Entertainment

Emily Thorne Comes Tumbling Down

by Christine DiStasio

It was only a matter of time before Emily's band of merry (or not-so-merry) men went rogue and she lost complete control of her operation. I just didn't think it'd happen quite so soon. Sunday night's episode of Revenge on ABC showed us what happens when someone who frequently plays both ends against the middle gets played by her own emotional conquests. Emily Thorne should've listened to us last week and called it quits with at least one of her men before they managed to spiral her emotions and her plan out of control.

It's tough to complain about the endless amount of eye candy on ABC's Revenge, except for when they're reducing the calm, cool, assassin that is Emily Thorne to a girl just like the rest of us. Watching her sit in Nolan's kitchen and whine about not knowing what to do is not exactly how I expected to see her when she's this close to reaching the final stage of the plan. Emily's an emotional wreck, which would be fine in any other circumstance, but it feels like she's lost something really important: her confidence. And according to Nolan, the only way to get her situation back on track, is to give a little and get over her emotions (common sense, girl).

Emily's placed so much stock in the help and trust of men that it's coming back to bite her in the ass. Aiden is insubordinate and jealous as ever, Jack can't get out of his own way because he's stubborn, and Daniel is just moody, cranky, and crying "I have daddy/mommy-issues" (which isn't really anything new). There's not one strong, confident individual in this bunch and it's ruining Emily Thorne.

So, here's the weekly Revenge male update:

Emily and Daniel are still on the outs because he's so easily manipulated that Victoria and Margot have both convinced him that Emily has something to hide. He's convinced that she's well on her way to having another affair with Aiden, or even worse, Jack, right under his nose so instead of trying to work it out, he's hiding out at a hotel. Mature, very mature. He's still trying to work a series of "power plays" after soliciting advice from his father, Conrad, who's really one of the worst husbands on television and the least qualified to offer advice. Either way, Emily shows up late to the launch of his new magazine and "Grayson-free" venture, Voulez, and Daniel snaps. He calls off the wedding, tells her that he feels like he's the only one fighting and essentially derails the entire plan Emily's taken two seasons to build... for about five minutes. Now that we know that Emily "can't stand to be around him" it makes sense that she takes Nolan's advice by creating a little false intimacy with Daniel by talking about her past, shedding a few tears, and giving him a picture of her parents (technically the real Emily Thorne's parents). Poof, the wedding is back on and Daniel is still as easily manipulated as ever. I wonder if Emily realizes that if it's so easy for her to manipulate him, it'll be equally as easy for someone else.

Aiden, who's double-agenting behind enemy lines at Grayson Manor, is so erratic that it's impossible to think that Emily thought it through before she asked him to come back to help her. He's a jealous mess. He convinces Conrad that Jack wants him dead so Conrad will employ him to ensure that he gets his daughter back and Jack rots behind bars (vicious, Conrad) and in turn, breaks into Jack's apartment and tries to convince him to run from the Hamptons and never return. He turns around from that and feeds Victoria a similar story that she, in turn, tells Emily to gauge her fidelity to Daniel and enlists Aiden to follow her. Emily fails the test and runs to Jack (because, EMOTIONS) and ends up having to explain her feelings to Aiden, who makes it very clear that he's not only there to help her, he's there because he thinks they still have a shot to ride off into the sunset together. So the episode ends on a shot of Emily kissing Aiden on the docks. Another instance of Emily taking Nolan's advice to give a little to keep everyone happy? Probably, but then there's Jack...

Jack, reliable, dependable, moral compass, Jack might have actually fallen for the cool-girl French ways of Daniel's business partner, Margot. After refusing to leave the Hamptons and instead taking baby Carl to stay with relatives for awhile, he's back in all of his frustrated glory. He basically bitches Emily out because he can't fathom what happened to the little girl he used to know (hello, her dad was framed and died in prison and she spent her childhood in juvie) and makes her feel guilty which was probably the last straw in causing her to take an epic emotional tumble during the final stages of her elaborate plot. Or maybe it was his romantic exchange and kiss with Margot that Emily just happened to see while she was sneaking around looking for a family photo in the real Emily's old duffel bag. Either way, Jack's not as sweet and innocent of a bystander as Emily thought and she's probably rethinking her decision to clue him into her plans and her real identity because there's no anticipating what will happen next with him.

So here we are again with the men running the show and none of them are exuding strong, silent, nor sexy qualities. They're just being emotionally abusive and it's uncool. Is there a girl power return on the horizon after Victoria's pep-talk to Margot that we can either live our lives being controlled by our desire to please the men around us, or choose to figure out how to control those men instead? I hope so. Revenge was about strong, bad-ass women and the only one who remains unchanged so far is the evergreen Victoria Grayson. Take notes, Emily Thorne.

Image: ABC