The fictional world of The Hamptons in Revenge regards books about scandal as the gospel truth. "Infamy" is about the man who wrote the damning book about David Clarke. The book altered the public's perception about David Clarke. Before the book hits shelves across America, doubt existed in the collective mind of America, as well as the individual minds of the author and child Amanda Clarke. The book destroyed Amanda's perception of her father so much so that she burned the only photograph she possessed of her father, broken-hearted by the book's narratives and presumed truths. Truthfully, Mason was bought by the Graysons. Emily (the real Amanda Clarke) resented Mason more than her previous victims. The effects of his book were catastrophic for her. Interestingly, Emily wants revenge, but she's careful about her revenge; in fact, she provides Mason an opportunity through Fake Amanda to reveal the truth about the circumstances and the dishonesty surrounding the published manuscript. Mason didn't comply, so she responded by burning his house down.
I liked the portrayal of Emily in "Infamy." The Emily with a black-and-white perspective about the people who contributed to her father's demise isn't interesting or compelling. The most interesting parts of the early revenge-of-the-week episodes were the acts of revenge, meaning how she took the people down. The actual acts were boring. The character was flat. Emily was a robot, thoughtlessly executing tasks, etc. I liked how she thought about her options in "Infamy." The scene between Mason and Fake Amanda is among the strongest in the season. Nolan and Emily controlled Amanda's words from afar. The conversation began simply enough, with pleasantries and whatnot, until Emily (real Amanda) instructed Fake Amanda to dig into Mason's lies and deceit. Emily Vancamp played the scene perfectly; her character looked like someone who kept these feelings buried for too many years. Emily's only discussed the situation with Nolan, Fake Amanda, and the guy who was killed by Sayid in season six of LOST, and also the warden. She was sharp, terse, angry, direct, and intimidating. I felt Emily's palpable rage. The scene elicited a visceral reaction, which is good.
The pieces are starting fall elsewhere. The Grayson divorce will lead to Daniel's marriage proposal to Emily. Victoria wants to assume complete control of the company. Victoria's lawyer instructed her to use her and Daniel's shares to steal power and control from Conrad. Conrad, of course, suspected a plan by his soon-to-be ex-wife, so he wouldn't open the shares to Daniel until he married or turned thirty. We know where things are headed because of the pilot, so it's nice and somewhat fun to watch the pieces fall.
Fake Amanda's in a dangerous and vulnerable position, though. While she's making exotic drinks and making out with gorgeous blondes at the bar, her conversation with Mason has a domino effect. The sheer aggression of the meeting traveled to Victoria's ears, and now she must act against the girl she perceives to be the real Amanda Clarke. I have a decent idea of what'll happen in future episodes, and how Real Emily's ruse will blow up in Real Amanda Clarke's face. Victoria's like a wolf, or really a predatory creature born to pounce on weakness, so she'll corner Fake Amanda and something will give.
The episode ended with a significant twist, a game-changer if one fancies such a term. The David Clarke drama needed to deepen, or rather, expand. Emily's breath was briefly taken away when she watched her father confess to Mason the truth that he is the father of Charlotte Grayson. The prime time soap isn't going to content itself with the same old, same old. I suppose a bombshell about paternity was bound to happen. We'll need to watch next week's all-new episode of Revenge to see how Emily responds and if the news changes anything about her plans for revenge.
Some other thoughts:
-Jack Porter sort of emerged from his shell. Fake Amanda turned the bar into a Coyote Ugly-esque place for a few moments. She met Porter's disdain with a challenge to alter his personality, and so he did, but not because she lay seductively on his bed, wearing a low-cut tank top that revealed quite a lot of her bosom.
-Declan tried to help Charlotte read John Milton's Paradise Lost. Milton's revered story about the Fall of Satan is a literary classic, and a book only foolish high school English teachers would assign to their class. The poetry is dense and complicated. Of course, Declan fell asleep with a copy of Cliffnotes for the book. I'd like to read more into the writers' decision to use Milton's text; however, the task seems a waste of time given this is prime-time soap that manages to insult Shakespeare's lines by just using them to comment on an event.
-Dan Dworkin & Jay Beattie wrote the episode. Matt Earl Beesley directed it.
THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK
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