My Review of Revenge's 1x08: "Treachery"

Written by Ryan Scott
Directed by Bobby Roth

Emily: “You came.”
Amanda: “I told you I would.”
Emily: “People have a way of breaking promises when it comes to me.”

Oh dear – what a pickle this is. On one hand, the presence of the real Emily Thorne posing as Amanda Clarke should be firing up all kind of alarm bells but at the same time, I can’t help but feel sorry for this girl in a way. She’s ultimately another in a long line of pawns in the real Amanda’s scheming but one that should be treated with kid gloves.

The real Emily had no qualms with bumping off Frank in order to protect herself and Amanda and it’s the same Emily that wasn’t too enamoured with being shipped off to Paris as well. Now anyone who didn’t see her not taking up Amanda’s offer to go to the capital of France has clearly never watched a TV episode of anything in their lives.

Margarita Levieva is certainly a great addition to the show right about now. As the real Emily, she offers a different type of a threat to the real Amanda Clarke that both Tyler and Victoria necessarily don’t but at the same time, all she really wants is to connect with the woman who decided to become her friend all those years ago in the detention centre.

The only thing she doesn’t know is that Amanda was coached by Sharon into manipulating people and by doing that, getting lonely people like Emily on side. This was something Amanda managed to do effortlessly because all it’s taken was some basic kindness and the offer of half a million dollars for the real Emily to be a willing participant in identity fraud.

It’s sort of a shame really because there’s a part of me that’s hoping that deep down Amanda actually cares about Emily and that her motives for trying to get her out of the way actually had some shred of selflessness in them but I guess not. Also, possibly because of that, she’s going to have to learn to play nice with Emily all the more.

Emily as Amanda certainly managed to make impressions on both Nolan and Jack in this episode too. Nolan was automatically suspicious of her, noticed that her clothing was bloodied and quickly deduced that she was responsible for Frank’s death. Nolan might be cool with a lot of thing but apparently aiding murderers is not one of them, which Amanda wasn’t particularly thrilled with.

As for Jack – of course he’d have to try and forge a connection with her. The flirting was instant between Jack and the woman pretending to be Amanda, so when she showed up at the Stowaway at the end of the episode, Jack really wasn’t all that shocked to see her there. Of course, it’s a complication for the woman pretending to be Emily, but hey, it’s not just her former roommate that was the only complication for her this week.

The real Amanda had to think on her feet pretty quickly when Victoria set the police on her about Frank and because of it; she was actually forced to be a bit more honest with Daniel about her past than she would’ve liked to have been. I hope for the Fake Emily’s sake that Daniel’s guilt tripping tirade to his mother buys her some more time because it does look like she’s having more and more problems being handed to her at the moment.

Another problem that also surfaced was Lydia being taken care of by Victoria and the woman’s attempts to remember that 2003 photograph. It’s probably a good job for Emily that Nolan’s Photoshop skills are decent and that Victoria and Conrad were too busy scoring points off each other to really pay attention to Lydia’s accusations though.

Speaking of Lydia, it’s interesting trying to figure her out this week. How much did she actually remember before Victoria attempted to fill her and how much of Victoria and Conrad’s conversations about Frank did she actually take in as well? I have a feeling that Victoria’s gonna have her work cut out for her trying to keep her former friend sweet.

Last but not least – am I really supposed to give a damn about Tyler and Ashley’s relationship and classism issues? Seriously, the whole ‘us vs. them’ mantra those two had bored the living daylights out of me (even if both raised excellent pointers), so Tyler actually getting a hold of Lydia’s original speech from “Guilt” was the only interesting thing that happened with those two this week.

Also in “Treachery”

Now that Daniel has moved in with ‘Emily’, she’s gonna have to be a bit more careful with her nightly antics. Also Daniel’s gone from working for Jack to working for his father.

Amanda: “You’re funny, cool house.”
Nolan (to Emily): “Thanks. Does Miss Manners have a name?”

If you thought that was an amusing nickname, then the woman pretending to be Emily has earned the moniker of Bossy Pants.

Ashley: “You do not see me here. This is the very picture of mortification.”
Daniel: “Ah, the walk of shame.”
Ashley: “More like a bloody knuckle crawl.”

Conrad: “It’s not all bad news, Victoria. The secrets died with Frank. In many ways, you can see this as a relief.”

Declan and Charlotte need some stronger plots as well because their relationship/her parents’ problems isn’t strong enough. I’m also glad that Jack apologised to Nolan as well.

Nolan: “Let’s play a game of twenty questions.”
Amanda: “I don’t like games.”

Amanda: “Come with me.”
Emily: “I wish I could.”

The real Emily was given another alias in this episode – Kara Wilkins, the name of the real Amanda’s mother.

Emily: “Amanda would never hurt me.”
Nolan: “Right, cos that’s such a stretch for a violent psychopath.”

Standout music: Widowspeak’s “Limbs”.

Emily (to herself): “The past is a tricky thing. Sometimes it’s etched in stone and other times, it’s rendered in soft memories.”

Chronology: From where “Charade” left off.

Another enjoyable episode. “Treachery” certainly proves that Conrad and Victoria really should get a move on with divorcing each other but personally for me, the real Emily and Amanda scenes were the highlight of the episode. I can’t wait to see more of those two playing off each other.

Rating: 8 out of 10