Revenge 1x22 Thoughts
Aug. 7th, 2012 12:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaReckoning
It was an okay finale and there were some things I quite enjoyed but there were also several big disappointments.
+ The whole Emily/Daniel relationship and engagement was one of my biggest disappointments. What was even the point of it? From the beginning I've, logically, assumed that it was all part of Emily's revenge against his parents. But if it ever was you'd certainly never know it from this episode. I find it confusing.
Was he a revenge plot she decided against? Or was he simply her 'in' to being close to the Graysons? It seemed to me that she was slowly growing to care for Daniel and I thought that could be really interesting. Emily being increasingly torn between using him, an innocent, for her revenge while growing to care about him - interesting. Except then instead there was his sudden personality change. In that case why wasn't he added in a more direct way to her list of revenge? Her breaking up with him was awfully nice considering that he basically chose to join the cover up. Nothing about how this relationship was dealt with in these last few episodes worked for me at all.
Speaking of not working for me:
+ "Well, he must have had a damn good reason!" - Daniel. WTF?! Who is this person? Because this is not the Daniel we spent 18 episodes getting to know. Even with his pain over Emily and his continued anger at his mother this sort of response to learning his father had an innocent man murdered is so bizarre. The way the show has portrayed Daniel in these last few episodes and his complete turn around feels the opposite of organic and believable and it's really annoying. I thought the show was better than that.
+ This is less about the show and more my expectation but I've always thought that when Emily finally brought all her plans to their conclusion and was about to destroy the Graysons she would be there and that she would reveal who she really was. The fact that she apparently had no intention of doing so was really disappointing.
+ Emily and Nolan were awesome as always. They are the best thing on this show. So much love for Emily saving Nolan - I mean she chloroformed herself! I loved their hug and the way he leaned into her when she pulled away. I loved how excited and happy he was for her when she decided to tell Jack the truth. They just always make me happy.
- "I'm not worthy." - Nolan, laughing. I loved his response to Emily escaping her handcuffs.
- "Oh. Em. Gee. All right, um, look just stay right where you are and don't do anything revenge-y until I get there, got it? Emily? I'm on my way." - Nolan First - LOL. Second - I love how he cares for her and is there for her.
+ I loved Emily kicking the white haired man's ass, though I did find it a bit unbelievable. It seemed a little too easy.
+ I don't entirely like Emily not killing the white haired man. Her choosing not to in order to honour her father's memory by being who he wanted her to be makes sense and was certainly the better choice for her emotionally but I guess I just love revenge obsessed and emotionally closed off Emily best.
But actually my main problem is the fact that after choosing not to kill him she simply walks away and lets him go. I can't believe that. Not only was he involved in the cover up but he actually physically killed her father. And she was fine walking away and leaving him to live his life? Fucking seriously? No. I do not buy it at all.
Added to that is the fact that she didn't even try to neutralize him in any way. I mean he knows exactly who she is and he knows where she lives. He knows she cares for Nolan. He knows that she knows the truth about what happened. He's a killer. The likelihood of him targeting her or Nolan seemed pretty high. Yet it didn't appear to concern her at all and that is not the Emily Thorne we know. Ignoring everything else he is Emily deals with threats by very competently neutralizing them. The fact that she didn't even try felt very OOC.
+ ... okay I have to talk about Emily a little more. Ruthlessness and competence are two of the things that most make me adore Emily Thorne and I felt like in some ways this episode was... lessening those. She was awesomely competent for most the episode - her rescuing Nolan, setting up the evidence drop, kicking the white haired man's ass were all fabulous.
But then she let him go. And then in the latter part of the episode we get - Victoria verbally getting the better of her, her break-down over Amanda/Jack, her weirdly congenial goodbye to Daniel, and most of all her helplessness at the end over the plane going down. It bothered me. Emotions are great, and I want her to grow into a real person, but not at the expense of the things I love best about her.
Individually some of those scenes are good - the Victoria/Emily scene was great, Emily's breakdown over Jack/Amanda was understandable and sad, even the break up with Daniel wasn't terrible just more perplexing to me. But the helplessness at the end and letting her father's killer go and then all the other stuff added to it ended up with a whole that bugged me.
+ My opinion on Jack/Emily remains the exact same as as it was in the last episode.
+ Amanda... so it is great to see her and to know that she actually is alive but holy soap opera. I did not see the pregnancy coming. I really have to wonder at Takeda letting her go without giving Emily any warning. Also, seriously Jack, a text probably would have been a good idea.
+ I thought it was interesting that Conrad warned Victoria not to get on the plane. He didn't actually say that it would be rigged but he did everything he could to convince her not to get on it. For all that he hates her he cared enough to try and save her. That's more than Lydia got.
+ I loved the scene with Victoria getting on the plane. Beautifully shot and great music choice.
+ The twist at the end that Emily's mother is alive was excellent and I can't wait to see where that goes. During Emily's fight with the white haired man he tells her: "You're a hell of a fighter. You must have gotten that from your mother." and I just took that as a dig about David's death but now with this new information there is a whole new interpretation to it. Was or is Emily's mother a part of the Initiative or some other government organization? Or was the first meaning the correct one? Personally I'm hoping that she's a spy because that would be awesome. Also that she isn't a bad guy because that would be too horrible for Emily.
+ I knew the plane was going to explode/crash as soon as it was mentioned. Of course the scary conspiracy wouldn't let it land. I'm doubtful that the show would kill Victoria off, they had better not, and I'm assuming that she changed her mind at the last second and got off. Lydia however I'm sure is dead.
+ I have a hard time believing that Emily didn't make copies of all of Conrad's evidence but even accepting that she didn't it still doesn't mean that all evidence of wrongdoing is gone. Over this season Emily has amassed a huge amount of evidence including a lot of recordings of various Graysons talking about the truth. If it came down to it Emily could just dump everything online.
It was an okay finale and there were some things I quite enjoyed but there were also several big disappointments.
+ The whole Emily/Daniel relationship and engagement was one of my biggest disappointments. What was even the point of it? From the beginning I've, logically, assumed that it was all part of Emily's revenge against his parents. But if it ever was you'd certainly never know it from this episode. I find it confusing.
Was he a revenge plot she decided against? Or was he simply her 'in' to being close to the Graysons? It seemed to me that she was slowly growing to care for Daniel and I thought that could be really interesting. Emily being increasingly torn between using him, an innocent, for her revenge while growing to care about him - interesting. Except then instead there was his sudden personality change. In that case why wasn't he added in a more direct way to her list of revenge? Her breaking up with him was awfully nice considering that he basically chose to join the cover up. Nothing about how this relationship was dealt with in these last few episodes worked for me at all.
Speaking of not working for me:
+ "Well, he must have had a damn good reason!" - Daniel. WTF?! Who is this person? Because this is not the Daniel we spent 18 episodes getting to know. Even with his pain over Emily and his continued anger at his mother this sort of response to learning his father had an innocent man murdered is so bizarre. The way the show has portrayed Daniel in these last few episodes and his complete turn around feels the opposite of organic and believable and it's really annoying. I thought the show was better than that.
+ This is less about the show and more my expectation but I've always thought that when Emily finally brought all her plans to their conclusion and was about to destroy the Graysons she would be there and that she would reveal who she really was. The fact that she apparently had no intention of doing so was really disappointing.
+ Emily and Nolan were awesome as always. They are the best thing on this show. So much love for Emily saving Nolan - I mean she chloroformed herself! I loved their hug and the way he leaned into her when she pulled away. I loved how excited and happy he was for her when she decided to tell Jack the truth. They just always make me happy.
- "I'm not worthy." - Nolan, laughing. I loved his response to Emily escaping her handcuffs.
- "Oh. Em. Gee. All right, um, look just stay right where you are and don't do anything revenge-y until I get there, got it? Emily? I'm on my way." - Nolan First - LOL. Second - I love how he cares for her and is there for her.
+ I loved Emily kicking the white haired man's ass, though I did find it a bit unbelievable. It seemed a little too easy.
+ I don't entirely like Emily not killing the white haired man. Her choosing not to in order to honour her father's memory by being who he wanted her to be makes sense and was certainly the better choice for her emotionally but I guess I just love revenge obsessed and emotionally closed off Emily best.
But actually my main problem is the fact that after choosing not to kill him she simply walks away and lets him go. I can't believe that. Not only was he involved in the cover up but he actually physically killed her father. And she was fine walking away and leaving him to live his life? Fucking seriously? No. I do not buy it at all.
Added to that is the fact that she didn't even try to neutralize him in any way. I mean he knows exactly who she is and he knows where she lives. He knows she cares for Nolan. He knows that she knows the truth about what happened. He's a killer. The likelihood of him targeting her or Nolan seemed pretty high. Yet it didn't appear to concern her at all and that is not the Emily Thorne we know. Ignoring everything else he is Emily deals with threats by very competently neutralizing them. The fact that she didn't even try felt very OOC.
+ ... okay I have to talk about Emily a little more. Ruthlessness and competence are two of the things that most make me adore Emily Thorne and I felt like in some ways this episode was... lessening those. She was awesomely competent for most the episode - her rescuing Nolan, setting up the evidence drop, kicking the white haired man's ass were all fabulous.
But then she let him go. And then in the latter part of the episode we get - Victoria verbally getting the better of her, her break-down over Amanda/Jack, her weirdly congenial goodbye to Daniel, and most of all her helplessness at the end over the plane going down. It bothered me. Emotions are great, and I want her to grow into a real person, but not at the expense of the things I love best about her.
Individually some of those scenes are good - the Victoria/Emily scene was great, Emily's breakdown over Jack/Amanda was understandable and sad, even the break up with Daniel wasn't terrible just more perplexing to me. But the helplessness at the end and letting her father's killer go and then all the other stuff added to it ended up with a whole that bugged me.
+ My opinion on Jack/Emily remains the exact same as as it was in the last episode.
+ Amanda... so it is great to see her and to know that she actually is alive but holy soap opera. I did not see the pregnancy coming. I really have to wonder at Takeda letting her go without giving Emily any warning. Also, seriously Jack, a text probably would have been a good idea.
+ I thought it was interesting that Conrad warned Victoria not to get on the plane. He didn't actually say that it would be rigged but he did everything he could to convince her not to get on it. For all that he hates her he cared enough to try and save her. That's more than Lydia got.
+ I loved the scene with Victoria getting on the plane. Beautifully shot and great music choice.
+ The twist at the end that Emily's mother is alive was excellent and I can't wait to see where that goes. During Emily's fight with the white haired man he tells her: "You're a hell of a fighter. You must have gotten that from your mother." and I just took that as a dig about David's death but now with this new information there is a whole new interpretation to it. Was or is Emily's mother a part of the Initiative or some other government organization? Or was the first meaning the correct one? Personally I'm hoping that she's a spy because that would be awesome. Also that she isn't a bad guy because that would be too horrible for Emily.
+ I knew the plane was going to explode/crash as soon as it was mentioned. Of course the scary conspiracy wouldn't let it land. I'm doubtful that the show would kill Victoria off, they had better not, and I'm assuming that she changed her mind at the last second and got off. Lydia however I'm sure is dead.
+ I have a hard time believing that Emily didn't make copies of all of Conrad's evidence but even accepting that she didn't it still doesn't mean that all evidence of wrongdoing is gone. Over this season Emily has amassed a huge amount of evidence including a lot of recordings of various Graysons talking about the truth. If it came down to it Emily could just dump everything online.
