Revenge Recap: Mommy Issues

Revenge loves the 80’s. The 80’s night time soap specifically. The glamour, the bombast, the treachery, the deceit. All that we loved about Dynasty, Dallas, Falcon Crest, and Knots Landing can be found in Revenge. And now in season 2, Revenge is taking its cue from another 80’s soap classic – the mini-series Lace and Lace II.

The first Lace was the story of a young actress (Phoebe Cates) trying to uncover the identity of her long lost mother. This search gave us the immortal line “Incidentally, which one of you bitches is my mother?” In the 80’s that was some pretty racy stuff and Lace was a huge success.

Lace II was the sequel in which Phoebe (Lily) went in search of her father. This search gave us the not quite as immortal line “Which one of you bastards is my father?” Classic Lace, amirite? Revenge has flipped the script on this mother/father scenario: season 1 was about Daddy, season 2 will be about Mommy.

(Fun fact: who is Phoebe Cates’ longtime BFF? Jennifer Jason Leigh. BOOM! How’s that for co-inky-dink?)

The challenge of a show like Revenge is how do you continue the story and how do you get all of these characters back in the same room and up the drama? As with season 1, a mystery is introduced (the SS Amanda has sunk and there is a mystery body floating in the wreckage) and we then resume the action three months beforehand. Let’s check in on our cast of characters, shall we? (They are arranged from most important to least important – in terms of storyline, fashion sense, bon mots, etc.)

1) Emily Thorne (to avoid confusion we will call her Emily, although let’s hope at some point she can reclaim her true identity from HER)

Do not f*&$% with her

Oh Ems (trademark by Nolan) – you really did wear a red dress to Victoria Grayson’s funeral, didn’t you? Love.

Our heroine had a traumatic, yet typically (for her oh so controlled self) restrained episode. She began being waterboarded by the ocean, discovered her mother was unjustly committed, found out her nemesis is alive, watched her sister get sent off to rehab (again), saw her former friend rubbing up on her former fiance, saw her former friend/accomplice rubbing her pregnant belly up on her one true love, and calmly accepted the fact that once again THEY are coming for her. PHEW!

I hope she comes out with a self help book ASAP – I had trouble making my lunch today. (What? If Castle can have real books, so can Revenge!)

2) Victoria Grayson

Victoria clearly misses her chair with all the writing on it

Victoria was M.I.A. for much of the episode, giving us time to work ourselves into a frenzy. She would be back, no doubt, but I got scared they would hold her somewhere for a few episodes before the big reveal. Thank God the big reveal was not so big, but still effective.