Revenge Recap: “Illumination”

by Jessica Grafer:

Revenge Recap: “Illumination”
Original Air Date (ABC): Sunday March 17, 2013
Season 2 Episode 16

Everything is either starting to fall apart or starting to come together.  For Emily it seems to change moment to moment.  As we saw last week Amanda’s foster-brother came to the cemetery and met Emily.  Emily reveals to Aidan that she hasn’t seen him in 14 years.  When they were foster kids, he protected her from their mean foster mom.  In one instance, Amanda had been lighting matches but Eli hid her and did his time in the “bin”.  I can only imagine this bin to be some kind of box with a lid that is probably small and dark.  Those poor kids.  Now Charlotte has invited Eli to come say goodbye to Amanda.

The Graysons have decided to start a charity in Amanda’s name.  It’s disgusting how they talk to Jack and Charlotte about how wonderful Amanda was.  We know they couldn’t stand her and what she stood for.  Jack knows this and he is trying to be the mean schemer, but he just doesn’t have it in him.  He’s keeping his secret well enough but I just don’t see him going through with any plans to hurt anyone.

Emily offers her services as co-chair in the children’s charity and gives Victoria a check for $250,000.  Victoria says she needs to think about it.  While they are chatting Eli shows up.  Victoria introduces him to Emily and right away we can tell Eli knows that’s Amanda.  Eli keeps her secret for now.  Charlotte is out but Victoria points Eli to Jack.  Emily wants to get there before him but fails.  When Emily walks into the Stowaway, Jack and Eli are chatting.  Eli tells Jack that Amanda hated her dad.  This confuses Jack even more.  He is so tired of all the lies.  When Emily tries to talk to him Jack blows her off.  Eli takes this opportunity to call Emily out.  “Looking pretty good for a dead girl.”  Emily and Eli take a walk.  Eli spent years looking for Amanda.  He appears to genuinely care for her but he’s had a hard life.  Even though Eli is dressed like and can act the part of sophisticated, educated business man, he’s just a con artist.  Emily doesn’t give him any details of what she’s doing.  Just that she’s starting over and can’t have him here.  She offers to clear his criminal record and give him some cash so he can start over.

Daniel is falling apart.  Getting sloppy drunk in the middle of the day.  A young business punk starts taking shots and Daniel and they end up in a fight.  Aidan pulls Daniel off.  Daniel tells Aidan, you want my life so bad? Be careful what you wish for buddy.  Conrad then calls Aidan and wants to discuss Daniel.  Daniel just can’t be evil like his parents.  It’s going to end up killing him.

Jack finds a guy on the docks who owned the boat that rescued him.  Turns out it was a tall, sandy-haired fellow with blue eyes.  He paid a lot of cash for the guy not to say anything about that night, just to get Jack help.  Jack is furious to find out that Nolan has been lying to him too.

Big party at the Graysons for the launch of the Amanda Clarke Porter Foundation.  Emily and Nolan come together.  Eli meets with them.  Nolan wipes Eli’s criminal record clean and Emily gives him a check for $100,000.  Now they want him to beat feet.  Eli says he can’t just walk out on the party and he goes to mingle.  Emily nervously watches him chat with the Graysons.  Declan comes up to see Charlotte.  Eli just brings her a drink.  When Charlotte introduces Declan, she says he is Amanda’s brother-in-law.  Declan has to add that he’s Charlotte’s boyfriend too.  Really awkward.  Declan tells Charlotte to call him when she’s not so busy and leaves.  I think Charlotte has an unhealthy relationship with Amanda’s ghost.  She may feel bad that she missed out on getting to know her sister.  If she thinks she can connect with Amanda by hanging with Eli, I think she’ll be sorry in the end.

Emily tries to trash talk Eli to Ashley so that Ashley will get the Graysons to boot him.  The plan back fires.  Not only does the fact that Emily Thorne dislikes Eli intrigues Victoria, it causes Eli to stay in the Hamptons.  Eli takes the job of co-chair and Gives the $100,000 check to Victoria for the foundation.  Eli isn’t going anywhere.

Aidan tells Daniel that Conrad has made him treasurer of the foundation.  Daniel isn’t happy because he knows that this is just his fathers plan to place the blame on someone besides a Grayson.  Aidan goes back to Daniel’s fondness for Emily and drops hints that Emily still has a thing for him.  He hopes to get Daniel to confide in Emily.

Jack stops into the party to thank Conrad and Victoria for setting up the foundation and giving him hope.  After his mini-speech Nolan catches up with him and asks what he’s doing there.  Jack tells Nolan he knows that he is the one who saved him that night.  He doesn’t understand why Emily and Nolan are being buddy buddy with the Graysons.  Jack pretty much tells Nolan to kiss off.  Jack goes home where he watches the wedding video.  Nolan goes to see him.  Nolan makes up this story about how the Kenny Ryan is the one who bought that boat.  Kenny must’ve had an attack of conscience.  Jack wants to go talk to him but Nolan stops him.  Nolan tells him to leave it alone.  I think Nolan is getting too cocky.  It’s obvious to us that Jack doesn’t believe a thing Nolan is saying, but lets Nolan think he does.

Daniel walks Emily home from the party.  He spills the fact that the foundation is just a cover to hide their money.  That others involved will be taking the fall for what they do.  Daniel is wracked with guilt over all of this.  I feel so bad for him, pouring his heart out to Emily.  Does she care?

When Daniel gets back home he tells his parents he’ll do whatever he has to do.  That night during the party they raised just shy of $5,000,000.  Conrad mentions something about the Initiative knowing about Daniel’s relationship with Emily.  Victoria grabs onto this fact and says that maybe Trask will take care of their problem.  I took this to mean that she’s hoping Trask and the initiative will kill Emily.  Once Victoria starts killing, she doesn’t seem to have any problem with it.

Daniel announces Aidan as the newest board member and he’s in Grayson Global.  While Aidan is getting congratulated, Nolan is unleashing Carrion on the Graysons.  Everything is going perfect until they hit a snag.  A Falcon appears on the screen.  Nolan gets a little pale.  It appears this Falcon, is a notorious program writer.  No one can break into his stuff.  Nolan has seen this one other time.  When he was going through the information that framed David Clarke.  Now Emily has a new enemy on her list.  The Falcon.  Let’s go hunting.

Jessica Grafer has loved the “darker” things since she was old enough to pick her own books. She is a contributor for DarkMedia who covers Revenge and Bates Motel. She loves to walk the book store shelves and pick up whatever catches her eye. She is a movie lover with a great range in her tastes, and appreciation for all genres. Jessica is a writer and has several things in the works. You can follow her quirky Twitter posts at @scarletbe and check out her blog.