REVENGE Recap: Doubt (Season 1, Episode 17)

They’re baaaaack! Our favorite Hamptons residents were back last night after what felt like a year long hiatus (eh, 6 weeks — a year, no difference, right?). Last night’s Revenge episode, “Doubt,” found the Graysons scheming and Emily / real Amanda kicking ass – just like the old times.

“Doubt” opened up with the Grayson clan trying to figure out what innocent person to frame next in their efforts to free Daniel. Victoria’s choice? Amanda Clarke! Why, of course. Their second choice – Jack Porter. No worries, Emily won’t allow that to happen. If glares could kill, Emily’s look to Victoria upon seeing the sketch of Jack would’ve instantly killed our favorite villain. But, alas, they don’t and instead Emily decides to bring Mason Treadwell into the mix in order to keep the defense’s target on Amanda and off our (okay, my) beloved Jack.

Emily glaring at Victoria after finding out about the frame-Jack-Porter defense strategy.

Victoria, meanwhile, spends some time vying for the Best Mom Of The Year award by finding a way to get Daniel out of prison. Victoria pays her thug-for-hire friend, Lee, a visit and asks him get an inmate in Riker’s Island to beat the living daylights out of her son. And that, he does. See, because if Daniel is beaten to a pulp and hospitalized he’ll be given bail and put into house arrest for his own safety, so Victoria does what any loving mother would do. Of course.

Emily and Nolan consult to figure out how to best protect Jack from the Graysons. Their plan? Get Jack out of town with the excuse of finding Amanda. Nolan is then sent to bring Treadwell back into the Hamptons’ schemes by convincing him that it would be the perfect way to get sweet revenge against Amanda, the woman who burned his home down and destroyed his career. After Treadwell is reunited with Emily and the Graysons, the gang decides that the severity of the case requires real-time online blogging with the purpose of framing Amanda one blog post at a time.

Treadwell’s first blog post requires paying Jack a visit to show him the sketch of hooded Jack at the beach and asking him a few questions. Declan swoops in to save Jack by informing Treadwell that Charlotte was popping pills and drinking that night. Therefore, the sketch can’t possibly be reliable. Sounds like juicy first post material to me!

Meanwhile, Victoria heads to the bar to pay her thug-for-hire friend the money he deserves for getting someone to beat up her son while, unbeknownst to her, Emily follows to figure out who next to open a can whoop ass on. Emily gets the info she wants and makes a hasty exit while some old, pre-Conrad, lover with an accent of Victoria’s shows up and they proceed to sleep together.

On the Treadwell front, Emily pretends to be fake Amanda Clarke by contacting Treadwell anonymously. Emily successfully makes Treadwell think that it was actually Victoria that burned down his house when she directs him to a drawer with his old Amanda Clarke tapes. Cue Emily’s bad-ass look as she revels in her success.

Daniel is then released on 10 million dollars bail(!!) and everyone hugs while Charlotte calls Declan and complains to him for selling her out to Treadwell. She then serves him an awesome line before popping in another pill: “You’re just another puppet in the Grayson family play and it’s time for your exit.” Ouch.

Victoria, Conrad, and Daniel are then informed of Treadwell’s juicy first blog post detailing Charlotte’s pill popping habit and claiming that she made up the whole story of a hooded man in the beach to protect her brother. There goes the whole let’s-blame-Jack-Porter angle for the defense and Victoria is not happy. She confronts Charlotte, gives her a very hard slap across the face, and then heads out to see Treadwell. Treadwell assures Victoria that he’s just reporting the truth and will not help her repeat history by framing an innocent woman for the murder. Treadwell tells Victoria that he knows she burned down his house after finding his Amanda Clarke tapes in her home. He then warns Victoria that if she tries to implicate Amanda for the murder he’ll make sure that she’s burnt to the stake.

Victoria sets out on her next mission and proceeds to put doubt into Daniel’s head by trying to blame Emily for the murder, but Daniel very succinctly lets his mother know: “You bring Emily into this and I swear to God, I’ll confess to the whole thing.” But the seedling of doubt has been planted and when Daniel tries calling Emily but gets her voice-mail instead, he gives us his best contemplative face.

Emily kicking the thug-for-hire's ass.

Bad-ass Emily in a wig arrives to the bar and plays a little game with Victoria’s thug-for-hire friend. For every tidbit he reveals about Victoria, she’ll buy him a drink, and she does this while recording the whole thing. After getting what one can only assume is some very good tidbits, Emily lures the thug-for-hire outside and the ass whopping begins with her informing him “this is for Jack *punch, punch, punch, kick, kick, kick…* and that was for Daniel.” She makes an imprint of his keys and walks off looking like the bad-ass she is while the credits roll. I love bad-ass Emily!

There are just five episodes left this season and all signs point to an awesome conclusion to the show’s first season! Don’t forget to come back next week for yet another recap and hopefully many more bad-ass Emily moments.

Revenge airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on ABC.