‘Revenge’ Review: ‘Mercy’ puts another hole in Emily’s master plan

Things continued to go wrong for Emily last night on Revenge and she does not seem to be handling failure very well.

As much as we love watching Ms. Thorne shoot daggers out of her eyes (very few people can pull off this death stare as well as Emily VanCamp), the lead Revenger really needs to tone it down because even Daniel is starting to question her motives for marrying him and that’s saying something since he’s never been the sharpest knife in the drawer.

“Mercy” was a fun, soapy hour of television with a lot of twists and turns, some more predictable than others. But we’ve been watching soaps a long time so we don’t mind predictability as long as it’s well-executed and it was; everyone is bringing their A-game this season and we love every minute of it.

Daniel gets his Grayson on – and Emily makes a mistake

Let’s start with the fallout from the car crash. Emily watched helplessly as Father Paul died and then the Grayson family proceeded to close ranks, leaving her and Patrick out in the hall. Conrad claimed that he wasn’t driving, but Victoria was not buying it for a second and made it clear that she was not going down this path with him. But it didn’t matter because Daniel was more than happy to take the lead in the cover-up, including bribing a detective to make sure it went away quickly.

Emily was not amused and got her revenge by leaking Daniel’s DUI to someone at the magazine who was writing a profile on him. The passive-aggressive move did not go unnoticed by Daniel and he threatened to leave, at which point Em coldly told him to turn on the alarm first. While we’re not fans of Daniel’s behavior lately, we have to admit we were disappointed in Emily for this stunt. Sure, it was probably a moment of satisfaction, but you’re better than this, Emily! Revenge is a dish best served cold and now this power play has opened Daniel’s eyes even more.

ABC/Vivian ZInk

Victoria takes a job – and seizes an opportunity

Patrick suggests to his mother that they sell some of her art collection and leave the Hamptons together to escape the Grayson drama, but Victoria doesn’t want to abandon Daniel and Charlotte (poor Patrick doesn’t take that well). Instead, Victoria swallows her pride and heads to the local art gallery to ask for a job. The owner is thrilled at the idea of having someone of Victoria’s stature working for her and decides to host a big event, using Victoria’s name to draw in clients.

Then, Patrick shows up with one of Victoria’s paintings and wants to fence it through the gallery. The owner declines, but then Patrick points out that it wouldn’t be the first time she’s bent the rules. The owner relents and then after the party, Victoria uses the information to her advantage and suddenly she’s the proprietor of the gallery. Patrick is waiting outside to celebrate the good news with his mother and once again, he’s the favorite child. It was a well-played con, but we still can’t help wondering if the real con is Patrick’s instant love for Victoria. No one is what they seem in the Hamptons and she did abandon him. That doesn’t just go away.

ABC/Vivian ZInk

Aiden learns that Jack knows the truth – and throws his rival under the bus

Mr. Mathis continued his role as Emily’s spy inside Grayson Manor. He got in Conrad’s face, which was fun and he helped Emily switch out his medication again. But when it came time to prove that Conrad was driving the car, it was Jack who ended up helping Emily get the evidence and then promptly decided he would be the one to bring it to the cops (whether it was because he wanted justice or he didn’t trust Emily to do it didn’t matter to us; we kind of like seeing Jack sniping at Emily all the time).

But there’s already a noticeable thaw in the tension between them. Even Charlotte and her bitchy bangs (that one’s for you, One Life to Live fans) noticed it and proceeded to remind Jack that he’d claimed to need a break from Emily Thorne and then she handed him an invitation to Emily and Daniel’s wedding. This was another moment where Emily was not exactly doing her best to project the image of the future Mrs. Daniel Grayson. Charlotte seems to be onto sister, even if she doesn’t know all of her secrets; she definitely knows that things are not right with Emily’s alleged love for Daniel.

Here comes the two twists we weren’t expecting. First, Conrad tells everyone that new tests reveal that he doesn’t have Huntington’s disease and his medication was causing the symptoms and suddenly Emily doesn’t have a major piece of her plan in place any longer. This was another part where Emily did not do a very good job hiding her disappointment.

Then, Jack doesn’t go to the police because he learns that Conrad’s brakes were tampered with, which means that someone was trying to kill him and it made no difference who was driving the car. Emily immediately assumed it was Aiden and he assured her that it wasn’t (we believe you), but then Aiden realized that Jack knew the truth. Emily gave him a quick explanation, but the damage was done. Aiden was hurt and that’s when he decided to tell Conrad that the brakes had been cut and Jack Porter was the one who had done it.

For us, this is one more reason we’re always going to root for Aiden and Emily. They are the same. When hurt, they lash out quickly and don’t always think of the consequences. Emily is ruining her plan by alienating Daniel and it’s quite possible Aiden is going to earn Emily’s wrath by putting Jack in the line of fire. Then again, both Aiden and Emily are smart and well-trained, which means they have backup plans for their backup plans and it’s totally possible Aiden knows what he’s doing here (We hope so anyway).

Patrick and Nolan take things up a notch – and we love it

We’re going to preface this by saying that logically, we know there’s a solid chance that one or both of these men are playing the other. This is Revenge and after 48 episodes, we know better than to trust anyone. It’s possible Patrick’s ex-wife (good to see you, Brianna Brown!) told Nolan that he was a conman and Nolan is plotting a takedown. It’s possible that Patrick knows that Nolan stole his wallet and doesn’t trust him and decided this is the best way to manipulate him. We know all of that, but we don’t care at the moment because we are totally shipping this so hard that logic need not apply.

First, God bless the wardrobe department.

Second, how cute are these beach club scenes? Nolan is trying to be nosy, but also a little flirty and Patrick is still reeling from Victoria putting her other kids first again as he admits that it might be time for him to leave the Hamptons behind. He went for a swim and Nolan stole his wallet, headed back to his place and after a short debate, decided it was time to power up the laptop and do some research.

Nolan headed to Florida where he met Patrick’s ex-wife and bribed her for the goods, which she was all too happy to provide. While we don’t know what she said, we’re guessing she dropped the ‘Patrick likes guys’ card because Nolan invited him over and went in for a kiss! Patrick wasn’t having it at first, calling Nolan ‘presumptuous’. Nolan felt bad about misreading the situation, but he wasn’t. Apparently, Patrick just likes to be the one to make the first move and then this happened:

We probably have more questions and concerns about the episode, but there’s no time for that right now because we’re in our gif happy place. Feel free to hit the comments below and share your theories on Nolan and Patrick, Emily and Daniel, Emily and Aiden, Emily and Jack, Charlotte’s hair choices, etc…