My Review of Revenge's 3x21: "Impetus"

Written by Gretchen J. Berg And Aaron Harberts
Directed by J. Miller Tobin

Conrad: “What about Victoria?”
Emily: “Oh, I’m not finished yet.”
Conrad: “Well then, god speed.”

Now that was the return of the show I fell in love with back in the first season. Charlotte’s kidnapping courtesy of Emily and Aiden brought about Conrad’s downfall and hopefully by next week’s finale, both Victoria and Daniel’s too for that matter.

I’m actually glad both Emily and Aiden actually went to that length to kidnap Charlotte because while I can understand both Jack and Nolan’s disgust for the idea, it actually did the character the world of good. Charlotte’s needed her eyes opened about Flight 197 for a while now and with Pascal’s death inconveniencing Emily’s other plans, kidnapping her little sister turned out to be the more fruitful endeavour.

Having Charlotte shown graphically the corruption of her family was brilliant but even more so with the recent reminders of Amanda and Declan’s respective deaths and the scenes where Jack released her and Conrad turned on her spectacularly were some of the best the show has ever done in my opinion.

It’s almost a shame that Conrad savagely turned on Charlotte, calling her a bastard and threatening to ‘erase her’ but it was still rather gratifying to have his ugly display made so public as well. It’s just a shame that Victoria’s part in Conrad’s activities wasn’t made so public but there’s always the next episode for that.

I also liked the twist at the end with Emily visiting Conrad in prison and telling him her part in his downfall as well. If only for the moment where he cheered her on for vowing to take Victoria down. I’ve just realised that Victoria arguably should suffer more for this whole Flight 197 fiasco than Conrad and I know that’s messed up but her constant attempts of playing victim have kind of cemented a resentment for her.

Given that she finally seems to know that Emily is also Amanda Clarke (courtesy of testing both Charlotte and Carl’s DNA samples), I just can’t see Victoria taking some responsibility for her action. Conrad framed David but Victoria was the reason for it and also helped him to do it as well. I’m just at the point now where I want to see Emily truly destroy Victoria once and for all and finish her story.

Which leads me to the other thing – this episode really felt like the penultimate episode of a series finale and given that ABC haven’t confirmed the show’s future, I am beginning to wonder if Emily’s saga will be over completely by next week. A part of me thinks it should be for the show’s own credibility while other part of me wants just one more season (even a truncated one). I guess we’ll just have to see what happens next, shall we?

Also in “Impetus”

Daniel’s creeping onto Margaux keeps getting slimier with every episode but I found myself bored senseless every time someone mentioned Pascal as well.

Victoria: “Sleep can wait, Daniel. I have vermin to stalk.”

Do we really need a plotline where some bloke seems to be obsessed with David Clarke? Maybe it’s a clue that the show will get a fourth run. Possibly. Or not.

Emily: “I would never hurt Charlotte, Nolan. If you don’t believe me, there’s the door.”

Nolan: “What’s the first thing you think you’ll do as Amanda Clarke? I mean you’ve been at this race since you were a kid. You haven’t even fantasised about the finish line?”

Aiden deserves massive props for punching Daniel’s lights out at the police station and telling Jack that Emily isn’t the Amanda Clarke he once knew. Let’s face it, someone really did need to tell Jack that.

Emily: “Charlotte, please open your eyes.”

Emily: “Poor Daniel, so bitter about our divorce. You’ve always gotta stir up trouble for me.”
Daniel: “You got it, babe.”

Was the same Victoria hired the same one who seems to be obsessed with David Clarke? I was also surprised that we got another Javier appearance in this one.

Charlotte: “You disgust me.”
Conrad: “And you my dear are an ungrateful bastard.”

Victoria: “Bye Conrad. Do rot in hell.”

Standout music: Strange Talk’s “Young Hearts”.

Aiden: “Conrad was defeated. Revenge is yours.”
Emily: “Oh, the war’s not over yet. There’s still Victoria.”

Chronology: From where “Revolution” left off.

Watching this episode, I just wish that the quality we had gotten in “Impetus” had been more consistent in the second half of the season, instead of the meandering we had instead. This episode set about doing everything the show has needed to do for some time and did it in a pretty satisfying way.

Rating: 8 out of 10