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The conceit this week is Emanda has an upcoming wine auction fundraiser she's throwing, which serves as an opportunity to get Helen of the Initiative out in the open. It's also an opportunity for Conrad's business rival, Jason Prosser, to show up on the scene and try his hand at wooing Victoria while simultaneously competing with the new CEO of the company, Daniel. At the event, it appears that Ems catches Aiden having his secret counsel with Helen, but in reality they have set up Helen for a fake hostile kidnapping. Emanda and Nolan gas Aiden and Helen in an elevator, and then allow Aiden to free himself, shoot a masked Emanda with squibs and then escape with Helen, making her believe that her machinations won't go unimpeded.
Daniel continues his overly facehuggerish courting of Emanda, much to the discontent of that butthurt British guy Aiden. Almost like clockwork, Aiden shows up at Casa Emily despite being fully aware Ems wants to be left alone to a romantic meeting with Daniel. Aiden pretends he's there to pick up his things from his faux ex-girlfriend's house, but the message is sent that he's not comfortable with Ems getting close to Daniel again. It seems like Emanda didn't learn her lesson when she lost her chance with Jack because of all this revenge business. It's a lonely vengeful road we walk.
Speaking of Jack, he's still in jail, which means that the fate of the Stowaway is left in the awesome brain trust of Amily, Declan and Charlotte. You're doomed, bar. Doomed! In fairness, Amily decides she's had enough of the Ryan brothers and tries to go thug life on them, having bought an unregistered gun on the streets. But before Ams can make one of her patented regrettable mistakes, Conrad bails out Jack and pledges his allegiance to helping out with the Porters' situation because it will look good for his new political career. That whole idea of Conrad's? Ashley's idea. She's now back in Conrad's employ as a political advisor. She's like a bad penny.
At Nolcorp, the unrequited love continues between Marco and Nolan, and it doesn't help that Padma has returned. She asks Nolan to be let back into the company under whatever terms he deems, which he readily accepts. As if that's not bad enough for Marco, Padma seemingly unwittingly tips off Nolan that Marco has been feeding Daniel information about Nolcorp's early R&D on the Carrion malicious code. Marco invites Nolan to check records of his emails to prove that's not true, but they do in fact turn up correspondence about Carrion. The reaction Marco has to this discovery suggests that he's been set up, but Nolan is too blinded by Marco's past betrayal and Padma's seeming purity to do anything but dismiss him. We find out that Padma is in league with Helen and the Initiative with the aim of acquiring Carrion, which is hardly ideal.
-- 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 out their webcomic Space Monkeys! and follow Pablo's writing at Pablog. Follow him @PendejoJoe on Twitter.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!We zoom out from the eye of a dead body that happens to be the only thing not covered by black clothing. This unlucky person was wearing a ski mask at the time of murder. Emanda voiceover: "They say the best-laid plans often go awry..." Fade cut to Aiden moving about cautiously in a suit with his gun draw. He is Boring. James Boring. VO continued: "...because no matter how detailed the preparation, the plan will always have a weak point." A set of high-heeled feet walks past the blood pooling from the corpse, followed closely by a man's feed. We're to presume this is Ems and Aiden. VO: "And there will always be those looking to exploit... to doom a plan to failure and the perpetrator along with it." We pan down to see an Infinity X Infinity tattoo on the wrist of the deceased.
Two days earlier. Morning at Casa Emily. Coming downstairs to start the revenge day bright and early, Ems is met with a cold non-response when she greets Aiden. He's full of butt-hurt from witnessing last night's kiss between Emanda and Daniel. Aiden's apparently been gone ever since so he could do some thinking. Ems goes straight to the "It didn't mean anything" card, which never works. Luckily, Emanda has a "We're enacting sociopathic espionage on most of the people in our life" card that so few of us can resort to. She reminds Aiden that they need to trust each other and she needs to be able to count on him not disappearing when things get uncomfortable. Aiden returns the favor of discomfort, revealing he met with Helen recently. He fills Ems in on the possibility that his sister is still alive and that the Initiative expects his compliance. There's no reason to believe that they are telling the truth, and the trail has gone cold when it comes to the method of contacting Helen. "Then we need to draw her out," Emanda plots.
Grayson Global. Daniel very closely looks over some research and development reports of the last decade from Nolcorp. There's mention of the abandoned Carrion project that Nolan is so guarded about. Dan's interrupted by the arrival of Emanda for a scheduled meeting. When she enters, Dan goes straight for her lips. It actually startles her how aggressively he eats her face. Her reaction draws out awkward stammering. Did Daniel simply dream that they kissed last night? Ems suggests they just take it slowly. She's really there to take Daniel at his word that he wants to guide Grayson Global toward charitable efforts. Emanda says she's been heading up a charity about foster care since 2008, and would like Dan to direct his top investors to it. Just then, Dan's assistant comes in the room with an urgent package from Helen. It's a prospectus of a company called Stonehaven and Helen is holding on line two. Dan tells Ems that he needs to take the call. As she leaves, Ems smoothly asks Daniel's assistant if it's OK to place a call on the reception phone while the assistant runs off to grab Emanda a list of investors. Instead, Ems taps into Daniel's phone line on mute to listen in on his conversation with Helen. Stonehaven is a company that is about to really increase its revenue, according to Helen. She gives Daniel insider trading tips to acquire it before that happens and Dan reports that he found some gaps in Nolcorp's R&D. When Daniel's assistant returns with a list for Ems, she pretends to be ending a phone call with a florist. She then picks up the phone again and calls Victoria to tell her that she has some new information. They have orchids!
Amily sits across from Jack, a pane of glass separating them as they talk on the prison phone. Jack suspects the Ryan brothers were tipped off by the cops that a raid was coming. It doesn't really matter how it happened because Amily is dead-set on fixing the problem now. She doesn't want Jack spending another night in prison. Jack cuts off her plans to involve Ems or Nolan for bail money and explains that any further investigation will reveal that the gun was the murder weapon used to kill Kenny and Nate's dad. He asks Amily to promise she won't do anything against the Ryans. Her face says that's a promise she can't make.
In the parlor at Grayson Manor, Conrad dons his polo shirt and golf shorts uniform of unemployment. His business rival of 20 years, Jason Prosser, has brought him a box of Cuban cigars as a "retirement" gift. Victoria enters the parlor and cuts through the small talk to have a private word with Conrad. She relays the information she got from Emanda about Daniel being directed by Helen to acquire Stonehaven. Conrad's aware that this company is of little value and that the Initiative simply aims to profit off corporate upheaval. But what can they do to stop it? Victoria eyes Jason through a nearby window and says, "Sabotage." She smiles to herself.
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Victoria has summoned Emanda to Grayson Manor. She thanks Ems for the intel on Stonehaven, but really wants to talk about Emanda's invitation of Daniel to her charity event. Emanda deftly admits that she was already planning that before she and Victoria formed their alliance. None the wiser, Victoria suggests that Emanda invite Jason Prosser to the event since his competitive nature versus Grayson Global could prove lucrative for the charity. Emanda pretends as though she's doing Victoria a favor by accepting the recommendation.
Stowaway. Dec and Amily are done playing nice with the Ryans. When they return to the bar, Dec demands to know what Nate wants from them. In not so polite terms, he tells Declan that he wants full ownership of the bar, but he figures something like that will require Jack's signature. Dec's hands are tied. Nate walks out of the room, leaving behind his good cop brother. Amily and Dec aren't in the mood to entertain Kenny's presumed innocence in all of this. His suggestion that Dec just get along with all of this for the time being falls on deaf ears.
Dan has stormed into Nolan's office and demanded to know about Nolcorp's past R&D. The thing about this power grab of a confrontation is that Nolan is sitting there the whole time nonchalantly playing Tetris. Little known fact: Daniel has no authority where Tetris is being played. Eventually, Daniel brings up Carrion, which catches Nolan's attention. Dan wants a full report on it immediately. Nolan sits conflicted after Daniel leaves, but he's lifted up by the sight of Padma, who has returned from exile or whatever. She wants to work for Nolan again, even if she isn't qualified to be CFO. All that matters to her is being down the hall from him. That's all Nolan needs to hear before hiring her back. The seeming harbinger of odd hirings and firings, Marco, appears instantly to comment on Padma's return. He's obviously not happy, but no one really cares. Reinforcing the idea that Nolan couldn't care less about Marco, he invites Padma as his date to Emanda's charity wine auction. Marco's within earshot and gets his jealous CFO feelings hurt.
As night falls on Grayson Manor, Ashley returns to have a face-to-face with Conrad. More accurately, she wants to blackmail him into bringing her back into his employ because she feels her secret-keeping skill will be wasted elsewhere. (Is that something you can, like, put on your résumé? "I'm good at being a liar. Or am I?") Hiring her back on wouldn't make any sense with Conrad no longer being CEO of Grayson Global, but it just so happens that he has that pipe dream of going into politics. He agrees to let Ashley put her skills to good use.
After hours, Emanda has returned to Daniel's office at Grayson Global for some late night Chinese takeout. She tells him she was able to get in contact with all his investors except for Helen. Cut to a close-up of a small camera implanted on a nearby clock in the office. With very little regard for appearances, Helen immediately calls Daniel's phone after the mention of her name and watches her video surveillance feed as he answers. Ems motions that she'd like Daniel to let her get a word with Helen. He politely asks and Helen obliges. On speakerphone, Emanda invites Helen to her charity auction, but she tries to decline, citing her private nature. Ems goes in for the kill, saying it would reflect very well on Daniel as the new CEO if she were in attendance. Helen grudgingly half-commits and hangs up. Dan congratulates Ems on Helen's video screen while she sulks in her dark villainous headquarters. It can't be that bad of a party, can it, Helen? Maybe you'll meet a handsome, enterprising villain.
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Nolcorp. Nolan closes the door to his office behind Marco so they have a private meeting. It's odd to Nolan that Daniel would come snooping around and asking about Carrion right after Marco unearthed it. Marco denies having anything to do with that, and goes as far as to suggest that Padma reemerged at the same time as well. There's no way Nolan is going to trust Marco over Padma at this point, so they're at an impasse.
Emanda's wine event is underway. She and Daniel greet guests, eventually being met by Jason, who commends Dan on acquiring Nolcorp while simultaneously trash talking about Conrad. Daniel humbly credits his father for his acumen until Victoria appears, revealing to Daniel that she was the one who invited Mr. Prosser. She takes Jason off to the bar, leaving Daniel to fume about his mother's probable motive of inviting Jason to show him up at the auction. He storms off. Nolan swoops in to get into Emanda's ear. He notes that "Faux-mance: Part Deux" is going well, and asks how Aiden's taking it as they walk toward the bar where he's standing. He's handling it as well as could be expected, Ems says. Nolan greets Aiden cheerfully, pointing out he's all "gussied up" like 007. Aiden responds with a cheesy Sean Connery impression that gets a small chuckle from both Emanda and Nolan. Oh... we have fun, don't we? Nolan plays the role of Q and shows off that he has tapped into the building's wireless utilities system and can control lighting and such from his tablet. Sensing a slight tension, Nolan excuses himself to go look for Padma so Ems and Aiden can have some privacy. Emanda's certain Helen will show up out of curiosity about Aiden. Her only concern is whether Aiden is ready for this because he seems distracted. "On with the show," he says.
It's Dec's turn to play the prison phone game with his brother. He gives Jack the news that the Ryans want to buy full ownership of the bar, and then wonders aloud why they want it so badly. Jack looks around to see if anyone's listening. Jack: "It's time you knew the truth." Cut to Amily pushing Carl's stroller down the boardwalk with Charlotte. She explains to Charlie that the Ryans are behind all the misfortunes that have befallen the Porters recently. Amily thinks the solution is to involve Charlotte's parents -- not their money, but their power and influence. Charlotte thinks that it's time to call in a big favor from her father, who probably owes her for lying about being her real father and for imprisoning her in rehab unjustly. What are dads for?
Auction time. Alongside an auctioneer, Emanda stands at a podium to preside over the bidding. Aiden wins a bottle on Takeda's behalf, which he announces will be personally enjoyed by Mr. Takeda, getting a laugh. The final bottle for auction is a 1945 Chateau d'Huet. Sitting with Victoria, Jason Prosser jumps into the bidding at $50,000. Daniel immediately doubles him up, sparking a bidding war between the two men. Nolan jumps in briefly to shoot the bidding past half a million even though he doesn't even drink wine. Jason continues making sensible, incremental bids and is met by huge leaps from Daniel until the bidding reaches $1 million. Jason has been bested. He looks utterly mortified as the auctioneer announces Daniel is the winner, and Dan smugly stares at him with his wine glass raised. Jason turns to Victoria to ask if he was only invited there to make Daniel look good. On the contrary, she invited Jason because she enjoys his company, she says. Jason takes this as an invitation to get fresh and asks if Victoria would like to go somewhere more private. They head for the terrace. Across the room, Helen arrives and is greeted by Daniel and Aiden. She pretends to have never met Aiden. Emanda catches Daniel's attention from across the room, motioning for him to come write a check so that he can leave Aiden and Helen alone to talk. Once alone, Helen condescendingly commends Aiden on all the trouble he went through to get her in attendance. Aiden just demands to know more about his sister's whereabouts. Helen laughs, saying they'll talk about it later, before walking off. Emanda and Nolan spy this interaction from across the room. Nolan wonders if Aiden's hedging his bets. It's not impossible in Emanda's mind.
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Dan writes out a check for a million dollars to Emanda just as Helen walks up to them to introduce herself by offering a simple donation. Ems and Helen exchange pleasantries until Nolan hacks the lights to give Emanda an out, pretending it's a cue from the establishment that she needs to tie up loose ends as the event comes to a close. Instead, she sneaks off to spy on Helen's conversation with Daniel about acquiring Stonehaven, and then spies on Aiden following after Helen as she leaves. Emanda sighs deeply.
In Conrad's study at Grayson Manor, Amily and Charlotte sit across for his desk after having just explained their problem. Conrad doesn't want to jump into such a murky situation just on the recommendation of an accused man and the mother of his child. He offers sanctuary for Declan until things get sorted out, but can't help Jack, whom he refers to as Amily's "baby daddy" (!) because he has to protect his own name. Amily invokes the grand, public gesture Victoria made of bringing her into the fold, but Conrad strikes that down because of her attempt to extort them over her father's journal. Furthermore, he doesn't appreciate that Charlotte is now exposed to this underworld of drugs and crime that seems to orbit Ams. He asks that she stay away from the family and literally turns his back on her. This affords Amily the opportunity to snatch a big gold watch off of Conrad's desk before she leaves, seeming like she now has a plan. Charlotte walks out silently in a huff as Ashley is walking in. Ash suggests to Conrad that he's missing a large opportunity to forward his political career. Conrad's like, "Say whaaa?"
On the way out of the auction, Nolan bumps into Padma. She claims she was late because Marco threw a bunch of busy work at her, but she's most concerned about a conversation she overheard between him and Daniel. They were talking about "Carrie Anne" or something. Carrie-Anne Moss? That is concerning. Nolan's face goes white because he instantly knows Padma's naive ramblings are about Marco feeding Dan information about Carrion. He runs off to stop Marco without filling Padma in on what's going on.
Charlotte shows up at The Amanda to offer Declan her support and tell him that her father said he could come and stay at Grayson Manor. Dec thanks her, but he's not interested in running away from the fight to preserve everything his father provided for him and Jack. He's staying put. Meanwhile, Amily trades Conrad's watch to a street thug for an unregistered gun out of the trunk of his car. The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good stripper mama with a gun.
Helen's still making her way out of the auction. She gets into an empty elevator, looking pretty exhausted. There's always room for more exhaustion, though, when Aiden's about. He stops the elevator just as the door's closing and hops in with her. He calmly asks how she knows so much about him, to which Helen admits the Initiative really doesn't know much more than his rampage against the man he thought had killed his sister. Just then the elevator jolts and comes to a stop. They both frantically try phoning for help with no success. Gas begins to fill the elevator. They both eventually succumb to the poison and go unconscious.
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Out on the terrace, Jason continues his ham-fisted courting of Victoria. She helps him lick his wounds a bit about his loss in the auction by reminding him of past victories, but that just leads Jason to admit that he always coveted her. Victoria changes the subject to Daniel's recent success, and then pretends to accidentally divulge insider information about Grayson Global hoping to acquire Stonehaven. She bids Jason goodnight and waits around the corner so she can overhear him placing a call to his business associates about looking into acquiring Stonehaven before Daniel. Victoria smiles to herself.
Helen and Aiden have been tied up to chairs and had their heads covered with hoods. A masked, armed figure with a voice-altering device demands to know why Helen is so interested in Stonehaven. Aiden advises her not to talk, so the figure puts a gun up to Helen's forehead and pulls the trigger. It wasn't loaded. The figure says it will be loaded the time, and then asks Aiden who he's spying on Daniel for. He refuses to answer and gets pistol whipped as a result.
Amily pops a quarter into the coin slot of the Stowaway jukebox to play some loud rock music. What jukebox only costs a quarter these days? She gets everyone riled up in the bar, and then heads for the storage room where Nate's moving boxes around or something. Ams is in pure cold-blooded stripper mode. She tells Nate she's going to give him a chance to leave tonight with Kenny or she's going to make him bleed. Seriously. That's what she said. Nate looks like he thinks this must be a joke until Amily reaches into her bag. She's about to produce her gun when Ashley suddenly bursts into the room to whisk her upstairs where Jack is waiting. Ams is so excited to see Jack that she doesn't notice Conrad in the room. It was Conrad who called in a favor and had bail reduced for Jack. Try as he might to convince Amily that he did it out of civic duty, she's not buying it. Conrad comes clean that he intends to run for public office and this sort of thing would be good for his public profile. He'd like to help them if they'll accept his help, knowing it's to this end. Jack and Amily say they need to think about it.
The masked figure continues interrogating, but is getting nothing out of Helen. Aiden manages to free himself when the figure overturns his chair. They exchange blows while Helen gets an obscured view through her hood. Aiden gets his hand on the figure's gun and fires off a few rounds, dropping the figure to the ground. We've now caught up to the opening scene. Aiden frees Helen, but before she can unmask the figure, another one comes rushing down the stairs, firing at them. They run off. The second figure pulls of his mask to reveal... Nolan. He looks down at the dead figure, smirks and begins slow clapping. "Brava!" The "dead" figure begins blinking, and then pulls off the mask to reveal... Emanda. She pulls open her jacket so we can see the ruse of squibs and fake blood, shuts off the voice-altering device around her throat and says she hopes Helen bought it.
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After their narrow escape, Aiden and Helen part ways without any exchange of information. Helen simply says she has her suspicions of who their captors could've been. She bids Aiden good evening and disappears into the night.
At Nolcorp, Marco's burning the midnight oil and is surprised to see Nolan and Padma return from the charity event so early. Nolan starts in on Marco again about his shady dealings with Daniel. Marco tries to defend himself, but Nolan's already made up his mind that he can't trust him. In a last ditch effort, Marco invites Nolan to check his emails, then seems to be shocked when Nolan finds a ghost message about Carrion addressed to Daniel. Nolan tells Marco to get out. Calmly, Marco tells Nolan he's making a big mistake before throwing a knowing glance over at Padma.
Aiden speaks with Ems via Bluetooth headset on his drive home. They have Helen on the hook, he thinks, so Aiden wants to celebrate. About that... Ems tells him she already has plans with Daniel. They shouldn't have to keep up the charade with Daniel after what they pulled of tonight, but Ems wants to be entirely sure Helen bought their ploy before she pulls the plug on her fauxmance. She assures Aiden that she will keep things under control. Emanda voiceover: "Every plan has a fatal flaw. Sometimes it's the heart." Daniel shows up at Casa Emily with the million-dollar bottle of wine and two glasses. VO: "Even in those who are supposed to be the most careful. But a careful nature doesn't always ensure success." At Grayson Manor, Victoria grabs a glass of liquor that Conrad has poured and leaves him to cut one of the cigars Jason gave him. VO: "When a plan is built on an unstable foundation, failure is not only a possibility, it's a certainty." Daniel pours wine for Emanda, they toast and take a sip. They both immediately spit it back into the glass. I think I would be livid if I paid $1 million for a bad bottle of wine, but Dan takes it in stride and laughs it off. The light moment is interrupted, however, by a knock at the door. It's Aiden. Emanda's shocked to see him after making it clear that they needed to stay the course. Aiden says he's just there to get his things. Speaking half in code, Emanda says that he can trust her that she's given him everything as she hands over a bag. Aiden leaves. With the mood somewhat killed, Daniel decides to leave as well, giving Ems a small peck on the cheek.
Looking out of a high-rise window at Nolcorp, Padma places a hushed phone call to Helen. She has an update that Carrion is in Nolan's possession somewhere in the building at Nolcorp. Helen: "Good. We're counting on you."
-- 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 out their webcomic Space Monkeys! and follow Pablo's writing at Pablog. Follow him @PendejoJoe on Twitter.
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