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There's nobody better than the Graysons at a cover-up. Still dealing with the aftermath of their murder of Helen Crowley, they band together as a family to give off the appearance of not being aware that Helen is missing to any eyes and ears that may be observing them. The night of the murder, Victoria solves the issue of Helen's chauffer expecting her to leave Grayson Manor by donning Helen's outfit and being driven to her home. The day, she and Daniel stage a fake confrontation at his office to make it appear that Dan still has an alliance with Helen. When an Initiative agent comes sniffing around Grayson Manor, Conrad and Victoria put him on the trail of Amily, whom they've framed for Helen's murder by stashing her cell phone and scarf at the Stowaway. That Initiative agent gained access to the Graysons because they were throwing a big party for the announcement of Conrad's gubernatorial candidacy. Everything's coming up Grayson.
Being privy to Conrad's major plans and exactly how Amily is counter to them, Ashley seeks out Emanda to warn her that Ams might be in danger. Emanda had no idea that Amily had confronted Conrad, and quickly puts the pieces together that Jack and his new wife might be out of communication because something's afoot. Ems and Nolan track Jack's and Nate's last GPS coordinates and hop on a speedboat on a mission to intercept them. It's just about the most ridiculous thing ever, seeing Nolan and Emanda on the CGI'd seas, and even more ridiculous that they actually make it there on time.
Meanwhile, Nolan has left Padma in the care of Aiden. It's a mutually beneficial situation because the hope is that Padma can maybe get them back on the trail of the Initiative while Aiden can maybe assist in a safe return of Padma's father. Despite Helen being gone, they do manage to get in contact with the Initiative, drawing the attention of the agent investigating Helen's disappearance. The good news is Padma's father may still be alive. The bad news is they sent her one of his fingers.
After about three attempts at a sacrifice (hey, that's the title and theme of this episode!), Amily finally gives her life to protect both Jack and Emanda. Let's see... there's Amily getting all up in Nate's face when he's got her and Jack hostage at gunpoint, feeding him a lie about never loving Jack and only being there for revenge so that Nate will spare him. Then, when Jack concocts a plan so they can escape on an inflatable raft by tricking Nate into going in the boat's cabin, Ams stays behind to let Jack have a head start because he's taken a gunshot wound in the process of escaping. Finally, Emanda boards the boat and gets into a physical struggle with Nate over her gun, which goes off and pierces the boat's propane tank. Amily gets a hold of Nate's gun during this fight and puts a bullet in him. The two girls are about to escape when Ams decides to go back to grab a necklace that Emanda gave her when they were teens that symbolized their sisterhood and Ems' promise to come back for her after juvie. Nate pulls out a lighter and blows up the boat just as Ams makes her jump, shielding Emanda. She's fatally wounded, and in her last moments, she makes Ems promise to watch over Jack and Carl. The only thing that's gut-wrenching about such a telegraphed death is Ems' reaction. She finally owns up to her responsibility for this woman and breaks down while she waits for rescue from Nolan after he rushes Jack to the emergency room. All in all, it's probably the worst honeymoon ever, but I'd say any planned trip to Nantucket is doomed from the start.
-- 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 begin this seafaring episode by reliving the scuba diver's search of The Amanda's wreckage from the opening of the season premiere. Emanda voice-over: "Sacrifice -- by its strictest definition takes something precious in exchange for the appeasement of a higher power, an abiding devotion to a cause that cannot be satisfied with a simple promise." The diver makes his way into the boat's cabin and stops on the photo of the Porter brothers with their father. Fade cut to Jack and Amily making love in the bed just below that photo probably days earlier. VO: "Because an oath, no matter how solemn, asks nothing in return." Amily's foot kicks out and knocks Jack's compass to the floor. Fade cut to the diver discovering the compass and pocketing it. VO: "While true sacrifice demands unspeakable loss." The diver discovers a male corpse's wedding-ringed hand. Fade cut to Jack's wedding-ringed hand clasping Amily's. They finish their mushiness and decide to head upstairs to get some cool air under the stars. After they exit, Nate pops open the closet door he was hiding in and exposes his wedding-ringed hand. Well, that's no fun.
Grayson Manor. It's still the night of Helen Crowley's murder. Sarcastically, Conrad congratulates Victoria on dooming them all with just one bullet. Victoria: "The bitch had it coming." That's just crass, Victoria. You're better than that. ...Maybe. While she, Conrad and Daniel roll up Helen's body in a rug, taking a page from Archer's Woodhouse, I suppose, Helen's phone goes off with a text. Her chauffeur is starting to wonder where she is. Victoria has a plan for that. She has Conrad unroll the carpet and hand her the phone. Cut to the driver receiving a text from Helen's number that reads, "Out in a moment. Start the car." Out steps Victoria, wearing Helen's headscarf and sunglasses. She smiles to herself as she slips into the backseat with the driver being none the wiser. It was such a kooky plan that it might just work, one of the Graysons probably said.
The morning, the three Graysons have a murder hangover at Grayson Manor. Daniel's surprised to hear that Victoria's ready to bring back the house staff so soon and that it's business as usual with their Labor Day party going on as planned. Conrad thinks it's time that Daniel stop distancing himself from the blood on all their hands, especially since they've already got it figured out that they'll be pinning this all on Amily. Her threat against the family made that an easy choice. Dan has a hissyfit about the idea of destroying a girl with a justifiable vendetta against them for what they did to her father, but Victoria brushes all of that off. Amily is simply an enemy of the family now and there's no need to consider anything else. Ashley walks into the room as Victoria's ending her discussion of framing Amily and moving on to her plan to use Helen's video feed at Daniel's office to their advantage somehow. She and Daniel walk out, leaving Ash to talk with Conrad.
Ash wants to know why she's been summoned to the house at such an early hour. It's because Conrad wants to announce his gubernatorial candidacy... tonight. It's every communications director's nightmare. Ash doesn't hide her irritation with the situation, and goes one step further by revealing she's aware that this is all the result of Amily's blackmail. Conrad thinks that's all the more reason why he should move quickly. He then passes the buck to Ashley to make sure that Amily poses no further interference to his plans. This is why a communications degree is bunk.
Casa Emily. Ems has Nolan and Aiden on a three-way video conference call from her iPad. Nolan says he's set up a super secure and untraceable chatroom for them. He says this from his location at the Stowaway because he's watching over the bar while Jack and Amily have their honeymoon. He asks Aiden, or "Mr. Bean" rather, where he is, giving Aiden an opportunity to gripe about having to stay away from Emanda just in case Daniel comes around. Aiden reminds them that the whole purpose of that Daniel charade is to get at the Initiative, and they're missing a golden opportunity with Padma. Nolan immediately balks at the idea of putting Padma in any further danger, but Aiden makes a good point that they may still be able to save her father. Ems comes around to Aiden's way of thinking, and advises Nolan that the guy who lost his sister to these Initiative jerks might be the right guy to help save his girlfriend. Emanda has really been off her game lately, no? She has to end the call because there's a knock at the door.
It's Ash. There's plenty of reasons for this face-to-face meeting to be a little awkward, but Ems really has no time for awkward. She asks Ashley to get right to the point. At least feigning some concern, Ash tells Emanda about Amily's blackmailing of Conrad with something on her laptop. It totally catches Emanda off guard, but she's able to keep her composure when she asks what Ams showed Conrad. Ash, of course, doesn't know, but her description of Conrad's immediate change of heart upon seeing it is all Ems probably needs to hear to know what has happened. She thanks Ashley for the heads up, cutting her off before she can launch into some sort of misguided apology or reconciliation attempt. As soon as Ash leaves, Ems heads straight for her secret compartment. Her laptop is gone. You can't even trust a pseudo sister that has assumed your identity with your secrets, these days.
Back out on the love boat, the newlyweds wake up a little later in the morning than they meant to after their passionate wedding night. Ams is still bouncing around at the thought of being married, so she takes her energetic self down to the cabin to start cooking breakfast. Jack slowly follows after, but stops when he notices a pack of cigarettes tucked into the ship's rolled up sail. He goes to ask his wife if they're hers -- already taken up smoking and you're not even a day into marriage, tsk tsk -- but doesn't get to finish his sentence because Nate's got Amily held at gunpoint.
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Jack is calm and collected, even with a gun pointed at his new bride. That's probably because he has no idea why Nate would be so angry about a legit business deal between himself and Conrad with Emanda's money. Nate fills Jack in about the leverage Conrad claimed the Porters had over him. This is news to Jack. Still, he's level-headed, asking Nate to just get Conrad on the phone and they can settle the problem with words. How boring. While Nate tries to get a signal out on the deck, Ams whispers to Jack that there's no way they're getting out of this alive unless they kill Nate first. Jack offers to sail Nate closer to shore so he can get a signal and sort this all out. Nate thinks that's a good idea, but instead he'll do the sailing himself and take Amily with him, sealing Jack in the cabin.
Ems shows up at the Stowaway, looking for clues and finds Charlotte happily uploading wedding day photos on her laptop. Emanda makes up some lie about looking for the earrings she loaned Ams for the wedding to try and get an opportunity to snoop around, but it's not necessary because Charlie goes off to check on Carl because the air conditioner broke. While she's gone, Emanda takes a look at the photo of Jack and Amily on The Amanda that's on Charlotte' screen, and has a superhuman moment, noticing part of Nate's face peering through the boat's window. It seriously requires, like, five zooms to see it clearly after she supposedly noticed it a few feet away from the laptop. Ems pulls out her phone and snaps a picture of Nate's face.
Cut to Emanda showing it to Nolan outside of the Stowaway, allowing Nolan to simply serve the purpose in this scene of making Nate sound like a scary, bad dude that you don't want to mess with. Also, Nolan decided to check up on whether Mr. and Mrs. Porter checked in at their hotel, for some reason, and they hadn't. Basically, we should be really scared for Jack and Amily. Nolan gets out his tablet to try and track Nate's GPS signal from his cell phone. His last coordinates came from the ocean, halfway to Nantucket. In other words, he's probably hacking Jack and Ams to pieces as we speak.
At Grayson Global, Daniel returns to his office with his assistant, making sure to mention for the camera in his desk clock that he was supposed to meet with Helen Crowley for breakfast, but she never showed. Victoria grandly enters the office to add to the Helen mythos. Mother and son are talking in overtly contentious tones about Victoria meeting with Helen last night to hand over evidence to protect him, and Daniel not believing his mother's stories anymore. He goes as far as to begin calling security on Victoria, but she stops him to warn that he's going to need to conserve his security team if he continues keeping council with Helen. Victoria walks out and flashes a subtle smile to her son off camera.
Padma walks into the Stowaway, out of her depth. She asks for Nolan at the bar, but doesn't get a friendly response. Aiden is sitting nearby on his phone and informs the person on the other end that Padma has arrived. He hands the phone to her. She's relieved to hear Nolan on the other end of the phone, though it's obvious he's distressed. That distress comes from him cowering in a speedboat that Emanda is racing toward Nate's last coordinates. Nolan assures Padma that Aiden is a friend who can be trusted. When she asks how Nolan can be so sure, he explains that Aiden's dealt with the same people who have kidnapped her father. At no point does Padma question the circumstances of any of what has just happened -- just whether the random British guy can be trusted.
Sitting at his desk in Grayson Manor, Conrad's phone rings. He's annoyed to get a call from Nate until Conrad's told that he's holding court with the Porters and wants to know what he needs to do to free Conrad of the leverage they hold over him. It's surprising for Nate to find out that Amily is the one posing a threat to Conrad. He's now aware that he's after the laptop and preventing Ams from posing any future threats. Nate promises to let Jack live if she'll just turn over the laptop. Amily gives in and heads for her backpack. Inside, she has a gun stashed, but when she pulls it out and tries to off Nate, it's not loaded. Apparently, Nate checked the boat for weapons before they set sail. He pulls his own gun and is ready to blow Amily and Jack away, but she stops him to fake confess that she only married Jack to stay in the Hamptons so she can get revenge against the Graysons, and she thinks that the two of them could team up to get all the money they want out of Conrad, but the laptop Nate wants is back in Montauk. Jack overhears this from the cabin and goes straight for a secret compartment where he hopes Declan has stashed his old laptop. Bingo. Jack opens it up.
Cut to Nolan noticing something odd on his tablet. He yells for Emanda to stop the boat because he can see that Declan's laptop has just come online. If he can hack the webcam, they can see what's happening on the boat. Nolan does just that, and they can see Jack typing away, still alive. Cut back to Nate wavering about Amily's proposition. He finally buys off on it and decides they need to turn the boat around and head back for Montauk. Cut to Nolan and Ems noticing Jack reacting to a change on the boat. They look at the GPS tracking to see The Amanda changing course. Ems resumes full throttle on the speedboat, her pained and worried face standing out over a poorly green-screened ocean background.
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Stowaway. Declan calls out the time of death for the A/C unit. He shouldn't feel bad about not being able to fix it, Charlotte says, because it's as old as her mother. Enter Victoria right on cue. She's there to invite Charlotte to the house for their Labor Day party, but Charlie wants no part of it. The Queen knows how to get what she wants, though, and uses the current situation to her advantage. She suggests that baby Carl should probably be out of the heat from the broken air conditioner, and Charlotte could probably use a rest. It's a perfectly logical reason that even Declan gets behind, dropping his cold posturing to Victoria. With that settled, Victoria sneaks into Amily's bedroom and plants Helen's headscarf and cell phone under the bed.
At the Nolcorp offices, Aiden recounts his story to Padma of losing his sister to the Initiative. Hey... what about the Nolcorp office being bugged? I thought that's why Padma had to tell her story about her father to Nolan elsewhere. No matter. Aiden claims he can help Padma with her father's situation, but first things first, they need to verify he's even still alive. They can start that line of inquiry by getting in touch with Helen. Aiden hands Padma her phone.
Jack has grown impatient in the boat's cabin and demands to be let out so he can talk to his wife. He asks if what he heard her say about their marriage is true. The look on Amily's face tells Jack that she's keeping up a lie to protect them both, while her voice keeps Nate in the dark. Jack plays his own gambit. He accuses Amily of lying about the laptop, and that he saw it in the cabin. While Nate goes to look for it, Jack motions for Ams to help him start deploying an escape raft while they keep up their fake argument. That fake argument start to get a little real, with Amily making sure that Jack knows there wasn't any real truth to anything she said. She reiterates that she loves him as Nate calls out for her to show him where the laptop is. She grabs it from under a mattress for Nate. When it props open we cut to Nolan seeing it come back online with a video feed of a confused Nate. From out on the deck of The Amanda, Jack calls out to Amily, "Now!" as he pulls the ripcord on the raft.
Ams locks Nate in the bedroom and starts blocking off the cabin while Jack preps the raft to be dropped in the water. Nate pulls out his gun and lets out three rounds to try and break the clasp holding the cabin shut. The third bullet tags Jack in the ribs. Cut to Nolan informing Ems that he thinks Jack has been shot. Emanda's beside herself, still leaning on that speedboat throttle. Cut back to Amily helping Jack down the boat's ladder. He flops down into the raft, clutching his side where he's losing a lot of blood. Without hesitation, Amily starts untying the raft from the boat. Jack: "What are you doing?" Amily: "Saving you. I love you, Jack." Jack protests, but it's too late. He's drifting away from his wife. Ams turns to face Nate as he bursts through the cabin door. She charges him and avoids his gun enough for him not to fire it, but he backhands her, knocking her unconscious. Nate curses, realizing he's let Jack escape.
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It's the Labor Day party at Grayson Manor. Victoria and Conrad stand alone, though not too far removed from their partygoers. Conrad notes that his faux wife looks radiant in her element -- that being in one of her form-fitting dresses at an over-the-top soiree. Victoria's not in the mood for compliments with what they've recently been dealing with, and she's ready to drop the charade of being Mrs. Grayson altogether. Not only was their no clause to their agreement to present a united front that said it must terminate at the end of summer, Conrad insists that his political career depends on exuding family values. While Victoria may not care about that, Conrad's sure she cares about what might be good for their son. Conrad walks off, leaving Victoria to contemplate this as she catches eyes with Daniel across the room.
While Jack floats aimless and unconscious on his raft, Amily awakens from the blow to her head to find herself blocked in the boat's cabin. She peers out through one of the bullet holes Nate made in the door earlier and sees that he appears to be having a tough go of navigating. Ams contemplates her move. Cut to Nolan and Ems speeding through the dark waters, searching the horizon for signs of Jack. They notice Nate turning the boat again on the GPS, and figure he must be looking for Jack as well. It's a race now. Cut back to Amily searching frantically in the cabin. She pops open a compartment in the floor and stomps it to create a large water leak. Ams then begins stuffing canned goods into a pillow case.
At the soiree, the Graysons are doing their usual schmoozing when they're approached by an unsettling man in a black suit named Trask. He asks to pose a few questions to Conrad and Victoria, starting with the whereabouts of Helen Crowley. Cut to the Graysons leading Trask into the den. They follow through with their story about giving Helen the evidence she wanted the night she came to Grayson Manor, but Trask isn't buying it. Helen doesn't negotiate, he says. Seeing their plan has hit a little snag, Conrad does a good job of selling his sudden epiphany that maybe Amanda Clarke is responsible for this. He even gets in a rib at the Initiative for failing to destroy all the evidence she supposedly now possesses when they staged Victoria's plane crash. Trask, staring down Victoria: "It seems our people failed at any number of intentions that evening." Victoria: "Oh, wasn't I the lucky one?" The Graysons suggest Ams got her hands on the evidence through Gordon Murphy since he was married to her mother, after all. They say they informed Helen of her being a threat and then told her to get out of their house, as Victoria now does to Trask.
Nolan spots Jack off in the distance through his binoculars. He's not moving. Emanda resumes the throttle. Cut to Nate realizing something's not right on The Amanda. He slows the engine and continues poorly navigating. Amily waits for him as the cabin fills with water, prepared to bash his head in with a sack full of Campbell's.
Back to Nolan and Ems. They manage to snag Jack's raft and get a good look at him. There's no exit wound. Nolan's pallor would convince you that he's lost more blood than Jack. Emanda demands to know if she can trust Nolan to get Jack to a hospital. Nolan snaps out of his daze: "Ems, it's Jack. I will do everything that I can, but what are you going to do?" Emanda: "I can't leave Amanda." She hops in the raft and pulls the cord to get the engine started. They part ways.
On The Amanda, the power has now gone out as a result of the flooding. An indicator light for "high water" starts buzzing. Nate grabs his gun, heading down to the cabin, but Amily's nowhere in sight. Meanwhile, Nolan's gunning the engine of the speedboat and talking to an unconscious Jack, but probably doing it more to keep himself from freaking out.
A flashlight and a gloved hand rummage through the bedroom at the Stowaway. Trask sifts through drawers of junk until he looks under the bed, finding Helen's phone. He turns it on, and there's 14 unheard voicemails. The first one is from Padma, saying she's found Carrion, but it's incomplete and will require Nolan's assistance. She demands proof that her father is still alive. Calmly, Trask pulls out his own phone and places a call. "Helen has been compromised. I'm going to need to arrange a delivery."
Nate continues his search for Amily. He reaches the back of the cabin, and is ready to open the bedroom door when Ams pops out from under a bench cushion behind him and whacks him with her sack of soup. It's not nearly the ideal whack either. Nate goes down, but not out. Ams runs for the deck of the boat, and it's really not clear what her plan would've been, but it doesn't matter because Emanda is there to whack Nate on the head again with an oar when he comes rushing after Amily. Ems pulls out her gun, but Ams distracts her just enough for Nate to sweep Emanda's leg. They begin to wrestle and fall into the cabin, with Ems ordering Amily to find Nate's gun. In the struggle, Emanda's gun goes off, puncturing the boat's reserve propane tank. Nate's strength begins to overpower Emanda, and just as he's turning the gun on her face, Amily appears in the doorway with Nate's gun. She lets off a round into his back. There's no time to celebrate with the cabin filling with gas. They run for the raft, but Amily stops when she notices that her necklace has fallen. When she reaches to grab it, she sees Nate sitting to the propane tank, popping open his lighter. Amily screams for Emanda to get down as she jumps onto the raft, shielding Ems. The Amanda explodes.
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In the aftermath of the explosion, Ems tries to stay afloat while scanning the wreckage for Amily. She gets back on the raft and spots Ams floating unconscious on some debris. Ems paddles.
Aiden and Padma are still sitting in the office at Nolcorp. Padma's phone rings, and Aiden tries to calm her down in preparation of taking the important phone call. Aiden puts it on speakerphone, sitting by silently as Padma answers, expecting Helen. Trask informs her that Helen is no longer with them, but her orders are the same. Again, Padma demands that the Initiative provide proof that her father is alive. Trask says that she's already signed for it, sending Padma's eyes looking down at a small box with her name and address on it that's sitting on the table. Trask: "Feel free to check the fingerprint." Padma reaches for the package, but Aiden stops her. He cracks it open himself and tries to keep a stone face, but his jaw flinches. He turns to Padma and she knows what's in the box. It's like the end of Se7en, only much less awesome.
The Labor Day party attendees have all gathered around the Grayson family as Ashley introduces Conrad to much applause. He wastes no time announcing his plans to run for governor. Everyone looks very satisfied except for Daniel, but you just can't please everyone when it comes to politics.
Emanda manages to get Ams onto her raft. Amily just wants to know that Jack's going to be OK. They won't know that until Nolan returns, Ems says. A minute goes by and Amily's now being much more realistic. She needs to know that Emanda will take care of Jack and Carl. Promise. Emanda breaks down like we've never heard her before and apologizes to her pseudo sister. Ams doesn't want to hear it because Emanda gave her the one thing she always wanted: a family. She pulls out the necklace she went back for before the explosion and hands it to Ems.
FLASHBACK: Teenage Amanda Clarke hands the necklace over to teenage Emily Thorne in the juvie cell they shared, saying she'll be back for it and for her. Emily stops her before she goes to ask for verification that Amanda considers them sisters, then startles her with a hug. She tells the young Amanda, who is still cold and emotionless, that she loves her. /FLASHBACK.
Ems answers her memory, telling Ams that she loves her, but it's too late. Amily is gone. Emanda loses it, sobbing in uncontrollable bursts.
Conrad joins Victoria and Daniel out on the Queen's balcony at Grayson Manor. The two parents are pretty chipper, all things considering, but Daniel looks weighed down by his conscience. He asks how he's supposed to just pretend like nothing's changed. What about Amanda Clarke? Victoria simply says that Amily chose the wrong enemy.
Nolan races back in the speed boat for Emanda as Jack undergoes emergency surgery. Ems hangs on tight to Amily, but half of the raft is waterlogged. Emanda voice-over: "Sacrifice demands the surrender of things we cherish above all else. Only out of the agony of those losses can a new resolution be born..." Ems lets go of Amily and lets her sink into the ocean. VO: "An undying devotion to a cause greater than one's self." Nolan searches anxiously with his flashlight for Emanda in the middle of the dark ocean, screaming out her name. Ems stares at Amily's necklace, and hears Nolan far off in the distance. VO: "...and a moral duty to see a journey through..." Ems fires off her flare gun. "...to its absolute completion." We crane above Emanda lying in her raft, emotionally drained and bathed in the red tint of her beacon.
Find out if Amanda's death was really necessary, how it might affect Emily, why Emily and Jack should never get together and what past Revenge guest star (and current The Following villain) James Purefoy had to say about hopping into bed with Madeleine Stowe from our friends at Wetpaint.
-- 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.