RIP, Daniel Grayson! Revenge Season 4 Episode 11 said goodbye to Conrad's only son for real and those of us who held out a teeny, tiny glimmer of hope that his death happened in some weird dream sequence while Emily was unconscious after being tackled over the railing in the Manor were let down.

(Don't pretend there weren't at least three of us out there hoping Daniel Grayson wasn't really dead...)

We bid Daniel Grayson farewell and said hello to a new Big Bad, Malcolm Black himself.

Revenge Photos "Epitaph"

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For a death that didn't seem to make much sense, Daniel Grayson's permanent departure from the Hamptons has certainly set in motion a series of events which are definitely going to be unfortunate for our major players. 

For starters, there are more and more and more lies to keep straight than ever before. If there were ever any questions about Jack's loyalties and whether or not he's all in, we can safely put those to bed. 

After realizing that he killed Kate Taylor and hearing David's prediction that certain death was the only end for all of them, Jack got the brilliant idea to cover up her death.

Not "hey, let's turn it into some crazy shootout where Kate, an FBI agent, saw what she thought was a prowler who turned out to be Daniel Grayson and shot and killed him and was somehow shot herself in the process."

Nope. No using her actual profession – which is in the realm of law enforcement – to make her death plausible. Of course they couldn't do that.

Instead, he decided they should make it so that Daniel broke into Emily's house and she had to kill him in self-defense. Then they dumped Kate's body in some undisclosed location and hoped her paranoid father wouldn't come looking for her. 

Now they think they've gotten away with it because some arms dealers in Miami were blown to pieces, Nolan and David take it as a good sign that Malcolm Black is dead. Except he's not and he's in the Hamptons (because OF COURSE he is).

Sigh. 

All implausibility of their plan aside, this was still a good episode of Revenge. Why? 

Emotional Emily. Gets me every time.

When Jack doubted she could sell their story to the police, she proved him wrong by selling the truth to the police instead, and in the process provided the best epitaph for Daniel Grayson anyone could have delivered. 

At his core, he was a good guy trying to figure out how to survive. That's why so many of us have always liked him, even when he was at his worst. We remembered that guy on the yacht who didn't drink and wasn't caught up in the politics of the Hamptons like his parents were. 

He just wanted to be a writer. A dreamer. 

Emily did throw a hand grenade into Daniel's life and, no, she never wanted to hurt him. She fell in love with him in the beginning, and a part of her always cared about him; even when he shot her. Even when he was the most cruel and vile human being to her while she recovered. She knew that she had caused his hatred, even if he didn't yet know it.

She mourned his death just like Victoria and Margaux, though perhaps more deeply, because deep down, she knew what they could have had and what he could have been. She knew what she took from him, especially after hearing about Margaux's pregnancy. But when she pressed on with her plan, he became another casualty in a story about how Emily Thorne will lose pretty much everything that has ever mattered to her.

Her father is back, sure, but that wasn't a by-product she expected, and he's not the man he was when she was a child, either. He was, after all, about to kill Victoria Grayson just to get unfettered access to the money she'd stolen from Conrad all those years ago. 

Has he been playing her this entire time? Will he still be able to go through with it? While the previews for Revenge Season 4 Episode 12 indicate he's going to try, there's no way we'll lose another Grayson so soon. (Will we??)

While the police seem to have closed the case, or will have Chief Alvarez' disappearance on their hands, Margaux LeMarchal will most certainly keep the case of Daniel Grayson's death wide open, and for good reason. She has a child to think about, and that child doesn't deserve the same fate Amanda Clarke suffered by growing up and hearing rumors about what a horrible monster Daniel Grayson was when that isn't the truth.

(That's the line Margaux should use to appeal to them when she starts piecing this together, writers!)

Hopefully, this doesn't signal the end of Margaux's story. She's as strong as Emily but in different ways, which makes her a nice addition to the cast. Where Emily hides in secrets, Margaux works in truth. She can smell a lie a mile away, and not just because pregnancy has given her the nose of a bloodhound. She has an uncanny knack for knowing when she's being played, and she cannot abide that. It's something I like about her.

While I would prefer they bring Margaux aboard since she is also a victim of Malcolm Black and has just as much reason to want to see him taken down (and resources to help, too), it's also sort of interesting to watch them fight this two-pronged battle. Plus, there's a very good chance she'll find a partner in crime in Victoria Grayson, and Victoria and Emily at odds with one another is sort of the name of the game.

What did you think of "Epitaph"? Does Daniel Grayson's death make more sense now, or do you wish he were still alive? Will Margaux discover the truth about his death? 

Remember you can always watch Revenge online right here at TV Fanatic to catch anything you might have missed!

Watch Revenge Season 4 Episode 11 Online

Revenge Season 4 Episode 12 will be titled "Madness" and air on Sunday, January 11.

Miranda Wicker was a Staff Writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in 2017. Follow her on Twitter.