Revenge Season 4 Episode 14 Review: Happily Ever Emily
Miranda Wicker
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Revenge Season 4 Episode 14 closed the chapter on several storylines while turning the pages to start new ones. After surviving the Initiative and the mess that was Revenge Season 3, this series is bringing its A game right now, consistently keeping things fresh and leaving viewers wanting more.
Who knew that all it would take was killing off half the cast and replacing those faces with less familiar ones?
Revenge still has its moments of absolute insanity and the inability to suspend disbelief. (Like how they zip between the Hamptons and the city. Do they all have helicopters and pilots at the ready? And what about Emily's hair at the reception, then at the psych ward, then at the reception again?
But for the most part, this might be the show's best season since the beginning.
While it's still hard to love Louise and buy this whole marriage-to-Nolan story, it was pretty great to see her get rid of her mother, the only woman who might actually be more manipulative than Victoria Grayson. She killed her husband and blamed it on her daughter, going so far as to drug and institutionalize the girl for years all so she could control the family fortune. Despicable.
But then again, Victoria did have a young Amanda Clarke institutionalized and convinced that her father was a terrible man who killed a lot of people, so hey. Maybe Victoria and Penelope should hang out and swap stories.
That is, if Victoria isn't too busy holding court in the Hamptons as Queen V.
Those scenes might have been some of the best of the night. No one knows how to throw down a smiling assault quite like Victoria Grayson, and watching her throw shade at the women of the Hamptons was a total callback to the time she humiliated Lydia Davis in front of the entire community for sleeping with Conrad.
We don't want to love Vicki when she gets that way, but it's really hard not to want to throw a high five her way.
Natalie, the new socialite on the block, is intriguing, for sure, but that's probably because she's played by Gina Torres and she's just magical.
From the minute she walked up to the table to tell Victoria to move, I instantly wanted to know more about her. There's something about her that will either prove very, very good for Victoria or very, very bad. Either way will be a win for us.
What secrets will Victoria learn about Natalie "sooner"? Do they have something to do with the mysterious phone call Victoria received just as Natalie walked away? I'm intrigued! I want to see more!
I also want to see more of Emily and Ben.
Much of tonight's episode dealt with whether or not Emily's happy in her new life as Emily. Being Emily Thorne forever was never the plan, but when Aiden died and her father returned, leaving was no longer an option. Returning to life as Amanda Clarke was, but at the same time it wasn't. The girl she was is gone. Long gone. Kudos to David for accepting that as easily as Ben did.
The Ben-Emily story is a very interesting one. It's being explored, but in many ways it exists just to create conflict for Jack and Emily, which cheapens the entire relationship.
If Jack and Emily are endgame, it'd be great for the writers to have brought them together without the entanglements of a love triangle. If, however, the plan is to have Emily realize that too much has transpired in her life and that she no longer thinks of Jack that way, then rock on, Bemily.
My money is on the former rather than the latter being the way this all shakes out since it's been building with every flashback to the two of them as children since the very first flashback, but hey, surprising things have happened before, right?
Part of me thinks the perfect ending for this season or this series, depending on how it goes, is for Emily to be with Ben and for Jack to reconnect with Margaux. It seems silly, but there's a little chemistry still kicking around in there even if she's carrying Daniel Grayson's baby. Plus, the idea of burning him in the process of taking Emily down isn't one which sits well with her, as evidenced by that final scene.
And hey, he quit his job on the police force and is going to need someone to pay the bills. Or a job. Why not put him in a relationship with a beautiful, wealthy woman?
Bemily? Jemily? Mack? So many pairing possibilities. So little season left.
What did you think of "Kindred"? Do you want to see Emily end up with Ben or Jack? Is that the last we've seen of Lyman Ellis? How long will Louise and Nolan stay married now that she has control of her money again?
Our Sunday nights will be a little less fancy until the series returns on March 8, but never fear! You can watch Revenge online any time right here at TV Fanatic.
Miranda Wicker was a Staff Writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in 2017. Follow her on Twitter.
