‘Revenge’ Review: ‘Dissolution’ creates a rift for Team Emily

Last night’s Revenge was definitely our least favorite episode of the season so far and only a small part of that is because of what happened with Nolan and Patrick (Dear Writers, we’re in a fight until further notice). “Dissolution” shook up the Team Emily dynamics, added a new obstacle to the game, broke Nolan’s heart (still mad!) and revealed Emily’s endgame, but for some reason, the episode felt flat.

It’s hard to put our finger on why it didn’t work for us. Some of it was the pacing; it was obvious where the episode was going (Patrick being forced to leave, Nolan and Emily fighting, Jack being brought into the inner circle, Victoria staying with Conrad, etc.), but the hour seemed to drag on. It was kind of like being stuck in traffic. You know the exit is coming up, you can almost see it, but the cars in front of you are moving so slowly that it takes forever to get there when it should only take a few minutes. That’s how watching the episode felt. But we didn’t hate it; we just weren’t invested in it.

We might as well start with Patrick (and get our biggest grievance out of the way). After Nolan and Patrick spent the night together (destroying Nolan’s house in the process), Emily showed up and ruined Nolan’s life (hush, we’re being dramatic) by ordering him to stay away from Patrick because he tried to kill Conrad. Nolan wasn’t really bothered by that and correctly pointed out that’s been Emily’s thing from day one, but Ms. Thorne wasn’t hearing it. She didn’t trust Patrick, she hadn’t decided where he fit into her plan and Nolan was not allowed near him until further notice.

Meanwhile, Victoria also clued her son in on the fact that she knew what he’d done. Patrick wasn’t all that sorry about it because he didn’t want Conrad hurting his mother anymore. Victoria was willing to let it go and she decided to put the gallery in Patrick’s name so Conrad couldn’t take it from her. Mother and son had a nice bonding moment and then he went to track down Nolan, who’d been avoiding him. Nolan was still hesitant, but Patrick reminded him that other people shouldn’t have a say in their relationship. Then, they finally got to kiss in good lighting!

But of course the other shoe was about to drop. Emily told Jack the truth (WTF?) and Jack was not okay with it because he worried Patrick would go after Charlotte. After Nolan admitted that he’d known about Emily/Amanda all along, Jack kicked him out of the Stowaway, but then had a change of heart and headed to Nolan’s place to return his phone and tell him they’d always be friends (aw, this was sweet. We might not like Jack, but Nolan does and it was nice to see him win one, especially with what was about to happen).

Despite his feelings, Nolan didn’t trust Patrick enough to assure Jack that Charlotte wouldn’t get hurt so he agreed to let him go. He couldn’t say goodbye to him, but made Jack promise that Patrick wouldn’t get hurt. Here’s where things stop making sense to us. Jack went to Conrad and told him the truth. At first, we thought Jack was double crossing Nolan, but later, Nolan confirmed to Emily that he’d known what Jack was going to do. Since when does Nolan trust Conrad? Did he really believe Conrad wouldn’t hurt Patrick? This felt really, really wrong to us and we were not amused.

Luckily, Patrick spotted Conrad’s men and took the back exit out of the gallery, called a cab and met Victoria on the side of the road. She gave him a bag and money and told him to go away where he’d be safe, but she promised to bring him back. Patrick was devastated because he still had questions for her, but Victoria insisted that he obey his mother and he did (Okay, SPOILER ALERT: Thanks to Twitter, we know that Justin Hartley was filming as recently as last week so he’ll be back, but we’re still really sad about this development, okay? Turn away so we can cry into our cookie dough).

Now let’s talk about the other Grayson children and how the writers did something pretty cool (we’re still in a fight, but we have to give praise where it’s due). Remember how Emily randomly told the magazine about Daniel’s accident? We didn’t think much of it; other than it was something to put some distance between Daniel and Emily. But it turns out that it was much more than that. Sara is back and she’s angry! It turns out Conrad and Victoria lied (shocking) and had actually sued her instead of paying all of her medical bills so she was working in a bakery 60 hours a week and still barely getting by so when Daniel and Charlotte came in, she was not happy to see him at all.

ABC/Danny Feld

But Charlotte took a page from her mother’s (or her sister’s) playbook and had Sara fired only so she could turn around and hire to her to work at the Stowaway. Charlotte is really anti-Emily and she thinks there might still be enough of a something between Daniel and Sara to dissuade her brother from getting married. Not only was this a clever plot twist that we didn’t see coming (well played, writers), but it’s also a way to remind viewers that Daniel was not always Conrad Jr. Season one Daniel was a good guy and maybe being drawn to Sara will help bring out that good side of him once more.

Emily and Aiden continued to plot the Grayson demise, starting with keeping Grayson Manor in the family when Conrad tried to sell it. As much as we enjoyed the hot scene with the sledgehammer and the two making out against the broken wall, it’s starting to become very obvious that Emily is only telling Aiden what he wants to hear. Every time he talks about the two of them running away together, the look on her face makes it clear that’s the last thing she wants; or the second to last thing – her distaste for Daniel remains number one, although she is getting good at hiding it in public again.

After Nolan finally let out some of his anger, a contrite Emily came back later and interrupted Nolan’s dinner with Jack. She told them that she was going to have to say goodbye because after her wedding, Victoria was going to go down for the murder of Emily Thorne and she would have to disappear and never see either of them again. Even though neither man was happy with her, that was not what they wanted and we’re guessing it’s also not what’s going to happen.

We have to give this one to the writers too. We’ve been assuming that Emily was going to fake her death and run off with Aiden, but then either the wrong person would be accused or something would happen that would force her back to the Hamptons. But now that we know this is Emily’s plan, we can’t imagine that this is actually what happens. So who is going to shoot Emily for real?

What did you guys think of the episode? Are you upset about Nolan and Patrick too? How and when do you think he’ll get to come back? Were you surprised by Emily’s plan? Who do you think is going to shoot her? Hit the comments and share your thoughts with us!