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Revenge
Duress
Original Air Date: Jan 04, 2012
Melanie – TwoCents Reviewer
melanie@thetwocents.com
Thank you Revenge for coming back from the break with such an A-MAZ-ING episode. And bravo to Ashton Holmes, a.k.a Tyler, for taking the creepiness of that character to a whole new level! For once I seriously doubted Emily’s ability to handle a person in her way.
Before the show took a break for the holidays, getting rid of Tyler and neutralizing Amanda were Emily’s priorities. With this episode, we finally get some resolution with one of those situations. So what happened to get Tyler out of Emily’s way (we hope)?
As a simple clam bake is planned for Daniel’s birthday, things are heating up between Conrad and Victoria in the divorce and between Tyler and pretty much everyone! We learn that Victoria only has a few demands in the divorce, including possession of the fabulous Grayson Manor in the Hamptons, a few of the paintings, her share of the money, and Charlotte. Seems strange, but she is technically still a minor for another year and therefore custody of her is up for grabs.
Of course, Conrad wants to settle out of court since he’s still a prime suspect in the murder of Frank, while Victoria wants to because she’s hiding a secret, which would make the prenup she signed when they married valid. At the time she was claiming to be pregnant, and then to have miscarried at 10 weeks. Signing a prenup while pregnant equals duress, making the contract invalid. But she wasn’t pregnant! Does this mean she schemed to get married to Conrad back in the day? Was she a gold digger? I’m thinking yes, given the exchange between her and Conrad when they first encounter Amanda at the clam bake. She states that all she sees is a pretty girl in cheap shoes with limited social graces, and Conrad remarks back that it reminds him of someone…Victoria when he first met her. Hmmm.
But the big story of the episode is the complete mental breakdown of the apparently extremely psychotic and violent Tyler. He informs Conrad he possesses video footage including Frank trying to kill Lydia and her suggesting she helped frame David Clarke, and states that he’ll be asking for money instead of working for the hedge fund. Which is fine with Conrad, who has promised Daniel he’ll be getting rid of Tyler anyways.
Poor Tyler’s mental health is further damaged when Nolan uses technology to track down the sperm whale camera for Emily to retrieve, and also to track Tyler’s location. Emily finds Tyler’s medicine as well, which turns out to be a pretty strong anti-psychotic prescribed by a doctor Tyler attacked before leaving San Francisco, where he is still wanted by police. Nolan and Emily use this little tidbit to recruit Tyler’s brother to come and get him. She also uses the medicine to further discredit Tyler with Daniel (not that he needed another reason to get rid of Tyler) and Ashley (who’s dislike of Emily is getting harder to hide apparently).
Creep-tacular encounter between Daniel and Tyler in the pool house, when Daniel heads over to make sure he leaves. I thought Tyler was going to kiss Daniel when he slammed him into the wall, or strangle him. Or both! There was such an uncomfortable vibe coming from Tyler, and his eyes were so crazed. But, of course, from the foreshadow at the start we know Daniel makes it fine to his party.
Nolan uses the magic of GPS tracking to declare that Tyler has boarded a plane back to California, but unfortunately it’s just his phone headed that way. Tyler is actually in Nolan’s house, forcing yet another terrifying enounter to find the camera with all the videos he needs. And he’s got a knife! Lucky him, Nolan has the video feed pulled up and Tyler can see the camera is at Emily’s. And then we have a very scary bit where we think Tyler may have used his tie to strangle Nolan, but thankfully he only uses it and other items to tie him to a chair– where Nolan still is when Tyler’s brother Alex shows up to collect his deranged sibling.
Back at Emily’s, the small party is settling in and ready for the cake, which Emily goes to fetch just in time to be confronted by Tyler. He pulls her own gun on her, but not before she manages to get close enough to him to plant Frank’s wallet in his jacket pocket. Sneaky!
And thankfully the tense confrontation on the beach, where each person takes a turn having the gun pointed at them, but Emily is faced with it the most, is interrupted by the arrival of a bleeding Nolan and brother Alex! Oh, and the police show up too. We learn that Tyler’s family hasn’t lost their money, they’ve just cut the psychotic son off.
We also learn that Emily took the bullets from the gun! The whole time he was waving around an unloaded gun, and she knew it, but what a performance she gave! You would never have thought she didn’t fear getting shot whenever that gun pointed at her.
I was so happy to see Nolan and Emily make-up, though it is very hard to know if it’s honest on her end or just more maneuvering. I was also pleased to see Nolan’s fighting against the ties that held him to the chair. It was an extremely masculine moment for a character who so often seems a victim, and as it was driven by a desire to warn Emily about Tyler heading her way we see an honesty of his feelings towards her.
Also intriguing is the jealousy Amanda has for Emily with regards to Jack. She knows he had a thing for Emily before, and it can’t be reassuring for him to tell her that she’s who he’s been waiting for his whole life when the real Amanda is right there and held his interest first. How deep does her loyalty go? Where will her jealousy lead her? And will Victoria or Conrad gun for her after meeting her at the clam bake and not feeling threatened by her?
And it seems Victoria and Conrad are headed to court, but it’s OK because her lawyer found a doctor willing to testify to her pregnancy and miscarriage, thus ensuring the prenup is deemed invalid. Is anyone else uncertain whether the lawyer is working for Emily or whether it’s just a coincidence that he’s the same one that refused an appeal for her father? Her reaction when she saw him leaving the Graysons’ changed my mind to thinking it’s a coincindence. OR that he is actually working undercover for Conrad, who would have been the one to buy him off regarding the appeal for David Clarke. And was anyone else sad to see Daniel get involved in the Grayson deceit by pretending to make-up with his dad just to position himself to help his mother more in the divorce?
Let me know what you think in the comment section below!
Next week: Infamy
TheTwoCents 
The lawyer must be working for Emily. She showed him the evidence file when she still had dark hair, and he would have had to have some reaction to it. If Emily hadn’t coerced him into doing her bidding, then he would have informed someone – say Conrad. But no one at Grayson Manor has any inkling that Amanda Clarke has any suspicions about her father’s arrest, etc.
Emily apologizing to Nolan was very sweet. She’s not good at it but that makes it more sincere, because she doesn’t do it often. She knows she needs Nolan.
I really enjoyed this episode. I have never been a fan of Tyler, I wanted him gone on the first episode! He’s quickly unraveled and I am glad he is gone…for now at least, I have a feeling he’ll be back and looking for revenge of his own. I wonder if they really will get him for murdering Frank.