REVENGE Recap: Revelations

As the title of this episode suggests, this week is all about revelations. Some for the audience, and a few for some of the characters as well.  The story  begins at a skeet shoot, and nothing gets the adrenaline pumping quite like seeing Victoria Grayson with a gun in hand. Nolan, who doesn’t seem to be into this sort of gathering, has been invited as bait. There is a very important Grayson board member named Salvatore that all sides of the fight want on their side. Emily wants Daniel to have the advantage. Salvatore’s fortune is all due to his wife, but he holds a lot of sway with the board and winning his endorsement is key. He doesn’t seem as impressed by Daniel having Nolan under his thumb as he does with Daniel’s taste in women. He’s quite smitten by Ashley and Emily. With his vote being so important, Emily and Aiden must make sure he’s leaning towards Daniel’s side of the fight, whatever it takes

Jack plans the christening for his son and also a reopening of the bar. Creepy partners Nate and Kenny are more than happy to buy all the guests at the christening a drink. It makes it easier for them to get their hands on them, but they are wise enough not to say that out loud. It turns out they are the ne’er do well sons of the guy that we saw shot and killed in the Thanksgiving retrospective. Carl Porter’s friend Matt Duncan actually killed the guy, Joe Ryan, but Porter took the gun and hid it. The boys know their Dad was on his way to meet with Carl Porter the last time they saw him alive, and their real purpose in becoming partners wasn’t to help a swell guy like Jack out of a bad situation. They want retribution.

Daniel calls Nolan in to give him the bad news, instead of the 49 percent of his company they originally asked for, he now wants the majority share. He has Nolan’s old CFO Marco on hand for the meeting, and Marco has spilled all he knows about  the large bank account that disappeared. Well, except for who the account was for. Danny has learned to play dirty, he doesn’t leave Nolan with any choice…Nolan gives up controlling interest, and he also hangs around to run the company and be it’s visionary. Smug really doesn’t look good on Daniel. Nolan takes his lumps and exits gracefully.

When Daniel gloats of his acquisition to Ashley later and gives  much credit to Aiden, she plants seeds in his mind that he should be wary of Aiden, he was bitten last time he trusted a friend in business.  Emily and Aiden happen to be watching the Daniel and Ashley show, and realize they have a problem. Ashley is turning Daniel against Aiden. Their only recourse it to turn the tables. They send a copy of another video to Victoria, the Conrad and Ashley show, and it’s not rated PG. Victoria is livid to learn that Conrad had an affair, and with his son’s girlfriend no less. He insists it was when they were divorced, and before Daniel started dating her. He thinks the Initiative is trying to put a wedge between them. Victoria decides to use the video as leverage against Ashley and orders her to seduce Salvatore and make sure he votes for Conrad.

Realizing their plan is in danger, Aiden and Emily take action. Aiden calls Daniel from Salvatore’s hotel and asks him to get there right away. When he arrives, Aiden manages to get him to admit that Ashley has warned him that he needs to know more about Aiden before he can trust him. Aiden lets him know that Ashley’s standards probably shouldn’t be a baseline, she’s upstairs with Salvatore. Daniel practically beats down the door, and catches Ashley and Salvatore in a compromising situation. He pulls out his phone and snaps a photo, then tells Salvatore that if he doesn’t back him up at the meeting, his marriage will be destroyed and it will be a very expensive divorce. Point, Daniel. Just before the board convenes, Salvatore regretfully informs Victoria that her son is more ruthless than her, so he’s voting Daniel. The Initiative has warned Conrad and Victoria that if they tell Daniel about them, they’ll kill him. Victoria tries to appeal to Daniel, but when she can’t tell him what the ominous “danger” will be, he thinks it’s just another trick and storms away.

At the little Porter’s christening, Matt Duncan makes the unwise decision of showing up, and the brothers’ Ryan know just who he is. He knows who they are too, and tries to warn Jack. For the first time all season, Jack can’t ignore the obvious, he is in way over his head with some very bad people. He calls Nolan to the bar to ask a favor of him, find out what he can about the Ryan boys. While Nolan is there, Marco tracks him down and tells him he wants his old job back. Pretty nervy after the big knife he just stuck into Nolan’s back. He takes notice that Amanda Clarke is living over the bar they are in, so he makes the assumption that Nolan never gave her a cent of that money. Nolan lets him continue thinking that. Nolan knows when to fight and when it’s best to just let it ride.

Duncan makes an attempt to meet with Jack again, but finds Declan instead. When he sees Kenny watching him from a distance, he makes a hasty retreat. He’s not fast enough, though, and the brother’s Ryan corner him. When next we see Duncan, he’s been beaten nearly to death and he’s bleeding. Jack rushes to his side, and Duncan manages to tell him who attacked him….and why. He tells Jack about the gun his father hid, and it’s on Jack’s boat. A distraught Jack later finds it, just where Duncan said it would be.

Daniel wins the boards vote. How could he lose? He immediately tells Aiden that he won’t be needing him any longer, there is no room for him on the board. We later see Daniel delete all the photos of Ashley from his computer, but we also see he has kept all the photos of he and Emily. Is that why he wants to get rid of Aiden? Because Aiden is seeing Emily? Daniel receives a gift from an anonymous benefactor, a clock, with a note welcoming him to the fold. He picks up the clock to look at it more closely, and we learn that the clock is actually a web cam. Members of the Initiative sit around a table watching the new head of Grayson Global browse their gift.

Nolan tells Padma that he has a plan to bite his opponents in the butt, and has no intention of letting those bastards profit off of David Clarke. He will run the company for Daniel, because it’s easier to take him down from the inside. Marco busts in on the moment. It’s pretty obvious Marco is using the lost bank account as leverage to force Nolan’s hand. Padma is incredulous, but Nolan is apparently going to find a position for the backstabber in his company.

The Ryan brothers check in at the bar, telling Jack they heard there was an “incident”. They wonder if the victim said who attacked him, and Jack covers by telling them he was hit from behind. Nate tells Jack he accidentally picked up Jack’s dad’s address book from the bar earlier, and he returns it. Jack picks it up after they leave and sees that Matt Duncan’s name and address have been crossed out in red ink.

Victoria phones Emily and asks to see her. When Aiden asks Emily what the call was about, she tells him  she thinks they have new leverage.

Revenge will return to ABC on January 6th.