ABC)

"Illumination" begins with a flashback of Emily reading a story book with her father in front of a fireplace. The fire represents common themes in this episode: secrets and loss.

Aiden is residing in an awesome new house which he describes as a "safe place" for him and Emily. Emily tells him that her former foster brother, Eli, appeared at the cemetery and Amanda's grave. She goes on to explain that he may bring trouble to Emily because she burned down their foster home when she was a child. Turns out Emily was kind of a pyromaniac during her foster care days.

Victoria and Conrad are content conspiring with one another yet again. They continue their attempts to manipulate Daniel in his role as head of Grayson Global. This time, they have turned their sights on Aiden and turning Daniel against Aiden, describing him as a "common parasite". Daniel fights back, saying he will not let another innocent person take the blame for their sins.

Jack is considering taking out a life insurance policy to protect baby Carl. He is also trying to figure out who saved his life the night of the boat fire. His only knowledge is that someone dragged him onto the dock and called an ambulance for him. Declan tips Jack off by mentioning Nolan before scurrying off to school. Prep school is back in session for Charlotte and Declan.

Victoria and Conrad Grayson have decided to start a foundation in honor of Amanda Clarke. Victoria calls Jack to ask his blessing for the naming of the foundation which will work to protect children. They agree the charity will be called the Amanda Clarke Foundation, and Victoria gets to work immediately planning a launch.

As soon as she catches wind of this, Emily appeals to Victoria offering to help with the charity and handing over a $250,000 check. Victoria says she will take Emily's offer into consideration just as her foster brother Eli appears in the Grayson's foyer! Emily acts civil, but tries not to draw too much attention to herself- she doesn't want him to recognize her. Emily shows Eli a photograph of Carl identifying herself as his godmother. As she hands over the photograph, her wrist tattoo is revealed and he spots it.

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Victoria invites Eli to attend a dinner launching the Amanda Clarke Foundation. Eli portrays himself as a "rare book dealer" and graduate of Columbia University. In reality, he is neither and has outstanding warrants in three states. For some reason, Victoria falls for his charades and seems delighted to fold this mystery man into her schemes.

Emily attempts to get to the Stowaway to speak to Jack before Eli gets there, but unfortunately he beat her to it. As she stands at the bar waiting to have a word with Jack, Eli walks up behind her and addresses her as Amanda!! "You're looking pretty good for a dead girl," Eli says. The two former foster siblings take a walk on the docks and come clean with one another, sort of. Emily tells Eli that she traded names with Amanda so that her past would stop following her. She does not tell him about her plot of revenge. Eli says he spent years trying to find her. He then accuses her of getting the better end of the deal considering Amanda is "dead at the bottom of the ocean". Though he tries to portray himself as a friend, reminding her how loyal he was to her in childhood, he seems vengeful. He tells her about his criminal rap sheet, and Emily offers to help him erase his record in exchange for his agreement to leave town.

Back in Manhattan, Daniel is at a bar drinking away his lunchtime CEO blues. A young banker starts trash talking with him and they get into a bar fight before Aiden appears and tears Daniel off the guy. Daniel yells at Aiden and accuses him of taking Emily and wanting his job. Later Aiden confronts Daniel and attempts to set the record straight, saying that Emily has always maintained feelings for Daniel and that because of it his relationship with her could never have lasted. Daniel seems relieved by this story.

At the opening dinner for the Amanda Clarke Foundation, Victoria kicks things off with a bang by telling Emily she won't be needed on the foundation's board. She says Emily is too preoccupied with other charity endeavors and that she's considering other options for co-chair. Emily takes the rejection calmly and cooly. Considering how truly close she was with Amanda, she could have been upset. But Emily handles the situation like a pro. And of course, the foundation, like everything the Graysons create, is a complete rouse.

Nolan refers to Eli as Emily's "faux-bro", which is hilarious and spot-on. He helps Emily uncover Eli's record and then wipe it clean, as Eli accepts a $100,000 check from Emily and tentatively agrees to leave town and begin a new life elsewhere.

The best line of this episode was delivered by Nolan in observation of Eli kissing up to Victoria. "Check out faux-bro climbing Mount Grayson like it ain't no thing," he said. Fantastic.

Jack shows up at the Amanda Clarke Foundation dinner and after making a public statement about Amanda's death and the fact that the Graysons are some of his only true friends, he confronts Nolan about buying the boat the night of his rescue. He is seething with anger knowing that Nolan has been lying to him. In a later scene, Nolan brings a boat deed to Jack which shows Kenny Ryan as the title holder. He seems to believe Nolan, but it's hard to tell as Jack remains very despondent over Amanda's death.

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By the end of the foundation dinner, Eli has shown his true colors. He is indeed a wild card and shows no intention of backing down. He hands the $100,000 cashiers check from Emily over to Victoria as a donation to the charity. Victoria is elated, Emily is furious. On top of it all, Victoria announces that she has appointed Eli as co-chair of the Amanda Clarke Foundation! Eli has made it clear he's not leaving anytime soon. And now that his record has been clear, he's got plenty of room to make trouble.

With Aiden's encouragement, Daniel is confiding in Emily again. Daniel asks to walk Emily home to her beach house and confides in her about the precarious situation he finds himself in with the Initiative and Grayson Global. "Everyday I feel this noose tightening around my neck, I can hardly breathe. And I can't get out of it without putting it around someone else's neck." The Initiative is forcing Daniel to finance their next plot through Grayson Global. Daniel feels tremendous stress about this. His parents on the other hand are used to this sort of dysfunction and deceit and roll right along with it.

Daniel also tells her that the Amanda Clarke Foundation is simply a front and that his parents plan to hide their assets in the charity. He promises to pay Emily back every cent she has donated and asks for her secrecy. Is Daniel falling for Emily again? We will have to wait and see. In the meantime, Daniel returns to his parent's house and tells them he will be supporting Aiden for the board position, which they seem happy about. They do not realize that Aiden already has a relationship with the Initiative, so in their minds, they will try to use him as a scapegoat whenever the Initiative decides to turn on them.

Knowing that the Graysons are going to try to move all of their assets into the Amanda Clarke Foundation, Emily conspires to intercept the wire transfers and bankrupt them entirely. She ropes Nolan and his computer hacking skills into setting up the scam. Nolan begins cracking into the Grayson's bank accounts, confident he can do it. With Emily eagerly by his side, he gets far along but is ultimately halted in the hacking process. He encounters an image he has seen before- that of a falcon. Nolan flashes back to a conversation he had with Emily's father in jail. It turns out Nolan's hacking attempts to free Mr. Clarke were ultimately blocked by a hacker named Falcon who was on the Grayson's payroll at the time. David Clarke told Nolan to stop focusing on him and to instead turn his time and attention to Amanda, who was starting fires in foster homes and on her way to juvy. It was on that occasion that David Clarke gave Nolan the box of clues for Emily. As he flashes back to the present, Nolan looks at Emily, saying that the same person who sealed her father's fate, "Falcon", is now once again on the Grayson's payroll. Emily says it's time for them to go hunting.

Episode Take-Aways:

Victoria has such a strong dislike for Emily. It's not very clear exactly why that is, but it was reiterated this episode. Victoria denied Emily's request to be part of the board of the Amanda Clarke Foundation, after taking her check. To the extent that Victoria had been turning to Emily to help her cause in recent episodes, that era is clearly over. Once again, Victoria has really pushed Emily away again and is treating her like the enemy.

In brighter news, Aiden is clearly back on Team Emily, willing to go out on a limb for her (and her cause) by encouraging Daniel to rely on Emily and seek out her advice. He's going to be appointed to the board of Grayson Global and will serve as treasurer of the Amanda Clarke Foundation, so he is close to the Grayson empire. That's the best thing Emily has going for her at the end of "Illumination". That and Nolan, an unwavering ally in all her revenge pursuits.

With wild-card Eli James on the scene, next week's episode guarantees a continuation of the suspense and drama! Check out a sneak peek of episode 17, "Victory", below. The episode will air this Sunday on March 24 at 9:00pm on ABC. Looks like there may be a murder on the horizon...

Reach Staff Reporter Ashley Riegle here. Follow her on Twitter here.