David Clarke were seized by the government, so there's no way to verify Aiden's idea that Grayson Global has a controlling interest in Nolcorp. Ashley's suggestion is that they invite Nolan to the wedding and try to corner him there. He'd never turn down an invitation to a good party. Cut to Emanda watching video surveillance of this conversation with concern. Because it's true. No force in the world can keep Nolan away from good times.
Stowaway upstairs. Amily stares nervously at the large photo of Emanda's scar she was given just as Jack walks in. She quickly shuts the folder of false documents and claims she needs to go buy diapers. Always on top of things, Jack already bought diapers. I think we've learned already never to lie about baby-related things because Jack is a better mother than Ams. It's no big deal, though, because Jack doesn't think anything of her figuring she should still get out for some air and take little Carl for a walk. Like a... like a dog? Amily changes the subject to how things are going with getting the bar reopened. Jack's excited, and he sees no danger in throwing himself into his work like his father did because he has a family to keep him centered. As if on cue, Declan yells for his brother from downstairs. There's a dispute between Kenny and the family's long-time liquor stocker. Kenny thinks the guy's prices are too high, but supposedly the prices Kenny claims he can get sound shady and illegal. Family liquor guy tells the Porter boys their father would be ashamed of them and they better be careful about who they're doing business with. Liquor guy walks out with is box of booze. Come back! Come... back....
Out on the beach, Kara stands painting with a full-sized easel like she's Jennifer Jason Leigh in a made-for-TV movie or some shit. Emanda walks out to her. FLASHBACK: A younger Kara paints on a similar easel alongside Little Amanda, who has an identical miniature painting setup. They look at each other and smile. /FLASHBACK. As Ems gets closer, we see Kara has done a near-perfect charcoal sketch of Grayson Manor. Ems asks if things are getting too hectic in there with the wedding. Kara points out that was almost Ems last summer. Ouch. Emanda admits she's kind of glad it didn't work out and that Victoria had it out for her from the beginning. She asks that Kara not share that with anyone because she doesn't want any more bad blood with the Graysons. With the reassurance only a mother can give, Kara says not to worry... they'll get what's coming to them. Emanda lets a tiny smile slip.
Out on a park bench, Ams has Mason poring over the fake documents of her scar removal. He asks about the expense for a girl just out of juvie and Ams easily deflects by saying wiping away the bad memory was worth it. He's appeased. But why is she settling so close to the Graysons? Amily claims that now that she has Jack and Carl there's no reason to fret over simple revenge. If Emanda were there, Ams would get some steely-eyed daggers right into her skull for that one. Amily says she figures someone else will expose the Graysons someday, then lets the juicy bait slip. She says she knows that Gordon and Conrad used to work together, and she swiped Gordon's phone number from Conrad's phone. Alas, she didn't have the resources to hack into phone records. But you know who does? Mason offers to take up the torch and set fire to the Graysons.
The never-ending wedding preparations by the queen continue. Conrad comes in looking for a missing cufflink he wore to their first wedding. Victoria jokes that they should just call the whole thing off and it seems to kind of hurt his feelings in that same subtle way that Conrad has been getting that gleam in his eye every time he talks about this sham wedding like some part of him really does still want to be married to this woman. He leaves butthurt. Enter Charlotte. She has a gift for her mother -- a sapphire necklace Victoria gave her for her 16th birthday. This is to take the edge off of dropping the news that she won't be attending the wedding. Charlie wants nothing to do with this charade and instead wants to go help Declan with the reopening of the Stowaway. Victoria protests, but Charlotte responds that Dec is the only real thing in her life. It's more than her parents can say about each other.
Ems walks through the Nolcorp building on the phone with Amily. Ams reports that Mason bought the whole story and is currently running off to expose the Graysons, but she wants to make it clear that if he ever threatens her family again, Amily will handle him her own way. Ominous. Emanda hangs up and walks into Nolan's office. She wastes no time ordering him away from the Grayson wedding. Padma briefly walks in and Nolan plays it off by saying Ems is there to offer a dress for Padma to wear to the wedding, simultaneously tipping Ems off that Nolan intends to take his Chief Girlfriend Officer as his date. Padma exits. Taking her to the wedding is a bad idea in Ems' book since Padma's the one exchanging information with Daniel. Nolan wants to verify it for himself and he thinks he can handle Dan if he comes after Nolan because there won't be any feelings involved for him. Nolan gives Ems a sly stare, but she answers back with steely eyes and wins. On cue, Mason calls Nolan's phone. Ems asks Nolan to agree to Mason's request to get a name and address associated with a phone number he will provide. Nolan: "What did I just agree to?" Emanda: "The beginning of the end for Mason Treadwell."
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Aiden and Emanda enter the pre-wedding gala looking like two secret agents that were trained together by the same sensei on Oshima Island, Japan -- Ems in a flowing red gown and Aiden in a sensible black and white suit. Daniel spots the couple with a grimace and drags Ashley over to them to say hello. Dan states the obvious; he didn't know Aiden knew Ems. Mr. Mathis plays semi-dumb, saying Takeda suggested he look up Ems when he got stateside and he was under the impression their break-up was of the amicable sort. Not much Daniel can say to that. He gives all credit to Emanda for them being able to be civil to each other. As the awkwardness reaches a crescendo, Ashley declares she and Dan need to go greet guests and they run off.
With Victoria gone, Kara wanders back over to the Queen's vanity. She opens up the jewelry box and pulls out the photo of David Clarke, which is now torn in half and missing the side with Gordon. Kara turns the photo over in her hands and examines it closely.
Mason's sleuthing has led him to a steel trailer home -- the type where you totally would cook meth. What? You, not me. Loud music plays from within. Mason tries politely knocking and yelling through the door, but there's no answer. He opens the door and spots Gordon sitting still in a chair, facing away like dead bodies are wont to do. Mason enters and realizes he's been talking to a corpse. He looks down and spots Conrads missing cufflink on the floor with the initials "CG".
Stowaway. Declan is dragging around, trying to get things ready for the grand reopening of the bar. Kenny notices and guesses he must be tired because of Charlotte, but really it's because Dec has trouble sleeping out on the boat. Sensing a chance to be devil's advocate yet again, he plays to Declan's insecurities about being pushed out to the boat by his brother and needing to make a mark for himself. Charlotte walks up as Kenny finishes his thought and offers her service. Dec asks about her missing her parent's wedding. Charlotte: "I'll catch the one." Don't start being fun, Charlotte. Stop that.
Conrad enters Victoria's staging area as her assistants put the finishing touches on her muddy gray Vera Wang gown. The groom asks to have the room cleared out for just him and his bride. He tells Victoria he feels they're destined to be together and hands her a wedding present in a small wooden box. She opens it to reveal a fancy handgun with an ivory handle. Conrad wants her to be able to protect herself if for some reason he's ever not there to protect her. Victoria: "And here I thought you were offering me a way out of this." Snip snap. Conrad affectionately replies, "Never," kisses her on the head and walks out. Victoria's phone rings with a call from Mason, who's leading police into the main entrance of Grayson Manor as he speaks. He offers up a way that Victoria can get the benefits of marrying Conrad without having to spend a single night with him. She's listening. We're all listening.
Meanwhile, Conrad's outside waiting by the altar. The crowd is slightly restless as Nolan and Padma walk up, matching in navy blue. Seriously... Nolan looks smashing in his blue suit with a black shirt, vest and white polka dot tie. I'm sure Padma looks fine, too, but that suit. Dan leans over to Ashley in his seat to comment on Nolan bringing his CFO. Ash fires back that it's not any weirder than Aiden showing up with Ems. Touché. Nolan takes his seat to Emanda, greeting her and then under his breath addressing Aiden as "Mr. Bond." The "Wedding March" begins to play and Victoria begins her solo shuffle up the aisle. She reaches the altar, drawing a comment from Conrad about her tardiness. The minister asks if they're ready to begin. And here we go.
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So, the ceremony must not have been very eventful because we skip right past to the reception. Conrad and Victoria are invited out to the dance floor for their first dance. Conrad immediately asks Victoria to abscond with him on a remote trip tonight, but Victoria would rather start tomorrow at home as a family. Fair enough. She stares over Conrad's shoulder, pleased that she so easily bought herself some time to let Mason's plan play out. Cut to police searching Grayson Manor. Detectives discover something peculiar on one of Conrad's coats in his closet.
Stowaway. The bar is alive again. Jack rings the bell that lets all the patrons know he's about to make one of his lame speeches again. He thanks everyone for their patience and welcomes all the new faces. Cue Carl crying. Jack gives a special thanks to Kenny for making it all possible. The two men share a brief moment where Jack personally thanks Kenny. When Jack walks off, Kenny seems for the first time to be a bit conflicted about what he has in store for the Porters. They've been driving home that Jack's the ultimate good guy since day one, Kenny. Where have you been?
Back at the reception, Dan cuts in to have a dance with his mother. He tells his mother she looks beautiful and she commends him on all his hard work at the office. She doesn't want her son to sell himself short and thinks he should be projecting to the board that he's a worthy successor to his father. Cut back to Grayson Manor. Detective finds a handgun and spent shell casing in the trunk of Conrad's car. Mason asks if that would be the murder weapons, but rightfully so, the detectives ignore him and just call in for an arrest warrant.
With Amily off feeding the baby or putting him to sleep or whatever the fuck you do with babies, Kara's left alone to chat with Jack at the bar. She says she's happy for him and Amily, but Ams must be scared because people like the Clarkes always expect the worst when things start looking up. That's... so sad. Jack asks if that's why Kara stayed away from her daughter for so long. Everywhere she's been, trouble followed and Amily deserved a better life than that. It's what Jack intends to give her, he says.
At the reception, Daniel finds Padma unattended. He immediately brings up the David Clarke contract, as Emanda and Aiden watch from afar. To her credit, Padma starts to claim the investigation is finished on Nolan's end before Emanda can interrupt and send her over to Nolan. Ems tries to put the awkwardness to rest about showing up with Aiden, but Dan deftly achieves that by asking her to dance. Ashley looks on until Aiden sneaks up behind her. "We can't let them have all the fun, can we?" he asks, taking her hand. Out on the dance floor, Aiden notices Ash's preoccupation with Dan and Emanda. Ashley calls it a bold move, showing up with Dan's ex-fiancé and notices that the two of them have hit it off as if they've known each other forever. Ashley perceptive? Weird. The other dancing couple is talking about what might've been. Daniel admits that he often wonders if he let pride get the better of him and that Emanda was right when she accused him of becoming everything he said he never wanted to be. Ems: "It's never too late to change course." Dan asks if she means that, but before she can answer, police raid the reception. They head straight out to the courtyard and place Conrad under arrest for the murder of Gordon Murphy. Victoria rushes over and does her best acting job, demanding to know what he's done. Conrad sees right through it, and knows his wife framed him. He says as much as he's hauled off. Watching from a distance, Nolan commends Ems for having Conrad arrested at his own wedding in what he figures could be a "revenge all-star opportunity." But what about Mason? Ems says Nolan will see what's coming to him soon. Smiles all around from Nolan, Aiden and Ems.
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Nolan leads Padma out from the reception. Away from the crowd, this is the first opportunity Nolan has to reprimand Padma for poking the proverbial hornets' nest at Grayson Global and he takes it. He's not mad; he just wants to know how far Padma's willing to go to protect what's theirs.
Handcuffed in an interrogation room, Conrad sits across from Victoria. He muses at the notion that she had any intention of them waking up tomorrow as a family, and that he's now very much a dead man. He's said that so many times before, so I wouldn't worry, guys. He points out Victoria will end up with everything, prompting her to jump on the defensive. But Conrad thinks that only the Initiative had the resources to pull off this sort of framing. Victoria says Conrad only has himself to blame after what they did to David Clarke. Conrad's face: "Are you going to keep throwing that terrorist plot back in my face for the rest of my life?!"
At the Stowaway, Declan notices the live news report on the TV about Conrad's arrest. He asks Kenny to turn up the volume to confirm his suspicion that something major has just happened to Conrad. His immediate reaction is this will devastate Charlotte. He runs out of the bar after her. The report turns its attention to the victim, which brings Kara out of her seat. She slowly walks toward the TV, staring at the face of the man she loves on the screen and trying to reconcile it with the word "murder." If there's any question this woman hasn't known enough heartache in her life, Kara reacts to this news with quiet despair and no tears.
At Grayson Manor, Charlotte rushes in to ask her mother what the hell is going on. Mason butts into the conversation with pomp. He claims to have evidence that can blow the lid off Victoria's faked kidnapping and thinks motive for Gordon's murder will be pretty clear. Daniel and Ashley enter the conversation, and Dan volunteers yet more information for Mason by revealing Victoria's recommendation earlier in the day that Dan prepare to take over the company from Conrad. After Daniel and Ash walk off, Mason notes that Victoria's son has stooped to dating the help after he had Emanda. Victoria's not going to stand for a classist barb. She pegs Ems as nothing more than a juvie girl. Mason's confused. "Juvie girl?" Victoria tries to have security escort Mason out, but he's all to happy to go dig at the lead she just gave him.
In his prison cell, Conrad is visited by the mysterious super villain lady from the Initiative. Things seem to be headed in a bad direction for Conrad when she starts saying she thought they had an agreement about handling Gordon in-house, but Conrad does a good enough job of convincing her that he had nothing to do with Gordon's death. Instead, the Initiative wants to make another agreement with Conrad since they figure he can help with their plan much like he did with funding the terrorist attack that was pinned on David Clarke. Conrad doesn't have much of a choice.
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Full of anger, Daniel paces through his room on the phone with Aiden. He wants to get the board together first thing Monday to cast a vote of no confidence in Conrad. Aiden watches Dan's body language through Emanda's surveillance laptop at Casa Emily. They agree to have the meeting on Monday and hang up. Aiden pops open a bottle of wine for him and Emanda as they watch Ashley come into view on surveillance to say goodnight to Dan. Aiden asks what Ems knows about her. "She was an easy mark," Ems says. Was she too easy? If it turns out Ash is some super spy that's been flying under the radar this whole time, I will eat my hat and any hats you wish to send me.
Knock, knock on Charlotte's balcony door. Declan doesn't care that he's not supposed to be there. He wants to make sure Charlie's OK. She admits to him that the only time she was happy over the past year was when they were together. Dec leans in for a kiss that takes them down to her bed.
Kara sneaks up on Victoria out on her balcony perch and repeats the Queen's words to her about Kara staying at Grayson Manor until Gordon was no longer a threat. It's as if Victoria knew Gordon would die. Kara says all of this while fidgeting with her bare ring finger. Victoria takes exception to the insinuation that she might've had anything to do with Gordon's death, and notices that there's no relief in Kara's eyes now that her tormentor is dead. There appears to be loss there instead. Kara turns away from Victoria. FLASHBACK: Gordon talks of wanting to retire after this last job he has to do and then wants to move to a place like the remote beach in one of Kara's drawings. Close-up on Kara's wedding ring. /FLASHBACK. Kara continues to focus on her ring finger and disjointedly apologizes to Victoria since it must be awful losing the man she loves so abruptly. Kara takes a couple sudden steps forward, and Victoria gasps and backs up, then Kara softly says goodnight. Victoria's shaken, but who can blame her? She's definitely unsettling, that Kara.
The Amanda. Jack's set up a humble, romantic dinner for Amily on the boat. After some small talk about Ams sleeping through the bar reopening, Jack sits her down and asks her if she remembers the time they found what they thought was a treasure chest as children. Of course, she doesn't and asks Jack to tell the story. He remembers the look in her eyes when she saw what she thought was the harbinger of changed fortunes. After talking to Kara tonight, Jack knows that Ams needs reassurance that the things in her life aren't going away and that their fortunes are changing. Amily claims she doesn't need that, and words can be meaningless. On the contrary, Jack thinks just a single word can make all the difference in the world. "Yes," for example. He drops down on one knee and asks Amily to marry him. She says yes.
Victoria tosses and turns in bed. A shadow casts in the doorway, so she pulls out the gun Conrad gifted her and points it into the darkness at... Conrad. She's shocked to see him since she was told it would take an act of Congress to get him out on bail tonight. He explains that the Initiative sprung him and now they must wait to see what price he'll have to pay.
Sitting in front of the fire at Casa Emily, Aiden reads the news of Conrad's bail to Ems from his phone. He teases her about her dance with Daniel and then gets serious. Whatever feelings she had for him last summer, Dan's acting purely as a Grayson now. Emanda says she's aware of that, and it's why she walked away from him. So now's as good a time as any for Aiden to point out he's changed and his face is right in front of hers angling for a kiss. Ems seems ready to give in, but hesitates and ultimately tells him he should leave. He says he will, but he won't give up on her. Massive Attack's "Paradise Circus" (!) begins to play as Aiden walks out, leaving Ems alone in contemplation. Emanda voice-over: "To successfully create illusion, the first thing you need is trust, but to perfect an illusion the false reality must appear as authentic as the one it hides." Intercut with red yarn being strung on a corkboard from photograph of familiar face to photograph of familiar face we see Emanda enacting her framing of Conrad. She moves Gordon's body, then disables Grayson Manor's security cameras remotely. Ems gets into Conrad's closet and grabs one of his suit coats, then steals his cufflink from a jewelry box. From the perspective of inside the trunk of Conrad's car, Ems pops it open and drops in the handgun, then sets Gordon's corpse upright in the chair in the trailer. She arranges a bowl and spoon to appear as though Gordon had been living in the trailer for quite a while, then turns on a radio. VO continued: "Careful attention must be paid to every detail." Carefully, Ems places Conrad's cufflink on the floor of the trailer. VO continued: "The slightest of imperfections, like a pin to a balloon, burst the illusion..." The music stops with the sound of the air being sucked as if in a vacuum. Fade to black.
The light comes up on Mason Treadwell standing in front of a corkboard with news clippings from major events surrounding the Graysons and photographs of all our favorite characters connected by red yarn on pushpins. He runs a piece of yarn from Emanda's photo to a business card for Allenwood Juvenile Detention Center, which is also connected with Amily's photo. Emanda voice-over continued: "...And the truth behind the illusion becomes revealed." Mason stares at Emanda's photo in shock.
-- Pablo G. is some guy who lives in Austin, Texas. He used to co-host 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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