The two-hour season wrap-up of “Revenge” isn’t upon us until May 12, but we already know one thing. ABC has promised that “someone will die,” and show creator Mike Kelley has told TVLine that it will be “one of our core cast members” who won’t make it to season three. Apparently this demise will come as a shock to Emily, but I’m not so sure it will be as much of a shock to us. After all, there are only so many “core” characters who could be sent packing without ruining the balance of the entire show.
After tonight’s episode, we seemed closer to narrowing the field of possibilities as well. Here’s a totally uninformed look at who could go, how likely that might be, and what we’ll do (or not do) without them.
Victoria: NEVER There’s no way she can go, not until the final season or Madeleine Stowe decides she’d rather be back in Texas. But I’m pretty sure ABC was smart enough to sign her to a bullet-proof contract for the entire run of the show, because without her, there is no show.
Emily: NEVER Same here. The show is about Emily’s revenge on everyone who crossed her and her deceased father. Period.
Nolan: NEVER Let’s face it; Nolan gets all the best lines, plus he adds the one bit of intentional humor to this show. Without him, this show is a joyless plod to the finish. He may not be key to driving the plot (though now that Victoria has recruited him to be her hacker, he may be), but it doesn’t matter. Without him, the show won’t work.
Ashley: UNLIKELY Remember, Ashley seemed to have been sent packing long ago, when Victoria canned her for her hijinks with Conrad. There’s still a lot to learn about Ashley (remember her at that seedy nightclub where Emily met Aiden?), so I doubt they’d bump her off this early in the (potential) run of the show. Right now, she also serves as a conduit of information to Jack, plus it would be altogether too weird for the show to kill another woman in Jack’s orbit so soon after Amanda.
Conrad: UNLIKELY Though Conrad doesn’t take center stage as often as his wife Victoria, he’s still one of the big fish for Emily to ultimately catch. For him to go in season two would be a bold move (since Kelley has already announced his exit at the end of this season, there’s always the possibility that, early on, he saw the writing on the wall and decide to go out with a bang), but not a wise one. Given that he’s running for office (though his chances could be circling the drain after the disastrous “Nightline” interview), it seems that Conrad provides too many plot drivers to go now.
Aiden: UNLIKELY Emily’s boyfriend is a little more disposable than, say, Victoria, but sending him packing doesn’t seem like a good idea even if it were to happen now. He’s working with Emily to take apart the Initiative, and given that she only has so many people on her side (Nolan and… Nolan?), it seems premature to take away someone who can work on the Graysons from a business angle that isn’t exactly in Nolan’s wheelhouse despite his company, Nolcorp, having been taken over by Daniel. Plus, Emily needs a love interest, and Jack is clearly out of the picture for a long time.
Jack: UNLIKELY Even though Jack isn’t a friend of Emily’s right now (especially since she announced on “Nightline” that she’d be happy to marry Daniel), the big unravel of Emily’s real identity is going to be a Very Big Deal. We see no hint of it happening now, so it seems unlikely to happen in two weeks (even with a two-hour season finale).
Declan: POSSIBLE Declan certainly seems like the most disposable character on “Revenge,” as he’s loosely tied to the action, his on-again, off-again relationship with Charlotte is stale and, well, he’s never really grabbed us as a sympathetic character. But I think there’s only so much grief we can pile on Jack this season — killing Amanda was certainly enough. Still, getting rid of this character would count toward killing a “core” member of the cast and, next season, we’d probably forget he’d ever been on the show.
Charlotte: POSSIBLE Given that the Graysons have a phoenix-like ability to survive almost any horror laid upon them by Emily or anyone else, it would make sense for them to suffer a truly horrible blow for a shocking season ender. Emily has said before she has Charlotte in her sites as a way to get Victoria where it hurts. What makes this a little less likely is that Charlotte is half-sisters with Emily, and gosh darn it, she’s the nice Grayson. So that leaves just one other likely candidate…
Daniel: POSSIBLE We’ve cycled back to Emily getting engaged to Daniel again, and even Victoria and JuJu Chang of “Nightline” can’t help but comment on the retread angle. To me, this just tells us that Daniel has outlived his usefulness to the plot of “Revenge,” because really, how many times can Emily get involved with this guy? Whether or not they get married in the season finale, if he dies Emily will still be, at least to some degree, a part of the Grayson clan. What his death might mean for Grayson Global is stickier, but we can guess that Conrad would simply just jump in to take over again.
Who do you think will die?