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It's down to the final straightaway for that pesky Stonehaven acquisition Daniel's trying to pull off for Grayson Global. He absconds with Ems to the west coast for his meeting with Stonehaven's CEO because he figures it's good to have Emanda in his back pocket for negotiations. Little does he know that his mother is working counter to him with Jason Prosser, who is fighting tooth and nail for Stonehaven just to impress Victoria. Lucky for Ems, Aiden follows everyone to California because he can't keep his jealousy in check, so she's able to have him run interference with Prosser. It stalls Jason a little bit, but it ultimately comes down to a dinner with the CEO in which both sides make their pitch. With a little remote help from Nolan, Ems and Daniel provide some dirt on Jason that sways Stonehaven to make a deal with Grayson Global. Yay?
Meanwhile, Aiden is continuing after the dangling carrot of his sister from Helen and the Initiative. They've sent him videos of his sister in their custody in what appears to be a crack house. They offer her up to Aiden under the condition he assassinate Victoria within 24 hours. This doesn't jive with Emanda's plans to try and prevent Jason Prosser from acquiring Stonehaven. Not one bit. Ems catches Aiden in mid-snipe, and convinces him to hold out, despite his sister hanging in the balance. She gets Aiden to agree that helping Daniel secure Stonehaven is their primary objective so they can ultimately have an in with the Initiative. It makes absolutely no sense to ask someone to call the bluff of a mysterious terrorist organization when they have your loved one in their clutches because you plan to eventually gain a semblance of access to them in the future. But Aiden's in love.
Now that she's back at Nolcorp, Padma's back to entrenching herself with Nolan. She finds him a new house that she tries to push him to buy, and has him starting to think commitment, but she makes a fatal error when she doesn't feign ignorance about Carrion in casual conversation. That's enough for Nolan to realize something's amiss. He sets her up to stumble upon a fake version of the program and informs Emanda of Padma's motive as well as the program's capability. Carrion can bring down Manhattan's power grid in less than a second. That aligns perfectly with the Initiative's push for Grayson Global to acquire Stonehaven because it is a disaster relief agency. So the Initiative's grand evil plan is to profit off of a blackout. Those diabolical...
There's a tiny bit of light at the end of the thuggish boardwalk blackmail storyline tunnel. The Porters have given in to Conrad's terms for using his power/money/influence to defeat the evil Ryan brothers. Those terms involve ratting out old family friend, Matt Duncan, for murdering Joe Ryan, but as Amily so shrewdly points out, honoring someone who ultimately is a murderer is something they can't afford. Kenny signs off on a deal with Conrad to relinquish the Stowaway for $50,000 and a promise to leave the docks for good. He does this without consulting Nate, prompting Nate to meet with Conrad at Grayson Manor to undo his brother's mistake. Conrad offers resistance to reneging on the deal, but then Nate shares his vision of a boardwalk developed with casinos and countless new jobs, the sort of thing that would look great on an aspiring politician's résumé. Just when Conrad is on the precipice of maybe doing something good, he's sucked back into the power game. Well played, thug. Well played.
So... about Aiden following along with Emanda's plan. Yeah, his sister died. Or at least the Initiative sent him a video message of her overdosing. Aiden blows up at Emanda for allowing this to be the collateral damage of her plan, and says he will blame her if it turns out his sister is indeed lost. This is why you should never date co-workers.
-- 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!In the bluish dark bedroom of Casa Emily, Daniel and Emanda make love in slow motion, even though Ems is strategically wrapped in sheets up to her chest. (Who does that?) Ems voiceover: "Every human is born of collusion. We come into this world the result of a covenant." Passionate movements. Muscles rippling. It's like a semi-dirty ballet. VO: "Sometimes made of love... sometimes of circumstance." Daniel props himself up over Emanda and gives her a loving stare. Ems returns the look with a bit of confusion. VO: "But almost always made in secret." Wow... that's some pretty deep stuff right there, voiceover. Emanda suddenly reaches up, pulling Daniel down for a passionate kiss. Cut to Emanda awakening from her dream, perplexed. She looks off to her side to find an empty spot to her in bed. No Aiden, nor Daniel.
Grayson Manor. At the breakfast table, Conrad rustles his morning newspaper loudly and frequently enough to draw criticism from Victoria. This is Conrad's passive aggressive way of bringing up that he's aware Victoria fed Jason Prosser information about Daniel's impending attempt to acquire Stonehaven. While he agrees with the mission, he disagrees with how visible Victoria will be in its undertaking. Conrad changes the subject to his ambitions of reforming the docks ahead of his new political career. He hopes Victoria will be by his side for these plans, seeing as she's his supposedly rededicated wife. Charlotte enters the room and gets greeted with excitement because it's her 18th birthday today. Conrad holds up an envelope, which Charlotte snatches before Conrad can give her a kiss on the cheek. "Don't spend it all in ten places," Conrad deadpans. Enter Ashley, in full, newly-hired Communications Director mode. The Botox flinches in Victoria's face. The Queen: "Charlotte, would you excuse us for a moment? It seems the cat has dragged itself back in." Ash pays this comment no mind, probably because she's saving herself for this amazing exchange: "Don't you know that politicians tend to keep their concubines in the closet?" Victoria directs at Conrad. Ashley fires back without missing a beat, "Spoken like a woman no one's sleeping with." Conrad clears the air, wanting to put the past behind them and look now only to the future. Victoria: "Well, I can only imagine what kind of horrifying footage that will yield." Ashley smirks at Victoria as she walks out with Conrad.
It's a gray morning out on the beach behind Casa Emily. Ems walks up on Aiden, who's standing by the water by himself. He looks like the loneliest man in the world, she says. That's understandable, since he's been banned from Grayson Global, as well as Casa Emily and probably will be banned from the Hamptons when it's all said and done. Emanda reassures her Englishman that she misses him and that she's not too happy about having to lead on her ex-fiancée. At least the mission to track down the Initiative is on track, Aiden says with a hint of sarcasm. Emanda understands that Aiden is frustrated, but they can't take action without proof the Initiative has his sister. Right now, Helen holds all the cards, but there's more hope now that Aiden will reunite with Colleen than there had been in the last decade. Ems nuzzles up to Aiden and reassures him that they will figure out what to do when the time comes.
Close-up on Nolan's satisfied face as he lies in bed. "I know what you're up to," he says, turning his glance to his side. to him, Padma shifts her eyes to hide her guilt. Nolan: "You had the seller stage this place with all my favorite decor, didn't you?" Pull back to reveal Nolan and Padma fully clothed lying in bed together in a room that's decorated with lots of kitschy robot toys. They smile at Nolan's excitement. Padma is happy to do anything that might bring Nolan's endless house hunt to an end, she says. They've looked at about 12 houses already, but Nolan certainly likes this one. He hops out of bed like a kid. Padma hops after him and is ready to call the real estate agent because Nolan has nitpicked every other house so far. She pulls out the key and tells him it could be his tomorrow. Nolan's immediately taken aback by how pedestrian the key is. Because he's Nolan. But he sees how disappointed Padma is at his reaction, and reins in his own disappointment. "Well... nothing's perfect. Except... maybe you," Nolan says before, I imagine, skipping away. Padma's face oscillates between genuine joy and guilt.
Daniel's Aston Martin pulls into a private airport. Emanda's confused because they were just supposed to be going for lunch. Surprise! Daniel's whisking you off to the west coast for oysters! Even if he is being used as a pawn in a revenge plot, that's pretty unforgivably rude to take someone all the way across the country for lunch. Despite Daniel insisting that Emanda accompany him because he's on his way to give facetime to Stonehaven, Ems still is hesitant about going. A girl's gotta tend to her revenge. Besides... oysters in Los Angeles? Ain't nobody got time for that. Daniel continues smooth talking, pointing out that securing Stonehaven would give Ems a trifecta of business coups (first Takeda, then Grayson Global and now maybe Stonehaven). Ems caves and they're off to LA.
As Aiden walks to his car in a parking garage, Helen's Initiativemobile swoops in to cut him off. Electric window rolls down. This lady has grown entirely too comfortable with drive-thru service, it seems. Helen brushes off Aiden's joke about a phone call sufficing, and lightly accuses him of maybe being behind their own recent abduction. While she's right about that, she's a bit off track in suspecting that Aiden is in league with Victoria. Aiden's ready to walk off, having said his piece about not being receptive to any alliances until he see proof his sister's still alive, when Helen pulls out her cell phone. She queues up a video of a scared young girl being interviewed by a skeevy sounding guy. He asks her name. "Colleen." He asks if she has family. "I have a brother." Seems legit. Aiden leans in to ask Helen what he has to do. She orders Aiden to assassinate Victoria. He has 24 hours. Just don't crash her plane, Aiden. That never sticks.
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The parlor at Grayson Manor. Conrad and Ashley have summoned Jack and Amily. Conrad's quick to get to his point that it won't be easy to beat murder allegations. Amily and Jack are confused. They thought they were there because Conrad could help with that. Yes, but there's an ulterior motive. Conrad wants to make sure Charlotte isn't in harm's way at the Stowaway where she likes to spend a lot of her time. He thinks Jack can empathize with wanting to protect a child now that he has Carl. Invoking their child's name prompts Amily to launch into a full disclosure of Matt Duncan's role in murdering Joe Ryan. Jack wants no part in throwing the man who saved the Stowaway six years ago under the bus now. Conrad has no patience for this stubbornness. He says if Jack doesn't like his plan, he can show himself out. Conrad and Ashley walk out of the room. Ams thinks it's a complete mistake that Jack would take the fall for a guy who is ultimately a murderer, family friend or not. She breaks down crying at the thought of not even getting to marry Jack before he's locked up. It's really all a bit too much.
Walking out of the headquarters of Stonehaven, Emanda and Daniel finish up a conversation with the Stonehaven CEO, Ms. Donna Carlisle. It seems Stonehaven is a disaster relief firm and Ms. Carlisle is a bit concerned with Grayson Global's reputation for being a disaster itself. She doesn't want to see her company sold off for parts. Daniel's a bit stumped by this development, but Emanda steps up to buy him some time to come up with a good comeback. He explains his vision of the "Global" in Grayson Global being rebranded to mean world vision rather than domination. Ms. Carlisle likes that. As far as she's concerned, Grayson Global is the frontrunner to land the deal from a very short list of suitors.
Alone in Nolan's office at Nolcorp, Padma rifles through drawers in search of Carrion. She gets a call from Helen, who is forever in her car, never reaching her villainous destinations. She informs Padma that all the pieces of the Initiative's puzzle are coming together except for Carrion. Helen nebulously, but ominously reminds Padma of something at stake for her if she doesn't come through. Padma's very aware of what Helen has hanging over her head. They hang up, and Padma returns to searching through Nolan's desk. Nolan happens to walk by, so Padma plays her snooping off as her trying to hide the key to Nolan's new house in his desk. She even attached a supposedly meaningful keychain to the pedestrian key -- a little figurine of Hanuman, the avatar of Shiva that wards off evil spirits. The only outward response Nolan has while Padma gives all of this mythological backstory is to smell the figurine. Padma thinks he wasn't listening, but he heard every word she said. He thanks her for always looking out for him.
Grayson Manor. Amily's being efficient today. After her meeting with Conrad, she's headed upstairs to drop off a birthday gift for Charlotte. It's a little plaster handprint from Carl. Ams comments on 18 being a big birthday. Charlotte's an adult now and thus free to do whatever she wants. Sadly, Charlotte's only plans to celebrate involve going to the ballet with her mother. Even more sadly, Victoria calls her right on cue to cancel. It's perfect timing for Amily to remind Charlotte that she's not entirely a Grayson and never will be.
Victoria canceled on her daughter's milestone birthday to follow Jason Prosser to Los Angeles, where he's competing with Daniel for the Stonehaven acquisition. She walks straight up to him in a hotel lobby, pretending to be in town in support of her son. Odd that she would offer Prosser her support then. She tells Jason she believes Daniel's not ready for such an acquisition. Jason takes off to head to a meeting, but he's not quick enough, as Daniel and Emanda walk into the lobby just as he's leaving. Dan spots him and then his mother, realizing she's traveled across the country just to sabotage him. Still, Victoria claims she's there for him because disaster relief firms like Stonehaven are cesspools. The discussion deteriorates until they're bickering loudly and risking making a scene. Ems has to step in to tell Daniel to go upstairs and cool off before something gets said in public that they'll all regret. Left alone with Emanda, Victoria voices her assumption that Ems will help her dissuade Daniel because this acquisition isn't in his best interest. Victoria declares she will make sure Jason chooses to move forward with his bid, and then walks off. Emanda pulls out her phone, dials Aiden and begins filling him in on what's happened, i.e. being whisked off to LA. It's no use because Aiden followed her there. In fact, he's standing behind a hotel pillar right now. You really need to establish boundaries for vengeful boyfriends with trust issues that fashion themselves after secret agents.
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Emanda and Aiden have a not-so-secret meeting atop a tiny park bridge while Daniel, I guess, is tending to his temper in the hotel room. Ems isn't too comfortable that Aiden followed her across the country. Aiden isn't too comfortable that Emanda's lunch date hopped time zones. Push. The recent development concerning Helen having evidence that Colleen is in her possession has thrown a wrench in things. It would seem that Aiden's plan is now at odds with Emanda's because any seeming association with Victoria would be bad for trying to make an inroad with the Initiative. The only way they can make this work is if Aiden runs interference with Jason to get him to drop his bid on Stonehaven. If that happens, Victoria's intent will become clearer and Ems can steer clear of the whole situation. It's so crazy, it might just work.
Jack goes to visit Matt Duncan at the hospital, and happens upon him just as he's packing up to leave. What timing. This isn't really a happy discharge, though. Matt's only leaving the hospital because his insurance ran out. Jack, you monster! Matt asks how Jack's doing, and he responds with a rundown of what happened -- the drug charges, the found gun and the impending murder charge if Matt doesn't assume responsibility. Matt's angry that Jack didn't take his advice and distance himself from the Ryans, but Jack has a point that there's no reason why he should take the fall for something Matt did. Jack also implies that his father died relatively young, possibly because of the burden of guilt. He and Dec have had to live without a father and he doesn't want the same thing to happen to little Carl. Is that enough to persuade a man who got away with murder?
Jason Prosser's checking in at the hotel lobby counter. Aiden walks up just as he's asking for a second room key. That dog. Aiden comments on the implication of a second room key and plays it cool like he's entirely on Jason's level from a business standpoint. He brings up a Forbes cover Jason was featured on and subtly throws compliments out in small talk. Aiden casually mentions Stonehaven, surprising Jason. Under the guise of being there to oversee Grayson Global's dealings for Takeda, Aiden divulges supposed insider info to Jason about Stonehaven looking to sell before being indicted. Aiden leaves Jason to think about what he's getting himself into and sure enough, he pulls out his phone to call Donna.
Stowaway. Conrad walks up on Kenny, who is tending bar. He orders a glass of their oldest scotch, neat. Conveniently, Kenny responds that Conrad takes after his old man. Perfect opening for Conrad to ask if that's the same old man that was murdered by the guy he happens to have a signed confession from in this here envelope that's just been dropped on the counter. Conrad pulls out a check for $50,000 and asks for Kenny's signature to sign over ownership of the bar and promise he'll leave the docks tonight. Conrad: "Oh, come on. Haven't you put these boys through enough?" Kenny looks over at Jack and Declan who watch anxiously to see what he'll decide.
There's a knock at Jason Prosser's hotel door. In walks Victoria in a tight black dress. She says she wanted to see how the deal was going, but spots Jason's suitcase that he's in the middle of packing, which means not good. Jason's nobody's fool. He knows Victoria was setting him up from the start. She insists that's not true and that he's been lied to. Victoria resorts to sweet talking to win Jason back. She tells him that she's always admired him, even when Conrad was parading her around. This jogs Jason's memory all the way back to when the David Clarke scandal broke. Victoria walks over to the hotel room window in deep reverie about David and how he fell in with the Initiative. She tells Jason that her son is now at risk in the same way. Outside, Aiden is set up with a sniper rifle, lining up Victoria in his sights. He adjusts the dials on his scope. Jason asks Victoria what he can do to help. Win Stonehaven, Victoria says. Jason only wants her. Aiden's about to pull the trigger when Victoria suddenly shuts the curtains. Seriously... Aiden chooses not to fire because of curtains. He's trained in all sorts of firearms and hand-to-hand combat, but can't fire a bullet through curtains. Victoria tells Jason he can have her if he just acquires Stonehaven. They kiss.
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We're poolside at the hotel. Daniel sips champagne, Ems texts her real boyfriend. It's good times. They believe Prosser is out of the running for Stonehaven, so they can relax a bit. They talk of still being a good team and Ems pulls out her gift she picked out for Charlotte, reminding Daniel he completely forgot about his sister's birthday. They can share the gift, Emanda says. Teamwork! Daniel gets a call from Donna and is immediately crestfallen. Prosser's back in the game and they have to attend dinner tonight to pitch side-by-side. Daniel's concerned because he's already given all of his pitch. Emanda suggests they focus on bringing Prosser down. Cut to Nolan's phone ringing. He's reluctant to answer the call from his supposed boss. He's even more reluctant to agree to dig for dirt on Jason under a time crunch. Daniel invokes Emanda, and she hurriedly texts Nolan to sway his decision. Emanda's text: "Say yes and I'll buy you a house." Nolan agrees to do it, offering up a weak, "Please stay on the line. Your call is very important to us." Emanda fires off another text to ask Nolan if he'll also dig for some info on Aiden, because he never responded to her text and obviously failed to dissuade Jason.
Nate storms out of the Stowaway, angry that Kenny sold the bar without consulting him. A confession from Matt Duncan is what they were after, Kenny argues. Nate disagrees. This was all about making their father proud. He wanted to turn the docks into something more than what it currently is. You know... we could totally put a TGIFriday's right over there, and skeeball. Oh, man. Skeeball! Nate thinks Conrad is a businessman and will sell back the bar. With or without Kenny, Nate is going to do what he thinks would've made Joe Ryan proud. I'm telling you... skeeball.
Dinner with Ms. Carlisle. Daniel is finishing his pitch about wanting to carry on Stonehaven's legacy of helping children in the wake of disasters. Jason butts in to tell the story of how he was just a kid during the Bushwick blackout of '77. That would mean he was likely a child that was directly affected by Donna's father's efforts. Prosser seems to have an inside track on the deal now, but not so fast. Daniel pulls out a folder with evidence that Jason colluded to raise gas and oil prices after 9/11. This was done through subsidiaries and everything was settled and buried so it wouldn't show up in public records. Daniel levels with Donna. He plays on her sentimentality of how her father would view this -- if he knew one of the children he helped had done such horrible things. Jason has been beaten. He simply gets up from the dinner table and leaves. Daniel's won. Donna's ready to draw up contracts with Grayson Global. Emanda's phone rings with a call from Nolan, so she excuses herself. He's hacked Aiden's phone and sent over a file that was just sent to Aiden by Helen. It's a new video of Colleen. Same set-up with the skeevy guy interviewing her, but this time things get a little more disturbing. Colleen is given a syringe and rubber band. She shoots up. Ems asks Nolan why Aiden would keep this from her. It may have to do with the subject line, Nolan says. "A life for a life?" Emanda immediately figures out that Victoria is the target. She orders Nolan to track Aiden's GPS on his phone.
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In the middle of the night, Victoria waits for Jason outside of the hotel. Again, he's angry to have been seemingly duped and again, Aiden has Victoria in his crosshairs. Aiden is about to pull the trigger... again, when Emanda appears and stops him. Aiden's a bit defiant at first, because he knows Emanda is at least a little bit in league with Victoria to further the mission, but Ems assures him that this is not the way to go. If he becomes the Initiative's assassin, they have all of the power. They've already secured Daniel's acquisition of Stonehaven, which should please Helen. They can find Colleen on their own terms now and they will make Helen pay. Emanda says she's returning to New York tonight and he should too.
The day, Daniel and Ems touch down at the private airport. Dan tries to extend the date -- maybe go to the Bahamas or the Azores. Emanda declines. She just wants to go home, she says.
Nolcorp. Padma sits down on the office couch to Nolan, who e-mailed her recently about making an offer on the house. He's geeked out that the house has a secret passage, because he totally was going to host a murder mystery party. Somebody get me on that guest list, please. Nolan hints that he'd like Padma to move in with him at this house, but she's hesitant because of everything that went down with Marco. Nolan assures her that his feelings for "Groucho Snarx" (!) were a mistake and that Marco was only hanging around because he was after a powerful piece of code. Padma: "You mean Carrion?" Uh... way to blow your cover, Ms. Lahari. Nolan goes stiff for less than a moment at the realization he's had his heart toyed with, then lightly acknowledges that, yes, he was talking about the ultra secret unfinished super program he wrote once upon a tech startup.
Emanda regains her bearings at Casa Emily when there's a knock at the door from Victoria. The Queen has no patience for the usual pseudo-polite banter. She wants to know why Ems accompanied Daniel to Los Angeles. Emanda, of course, gives the diplomatic answer that she was there to support him. Victoria doesn't understand how that could result in a successful acquisition, when she's been clear that this was not in his best interest. Victoria calls Emanda a selfish little girl who may have actually dealt Daniel his greatest loss. She leaves Ems frustrated.
Staring out the back door of his soon-to-be new home, Nolan turns over the figurine of Hanuman in his hands, contemplating whatever it is a man of Nolan's intellect contemplates when he's just found out the love of his life is fake. Emanda enters, exhausted from her whole ordeal in L.A. She hopes she made the right decisions. Nolan admits that he hasn't. Nolan: "Have I told you what Carrion is?" Emanda: "Rotting meat?" Without missing a beat, Nolan explains that it's a program that can knock down Manhattan's power grid in less than a millisecond. He relates Padma's earlier slip up that revealed she's aware of the program even though Nolan never told her about it. Now it makes sense why the Initiative is so intent on acquiring a disaster relief firm. The good news is that Carrion is incomplete, and only Nolan knows the final sequence. (Is that good news from a safety standpoint, Nolan?) The bad news is Nolan's not sure what to do about Padma now. Emanda: "My advice? Play her like she's playing you."
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Charlotte hurries through a dark Grayson Manor, calling out for her family members. She enters the dining room to find a little surprise party waiting for her, consisting of her parents and Daniel. Victoria greets her with "Bon anniversaire, ma belle!" which is... whatever. For the Graysons it's actually a very cute little surprise, complete with a little birthday cake (little for them is still three layers). "I thought you canceled my birthday?" Charlotte delivers this line with the perfect mix of sarcasm and actual belief that it's entirely within Victoria's M.O. to do such a thing. Victoria invites her daughter to blow out the candles on her cake, which leads Charlie to talk about her one wish. As an adult, she just wants her family to respect her first adult decision, which was to have her name legally changed to Charlotte Clarke. Her family has been through way too much in the last year or two to be stunned by this. They greet it with silent acceptance. Emanda arrives just as Charlotte reveals this to her family. She smiles to herself and then enters the room with her gift for Charlotte. Victoria bites at the opportunity to point out Ems wasn't invited, but nobody really pays that any mind since Daniel and Charlotte love Emanda and Conrad is probably spinning political speeches in his head 24/7 now.
Elsewhere in the house, Emanda and Daniel sit down to drink some wine and avoid the aftermath of Charlotte's announcement. Daniel figures it won't sit well with Conrad. Emanda gives Daniel an uncomfortable look, puts down her wine glass and launches into a confession about being approached by Victoria to rekindle their relationship. Daniel says he suspected it all along and was curious to see how far she was willing to go. Dan wonders if they could ever get back to being the people they once were. Emanda: "Maybe... but not tonight." They sit with a great distance between them on the couch.
Stowaway. Declan hounds Jack about Matt Duncan's sudden change of heart that led to a confession of murder. Something doesn't add up and now they're business partners with Conrad, which is probably infinitely worse than being linked to the Ryans. Jack's not hearing all of this, because he's got babies and strippers to tend to. Amily cuts off Declan's reasonable concerns, implementing a ban on all negative talk and complaining because she's Amily and that's just what Amily does. She does annoying things that make you want to shove her over a second-floor banister. Dec is definitely not pleased with this outcome.
Nate has managed a meeting with Conrad at Grayson Manor. He offers to buy back the bar for $65,000. Conrad tells him to save his breath and adds that Nate's belief that he can develop the docks is foolish. Conrad's had plenty of investors bring plans like that to him and they've always failed because of the entrenched families operating on the docks. Nate has some ideas about that. He thinks Conrad doesn't understand the docks because he lives up in a castle far away from there. Nate knows that muscle can get the job done and he has a vision of docks full of casinos that will create lots of jobs. Conrad's impressed by Nate's arrogance and ambition to have this sort of thing developed by Memorial Day. Ashley, who's standing in on this meeting, can see the evil wheels turning in her boss' head. She thinks they should talk about this and Conrad agrees. They should talk about this. He asks Ashley to close the door to the study.
Nolan sits by his swimming pool, watching Padma on his iPad while he instructs her over the phone where to find his credit card so they can go out to dinner. Shamu Cam sighting! Padma opens Nolan's desk drawer and the whole thing falls out. She pores over the contents and comes across a flash drive. She plugs in a USB adapter into her iPad and then plugs in the drive. The screen flashes with text and then ASCII art that spells out "Carrion" in big letters. Nolan watches Padma's stoic reaction to finding what she was looking for and can hardly bear to look.
Emanda comes home to find Aiden sitting outside on her porch swing in plain sight. He doesn't care that Victoria could see him there. He looks inconsolable. Aiden hands over his phone to Ems. She watches a video of Colleen dying from a drug overdose and understands fully what she's done to Aiden. She grabs him in a hug and apologizes. Always trying to spin the situation in her favor, Emanda suggests that they still can't believe anything the Initiative provides them. This sets Aiden off. His sister is probably dead because he trusted Emanda's idea that they were simply giving him false hope. If she really is dead, it's on Emanda, Aiden says. He storms off.
-- 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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