It was another week of twists and turns on ABC’s new hit mystery drama “Revenge”. After a two-week long hiatus, new episodes returned Wednesday with this week’s “Perception”. When we last left our favorite female protagonist, scheming, cool, calm, and collected Emily Clarke (Emily VanCamp), she had just accepted Daniel Grayson’s (Josh Bowman) marriage proposal. More hell bent on destroying the Grayson family than ever, Emily ties the engagement into her plans to take down the Graysons after learning that Daniel’s mother Victoria (Madeleine Stowe) had lied and told Daniel that David Clarke had raped her, which is why David was Charlotte’s (Christa B. Allen) biological father, instead of admitting to their love affair. The faux Amanda Clarke had been sent running after being framed for burning down the home of writer Mason Treadwell. This left her boy toy Jack Porter (Nick Wechsler), who still believes she is the real Amanda Clarke and is thereby hopelessly in love with her, confused, angry, and beaten up (quite literally). 

The drama this week, in comparison to the burning homes and intense fighting from the last episode, was more emotionally driven than physically. With the truth behind Charlotte Grayson’s paternity looming above everyone, we were kept on our toes waiting to see when the news would finally break to poor Charlotte, sure to send her into a teenage temper tantrum. Naturally, Emily uses this to her advantage, thinking she will drop the bomb of Charlotte’s paternity (and David and Victoria’s love affair) during one of many engagement-related dinners at the Grayson’s with the entire Grayson family in attendance, including Conrad’s father, who is dubious about Conrad’s (Henry Czerny) ability to head Grayson Global in the wake of his divorce. Emily plans on showing one her father’s interview tapes from jail, in which he affirms the affair and Charlotte’s true paternity, to Charlotte at the dinner, but changes her mind, showing some sympathy after witnessing a rather tender father-daughter moment between Charlotte and Conrad. 

However, as any "Revenge" fan must know, things are never that clean cut and simple. Jack stumbles upon one of Mason Treadwell’s interview tapes with Amanda as a child claiming that she saw Victoria and her father numerous times acting together and in love, thereby confirming the affair and sending any rape rumors to rest. Once Emily finds out he has the tape, she becomes determined to get it back, enlisting the help of her snarky billionaire computer genius friend Nolan (Gabriel Mann), the only person who knows her true identity and plans for revenge. Before Jack can watch the video, he attempts to track down Amanda, who is in hiding in a nearby hotel, to find answers. A lovelorn, tired, but obedient Amanda sends him away without any answers thanks to coaching from Emily, but fails to get the tape back from him. An exasperated Jack eventually goes to Nolan for help, and Nolan, feeling bad for him and thinking he deserves to know the truth, shows him the tape. Jack has an Incredible Hulk moment, becoming enraged after witnessing the treatment of a helpless, young Amanda. He then makes the rash decision to crash the Grayson family dinner, accusing Victoria of the affair and threatening to make her pay for her treatment of Amanda all these years, blowing the lid off the entire “Charlotte-paternity-David Clarke-affair” secret without Emily having to even lift a finger. Victoria admits in front of everyone, with some prodding by Conrad, that she did in fact have an affair with David Clarke and that he is Charlotte’s biological father, causing Daniel to be thoroughly disgusted and Charlotte to run sobbing into the arms of her bartender boyfriend Declan (Connor Paolo). 

But alas, what would an episode of "Revenge" be without a true twist at the very end? In the last scenes of the episode, just when we thought we had enough drama for a day, we see Emily return alone to her house to find her floorboard, in which she keeps her father’s box with all her plans and details for revenge and all knowledge of her true identity, open. The box is gone and a mysterious note is left in its place. The note is a play on her engagement party invitation, with an RSVP note saying that a “Miss Emily Thorne” will indeed attend. This all leads up to next week’s big engagement party episode, which will finally answer the one big question raised in the series premiere: who killed Daniel Grayson? 

What did you think of this week's episode? Post your thoughts below!

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