Note: Do not read on if you have not yet seen Season 2, Episode 1 of ABC's "Revenge," entitled "Destiny."
"The only destiny we can control is the fate we choose for another."
The second season of "Revenge" (Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC) kicks off sub-sea-level: A scuba diver discovers the remains of a body aboard the sunken ship "Amanda." Did it really go down by accident?
We cut to Oshima, Japan, three months earlier, and still under water: Emily, tied to a pier and submerged in a high tide is in the middle of a Hiroyuki-assigned exercise to overcome fear. She is rescued against her will, just as she was about to turn a corner in an important memory revealing her mother in the Angel of Mercy hospital. In a word, she's pissed.
With the help of Nolan, who has sold his Hamptons home and needs a place to crash, Emily researches the hospital and finds that it closed two days after her father was arrested. They break into the hospital, and Emily remembers more details about her mother -- specifically being taken from her violently as a child. Emily is perplexed as to why a "Charlotte Clark" --presumably Victoria -- visited her mother a week before her father's arrest.
In one of the episode's best one-liners, Nolan inquires, "Do you think Victoria could have had your mother declared cray cray?"
In other news, Jack and Fauxmanda face a new difficulty: Jack's bar is closed by the Health Department when it fails an inspection due to water-logging. A very pregnant Fauxmanda imploringly asks Jack why their relationship is floundering, and Jack promises to be around more when the baby comes. In a tense moment, Emily tells Jack that Fauxmanda has asked her to be the godmother.
And then, another difficulty: In a conversation with Jack, Emily implies that Fauxmanda's baby may not be his. He asks Fauxmanda where she stayed when she disappeared the previous summer, and she knows immediately what he is asking. "I'll make an appointment," she tells him, trying not to cry. Cue really great angsty shot of the two of them in bed at the end of the scene.
Victoria's family plans her memorial, and Charlotte is excited to attend, having missed the funeral. She is disappointed when the fabulously-dressed Ashley gives a speech depicting her mother as solely "art auctions and fancy parties," and interrupts to point out that Victoria was more than that; she was a mom, and a woman of many contradictions and secrets whom Charlotte loved very much.
Mid-memorial, Daniel tells Conrad that his money will stay in a trust. Charlotte reveals that she would like to sell the beach house, and she's willing to be bought out. All is interrupted when Charlotte is removed forcibly from the event and returned to rehab for having tested positive for drug use. Before she goes, she clutches Emily and desperately imparts a secret. From a conversation between Conrad and Charlotte's counselor, it is clear that the two of them have engineered the whole thing to give Conrad power of attorney.
The secret? Victoria the Ice Queen is alive -- she was really too wickedly enjoyable to get rid of! -- and Emily goes to see her. She tells her that Charlotte's doctor is a con artist, and plants a camera in her home. Via this portal, Emily and Nolan see that Victoria is in league with the white-haired man. They watch Vic and White Hair discuss a mutual distrust of Emily.
With resigned determination, Emily says, "What they did to my father, they did to my mother, too," to which Nolan replies, "Now they're coming for you." We end the episode with Emily wearing her signature tough-girl smirk.
So ... what next?! As usual, Season 2 promises plenty of twists and turns.
Tune in for more "Revenge" on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
