‘Revenge’ Review: ‘Resurgence’ gives Nolan a chance to settle a score

Is it too early to declare Nolan the MVP of this season’s Revenge? It is only episode seven, but he’s definitely our frontrunner and he singlehandedly saved this episode from putting us to sleep (honorable mention to a few of Victoria’s zingers).

“Resurgence” began by briefly dealing with the fallout from Patrick’s exit last week. Nolan told Emily that he was having a hard time tracking him aside from the flight he’d gotten on and Conrad made it clear to Victoria that he had no intention of hunting her son unless Victoria didn’t do what he wanted – which was to rebuild the family’s good name with some help from a PR maven.

But before we get into that, let’s get the rest of the episode out of the way first. Jack and Margaux got closer, but he pulled away when things got a little too friendly. He was feeling guilty so he went and cried at Amanda’s grave and then he tracked down Margaux and they had sex at the bar. Their afterglow consisted of chatting about Conrad and his secrets so that probably says something about how good things were. Is anyone here for them? That’s what we thought.

Why were they chatting about Conrad? Earlier in the episode, the former governor stopped by the magazine because he wanted Margaux to do a story on him and his comeback. She pointed out that it wasn’t very ethical and he retorted that she was doing a puff piece on Daniel and Emily’s engagement. She claimed it wasn’t the same thing. Somehow, that inspired Conrad to want to write a book, which Margaux wants to publish because she wants to learn more of his secrets. Good luck with that.

Charlotte continued her bad girl ways or whatever it is that she’s doing and kept trying to put Sara in Daniel’s path so he’d remember their great love and not marry Emily. Seriously, does anyone know why Charlotte hates Emily so much? Aside from the season premiere where she knew Emily had lied to Victoria about who told her about Patrick, what on earth did Emily do to make Charlotte so vindictive toward her? Also, it’s really hard to care about Charlotte when she’s only trotted out to cause trouble for Emily.

Sara was drafted to make a wedding cake for Daniel and Emily because that’s totally normal behavior to have an ex do that. Obviously Emily doesn’t care because Daniel is something she stepped in, but it gave Daniel and Sara time to instantly get close again and they almost shared a kiss while watching the fireworks. Victoria was somewhat impressed by her daughter’s plan and decided to take the reins, even lowering herself to show up at Sara’s place and apologize for the rude (hilarious) comments she made at the party.

Before she set out to recruit Sara for her scheme, Victoria declared her independence from Britain aka Aiden. Since Daniel no longer seemed jealous of Aiden and Emily’s closeness, Victoria dismissed him from Grayson Manor. Aiden and Emily had a cute scene on the beach where they shared a kiss and she told him to come back when the time was right (so probably in two episodes when it’s time for the wedding and her to fake her death). First Patrick is sent away and now Aiden?

So now that we’ve got all that out of the way, let’s talk about Nolan. He has a history with Bizzy, Conrad’s PR person. Bizzy has quite the reputation for getting things done, but she has no problem throwing people under the bus. Back in the day, she outed Nolan as gay, which destroyed his newly salvaged relationship with his father. Then Nolan’s father died and he was left with 10 years to hate Bizzy.

Emily planted a false sob story about her having a secret first husband, which Bizzy promised not to say anything about and then immediately told Victoria. At the party, Nolan cozied up to Bizzy and her husband and pretended everything was water under the bridge, but he secretly used his spy glasses to get Bizzy’s phone password. They were looking for dirt on her clients to blackmail with, but found something much closer to home. It turns out that she was having an affair.

Here comes the really great part. When Nolan confronted her, he gave her a choice. He would out her and destroy her life or she could end the affair and be with a husband who truly loves her. See what we mean? Nolan is the best. He had his chance for revenge, but he knew that having the satisfaction of seeing her suffer wouldn’t change anything for him. It was a great moment of self-awareness and it only made us love Nolan more.

We also enjoyed the final Emily and Nolan scene where they reflected on their friendship and how important it is to both of them. That was great too, especially since Emily already seems to be having second thoughts about never seeing Charlotte and Nolan again if she carries out her plan. But Nolan had one more tidbit for his friend. His glasses had picked up the near kiss between Daniel and Sara at the party and Emily realized that was the real reason Daniel hadn’t been jealous of Aiden – his attention was elsewhere.

Part of our issue with this season so far is that there are no real stakes. It seems pointless to watch all these episodes of people trying to stop the wedding because we know there is going to be one. We know Emily and Daniel get married and then Emily is shot. We don’t know if it’s her plan being carried out or if it’s for real (we’re hoping for the latter), but either way, none of these obstacles are going to stop the wedding so all of this feels like a waste of time.

What do you guys think? Are you enjoying the season so far? Hit the comments and share your thoughts with us!