My Review of Revenge's 2x05: "Forgiveness"

Written by Sunil Nayar
Directed by Matt Earl Beesley

Kara: “Somehow your father found it in his heart to forgive me.”
Amanda: “Wait, I forgive you too.”

I can’t be in the minority of people that’s getting a tiny bit bored of critics and certain fans acting like this show has massively devolved, right? I’m not saying that the second season of this soapy drama has been perfect but I get the feeling that some people are being a little too premature in dismissing the show and it’s newer story points this year.

I’ll admit that I still have some massive reservations about the Initiative plot, though if Victoria and Conrad see a half man, half demon machine creature named Adam, then they really should find somewhere safe to hide but I’m willing to at least see where the show goes with the plot before dismissing it out right.

So far, we’ve had a good few discussions from both Conrad and Victoria about the Initiative being brought back in their lives. In fact, Victoria’s genuine (for her) fears of them harming Daniel and Charlotte did manage to actually show that she isn’t entirely devoid of humanity but the most interesting plot concerning her this week came at the hands of Kara.

Can I say that I love how this show has moved quickly with Kara, in terms of bringing her to the fore? I honestly thought we’d have to wait until the end of this year for that to happen but in the space of five episodes, we’ve learned that Kara has bipolar, has tried to kill Amanda as a child, was committed to a hospital, pretended to be dead, married Gordon and took Aiden down with minimal effort and came back to reconnect with Amanda again.

In this episode, there was a delightful sense of cat and mouse between Kara and Victoria with both women being sickeningly nice to each other while trying to size each other up at the same time. Kara probably thinks the Graysons are responsible for Gordon’s disappearance and Victoria managed to realise that Kara had been trying to phone him as well.

All of these made for some terrific scenes but even they didn’t come close to the utterly gripping scenes between Kara, Emily and Amanda throughout this episode. I liked that Kara tried to make amends with Amanda and the latter chose to forgave her while Emily admitted that she wanted to but wasn’t there yet.

I think it’s almost a safe bet that at some point, Kara is going to realise who her real daughter is but for the time being, she’s trying to build a relationship with a woman who she thinks has given birth to her own grandchild. Of course, that didn’t stop Kara from actually reaching out to Emily in this episode as well.

Of course if things weren’t delicious enough, there was also Emily making amends to Amanda by actually confessing that she lied about baby Carl’s father. I liked that Emily did the right thing and admitted to Amanda that Jack was the father of Carl and I liked that Amanda forgave her too. It’s nice to see Emily realising the impact of what she’s put Amanda through and trying to do something right about it.

Something else that was also nice was the unexpected but delightful return of Mason Treadwell too. He’s back for less than day and he managed to suss that Victoria faked her kidnapping, grilling Kara on her whereabouts, made both Amanda and Emily uncomfortable and seemed to suss out that someone wasn’t who they were pretending to be. Suddenly Mason has become an even more dangerous character than before.

As for the rest of the episode – does anyone care about Jack being suckered into going into a partnership/selling his business to Kenny? I didn’t think so. Similarly, I’m sure more people are probably disappointed more than surprised that Padma has seemingly stabbed Nolan in the back and the Daniel/Aiden business scenes weren’t exactly the most gripping of plotlines. Still, they’re minor concessions for an episode that was predominantly interesting, though more with it’s female leads than it’s male ones.

Also in “Forgiveness”

David Clarke finally managed to come back in flashbacks when saving Amanda from Kara and later forgiving her at the hospital.

Emily (to Aiden): “I needed someone. You walked through the door. Don’t let it go to your head.”

I really hated that Padma lied to Nolan about not doing anything after seeing the David Clarke cheque. Bad show, Padma.

Conrad (re Kara): “You’ve got to get rid of her.”
Victoria: “Oh, on the contrary. I’ve asked her to stay for lunch.”

Nolan (re Edward): “I know he wasn’t murdered in prison or accused of a crime he didn’t commit, still he loved me.”
Emily: “I should’ve been there for you. I’m sorry.”

Not only did I love Emily apologising to Nolan for her insensitivity/not keeping him in the loop with Kara but I also loved her informing him about Padma’s antics too.

Padma: “Have I won something?”
Daniel: “Let’s see what we’re playing first.”

Mason: “The years have been kind, Kara, where have you been?”
Kara: “Away.”
Mason: “That’s one of my favourite places.”

Mason seemed to know that Amanda had a burn on her back but we’ve seen Emily’s back enough time on the show. I think maybe the writers should’ve thought something else up.

Emily: “You never know when or where you’ll meet your true love.”
Kara (re David): “He was only my first love. There’s a difference.”

Conrad: “Victoria, will you do me the honour of becoming my wife again?”
Victoria: “What is the matter with you?”

Standout music: A re-use of Angus & Julia Stone’s “For You” from the first episode of last season was nice.

Kara (re Amanda): “Do you think she’s really forgiven me?”
Emily: “I think she wants to.”

Chronology: From where “Intuition” left off.

A brilliant episode. “Forgiveness” was interesting and gripping and for me, even with some niggles about this season, I don’t think it’s really lost it’s edge. Kara’s definitely come leaps and bounds as well as a character and next week’s episode looks like a stunner.

Rating: 9 out of 10