Revenge Recap: "Absolution"

Winter may have arrived in the Hamptons, but things are really heating up. Absolution was the theme this week in the Hamptons, but no one was actually up for freeing anyone from blame. If anything, the sins deepened in the most delicious ways possible.

Determined to track down her father’s murderer, Emily obtained a list of the prisoners from the day her father was attacked. The murderer was never identified, so she was determined to figure it out. Without realizing it, Charlotte helped Emily greatly, when she dropped in on the pill popping teenager, who was also kicked out school for her drug habit, and found out that Charlotte had been researching David’s life. She also found a photograph of him taken in prison on the day he died. David was holding a notebook – one that was missing from the infinity box, one that Nolan had kept from her.

Thankfully this didn’t hurt their relationship and Nolan explained that her father wanted it kept from her. He handed it over anyway and Emily read the pages talking about David’s mistrust of the judicial system and how he felt trapped between fate and freedom. He also mentioned the initials CM, which Emily later traced to Carole Miller, a woman who had information to free him. While reading the journal, the show flashbacked to the day of David Clarke’s murder and showed a US Marshal stabbing him. Sure, he may appear to be dead, but I remained convinced that David is alive and will be back in the Hamptons some day. If not, I’ll be sorely disappointed.

Queen Victoria played the role of a woman scorned beautifully this week. Apparently it was one thing for her to bear the truth of David Clarke’s framing and murder, but losing her sexy artist lover proved to be too much. She finally snapped and sold Conrad out on how he was linked to terrorists.Victoria wins this time, Conrad.

Victoria wasn’t all bad this episode. She finally saw how desperate Charlotte was to know her father and took her to David Clarke’s grave. Charlotte worried her mother didn’t love her because she sees so much of David in her, but Victoria assured it those attributes of David makes her love her more. It was almost aww-worthy, until Charlotte pointed out the rose that Emily had left on the headstone earlier in the episode. Looks likeVictoriawill be tracking down who left it.

Meanwhile, Daniel’s charges were dropped, making him a free man. Jack had already gone to Emily and pointed out how easily things worked out for Daniel, but she still stood by her man. Unfortunately, the media is not behind Daniel. Someone spray painted murderer on Emily’s car when she came to pick him up.

With her fiancé safe at home, Emily took off to New Mercy Hospital to check out the file of Carole Miller. One quick call to the doctor who signed the file and Emily obtained her actual name – Carole Thomas. This led her to Lancaster, Pennsylvania where she posted as someone from the Department of Security. The lady quickly called her bluff, pulled a shotgun on her, and Nolan suddenly intervened revealing Carole has his aunt.

This is where things got really interesting. Nolan and Auntie Carole explained how she worked for Grayson Global as Conrad’s secretary and how they were trying to prove David’s innocence. The investigation led Carole to Roger, the Grayson Senior Accountant, who had discovered the terrorist plots Conrad was funding. David was murdered before they could pass along the information, so they faked Carole’s death to protect her as well. Auntie Carole did, however, point Emily in the direction of a white haired man that would show up randomly at Grayson Global and said he scared Conrad. If Conrad’s scared, you know it’s serious.  

Back in the Hamptons, Ashley gave notice to Queen V. after being offered a position with Brooks’ law office in media relations. Brooks later revoked the offer when he learned she leaned the photos of Daniel. It was a lovely, lovely moment to see Ashley lose something, but she did fair well in the end. Impressed by how she didn’t mind getting her hands dirty, Conrad offered her a position at Grayson Global. Needless to say, she’ll become his newest pawn and I’ll enjoy ever second of it. She should know by now the Graysons are only interested in chewing people up and spitting them out – especially if they’re nice to you.

Jack also paid a visit to Daniel and confessed about what really happened that night on the beach. Can he just give doing the right thing a break for once? He escaped a murder trial, which would have likely resulted in a conviction. Take it where you can get it, Jack. Emily did her to best to reassure Daniel he deserved the reprieve. It seemed to work because Daniel went home to get his things to move back in with her, only he found his father sitting distraught in his office because earlier that day Grayson Global had been swarmed by the feds.

This is another part where things got really interesting. Emily listened in from the house as Conrad explained how awful his mother was – the beatings she arranged and the murder, the latter of which Conrad insisted was to protect his family. He asked Daniel to look after Charlotte and rebuild the company. When Daniel agreed, he told his son everything that happened with David Clarke.

The following morning Daniel did a TV interview, where he was asked about things at Grayson Global. Even though he knew the truth about the past, he stood by his father, much to the dismay of Emily. I felt equally distraught for you, Em. Clearly we expected too much. Is this a case of the rich boy refusing to bite the hand that feeds him? Does this mean Daniel is more Grayson than we thought? Should he have told his father to go to hell? How can Emily continue loving someone who appears to support the death of her father? Or is Daniel simply playing along so he can take control and right his father’s mistakes? Time will only tell, but it’s not steering Emily from her plan. She will marry Daniel, which causes me to think she loves him more than she’ll ever let on, and then she’ll find the man who killed her father and kill him. Fortunately for her, she learned the identity of the white haired man that scared Conrad when she watched one of Mason’s interview and he was caught on video. How long before she figures out that man is her father’s murderer? Knowing Emily, it’ll be very, very soon.