REVENGE Recap: Legacy – “The hero and the villain are actually the same person.”

This week’s Revenge takes place entirely in the last days of 2002 and allowed us to witness how Emily / real Amanda came to become who she is in 2011.

Legacy opened with Emily kicking a man’s behind in a club in NYC. In other words, it opened up perfectly. I’m pretty sure that my enjoyment of every Revenge episode directly correlates with how many people Emily beats up throughout the hour so this is promising! After getting kicked out of the club, Emily finds Nolan waiting for her outside and reluctantly has a talk with him over some Chinese food. When Nolan finds out that she still has not read her father’s journals he pleads her to do so.

Meanwhile, Victoria, Frank, and Conrad are dealing with a lovely letter they received in the mail. The letter has what looks like blood splattered all over it and reads simply:

“SHAME.

Love,

David Clarke.”

Okay, I made up the “Love” part, but anyways, the group is taking the letter as a threat and come up with a plan to catch the culprit. The Graysons will throw a New Year’s party and invite everyone that had a role in the David Clarke schemes, this way Frank can use his “investigation acumen” to figure out which of the attendants is behind the letter.

It appears that Nolan has had an impact on Emily as we then see her back where it all started. Emily breaks into her old home and begins to read the journals. After reading up about how the Graysons and their posse framed David, Emily heads to Jack’s bar and listens to Kyla, Jack’s girlfriend, complain about not being able to work with the catering company covering the Grayson’s party because of her shift at the bar. Emily’s new knowledge on the Graysons leads her to offer to fill in with the catering company for Kyla and the two girls agree on it.

Kyla to Emily when they first meet: “Want a twist? The hero and the villain are actually the same person.”

Before the Grayson New Years party begins, Victoria decides to visit David Clarke’s home (which the Graysons now own). When Conrad finds her at the house holding a photograph of David, he declares that he’s going to sell the home and responds to her question of why by yelling “because you still love him!” And naturally, Emily hears the whole thing while standing around the corner.

Jack's 2002 hair-do. I have no words.

The party has begun and thanks to her cover job in the catering company, Emily begins meeting many of the people her father wrote about in the journals. She comes across a number of the characters we’ve already been introduced to throughout the season but the only new information viewers learn comes from Mason Threadwell and a man we meet as Roger Halstead. From the 2002 meeting of Mason, we learn that he was the man that gave Victoria the last photograph taken of David as well as the sender of the lovely letter I described above.

Victoria: “You’re despicable.”
Threadwell: “Gee, thanks. High praise coming from you.”

Back at Jack’s bar, Nolan gets introduced to Jack after hitting on Kyla. When he finds out that the Porter’s were displaced from their home because his company bought it from them, Nolan goes to talk to the Porter’s father to let him know that he’ll gladly sell it back. Kyla overhears this discussion and, as a result, decides to give Nolan a big kiss when the clock strikes midnight. Jack then decides to give Nolan a big punch to the face and thus begins the Nolan-Jack friendship.

Roger Halstead

Next, we meet Roger Halstead. In the journals, David wrote that Roger was a true friend and knew of his innocence but was forced to stay quiet against his will. Because of that, Emily felt that she could trust and reveal to Roger her real identity and ask him to help clear David’s name. Unfortunately for Roger, Frank was convinced that he was the man behind the “SHAME” note and ends up killing him. This caused Emily to break down and, against Nolan’s advice, come to the decision to seek revenge on the Graysons for all the evils that they’ve committed. Angry and crying, Emily pleads for help from her father and happens to look down to find the infinity sign carved onto the porch post. The scene cuts to her getting her current infinity sign wrist tattoo while she reads the note that Roger slipped into her pocket before his death. Roger’s note said that he would help her but advised her to stay as far away from the Graysons as possible.

Snap back to 2011, and Emily is heading out with Daniel to yet another Grayson New Year’s Eve party, and this time around, she’s very excited.

Revenge airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on ABC.