Daniel's birthday turned out to be an event that no one who attended will soon forget.

As Emily pointed out in the opening, when the pressure becomes too great, the results can be unpredictable. Thankfully, for our entertainment if not theirs, most of the characters on Revenge were put under extreme "Duress."

Conrad and Victoria. As the Hamptons infamous duo's divorce heated up, their true colors continued to seep through. Did anyone else notice how Conrad didn't wait to be told to come in to Emily's home? He knocked but then he walked right in and then never even said hello to her. 

Of course, all of Conrad's focus was on Daniel in that moment, as the Grayson kids became the pawns in their parents' split. Conrad was more than willing to toss Tyler aside in order to win Daniel's loyalty. Little did he realize that the closer he kept Daniel, the more ammunition he was feeding Victoria.

Next door, Victoria could barely choke out the word "clambake" when it came to her son's birthday celebration. Laid back and casual simply wasn't the party she was looking to plan and she stared daggers at Emily, believing the blonde destroyed her fun. 

I loved how Victoria and Emily are always polite and civil but at the same time snipe at one another every chance they got. These two ladies are such fun. Inventive fun, you might say.

Emily apologized! I almost couldn't believe it, but I also couldn't have been happier. Nolan has continued to prove his loyalty and he deserved a little back. Emily's "I'm sorry" was the icing on the billionaire's enjoyably creepy cake.

From there, she stole back his Shamu camera. In the world of Revenge, that was downright sweet. It certainly didn't hurt that Emily found Tyler's empty med bottle while she was snooping.

But my favorite parts of the episode were the scenes where Nolan and Emily worked together. They have this wonderful brother/sister vibe between them. And Nolan never looked more adorable than in that moment when Emily invited him to Daniel's party. Too bad his attendance was marred by bloodshed.

Poor Nolan is a lover not a fighter. He was no match for a crazy Tyler with a knife. At least he can spin a cool story to tell about the scar, though.

Declan's a moron. Not that that's news but what was he thinking? He made a point of telling his brother's new girlfriend that he had feelings for Emily. If you looked past the fact that Amanda's a murdering imposter, she and Jack seemed pretty happy together.

If little brother continues to stir the pot, I'm not sure who Amanda will take her wrath out on. I doubt we'll get lucky enough for it to be Declan.

Tyler's last stand. It was no surprise when Tyler crashed the clambake. He was finally hauled away in cuffs but not before attacking Nolan and pulling Emily's gun on her. In the end, both Daniel and Jack got to play hero by tackling the Hamptons' resident psycho. 

But now that Emily has planted Frank's cell phone on Tyler, Conrad feels like he's home free. As much as I think Victoria is an evil witch, I'm hoping she crushes her arrogant soon-to-be ex. Faking a miscarriage? Seems like a strong start.

So what did everyone else think? This first new episode of 2012 has me looking forward to a delightfully devious new year of Revenge, especially when we have a proposal to look forward to next Wednesday.

C. Orlando was a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. Follow her on Twitter.