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Revenge is barreling towards a wedding, but the way things have been going, the nuptials are looking less and less possible. In the fifth episode of the season, Emily figures out a way to make it work, but not without losing a piece of herself and her rock hard armor.
Victoria is determined to take Emily's relationship down and she'd almost be successful without even trying if it wasn't for some prime advice from Emily's number-one bestie, Nolan. When Victoria sends Em after Jack with the tip that Conrad blames Mr. Porter for the Ferrari accident, Emily runs right to Jack and away from Daniel's big launch party for Voulez. It's the final straw for Em's puppy of a fiancé and Daniel calls the whole thing off.
And this is where Nolan comes in. He tells Emily she has to give Daniel a piece of herself or he'll never come back. Daniel's evolved and he's no longer a young, stupid kid in a great suit following her around blindly. It requires the loss of some control, but with everything on the line, Em gives in. She tells Daniel a warped version of her childhood, mixing her own David Clarke stories with pictures of Amanda's family, but it produces very real tears and a convincing speech about real love and abandonment. Just like that, the puppy is back in Emily's arms and the plan is back in motion.
But it's not just Daniel who Em stood to lose this week. After Conrad sends Aidan after Jack and Jack decides he needs to send baby Carl away for safety, Emily chastises Aidan and says he's simply jealous. Meanwhile poor Aidan is a rubber band, being stretched in different directions by the Graysons – Victoria wants him to foster the connection between Jack and Emily so it breaks up Daniel and Em and Conrad wants Aidan to make sure Jack goes to prison. Eventually, Emily makes it all (sort of) worth it when she says Aidan is everything to her and kisses him in their typical secret location that appears absolutely conspicuous to the rest of us.
This moment comes right after Aidan finally gets something right: he finds that Patrick is the one who tampered with Conrad's car and brings the information to Victoria. Knowing that Charlotte looks somewhat guilty and that Conrad is desperate for her love, Victoria has Charlotte falsely confess to keep Conrad from finding out Patrick did it. Charlotte only does the deed to keep Conrad from going after Jack, but that doesn't mean she's not starting to look like a mini-Victoria. Em and Victoria are both happy with this result because it eliminates all the possible complications with this totally useless plotline – and Victoria holding this bone to chew on for now makes things easier for Em and Team Revenge.
While Jack should be distraught over the ridiculous twists his life has just taken thanks to Aidan's threat, he finds room to be taken with Margaux. After her father refused to come to the Voulez party and sent her copy of American Voulez with harsh notes all over it, Victoria tells Margaux to be a woman who controls powerful men. Her first stop is the Stowaway, where she plans to chastise Jack for ignoring her invitation to the party. He tells her about his trouble with an intruder (a.k.a. Aidan, Conrad's sort-of henchman) and the fact that he has to send Carl away. Naturally, Margaux makes out with him for his troubles. Apparently, when the baby's away, Jack will most certainly play – even if Conrad's trying to kill him.
In the midst of all this, Nolan is just trying to get himself a boyfriend he can trust. Fat chance, buddy. The problem is that by visiting Patrick's ex-wife, he destroyed the trust between himself and Victoria's offspring. He makes a heartfelt plea for Patrick to give him another shot, Patrick considers, and later returns to Nolan's to reconcile with a little shirtless poolside foolery. The problem is, now that we know he tried to kill Conrad, it's completely possible that his intentions with Nolan are a little more Victoria-esque than we'd like.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!It’s obvious in the first few moments of "Control" that Emily is losing her grip. While she’s snooping in Conrad’s garage to try and figure out who tampered with his brakes, she runs into Aidan, who’s concerned she’s doing "his job." (You know, that thing he doesn’t actually get paid for). She agrees, but Aidan’s sinister look doesn’t bode well – he’s out to make Jack look guilty if we remember the last minutes of "Mercy" correctly.
At the Stowaway, Jack is safe (and shirtless, so we remember he’s a significant love interest again). Margaux drops by to play her role ("the complication") and invites him to the Voulez launch party. He’s hesitant because of his aversion to the Graysons and Daniel, but his friendly smirk apparently serves as a "yes."
Over at Grayson Manor, Conrad has taken Aidan’s suggestion that Jack is guilty very seriously, but because he hates Aidan, he’s hired his own P.I. to prove it. This isn’t exactly what our dashing Brit had in mind so he dangles something he definitely can’t offer -- Charlotte -- before Conrad’s nose in exchange for Conrad making Aidan his detective. Aidan’s solution is a self-serving offer that aims to destroy Jack (and thus remove him from Emily’s path), which would in turn displace the jobless Charlotte and force her to move home. Still, it won’t make Charlotte care about her father again. Naturally, this won’t work. Aidan’s already messed up when he let his feelings get in the way once before.
While at the Manor to see his mother (literally just to see her, he barely says two words to the woman he’s supposedly waiting for) Daniel apologizes to Patrick for his "unfair" and "misdirected" harsh commentary. Just them, Emily shows up to take Victoria and Charlotte shopping for wedding outfits -- which is incredibly awkward considering her partner in temporary separation is standing there when she waltzes in. Daniel still won’t talk to Em, even when she asks to have a chat later that night. And with that embarrassing exchange, Victoria and Emily recycle their barbs from last week: Victoria is poor, Emily is about to lose her fiancé again. Yeah, yeah. Move it along, ladies.
When Victoria and Charlotte are trying on dresses, suddenly Charlotte has flip-flopped back to Emily’s side. Emily leaves the room and Victoria says it’s fine that she hates Charlotte’s gown because there won’t actually be a wedding day, to which Charlotte replies with a plea to understand what Emily did that was so terrible. Victoria says Emily had a "tryst" (a.k.a. the stolen kiss) with Jack and that’s why Daniel and Emily’s first engagement broke off. Charlotte seems shocked, but she suggests that Jack is happy with Margaux, so it’s not an issue. Right, little one, but that doesn’t mean mommy dearest isn’t going to do her best to make it an issue.
But Victoria has no idea this engagement might not her help heading for rocky waters after all. When Margaux is asking for details about Emily for the Voulez wedding issue, which features Daniel and Emily because she doesn’t see that as a conflict of interest and there are apparently no other engaged Hamptons couples vain enough to pose for the magazine. Daniel says Emily’s family died in a car accident and that Em doesn’t keep any pictures; ever the journalist (when it serves the plot) Margaux expresses incredulous disappointment that deepens Daniel’s doubt in his fiancé. Watch out, girl; this puppy’s starting to grow up.
After a quick visit with Conrad, we learn that he’s so quick to condemn Jack because he blames the last Porter in East Hampton for losing Charlotte . Jack is the one who told Charlotte about Conrad’s hand in the bombing that killed Declan.
Now, Jack is paying for his own urge to seek revenge on Conrad (and for that part where Emily loves him and it makes Aidan insanely jealous). Aidan visits Jack as Conrad’s henchman and somehow we’re supposed to believe he never saw Aidan with Emily when they were publicly dating last season. Aidan doesn’t attempt to harm Jack (after all, if he did and Em found out, she’d probably kill him). He does, however, try to scare Jack into leaving town forever to avoid trouble. And as we’ll find out later, Aidan’s plan of passion only sort of works. Go figure.
And that’s not Aidan’s only problem. Victoria complicates his stay at Grayson Manor when she asks that Aidan defy Conrad and foster the connection between Jack and Emily -- an impossible task for someone so jealous of Mr. Porter and Emily as it is. When he’s unable to deliver, Victoria does it herself, playing the sweet mother-in-law and "warning" Emily that Conrad is going after Jack and that she might want to stay out of the line of fire. Victoria knows full well that this well send Emily straight to the Stowaway instead of Daniel’s victory party at Voulez, which is where Em should be as a fiancé in danger of losing her man. And it works like a lucky charm because once again, Jack is Emily’s Achilles heel.
Meanwhile, Daniel is all smiles at the Voulez party because he’s so proud of himself for accomplishing something without his family’s help or approval. At the same time, Emily’s with Jack, who tells her about Aidan’s threat and the fact that he sent Carl away until Emily finishes her revenge plot. When it’s done, he’ll join Carl and leave everything behind. To get him to stay, Emily says that Aidan works for her, but Jack has a pretty valid point to throw back at her: if Aidan’s her guy, why didn’t she know that he was threatening Jack? Jack’s got a pretty good reason not to trust Emily or her unpredictable "people" now. (And a great reason to make out with Margaux the day when she visits him to ask why he missed her party).
At the party, Victoria points out Emily’s absence, but Daniel’s not listening to her anymore. He’s not the easily manipulated rubber band he once was. Instead, he asks her to stop talking about his relationship because he wants to deal with his issues with Emily alone. Finally, this little man has grown a pair.
But Emily’s still not heading Daniel’s way or making amends. Instead, she confronts Aidan to command that he back off from Jack. Aidan defends the move, saying it was just to stay in Conrad’s good graces, but she (and everyone watching this show) knows he’s jealous. Aidan accuses her of loving Jack, saying he needs to know because that’s why he came back: to be with her. (Spoiler: the answer is yes, but she needs Aidan to help her). Instead of answering him, she pulls her usual "threatening Emily" card, and suggests she’d drop him if he questions her again, but because she actually cares about this boyfriend’s feelings, she can tell that Aidan seems to be getting fed up.
Nolan’s love life isn’t going so smoothly either. After Patrick finds out Nolan paid Patrick’s ex-wife a lump o’ cash to find out he’s gay, Patrick dumps him. But Nolan won’t give up. Nolan tries to explain that he’s never been good with people (and what a greatly predictable thing for a computer tech tycoon to say) and that he’s been burned so this measure was a defense mechanism. Unlike his bestie, Emily, Nolan comes out and admits he screwed up. And while Patrick simply responds that Nolan freaked him out, his eyes seem to soften as Nolan admits his guilt and offers an open door should Patrick ever feel like forgiving him.
Margaux’s "strong woman" story line gets a little more obnoxiously overwrought this week when Victoria catches her tearing apart her father’s marked up copy of Voulez; he sent her corrections instead of coming to the magazine’s launch party. Victoria says Pascal is a notorious misogynist and that Margaux should spend her life trying to control powerful men instead of succumbing to their power. Are you ready for more preaching from Margaux? Because I’d bet a Susan B. Anthony dollar coin it’s coming.
As Margaux’s busy attending orientation at Victoria’s School of Torturing Old, Powerful Men, Emily finally gets to the party and apologizes profusely to Daniel, but he isn’t buying it. This night is all for her, he says she’d only respect him if he stood on his own, but now he’s the only one fighting for them and that "he’s been playing a role in some story." (Getting warmer, puppy!)
He says they only set a date because Conrad was sick and ultimately, he now sees what she really is and the marriage is off. It’s a big blow, but Emily shouldn’t be that surprised. She should have been paying attention to the fact that Daniel is growing up finally (even Nolan takes notice) and that her cute smiles wouldn’t work on him much longer. Nolan, who’s getting in touch with his feelings this week, tells her the only way to win an "evolved" Daniel back is to give up a piece of her heart and herself. It’s the one thing she could never do, and apparently she’s not only duping Daniel, she straight-up "can’t stand" him. This is going to take her swallowing every ounce of her unctuous pride. This should be fun.
But before we get to see Emily humbler herself, we find out who tampered with Conrad’s brakes. It was Patrick -- a piece of knowledge Aidan uses to play dear Victoria against herself. He gives her the chance to handle the situation as she sees fit, which leads her to use Charlotte as her pawn. Because Conrad is so desperate to have Charlotte back, Victoria has her confess to tampering with the brakes. She’s saving Patrick and Jack, but Charlotte makes it clear that she only helped Victoria to save her dead boyfriend’s brother. She may have looked like a mini-Victoria all episode, but she’s not on the Graysons’ side anymore.
With Jack somewhat safe (and romantically occupied with Margaux), Emily finally manages to appreciate Aidan for the loving, well-meaning man he is. Sure, he’s jealous, but Emily gives him a couple of damn good reasons to be so. She apologizes for making him feel used, because Aidan means so much more to her than that and we’re inclined to believe her. And just in case we’re not, she betrays some feeling when she says he’s everything to her and they kiss.
Perhaps it’s this moment that helps put her back on track to give Daniel what he needs to marry her. She goes home where she finds Daniel and says she wishes he wouldn’t leave. When he declines to stay, she hands him a picture of Amanda’s family (that she stole from Jack’s apartment) and hands it to him, mixing her own stories of David Clarke with the image in the picture. She cries while she talks about her real father, saying that she knows what real love is and that she had it ripped away from her. It triggers a reaction in Daniel because he feels that he just ripped it away from her again (see? He’s still a puppy). And boom …a few tears and a sweet hug means the wedding is back on. And, perhaps, feeling the love that Daniel clearly has for her, despite her apparently hatred for him, she feels a momentary twinge of sadness. Just maybe. Either that or she’s just wishing it was Jack who’d forgive her so easily.
But at least Nolan’s getting a happy ending for now. (Nothing lasts on this show, after all). After Victoria tells Patrick, who’s sad about Nolan’s betrayal, that she’s sacrificed personal happiness for success and she doesn’t want him to do the same. She doesn’t know her advice is sending her dear Patrick right into Nolan’s waiting arms, but what she doesn’t know will surely be used to upset her later. In a tiny speech that precedes a steamy shirtless make-out, Patrick says he doesn’t want to play games – the problem is that we know Patrick does play games that cost catty women their own galleries and Conrad a visit to the hospital. While it’s nice to see Nolan happy, it’s safe to say nothing is going to stay this rosy and calm for Emily and her revenge team. After all, we wouldn’t here if we wanted kisses and cuddles without rocky moments, now would we?