Revenge, Season 2, Episode 2: “Resurrection”
Written by Sallie Patrick
Directed by David Grossman
Airs Sundays at 9 pm (ET) on ABC
Is there any character more deliciously evil and fun to watch then Victoria Grayson? Madeline Stowe, as usual, owns this episode. Much like Gabriel Mann, who’s always great as Nolan, she commands every scene she’s in. Since the pilot, Stowe has infused Victoria with so much evil glee that she’s the ultimate love-to-hate character. Her seething introduction back into Conrad’s life, “The next few moments are going to be the most important of your miserable life”, is classic Victoria, through and through.
Victoria setting up the White Haired Man is, of course, exactly what you would expect from her, but even when you expect it, it’s still great fun. I get that the show is about Emily’s (Emily Van Camp) revenge, but I can’t help get a thrill every time Victoria throws a wrench into her plan. The potentially catastrophic partnership Emily forms with the now framed White Haired Man would have been an unusual twist for the writers to take, but after Aidan kills him, the mystery into where Emily’s mother really is deepens.
As stated earlier, the central focus of Revenge is always going to be Emily’s mission and I am growing even more intrigued by her devotion. Her family has been ripped away from her, her father murdered, mother taken, yet she has always been more than willing to fight to get either revenge or answers. If the show came from lesser writers I would call this a weakness and frankly kind of corny, but it only adds to why Emily is such a compelling character. Without this pure devotion, Emily would be an incredibly stale and rather unlikeable character. With it she is fierce and relatable.
This week we are also introduced to Padma (Dilshad Vadsaria), an accounting advisor with Nolan’s company who’s trying to stop an audit of NolCorp. It’s too early to tell exactly what her character is going to bring to the table, but this is Revenge and my guess is it’s going to be a healthy dose of secrets and lies. Finding out that Takeda’s man Aidan (Barry Sloane) is representing Takeda at Grayson Global is a promising twist. Aidan has intimate knowledge of Emily and her past and it will be interesting to see what exactly he’s planning on doing with that knowledge.
“Resurrection” is a highly effective episode. Viciously fun, twisted, and dangerous. Not all that different than Victoria herself, as it turns out.
Tressa Eckermann