Revenge Recap: “Sacrifice”

by Jessica Grafer:

Revenge Recap: “Sacrifice”
Original Air Date (ABC): Sunday February 17, 2013
Season 2 Episode 14

What a title for this episode.  Sacrifice.  There is so much of it here.  I keep thinking how Emily is forcing others to sacrifice.  She is the one making the decisions.  That’s not really fair.  I know Emily is sacrificing too, but I go back and forth with feeling sorry for her and not.  This episode starts with the “Amanda” on the bottom of the sea.

At the present Jack and Amanda are happily married getting cozy on the ship.  Still blissfully unaware they have a stowaway.  Nate hasn’t chosen to make his presence known just yet.  How creepy is that?  The dude wants to watch the newlyweds do their marital business.  He chooses to wait until Morning to announce himself.  Jack of course doesn’t know what Nate is talking about.  Blackmail, computers.  Jack says I’m sure if you call Conrad, we can sort this thing out.  Nate wants to give them the benefit of the doubt, for some reason so they head closer to land to call.  Amanda just thinks they should take Nate out before he kills them.  Amanda’s all, shoot first, ask questions later.

While that’s happening on the sea, on shore the Grayson’s are getting ready for the annual Labor Day Party.  This party has a special meaning this year.  After having just killed Helen Crowley, the Graysons want to make everything look peachy keen.  Nothings going on over here.  Everything’s cool.  They have decided to blame Amanda for Crowley’s death.  That was the worst thing Amanda could’ve done, pulling out that laptop and showing it to Conrad.  Ashley is called into his office.  Conrad tells her that he is going to announce his run for Governor tonight at the party.  Ashley heard Amanda blackmailing Conrad.  She goes to Emily’s to let her know what’s going down.  After Ashley leaves, Emily looks for her computer and is devastated when she notices it gone.  Amanda has no idea what she’s doing.

Emily goes over to the Stowaway and sees Charlotte making a slide show of the wedding pictures.  When Charlotte goes to find Declan, the air conditioner has broken again, Emily notices something in the pictures.  Nate was peeking out of the window.  Emily immediately gets with Nolan and they start to track Jack and Amanda.  On the boat Nate has gotten ahold of Conrad, or as he likes to call him, “Connie”.  Hahaha.  I was cracking up.  Nate finds out that Jack didn’t know anything about the blackmailing.  Conrad tells Nate that if he can get the computer back and make sure Amanda doesn’t ever do anything like this again, that would be great.  I really don’t think Conrad wants Nate to kill her but he lays it out there.  Amanda is up on deck with Nate and tells him the computer is in her back pack.  She pulls out a gun and pulls the trigger.  Empty!  Nate had checked the boat out and emptied Amanda’s gun.  Now Amanda is begging Nate to leave Jack be.  She tells him that she only got close to him to get revenge on the Graysons.  While Amanda is topside Jack is below trying to find a computer.  Luckily Declan left his there.  Amanda tells Nate the computer is on Montauk so he turns the boat around.

In a play to confuse the Initiative, Daniel and Victoria get in a fight in his office.  Daniel tells Victoria he doesn’t believe anything she says and is planning to continue working with Helen Crowley.  While Nolan and Emily are off to find Jack and Amanda Aidan is at the Stowaway with Padma.  Nolan convinces her to trust Aiden and she calls Crowley’s phone (remember, none of them know she’s dead yet) telling her the Carrion program is incomplete and Nolan is the only one who can complete it.  Padma is the only one who can convince him to complete it.  Before she does that she wants proof that her father is still alive.

Victoria comes to the Stowaway on the pretense of inviting Charlotte to the Labor Day party.  She says of course Carl and Declan are invited.  While she is there she slips Crowley’s scarf and cell phone just under a bed.  At the Labor Day party Conrad and Victoria meet Trask.  He’s from the Initiative and looking for Crowley.  They plant the seeds that Crowley might have run into trouble with Amanda Clarke.  All they know is that she was fine when she left them.  Victoria tells Trask to not let the door hit him on the way out.  Trask immediately goes to the Stowaway.  Good for him that everybody’s out.  Everything looks normal until he finds the scarf and cell phone.  He listens to the most recent message.  The one from Padma.  Padma gets on the phone with Trask.  She tells him the same deal.  She wants proof they have her father and he’s still alive.  There is a box they just had delivered.  Trask tells her to “feel free to check the fingerprint”.  They never show us what’s in the box, but from that I’m assuming it’s Padma’s fathers finger.  We all know what the Initiative did with Colleen.  I don’t think they’ll give her father back alive.  I understand she needs to believe it.  The Initiative is just too evil.

Jack comes topside and starts arguing with Amanda.  Asking her if it’s true what he heard.  She only got close to him to get to the Graysons.  Nate is down below looking for the computer.  Jack and Amanda continue to pretend fight so Nate doesn’t catch on to what Jack’s doing.  Jack is getting out the life boat.  Amanda goes down to show Nate that the computer is under the mattress.  While Nate is opening it up to the cute pic of Declan and Charlotte kissing, Amanda locks the door.  She runs up and locks the other door.  Nate is pissed he starts shooting through the door.  One of the shots hits Jack.  Nate is starting to kick through the doors.  Amanda gets Jack in the life boat and pushes him off.  Amanda stays to fight with Nate.  Nate pushes her down and she hits her head, blacking out.

When Amanda comes too she’s below deck again.  Nate is up, trying to find Jack in the dark.  Amanda’s not going to let that happen.  She puts a hole in the boat so water starts rushing up.  Emily and Nolan find Jack first.  Emily has Nolan take Jack to the hospital.  She goes on to find Amanda.  Nate is blissfully unaware of anything going on, until the power shuts off on the boat.  He comes down to see the chaos Amanda has started.  Amanda hits Nate and runs top side.  Nate follows and gets hit by Emily.  Emily’s got Nate stopped with a gun on him until Amanda distracts her.  Nate and Emily start fighting.  They fall below.  Emily tells Amanda to get Nate’s gun.  It looks like it’s almost over for Emily, although she put up a hell of a fight.  Amanda fires, hitting Nate with his own gun.  During the fight the gas lines were severed.  Emily and Amanda were about to get off the ship and onto the lifeboat when Amanda wants to go back for her necklace.  When Amanda looks down into the galley, she sees Nate with his lighter.  Amanda pushes Emily off as Nate sends the Amanda sky high.

Conrad announces his run for Governor to his sons dismay.  Daniel is disgusted by all of this.  I’m not sure he’ll be able to live with these lies.  When Daniel asks his mother what about Amanda Clarke, all Victoria has to say is that the poor girl chose the wrong enemy.

Nolan got Jack to the hospital.  He heads back out to find Emily and Amanda.  Emily and Amanda have a moment while Amanda is dying.  She makes Emily promise that she’ll take care of Jack and Carl.  Of course Emily says yes, she will.  Amanda dies and Emily holds onto her as long as she can.  Finally she needs to let her go into the sea.  Nolan comes back and Emily fires a flare so he can find her.

So much sacrifice.  How can Emily ever live with herself?  She is the cause of all of this anguish.  She would say the Grayson’s are, but she took it to a whole new level.  I feel sorry for her, but at the same time I’m mad at her.  So many innocent people will be forever changed because she wanted revenge.

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.