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The two-hour finale extravaganza begins with the power still out in New York, but for all of the 'terror' Carrion was supposed to bring about, it seems like the only terrible thing about this blackout is the inability of any of our favorite New Yorkers to reach each other by phone. Can you say plot device? At least nine months from now we can expect a bunch of Carrion babies. The blackout doesn't even last long, but the effects on cellular networks proves residual, leading to many missed connections throughout the episode. Amid this backdrop, there's a lot of double-crossing and questioned motives, starting with Victoria and Jack. Having gained Jack's trust (I've yet to understand how/why), Victoria relays Jack's plan to destroy the gubernatorial campaign to Conrad. She's also deduced that Jack and Ashley are in cahoots. With this information, Conrad sets a plan in motion to get rid of Jack for good while keeping the two unaware of what's in store.
Seeking some guidance, Ems goes in search of Takeda, only to find that he's been murdered. Just as Emanda's about to go off on a quest for the killer, Aiden comes clean about being responsible, which sets Ems off. She's ready to ditch him entirely, but Aiden reveals that Takeda's fiancé was on Flight 197 and they had been pawns in Takeda's own revenge plot. Emanda doesn't want to believe this, but Aiden's able to provide some pretty solid evidence, including photographs of the fiancé. Aiden's learned that sometimes (read: always) Ems just needs some time to gain some perspective, so he gives her a key to a villa he hopes they might share one day, and removes himself from the picture.
While waiting out the blackout and passing miserable hours together, Declan realizes that Regina is obsessed or in love with Charlotte. When he calls her out on it, she plants the money they withdrew for Charlotte's bail on him and runs off to tell Charlie that Dec attacked her and took the cash. The story doesn't really ring true to Charlotte, but she's just silly enough to keep Declan at a distance while she mulls the possibility of it being true. This goes on just long enough for Dec to end up in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Conrad's plan for Jack involved detonating a bomb at Grayson Global during his last press conference leading up to the election so that he could be a first responder on the scene. Let me say that again. Conrad enacted a false flag attack to boost his poll numbers. And I'm just going to come out and say this: It was especially hard to watch the bombing right now, especially with how well done the scenes of the aftermath were. The attack was supposed to only take the life of Jack because Conrad had warned Daniel to send all staff home for the day, but in a weird twist of fate, Declan ended up being the only one at Grayson Global at the time of the blast. Charlotte had told him she was with Daniel when she was really with Regina, which sent Declan to the office in hopes of patching up their misunderstanding. He survives the blast... but then dies in surgery. It happens so unexpectedly and without mercy that even for a character as greasy and usually irrelevant as Declan, it's a gut punch. The universe is just dead-set on taking away everything Jack has.
Completely devastated and seeing red, Jack is out for Conrad's blood. And it would probably be a great service to the world if Jack could kill the man now because it turns out Conrad has been a part of the Initiative since David Clarke's framing. All of their terror is about profits —something Conrad has a fondness for. Now everything seems to be falling into place for Conrad. He wins the election outright, Aiden gets arrested in connection with the bombing and Conrad's going to be a grandfather. Also, the paper trail for the Initiative ends up getting pinned to Nolan. Before Padma's death, the Initiative recorded a video of her implicating Nolan as the mastermind of the organization. He gets detained by the FBI. Meanwhile, Daniel has a confrontation with Aiden that may have ended in the murder of our tedious Brit heart -- not throb — let's go with heart murmur. So Conrad has vanquished all his foes, or so he thinks.
Jack shows up at Conrad's acceptance speech after the election with the intention of assassinating the governor-elect. Emanda manages to intercept him just as he's about to the pull the trigger. He's pretty much running on autopilot at this point, so the only thing Ems can do to get his attention is come clean. She tells him the truth. She is Amanda Clarke. Shit just got honest.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Buckle in, guys. It's going to be a long one. New York City remains shrouded in its blackout from Carrion. We observe the silence and darkness through multiple pans across the city that fade cut into each other. Emanda voice-over: "Darkness scares us. We yearn for the comfort of light as it provides shape and form, allowing us to recognize... to define what's before us. But what is it we're afraid of, really? Not the darkness itself, but the truth we know hides within." Still at Nolcorp, Ems, Nolan and Aiden look down on the city from the skyscraper's windows with police sirens going off in the distance. Nolan explains that it's not just a power blackout. Carrion wiped out all automated systems, including internet and cellular networks. The only idea Aiden can come up with is radio, but Nolan doesn't happen to have a survival kit around anywhere because his apocalypse plan started with and ended with "Call Emily."
Almost as quickly as Nolan has succumbed to fatalism, he has an epiphany. NolSat, which I assume is Nolan's own personal satellite (of course he has one), is solar powered. He can establish a connection if he can just find a laptop somewhere around the office. Nolan goes off to look for one while Ems wonders aloud what the Initiative could be up to. They're up to being assholes, Ems. We're all missing Game of Thrones!
We tilt down from outside the windows of Nolcrop to an overhead shot of the street below, where people are scrambling in the darkness with flashlights in a panic. Daniel leads Charlotte out of the building where they were having dinner and out into the madness of the streets. Everything looks like the stereotypical apocalypse. Traffic is backed up. People are running around like they don't just have to go find ice and a cooler to store all their fridge items for the night. Dan figures they should walk to Conrad's campaign headquarters because traffic is going to be ridiculous anyway. That doesn't sound good to Charlotte at all, but that's what the apocalypse is, Charlie -- 15 blocks in heels. She begs Daniel not to tell mom and dad about her being pregnant, but he just laughs off the idea. Why would he want to be a part of that conversation? That's just as well for Charlotte because she isn't even sure what she's going to do about the baby. This stops Daniel in his tracks. He intensely imparts some older brother wisdom. "Listen to me. You're going to tell Declan and you're going to figure it out together." Way to not pontificate, brah.
Stowaway. Can you imagine the awkwardness of being alone in a power outage with the woman who's responsible for your wife's death who doesn't know you know she's responsible for said death? Yeah. Jack and Victoria. That. But what's really awkward is this plot hole: Jack says that because of how busy he's been with Conrad's campaign, baby Carl is at his grandmother's house for the week. Um... would that be Mrs. Porter who abandoned Jack and Dec as children or the non-existent mother of Jack's dead loner wife with a fake identity? With how convoluted everything has become, I guess a slip-up like that was inevitable. Victoria wants to get back to deliberating about Jack's evidence against Conrad. She doesn't think it's much of a smoking gun. More so, she wants to know why Jack suddenly trusts her. She could easily alert Conrad to his intentions. Apparently, the knowledge that Victoria loved David Clarke has given Jack the confidence to divulge his aspirations to her. He doesn't know enough about what's on the evidence laptop to know that he's playing right into Victoria's interests. Jack is not a revenger. He admits to Victoria that he's searched their home for the laptop and has only come across the safe in Conrad's office, which he can't get into. Victoria offers to help him get into it.
Back in the city, Regina and Declan remain trapped at the ATM where they were trying to raise bail money to spring Charlotte. Declan picks up a metal trashcan, trying to break the glass door with it, but only succeeds in smashing his own hand. Regina scoffs. "What does Charlotte see in you, anyway? I get the forbidden fruit thing, but you are particularly low-hanging," she prods. Somebody sounds a little jealous. A vagrant starts banging on the door, but can't get in, much in the same way that they can't get out. Regina quips that Dec's dad is out there and he should go with him so she doesn't have to see his face anymore. Sometimes Regina is very clever; sometimes she's not clever at all. Dec makes the observation that, unfortunately, neither of them are going to get to take their leave of each other any time soon.
At Grayson campaign headquarters, Conrad's minions all huddle around him with flashlights. He commends them on their willingness to "soldier on," but he orders them to all go home to check on their loved ones. Conrad pulls out his phone and puts it up to this ear, which Ashley spots and finds odd since everyone's cell service should be out. Awkwardly, Conrad says he was just leaving himself a voice memo with notes on his upcoming press conference speech. Ash asks about their plans for the 24 hours now that the world seems to be ending. Conrad was planning a party tomorrow, but right now all he wants to do is take his helicopter to pick up Victoria so she'll be by his side throughout the election (if the power comes back on), and he wants to take a nap right now. Being slimy saps your energy like nothing.
It's the five-hour mark of the power outage according to a special news report that Nolan, Ems and Aiden are watching on Nolan's NolSat-connected laptop. The news anchor says authorities are baffled about what could've caused all networks and power grids to simultaneously go down in New York City. Nolan's like, duh... Carrion. But they haven't quite figured out how Carrion was triggered without the Falcon. It's kind of a blonde moment for Nolan that he didn't immediately realize that he and Aiden initiated Carrion by following the Falcon's path to draining the Graysons' Amanda Clarke Foundation bank account. Everything they've done up until this point implicates Aiden. Ems is livid. She orders Aiden to go dark -- go off the grid. Emanda: "I'm not going to sit back and watch the Initiative turn you into their David Clarke!" Ems punctuates this with a stare-down.
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Later that night, Victoria leads Jack through a deserted Grayson Manor armed with a flashlight. They head straight for Conrad's home office desk so Victoria can crack open the safe for Jack. Victoria rolls her eyes when the first thing she sees inside is a gun. She pops back up from squatting and points the gun at Jack, which understandably disturbs him because it would be entirely in her character to double cross him here on the spot, but it's just the Queen being careless. They'll hang on to the gun in case Conrad shows up. Jack squats down to the safe and starts rifling through manila folders. He tosses a few behind him without looking at what they are. Victoria notices one has Jack's name on it, so she stashes it away without him noticing. There's no computer in the safe, but Jack comes across the folder for Amanda Clarke. Victoria admits she was keeping that file because of Amily's vendetta against her, inviting Jack to look in it and/or keep it. She asks if she can talk to Ashley about the laptop, causing Jack to accidentally implicate Ash's involvement in his plans when he casually writes off the possibility that she might know where the laptop is. He tries to play it off, but Victoria has already filed away that tidbit for later. Jack's fed up with their search. They're out of time. He declares that the audio recording of Conrad's conversation with Nate Ryan will have to be enough. Jack's going to take it to the press, unleashing it during Conrad's speech this afternoon. He invites Victoria not to miss it.
Back at Nolcorp, Ems and Nolan try to figure out a way they can buy Aiden some time before the feds come after him. Nolan gets the idea that he can tap into Carrion with the satellite to track the progress of the investigation, but when he attempts it, he finds that the Falcon has blocked access. There's a callback to the cute animation of a literal falcon from Nolan's initial hacking invitation to Edith, only this time the falcon dodges his arrow and rips off Nolan's cartoon head. It's going to take some time for Nolan to get past the block, so Emanda decides she wants to seek out Takeda to see if he's got any intel on what the Initiative is up to. Knowing that Aiden and Takeda have been at odds, Nolan volunteers to come with Ems while the Carrion diagnostic runs on autopilot.
The paparazzi video of Regina and Charlotte making out plays on a phone. Cut to Declan sitting at the glass door of the bank looking bored out of his mind. He overhears the video playing and snatches Regina's phone from her hands. Obviously she can't be streaming videos during this network blackout, so that means she must've downloaded the video earlier. Creeper. Dec calls her out, figuring out as he speaks that she must've wanted him out of the picture this whole time. As Regina empty threatens Declan to keep his mouth shut, the power comes back on. Sneakily, Regina grabs the bail money they collected out of her purse and intentionally bumps into Declan like a pick-pocket before running out of the bank.
The power comes back on at Grayson campaign headquarters. Conrad announces they need to recall the ground troops as Daniel and Charlotte walk in. He seems genuinely happy to see his children, but who knows; politicians eat their young, right? Charlotte's still complaining about having to walk so far, so daddy arranges for one of his aides to escort Charlie up to his suite. Daniel wants to head back to Grayson Global to see if he can get in touch with Ems and make sure that the authorities are after Aiden and not himself. Conrad advises against that. He thinks the Initiative would've made it clear by now if Dan was going to be their patsy. Never mind that they once infiltrated his family company and constantly threatened him. Dan should shut down the company for the day and send everyone home, Conrad says. He wants his son back at campaign headquarters as soon as that's done so he can be in front of the cameras with this family where he belongs.
The day at Grayson Manor, Conrad arrives by helicopter. He and his wife exchange 'pleasantries' like always. Conrad: "It's like déjà vu all over again." Victoria: "Your glibness never ceases to amaze me." Victoria thinks their children are missing, but Conrad smugly informs her that they were with him last night and he's ready to escort Victoria to a TV-ready reunion at campaign headquarters. He thanks his wife for the work she did to expose his opponent's heart condition, and generally is feeling good about himself until the Queen reports that Jack is ready to derail the campaign this afternoon. Conrad's not worried, since he believes the laptop is at the bottom of the ocean, but Victoria relates that Jack claims to have had it in his possession at some point. The solution in Conrad's mind is to just have Ashley bar Jack from the press conference. That'd work if Ash wasn't in on Jack's plan, Victoria says. Both revelations that these two people he trusted have been working against him all along has Conrad taken aback. The Queen: "My poor Conrad. Yet another female conquest hell-bent on your destruction. It's like... déjà vu all over again."
Ems and Nolan arrive at Takeda's. The establishing shot for the scene places Takeda's empty katana rack in the foreground. Nice touch. Emanda quickly spots the blood-soaked wooden pillar where Takeda was impaled on his own blade, then spots his body. Ems breaks down in tears.
FLASHBACK: Back in Takeda's dojo in Japan an auburn-haired Amanda answers questions from her sensei about her father. David Clarke meant everything to her. Takeda begins exploiting that truth so he can manufacture anger in his apprentice, asserting that David was a bad man. Amanda lunges at Takeda, who expertly sidesteps and quickly pins her face-down on the ground. Takeda: "I need that anger and confidence. You will learn to balance it with patience and observation." He explains that there are two paths to revenge: failure and being set free at journey's end. Ems has an epiphany: "And you're the guy who's going to show me the way?" /FLASHBACK.
Kneeling over Takeda's lifeless body, Emanda lets loose all the tears deserved by a beloved teacher. Nolan lets her cry on his shoulder.
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The mourning has come to an end, and Ems now switches into her investigative gear. Whoever did this was someone Takeda trusted, and they used a different katana from the one present based on the jagged cuts to her master's shirt. (Closed captioning here says 'kitana'... so, shout out to Mortal Kombat, I guess.) Emanda also notices that the body must've been moved. That would've been done out of respect after an evenly matched fight. Looking around the crime scene some more, Ems spots a pebble on the ground, finding its rightful place on a tousled wooden box on the coffee table. Emanda removes the lid to uncover photographs and documents. Nolan scoffs, "Takeda's infinity box?" There's a photo of a young woman and another photo of a young man with his head circled. They wonder if that could be Takeda's killer. If so, he could be after Aiden ... or Ems.
Victoria steps out of the backdoor of the pool house at Grayson Manor with the manila folder about Jack. She stuffs it into a dumpster, but stops when she notices a positive pregnancy test sitting near the top of the trash pile. I don't for one second believe that the Queen would ever touch a dumpster herself, let alone dig through the trash.
Declan makes it to Grayson campaign headquarters happy to see Charlotte, but then confused when Charlie's not happy to see him. Regina walks up with a big bruise on her face. Dec asks what happened, but Regina fires back with an accusation that he knows he did that to her when she told him he wasn't good enough for Charlotte. Dec, of course, denies this, but the wound on his hand from trying to bust open the glass door and the bail money Regina planted in his coat pocket tell a different story. Regina calls over security to escort Declan out of the building, and Charlie can only stare back at Declan with wide, confused eyes.
At Grayson Global, Dan watches the TV news in the aftermath of the power outage. A technician enters the room to inform Daniel that he's going to be working to get their server back up and running. After Dan asks to be informed as soon as they know their data is secure, Victoria briskly enters the room and asks for a private discussion. When they get into Daniel's office, the TV news anchor begins talking about unconfirmed reports that the outage was caused by a coordinated cyber-attack originating in Tunisia and Bahrain. Victoria notes that those are the same countries where Aiden was acquiring companies, but that's not really why Victoria's there. She wants to talk about Emanda being pregnant -- the pregnancy test was in Daniel's garbage, after all.
Victoria manages to launch into the beginnings of a tirade about a doomed marriage for Dan and Ems before Daniel sternly says the pregnancy test wasn't Emanda's. Victoria stops in her tracks and looks at a photo of Dan and Charlotte on his desk. Victoria: "Oh, dear God." Yes, that was her actual reaction.
Campaign headquarters. Conrad returns, and before he's been in the door for a minute, his communications director intercepts him. Ash informs him that the press wants to move up his speech by an hour, but Conrad sticks to his guns. He said four o'clock, and dammit, they're doing four o'clock. Also, Conrad tells Ash that he doesn't want that pesky Jack Porter coming around anymore. Ashley does her best to not be visibly disturbed by this development. Conrad also doesn't want anyone alerted that this has become necessary, asking if he can trust Ashley to not even alert Jack. She assures Conrad she won't, but then immediately pulls out her phone to text Jack as she's walking away from Conrad. Zero restraint, Ash. Zero.
At the Stowaway, Jack's hunched over his desk when he gets this text from Ashley: "Call me when you get this. It's about Conrad." Jack immediately tries to call her, but the network is still down. Jack goes back to poring over documents from the file on Amanda that he got from Victoria. He stops when he finds records of a flight she took to Japan.
Aiden's packing up his things at the revenger hideaway. Emanda comes rushing in on a wave of emotion, heading straight for a hug. She tells Aiden that Takeda was murdered. He pretends it's news to him and gives a tiny bit of credence to Emanda's belief that the man in the photos she found at Takeda's home might be responsible. Sensing that he's about to be found out, Aiden suggests that they just pack up and leave. When he passes over a passport to Ems, she notices a cut on his wrist. She snatches his hand and lifts up his jacket sleeve to reveal a larger cut across his forearm from Takeda's sword. Emanda flies into a rage. She slams Aiden against the wall, demanding to know why he would betray the only man who believed in them and why he would lie about it. Ems punches Aiden and throws him to the ground. He tries to make her believe that Takeda was out to get him and wasn't going to allow her to finish out her plan because he had his own agenda. Takeda's fiancée was on Flight 197. This doesn't ring true to Ems because she knew the flight manifest so well, but Aiden rattles off info about Takeda's fiancée who was a flight attendant who didn't show up on the manifest because she was a last-minute addition to the flight. Aiden didn't tell Ems about any of this before because he knew she would just assume Takeda's mantle out of obligation. Aiden was just trying to protect Ems because he loves her, he says.
Emanda takes all of this in for a minute, then chooses not to believe him. Her phone rings with a call from Daniel, who Aiden implores Ems to ignore. She marches straight over to the phone on the dresser and answers it. They're unable to communicate because of the network, so Emanda hangs up and decides she's going to go try to stop Daniel from implicating Aiden in all of this. He tries one last time to convince Ems that he was just looking out for her and doesn't want her to run away. She suggests that maybe he should be the one running away.
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Daniel's phone rings at Grayson Global. He seems busy when he answers his father's phone call, but really, what could he be doing without an Internet connection? Conrad once again insists that Dan be present for his closing speech this afternoon at four o'clock sharp, citing the risk Daniel's taking of implicating himself by interfering with the FBI's investigation that will probably end up going after Aiden anyway. Emanda shows up just as Dan's getting fed up with talking to his father. He concedes to be at the speech more as a sign off than an agreement, rushing over to hug Ems. Daniel says he doesn't plan to actually go to his father's speech. He'd rather stick around the office and keep trying to dole out street justice or something. The whole Tunisia and Bahrain thing gets relayed to Emanda as she notices that there's a folder with Aiden's name on Daniel's desk. The technician working on the server comes into the room to tell Daniel that he's not going to be able to get it up and running for another 24 hours. Defeated, Daniel figures he might as well go to Conrad's speech. He tells Ems this as the technician removes his baseball cap, which reveals he's the man in the photo from Takeda's home. Emanda instantly recognizes him. A quick flashback to the photo reminds us just in case we couldn't tell from Ems' shocked face. When she and Dan part ways, she rushes to try to catch the guy at the elevator, but she's too late.
Campaign headquarters. Security alerts Conrad that someone by the name of Porter was trying to sneak in through the back entrance. Conrad braces himself for a confrontation with Jack, but it turns out it's Declan. Relief washes over Conrad and he doesn't even give a second thought to letting Dec in. All he asks is that Declan repay him with his vote -- if he's old enough to even vote. Victoria appears out of nowhere to add that she believes Declan is old enough for plenty of adult activities. Conrad looks at his wife like she's gone crazy. She just puts her arm around Declan and leads him away, starting off with a condescending tone of a parent who doesn't like their offspring's choice of lovers. Victoria tells Dec that he should know he doesn't have a place in their family. Sensing that he's losing ground, Declan tries to explain what happened with Regina, which baffles Victoria. She can explain to Declan why her daughter is acting so weird and giving her allegiance to a female friend rather than him: She's pregnant.
Declan's reaction to this news is so innocently perfect. There's certainly shock, but no panic or horror. He actually thinks there must be a mistake, which Victoria says would most likely be him if there was one. Victoria: "Stay away from my daughter, or your ability to procreate will be nothing but a distant memory." Declan sees that he has lost, and just walks away. Conrad comes over to ask what that was all about, but Victoria doesn't want to bother her husband with such trivialities as their daughter being knocked up. Besides, he really only cares about his damn speech right now anyway, as well as keeping Jack Porter away. On achieving the latter, Conrad says he thinks Victoria greatly underestimated her husband. Victoria, cheerfully: "Well, it's a habit of mine."
Back at the Stowaway, Jack packs up a bag with his audio recorder. He gets another text from Ashley. "At Campaign HQ. Not safe to call. Meet me at Grayson Global, 27th Floor, at 4pm. Spoke to Victoria. I have Conrad's computer." Jack starts heading for the door. Cut to Ashley's phone in Conrad's hand. A text from Jack pops up, saying he's on his way. Conrad deletes both texts and puts the phone back in Ashley's purse. He has this weird sort of sexual release on his face in anticipation of snaring Jack in his trap as we head into break.
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Aiden waits for Nolan in the halls of Nolcorp. Surprised to see him, Nolan's pretty gung ho about getting on his laptop to try and track down Takeda's killer. Calmly, Aiden tells Nolan to stop looking because he's the killer. Nolan's visibly rattled by this news. He begins backing away from Aiden until he nervously backs into a sofa. As non-threatening as possible, Aiden asks that Nolan just give Ems an envelope. Aiden thinks it was foolish to think Emanda would give up revenge for love. Without thinking, Nolan lets it slip that she pretty much did that exact thing last year. After pressing Nolan to know who caused Ems to walk away from it all, he arrives at the answer himself: Jack Porter. Aiden thanks Nolan for being an unexpected friend, shakes his hand and leaves.
Outside of Grayson campaign HQ, Charlotte stares at Regina like she's trying to work through a complex math problem that killed her family. Regina asks why she's being examined this way, which gets Charlie speaking her mind. She doesn't think Declan would flip out and become physically violent. It's not like him at all. Regina tries to write it off as him showing his true colors, then takes a couple steps backwards in winning her case by suggesting she could help raise Charlie's baby. It's really creepy. Lucky for Charlotte, her phone rings with a call from Dec. He's understandably upset and trying to explain everything all at once. Declan relates that he thinks Regina's in love with her or obsessed and mentions the paparazzi video she has downloaded to her phone, but none of that matters. He knows about the baby and just wants to see the future mother of his child. When he asks if Charlie's with Regina, she lies and says she's with Daniel. Then their call drops. Charlotte walks straight over to Regina and asks if she has the video downloaded to her phone. She, of course, denies it, so Charlotte asks to see her phone. Regina refuses. In fairness, everybody has a right to privacy, but when you're supposedly besties, that's called being shady. Charlotte says good-bye to Regina and walks off. For someone's who's an obsessed stalker, Regina doesn't protest at all.
An automated scan for the Initiative man who was posing as Daniel's technician runs on Nolan's tablet at Nolcorp. He sits listening to the TV news while twirling the envelope Aiden gave him in his hands, contemplating what he's going to tell Emanda when she eventually shows up. He's startled when she walks in. She wants to know if he's found anything out about the mystery man, but Nolan cuts her off to tell her that Aiden was just there. He hands over the envelope. There's an internal Grayson Global newsletter inside with a photo of Takeda's fiancée Mai Aoki. Nolan's surprised to hear that Takeda had his own "revengenda." All Ems can focus on is that Aiden lied to her, but Nolan thinks that maybe -- like David Clarke -- Aiden just wanted her to see that there's more to life than revenge. Nolan's phone rings. It's Jack. He's headed to Grayson Global to pick up the laptop, he says. Nolan literally tells Jack to "slow [his] roll," but Jack's on a mission. He walks past Grayson campaign HQ and stares at Conrad through the window as he walks by. Conrad checks his watch. It's a quarter-to-four. The call between Nolan and Jack drops. Immediately after, the automated search for the Initiative guy returns a match. The guy's name is Gregor Hoffman -- a German special forces assassin. Jack's walking into a trap.
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Ems and Nolan sprint down a busy Manhattan sidewalk. Nolan stops because he suddenly has a signal on his phone. He's going to keep trying to reach Jack by phone while Ems tries to get to him physically. Cut to Jack standing silently in the Grayson Global elevator. Then cut to Conrad taking the podium for his closing speech. "There are bonds in this world that cannot be severed. And the bonds forged in the fires of hardship are as strong as the bonds of blood. We New Yorkers are family. Today I am proud to stand amongst you in the midst of what appears to be a cowardly cyber-attack -- an attack meant to throw our lives into chaos and to make us shrink with fear. But shrink, we will not. Because we are New Yorkers. Because we press on. Because we persevere, and we will rise above this!" Damn... that's not bad, as far as political rally speeches go. Cut to Nolan standing on the sidewalk in a panic, trying to reach Jack. He gets his voicemail and leaves a warning to get out of Grayson Global. Cut to Jack's elevator reaching the empty office. He spots a person's shadow and starts to walk to investigate it, but his phone chimes and he stops.
At revenge hideaway, Aiden examines his forged passport and packs it away. He then picks up Emanda's and pauses in contemplation. Cut to Conrad's speech. He asks everyone to make use of their time to elect him as the governor and seems to lose his cadence when he stops to look at his watch and sees that it's 4:00 PM. The technician walks into the crowd and makes eye-contact with Conrad. They give each other a nod, and the technician leaves. Conrad's speech continues as everyone in the crowd's phones go off with a text message all at once. Everyone reaches for their phones in unison, confused. The message reads, "LONG LIVE DAVID CLARKE" from a blocked number. Cut to Ems running down the sidewalk in slow-motion, checking her phone to see that same text message. Even Victoria's phone goes off with that message behind Conrad onstage, and she tries to alert him, but he turns to look out the window instead just as it happens. A bomb goes off. The entire floor of Grayson Global blows out from its skyscraper. Outside, debris falls on the heads of New Yorkers as they cower in the streets, and... it's awful. It's hard to see this imagery and not think of 9/11 or the recent Boston attack. I'm not overly sensitive about these things, but it's a skyscraper in New York City raining terror down on the people below. In any case, Emanda clings to the ground and can only stare up at falling rubble and utter, "Jack..."
Scraps of paper and ash silently float from the sky at street level of New York City. We pan to a Grayson Global flyer engulfed in flames on the sidewalk, then a large piece of charred rubble crashes loudly on top of it. Suddenly, we hear all the sounds of horror and chaos. Sirens blare and people scream as they scramble. Emanda picks herself up off the ground and starts heading toward Grayson Global. Nolan comes sprinting up behind her, trying to convince Ems not to go up there. If Jack didn't get his message, then there's no hope. Ems orders Nolan to get back to Nolcorp and try to track Jack's phone. Cut to Aiden calling Nolan's phone. He wants to know what's going on. Apart from the major terrorist act that Aiden could probably catch if he just turned on the TV, Nolan tells him that Ems went after Jack, then tries to convince Aiden to stay away because this will get pinned on him as well. All Aiden needed to hear, though, is that Emanda's putting herself in danger. He hangs up with Nolan, determined to intercept her.
In the most perfect political photo op ever, Conrad has positioned himself on the hood of a car, barking out orders to anyone who will listen. A TV news crew watches/films Conrad almost in disbelief. Ash asks if maybe they should wait for first responders. Conrad: "We are the first responders." The TV correspondent asks Conrad if he thinks he was a target. Expertly, Conrad says he doesn't want to talk about that. He just cares about the injured and is thankful that Daniel and his staff happened to (conveniently) not be in the building at the time. Nearby, Daniel asks Ash if she's heard from Ems and tries to call her. He gets her voicemail.
Cut to Emanda in the blackened remains of what was Grayson Global. She ducks fire and sparks (oddly, no smoke), shouting out Jack's name. Ems stumbles around a little until she hears some groans. She spots the legs of a man trapped under scaffolding and debris. She calls out to him, but is suddenly intercepted by a fireman. He wraps her in a blanket and pushes her along to another fireman who removes her from the scene as other firemen enter.
Nolan arrives back at Nolcorp and goes straight for his computer. He brings up the GPS locator to track Jack's phone, but it strangely says Jack's phone is within ten feet of Nolan. He looks up to see Jack walking into the room. He goes to give Jack a hug, but he responds by shoving Nolan back. Jack demands to know how Nolan knew the building was going to explode. Geez... Didn't he just save your life, Jack? Where's the love for that?
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Jack demands the truth of Nolan. Thinking quickly, Nolan gives a half-truth about being employed by Victoria to seek out her son and stumbling upon the Falcon and the terror plot related to her. No mention of Emanda's involvement. He says he figures that whatever was on Amily's laptop must've had some info about the terrorists. Nolan asks who lured Jack to Grayson Global and gets Jack to register some confusion at his own answer when he says it was Ashley. Jack tries to hurry off to get some answers, but Nolan stops him. He says that Conrad will just finish the job and kill him. Jack practically says, "But you can't kill a dead man," before pulling out his phone and stomping on it. Ugh... pseudo-revenger Jack is so cliché.
The firefighters have hustled Ems down to street level. She spots Daniel and runs to him. Lucky for her, Dan's dumb and doesn't get too suspicious when he sees his fiancée was just extracted from the site of a major terrorist attack. She says she was just looking for him, and that... well that's good enough for Daniel. It doesn't even bother him when he sees that she's injured and she brushes him off when he offers to come with her to get medical attention. Emanda doesn't ever need medical attention, of course. What she needs is to know is if Jack's OK. She phones Nolan. He gives her the good news that Jack's alive, but the bad news is he's out for Conrad's blood and they have no way of tracking him.
Televisions at Grayson HQ show Conrad's 'heroic' first responder antics. Ashley briskly walks through HQ on her phone with someone asking about how the company will handle the aftermath. When she hangs up, a hand grabs her from behind, covering her mouth. Jack instructs her to not scream when he removes his hand. He demands to know why she set him up, but Ashley's so terrified and confused that it doesn't take long for Jack to realize she had no part in this. Together they figure out that Victoria must've tipped Conrad off and that he must've known about the bomb before it went off. Jack asks Ashley not to let anyone know she saw him and tells her Conrad thinks he's dead. If she needs to get in touch with him, she can do so through Nolan. Again, pseudo-revenger Jack is way too serious and self-important.
Back out on the streets amid the pandemonium, Conrad and Daniel talk with a firefighter about the blast. He says there was a man pinned under rubble that they're working to free. Conrad's response is surprise that the man survived, not surprise that there was a man there in the first place. Dan looks at his father like he knows his old man was/is up to something, but he loses that train of thought (as he's prone to do) when he spots Aiden among the crowd. He goes to confront him. All Aiden's concerned about is Emanda, but Daniel's pissed that she's (or at least he thinks that she's) on her way to the hospital, probably because of Aiden. Daniel punches Aiden in the face then turns to a nearby police officer to tell him that this man is probably responsible for the bombing. Aiden disappears before Dan can finish his sentence. Cut to a few feet away where Victoria and Charlotte are meeting up with Conrad. The ladies are obviously spooked and Charlotte just wants to go home. It must be nice to have a chopper on standby. Conrad's just about to send his wife and daughter to the helicopter when they spot Declan being wheeled out on a stretcher, unconscious and his face bloodied. Charlotte shrieks his name and chases after the stretcher and paramedics. Victoria shoots Conrad a knowing glance and follows.
At Nolcorp, Nolan hacks through phone records to verify for Jack that the text messages did, in fact, come from Ashley's phone. What exactly was the point of doing that? Of course they came from her phone if that's the contact number that showed up on Jack's end. The question is whether someone commandeered her phone to send the texts and then erased them, which is exactly what happened. But speak of the devil, Ashley calls Jack. She informs him that Declan is in the hospital, but she doesn't have any other details about his condition. Jack's ready to head for the hospital, but Nolan thinks it could be a trap. They don't know if Ashley can be trusted yet and Jack can't be spotted there by Conrad. From off frame, Emanda says he won't be spotted. She'll see to it. Jack reacts in anger that Nolan has included Ems in all of this because she's practically a Grayson. Nolan: "I trust Emily with my life. So did Amanda. It's time you did, too."
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Jack sits in the passenger seat of a parked car outside of the emergency room. Ems hops in the diver seat and plops a backpack in his lap. It's filled with a nurse's uniform and a keycard. She says that she learned a few tricks when she was in juvie. Dec's in ICU, and she can only distract Victoria and Charlotte, who are in the waiting room, for a few minutes, but that should be enough time. She's ready to spring this plan into action, but Jack stops Ems from getting out of the car to tell her that even though he doesn't understand why she's helping him now, he'd like it if she would still be Carl's godmother.
In the waiting room, Ems goes straight up to Victoria and Charlie to ask if there's any updates. Victoria's immediate reaction to seeing Emanda is, "Hmph... the ubiquitous Emily Thorne." God, woman, you're in an ER waiting room after the father of your daughter's unborn child has been blown up in a terrorist act. Put the bitchiness away for a minute. Ems carries on the conversation while Jack slips by in scrubs and a surgical mask. He enters the ICU room where Declan's lying unconscious and hooked up to machines. He places his hand on his brother's forehead, instantly waking him up. Dec doesn't remember anything and doesn't say anything about what he was doing at Grayson Global. The assumption is that he went there in search of Charlotte because of the lie she told him over the phone while she was with Regina. Jack's just happy to see his brother and promises him that after all of this they'll take Carl and get as far away from the Graysons as they can. That won't work for Declan. He tells his brother that Charlotte's pregnant. And just the way he breaks the news... Declan's face craves Jack's approval, which Jack just can't give. But Declan's still bright about it. "Carl's gonna have a cousin."
A storm brews outside Casa Emily. Emanda comes home and finds Aiden waiting out on the porch. With the Graysons all still in the city, there's no danger of him being spotted there. Ems suggests again that Aiden just leave and save himself, but he wants to save her, too. It's not likely that she will leave her vengeance behind now... maybe not ever. Aiden reminds her that she did it once for Jack, but things are different now, she says. From his pocket, Aiden pulls out a key and tosses it to Emanda. It's for a villa they've talked about living in together before. He says that if Ems changes her mind down the road, he'll meet her there. Aiden kisses her on the lips, then the forehead and tells her he hopes she gets what she's looking for. He leaves as thunder rumbles.
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Charlotte finally gains access to Declan at the hospital. She waited all night because she was so worried. Dec says he's going to be fine, but he's being way too earnest and complimentary of Charlotte. He tells her he wants her to believe that she's stronger than she thinks and that she'll be a great mother. They laugh over the thought of her being a great parent simply by virtue of doing the opposite of everything her parents did. Dec tells Charlotte to go home and get some rest for herself and the baby, and she plants a kiss on him.
Casa Emily. Emanda sits on her sofa staring at the key Aiden gave her. Nolan comes in looking for her and gets the news that Aiden has left. Ems is sure to mention that it's partly because Nolan let it slip that she had a thing with Jack last year. Nolan apologizes for not knowing that she was keeping it from Aiden, but he thinks that being truthful was the way to go anyway. Ems agrees that Aiden deserved the truth, as did Jack. Nolan asks how Jack's doing, but Ems thought he was with Nolan. They panic for a moment and decide to split up to find him. Nolan heads to the hospital and Ems goes to Grayson Manor.
Conrad and Daniel stand in the remains of Grayson Global. It's been verified to Daniel that Aiden was responsible for everything and that the Graysons are now penniless. Conrad doesn't seem too concerned. He rattles off what could probably be a good campaign speech about them still having their name and being able to rebuild brick-for-brick. His son it's too impressed, though, and frankly he wants no part of any of this. Then again, he says that every episode. His plans is still to start a new life with Emanda, and when he tells his father this, Conrad rails against his son forsaking the life that's been afforded him. How can he be so ungrateful when Conrad even made sure the terrorists didn't kill him yesterday? Daniel freezes when he hears the admission from his father that he knew there was going to be an attack. He asks if his dad is out of his mind. Conrad: "Compared to the Initiative's acts of terror, this was a triumph! No lives were lost, including yours!" Wow. Because of that ultimate debt, Conrad expects that Daniel will be by his side when he accepts the governorship tonight.
Back in Declan's hospital room, a nurse informs Dec that a heart surgeon is on standby and they're waiting on a stent. What? Nolan overhears this from outside the room and comes in as the nurse leaves. He asks why the topic of heart surgery was being discussed. He thought Charlotte said Dec's going to be OK. Declan lied. He didn't want Charlotte's potentially last memory of him to be about the surgery. Nolan's blown away by this. He offers to bring in the best doctors and will spend whatever it takes, but that's not the issue here. Declan's running out of time. All he wants is Nolan's word that if something goes wrong, Jack will be looked after. Nolan gives his word.
Emanda once again drops in on Victoria at Grayson Manor unannounced, and the Queen once again notes just how unwelcome she is. Ems finds it odd that Victoria's not by Conrad's side right now, which leads to a conversation about the limitations of what a woman will endure for appearances and how that might apply to what Victoria perceives as an impending loveless marriage. Ems fires back about Charlotte and Daniel obviously wanting to get away from the type of misery Victoria's accusing her of perpetuating. Victoria seems to at least admire Emanda's ferocity. However, she warns: "Do not forget that I have been at this much longer than you. And if you continue to try to tear my children away from me, I promise you that you will not only fail, but you will suffer. And have no doubt... I will show no mercy." Oh, how I've missed lines like that from the Queen. Emanda's response? "How sad for you, Victoria... that of your three children, the two you decided to acknowledge want nothing to do with you. That's the truth." Emanda turns around from her verbal victory to get smacked in the face by a breaking news report on the TV of Aiden's arrest.
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Daniel's returned to the pool house. His mother comes out there to tell him the news of Aiden's arrest, but he doesn't want to hear it. He knows the truth. The Initiative and his father were behind the bombing, not Aiden. This is somewhat of a revelation to Victoria. On top of that, Daniel takes this opportunity to tell his mother that she's all alone and it's what she deserves. Man... why is Victoria always fighting to protect her children, again?
Later, out on the balcony, Victoria's digesting what has happened when Conrad comes out to gloat about his impending gubernatorial victory. His wife doesn't want to hear it. She accuses him of knowing about the bomb and being part of the Initiative all along. Conrad clarifies that there's no such thing as 'the Initiative.' It's just a group of savvy businesspersons who profit off of the public's fear. Since it's impossible to predict when catastrophes will strike so they can make strategic investments, they just make sure to cause catastrophes themselves. Victoria listens to all of this with tears in her eyes. She's horrified -- and that says a lot about just how despicable Conrad has become. She asks to know who tipped Conrad off to the inevitable disaster this time.
FLASHBACK: Helen Crowley finds Conrad sitting in a jail cell. She thanks Conrad for his financial assistance in taking down Flight 197, which he sounds reticent to accept since he had no idea he was funding that act of terrorism. Helen says he will have no idea what they have planned . /FLASHBACK.
Conrad says he accepted Helen's proposal under the condition he would be included in their inner circle. Victoria rails against Conrad for leading her to believe their son was in danger all summer. She committed murder to protect the family. Conrad just wants Victoria to play the role of dutiful wife. "If you fail to do so, then prepare to return to the penniless squalor from whence I plucked you." Victoria tries to slap Conrad, but he blocks it, so she spits in his face instead. He just smiles and degrades her further, calling her a "hellcat." He expects her to be beside him onstage tonight.
Back in scrubs, Jack heads for Declan's hospital room and is surprised to find Dec's bed empty. Oh no... that's never a good thing. He turns and finds Nolan seated and crying. When Jack asks where his brother is, Nolan hands over his phone with a video recording queued up that Dec asked Nolan to share. From his hospital bed, Declan weakly gives this final message to Jack: "We've been through a lot, big brother. I know I wouldn't have made it this far without you. Hey, Carl is the luckiest kid in the world having you as a dad. I know that 'cause you've been one to me, too." Oh God... "And I love you so much, Jack." Big brother wipes the tears from his eyes and asks to see Dec. Nolan stars to explain that Declan's artery ruptured, but it doesn't compute for Jack. He asks again where Declan is. "He's gone, Jack." I really wasn't prepared for this. I had so many grease jokes I'm not going to get to ever say. But really... how shitty is it that Jack didn't get to be there with his brother in his final moments? That is heartbreaking. Jack and Nolan both break down crying, the latter trying to alleviate the pain by suggesting they just go get baby Carl (from a non-existent grandmother) and leave. Jack instantly flies into a rage. He's going to make Conrad pay, and nothing will stop Jack from seeing to that.
Nolan calls Ems to tell her that Declan died and he doesn't know what Jack's going to do . Emanda knows the answer to that. She grabs her invitation to the Grayson victory party and her purse and says that's where she's headed. Nolan will meet her there. In the middle of tragedy, they're always so efficient.
Grayson Manor. Jack has somehow managed to get into the house and get to Conrad's home office undetected. He goes straight for the gun he and Victoria discovered earlier. When he grabs it and looks up, he sees Victoria standing motionless in the doorway. He tells her that his brother is dead and elicits what seems like a genuine apology. Victoria remains motionless with tears welling up in her eyes even as Jack becomes combative and raises the gun to point it in her face. "Do it. Pull the trigger. I deserve it," she manages to whisper. This is not a challenge. This is Victoria wanting it all to end right now. Unfortunately, Jack is a pseudo-revenger. He drops his aim. Jack: "No, what you deserve is to explain to your grandchild why he doesn't have a father. What you deserve is to live a very long, a very painful... tortured life. Unlike your husband. If I were you, I'd break the news to Charlotte very gently. You know how she takes these things." He keeps the gun and leaves.
In an interrogation room, Aiden sits alone, handcuffed. An investigator enters the room and informs him that he's being denied an attorney. It's just a slight misunderstanding, though. It's because they're letting him go free. Cut to Nolan grabbing his invitation for the Grayson party from Nolcorp (in a pinstripe suit, no less) when FBI agents suddenly raid his office. They wrestle him to the ground and place him under arrest for "committing willful acts of terrorism against the United States of America."
Victoria enters Charlotte's bedroom. Her daughter's fast asleep with her laptop still open on her bed. Charlotte's been reading a site called "Teenage Mommy." Thankfully, it's got nothing to do with Farrah Abraham. Victoria shuts the laptop and sets it on the nightstand, noticing a framed photo of Charlie and Dec. Victoria pauses a second, then wakes Charlotte up. Victoria' unable to bring herself to break the news. Instead she just tells her daughter she loves her.
Daniel enters Casa Emily, which just sort of has that revolving French door that's never locked, looking for Emanda. Instead, Aiden's there, waiting for him. Dan's surprised to see that Aiden's been let go by the FBI, but Aiden appeals to Daniel's conscience and what he knows about the blood that's on the Graysons' hands. He tells Daniel that he'll live to regret it if he marries Emanda, which sends Dan into a fury. He tackles Aiden onto a table and begins pummeling him, but Aiden's way more skilled. He's able to push Daniel back and get him into a chokehold. It seems like Dan's beaten, but he manages to slip out just long enough to get knocked into a bookshelf. Thinking Daniels' beaten, Aiden threatens him to leave tonight and forget Emanda. The problem is Emanda's gun fell from the shelf and landed right in front of Dan's face, covered by a book.
Ems hurries into the Grayson victory party. She goes up to a bouncer and asks to be let in VIP. She has to wait while he runs a check with security. While she waits, she scans the room for Jack and calls Nolan, but there's no answer. Cut to Nolan being interrogated. They ask when he conceived Carrion -- whether it was during one of his countless visits to David Clarke in prison. The investigator queues up surveillance footage on a nearby TV of young Nolan meeting with David. Nolan invites the FBI to figure out who unleashed Carrion and why. He namedrops the Falcon and the Initiative, explaining that they killed Padma. Nolan's starting to sound a bit like a conspiracy theorist, and has just implicated himself in Padma's death yet again. Now, the investigator begins playing a video of Padma confessing her relationship with Nolan.
Back at the party, everyone's watching the big screen TV, which is showing the local news. They project that Conrad will win the election. Ems finds Ashley and asks where Jack is. Ash says she has no idea, so Emanda reveals she knows all about Ashley's plan with Jack and that Declan's dead. All Ashley knows is that she's supposed to play the tape of Conrad talking to Nate during the speech and Jack wanted a press box to watch. Ems tells Ash that Jack's there to kill Conrad and she cannot let him go out to the podium. Cut back to the video of Padma. Tears stream down Nolan's face as she implicates him as David Clarke's disciple, an anarchist and Americon Initiative. She entirely sold him out. But was this all carried out by the Initiative? And why now?
Backstage, Ashley congratulates Conrad on officially becoming governor of New York. She tells him he can't go out onstage yet without his family, but Conrad doesn't really care at this point. Ash gives Conrad every opportunity to redeem himself, but he just doesn't. She brings up Declan's passing, and Conrad nonchalantly calls it "terrible" and segues directly into how it'll play into his speech. Ashley can't believe her boss never misses out on a trick. "You don't get to where we are by ignoring opportunities," he intones. After thinking for a couple seconds, she says she thinks they're all set for Conrad to go out onstage and she'll let everyone know. Holy shit. Go, Ashley! When she walks out, an elevator door opens to reveal Daniel and a security guard. Dan looks like he's seen a ghost and has his hands clasped in front of his stomach awkwardly. He asks to borrow a shirt as his father passes by to go out onstage. With his father gone, Dan moves his hand to reveal his shirt cuff covered in blood.
Much to Emanda's shock, Conrad's announced and brought out onstage. Ems shuffles through the crowd in search of Jack, who's up on a balcony wearing a newsboy cap and glasses. Really, Jack? And really, Ems -- you can't spot that? Conrad's speech starts out thanking the former governor and ventures into mention of Charlotte and Victoria who are at home. Cut to Victoria sitting at home drinking wine and watching the speech. The doorbell rings. Victoria answers the door and we don't see who it is. After a beat, she realizes who it is. "Patrick?" -- "Hello, mother." Victoria drops her wine glass and it shatters. Back at the speech, Jack pulls out his pistol and loads a bullet into the chamber. Ems rushes up the stairs to the balcony as Jack raises the gun to aim out at Conrad. She bursts into the room just as he's about to pull the trigger. Hilariously, Jack's reaction to his child's godmother catching him about to assassinate the governor of New York is, "Emily, go away." It has nothing to do with her, he says. But it does. It really does. She steps in front of Jack and begs him not to throw his life away because of her choices. Jack still has both hands on the gun with it extended out in front of him. Ems asks him to just look at her. He does.
FLASHBACK: Snippets of their shared childhood. /FLASHBACK.
Emanda: "Deep down inside, you've always known the truth. I'm Amanda Clarke."
-- 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.