Victoria's annual masquerade ball is the party of the season (ABC)

Isn't it fascinating how much wealthy people love a good masquerade ball? Perhaps that's just how it's depicted in "Gossip Girl" and "Revenge", but either way Victoria's masquerade ball served as the perfect backdrop for a culmination of drama in episode 18! For a recap on what happened in last week's episode, click here.

The episode begins with a voiceover from Emily about masquerading truth and artifice in attempt to save the ones we love. We see a montage of key characters in a glimpse of the episode to come, including, most notably, Emily and Aiden making love, something we haven't seen in quite sometime.

"Masquerade" takes place around Halloween, six weeks after the Labor Day setting of last week's episode. During that time, Padma has been held in captivity by the Initiative. Nolan is furious that the detective on the case hasn't uncovered anything about her whereabouts. We learn that at the beginning of her missing person's case, the police suspected him. This becomes important later in the episode. The detective tells Nolan the most important time in a missing persons case are the 48 hours right after the person goes missing. This only makes him more furious.

Nolan delivered a particularly moving performance in "Masquerade." The episode begins with him locked away in his Manhattan office attempting to write the quote that might help save Padma. He is dirty, disheveled and clearly has not slept for days. Emily arrives and tells him she's worried about him. Nolan says he stop at nothing to save Padma. As they're talking, Nolan receives a text from Jack. He needs Nolan's help, and this may just be the thing to help get Nolan focused on a situation he can help. Emily offers to have Aiden help find Padma. He is capable, and owes Nolan big time. Nolan reluctantly agrees to accept the help - he's desperate.

Victoria is preparing for her annual Masquerade ball. She invites one of Daniel's ex-girlfriends and is hopeful they might rekindle their love. Ashley appears with a mysterious Masquerade RSVP accepting to attend and signed, "From Your Loving Son"! It is from the Masquerade ball Victoria held in 1977, and upon reading it Victoria has a flashback to her youth. As a young girl, she was pregnant and in a desperate situation, with nowhere to turn. 

In a later scene, Victoria is sitting at her dressing table when Emily appears in the mirror behind her. She's come to inquire whether her invitation to the ball was lost in the mail. Victoria is insulted that Emily would show up in her bedroom. She tells her that an invitation was not lost in the mail because one was not sent to her. "Daniel has moved on," Victoria tells her.

Daniel is furious with Aiden when he discovers that Aiden traded the Initiative's shares of Grayson Global. As he's chastising Aiden, Mr. Trask walks through the door. Trask threatens Daniel (huge surprise) but also helps Daniel realize that the undercover photo taken of he and Emily was not taken by the Initiative. This helps Daniel realize his mother is to blame. Trask also warns Daniel about Aiden and tells him there's more to Aiden than he knows. As soon as Trask leaves, Daniel picks up the phone and calls Emily to invite her to be his date to the masquerade.

Victoria finds Charlotte on the balcony looking sad. She attempts to comfort her. As they are sharing a mother-daughter moment, a bouquet of eleven black roses is delivered to Victoria on the balcony. The card reads "See you on Saturday, I'll be wearing the missing black rose". Victoria lies to Charlotte about the nature of the bouquet.

When Mr. Trask leaves Grayson Global, Aiden gets in the back seat of the car with a gun held at Trask's neck. He tells him to drive to Padma immediately. In the dark warehouse, Trask leads Aiden into a room where they find Padma's dead body! Trask says they put her out of her misery earlier that day, implying that they've kept her in isolation and torture for six weeks. Trask tells Aiden that their presence has set off an alarm signaling the police, trying to scare Aiden into sparing Trask's life and fleeing. Aiden puts his gun away and kills Trask with his bare hands in the name of his sister and all the other victims.

Nolan shows up at the Stowaway to meet with Jack, teasing him about becoming a part of Conrad's gubernatorial campaign. Jack hands him a campaign button and it's clear that is exactly why he reached out to Nolan. It is nice to see these two conspiring again.

Conrad holds a townhall Q&A at the Stowaway for his quest for Governor. His campaign manager tries to prevent any surprises and makes people submit their questions in advance. Unfortunately, Jack and Nolan are much smarter than Conrad's team. They sneak a damning question into the pile via a man who identifies himself as a friend of Amanda Clarke. He asks what Conrad will do to expose the unfair persecution of David Clarke and the government's attempt to sweep his case under the rug. After it is read out loud, Nolan plays a segment of the Nate Ryan tapes into Conrad's earpiece. The tense situation causes Conrad to pledge that he will fight to re-open that case and pursue presidential pardon for David Clarke, if elected governor.

While Victoria is badgering Conrad for his embarrassing showing at the Stowaway, he turns the tables on her asking her about the strange RSVP and bouquet of black roses he found in the trash. She admits to him that she had become pregnant as a teenager by her mother's boyfriend. She confides in him that it was the worst time of her life and insinuates that she had an abortion. She says it is not possible that the flowers are from her son (as he is not alive). Conrad vows to help figure out who has stirred up this horrible memory for her.

Victoria and Conrad kick off the masquerade, and the swanky party begins. The whole crew is there including Jack and Declan. Victoria confronts Emily and is livid she is there. Emily tells her that she is Daniel's date which makes her even more mad! Emily and Jack share a tender moment of connection as Emily thanks Jack for what he did for Amanda at the press conference. He seems to have forgiven Emily. Daniel swoops in and twirls Emily away saying they have "6 weeks of catching up to do". In a later scene, Victoria is chatting with Daniel's ex-girlfriend, Sloane, when she learns that Daniel and Emily have appeared in Page Six as being back together. The photo accompanying the article is the picture Victoria had secretly taken of them. Daniel is fighting the tough fight!

Victoria is livid Emily is at the ball. Emily pulls a devilish prank (ABC)

Though Ashley has always been a solid employee and loyal to Conrad Grayson, he continues to treat her like trash. In a hushed moment at the masquerade he dismisses her attempts to have a constructive conversation about who she thinks ruined the press conference. He says that if it weren't mid-campaign he would fire her. Jack overhears the disrespectful conversation and later appeals to Ashley in private to work together to help derail Conrad's campaign. She seems to consider it.

Aiden arrives at the ball and tells Emily that Trask is currently at the bottom of the East River, and that he killed Padma and Colleen. Nolan becomes instantly upset and begins to cry. He feels he is to blame for her death. He also blames Emily for allowing Padma to be dragged into it all. Nolan cries saying he loved her. He is devastated. Emily apologizes profusely and starts tearing up herself. She refuses to leave him alone, to which he replies, "I love you too. I have to deal with this alone. I will be ok, I promise". It is a very touching scene between the two of them. RIP Padma.

Charlotte overhears two horrible young people talking about Amanda being on drugs and a slut. Charlotte punches the girl in the face! She tells Declan she's having a hard time letting Amanda's death go, which is completely understandable.

Aiden asks Emily if she and Daniel are back together and informs her about their public reconciliation on Page Six. The three of them have an awkward situation in which Daniel digs at Aiden saying it's all fair in love and war. When Aiden walks away, Daniel tells Emily he's not letting Aiden out of his sights and that Emily is all he cares about. Daniel and Emily's relationship seems to be heating up fast, and Daniel seems thrilled to show it off.

Daniel and Emily are back together, at least on Page Six (ABC)

Victoria paces around the party looking for the masked man wearing a black rose on his lapel - AKA: her son. She spots someone in the distance and attempts to follow him. When she grabs the arm of the man and he spins around, she realizes she is wrong and faints on the spot. This secret son situation is really getting to her. After she faints, we see the man wearing the black rose wink at Emily. Clearly she set up the whole scenario to mess with Victoria. Mission accomplished.

The day after the masquerade, Conrad accuses Victoria of lying to him about the aborted pregnancy. She says she will give him proof, as long as he never speaks of the situation again.

Emily shows up at Aiden's house. They both seem in poor spirits. She tells him she hates that she has to be back together with Daniel, and he says that if it were up to him he would put a bullet in Daniel's head. He tells her he is not jealous, he is disgusted by her. As they stand up to head for Manhattan, he smells her and says they will be traveling separately. It is clear that Emily slept with Daniel after the ball.

Back in Manhattan at his office, Nolan is devastated, crying and clearing his desk in a fit of anger. Just then the detective on Padma's case appears in the doorway and asks if he's destroying evidence. He accuses Nolan of being involved in the death of Padma which occured just one day earlier. Nolan spots a Grayson campaign button on the floor and seeths at the detective that he will not tell him anything. What does Nolan have up his sleeve?

Victoria returns to a convent to meet with the nun that helped her during her pregnancy. In a flashback we see that Victoria delivered the nun a young (and very much alive) baby boy. The nun took the baby promising to never tell the baby anything about his mother and to never tell Victoria about the identity of the baby. Back in modern day, the nun tells Victoria that the young man did once come to the convent in search of information about his mother. As promised, the nun told him nothing and says he never returned after that. Victoria asks how he appeared to be doing and the nun said he had seemed well, albeit disappointed not to learn about his mother. Victoria seems extremely relieved that the nun has kept her promises all these years. She thanks the nun and leaves seeming much lighter.

As the nun takes her rosary and begins to pray, we see another person sit down beside her on the bench. We hear a young woman speak and realize it is Emily. "Sister, I need your help. I'm pregnant, and have nowhere else to go." WHAT?!!! What is Emily plotting and how will this story line begin to unfold? Never a dull moment on "Revenge."

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