Since I didn’t put any actual money on who I thought might be the unlucky core cast member killed off this season, I can’t say I was jumping up and down with joy when… oh, wait. Spoiler alert. I’ll just leave the rest of this sentence for the next page for all of you DVR viewers who like to let your TV episodes age like fine wine or cheese or laundry.
So, let’s continue, shall we?
… Declan bit the dust. Yes, I deemed him “the most disposable character” on the show, and admitted “we’d probably forget he’d ever been on the show” next season. True enough. Of course, I wrote those things before Charlotte realized she was pregnant with (what we’re assuming is) Declan’s kid. However, we did get a big explosion, some “who’s under that big chunk of debris” questions, and an appropriately teary send-off via smart phone. Plus, Jack got to say goodbye to his little brother in a gooey sweet hospital scene. We’ve gotten as much out of this lackluster character as could be expected, really.
The good news is that Declan’s passing has, as you might expect, pushed Jack over the edge. He was already itching for revenge having decided that Conrad was to blame for Amanda’s death. Now that the body count has doubled for his immediate family, he’s lost his fool mind. What stops him from shooting Conrad is Emily — and her confession of her true identity.
I’m wondering how Jack is going to deal with this news. Yes, he loved “Amanda,” but now has to grapple with the fact that the entire relationship was built on a lie. Emily has some ‘splainin’ to do, and while Jack can’t dismiss her as just another member of the Grayson clan now, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have valid gripes.
I also doubt that Emily is willing to tell Jack her ultimate goal, even after this major confession. Jack may be just as fired up with rage toward the Graysons as she is, but his lack of experience and his hotheaded behavior would seem to make him more of a liability than a help in Emily’s master plan. The fact that he’s waved a gun in Victoria’s face would suggest Emily may want to keep Jack at arm’s length no matter how much she may want to bond with him.
Speaking of Emily’s associates, we now have to wonder about what’s up for Nolan and Aiden. Yes, Aiden said his farewells and seemed to be long gone with the Graysons’ fortune, but his arrest at the Canadian border threw a wrench into those plans. Soon he was back to demand that Daniel “free” Emily, and Daniel was walking around with a bloody shirt. There’s a chance Daniel got the best of Aiden, but I doubt it. If anyone has real problems, it’s Nolan. Clearly, the Falcon has covered her tracks and set up Nolan as the tech mastermind who’s done every bad thing with a computer short of uploading porn.
One development I’ll take as a promising sign is that the Initiative isn’t a real thing, at least according to Conrad. As he explains, the Initiative is just a bunch of businessmen who profit from bad luck and fear. I thought that was what the Initiative was (or at least a fitting definition of Goldman Sachs), but the good news is hopefully at least a few of the characters on the show will stop using that insanely dumb sobriquet. With Takeda (and possibly Aiden) gone, as well as creator Mike Kelley, I have my fingers crossed that “Revenge” will be dropping some of the truly silly stuff to focus on what works: Madeleine Stowe chewing the scenery and Emily’s mission of revenge. RIP, Declan, but we really won’t miss you much.
What did you think of Declan’s death? Do you think Jack will forgive Emily for lying? What did you think about Conrad’s admission about the Initiative?