‘Revenge’ Season 2, Episode 17 Recap: Last Night’s Winners and Losers

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Life is so much more interesting in the Hamptons. At least, it is in the soap world of Revenge, where it’s a high-class hotbed for the exploits of the rich, beautiful, and irrevocably corrupt. Though it’s quite different for the beguiling Emily Thorne (née Amanda Clarke), who’s returned to the Hamptons of her childhood with a hefty agenda: to learn the truth about her past, and retribute those who framed her father for a heinous crime he didn’t commit. We’re keeping weekly score of Emily’s endeavors, and the many others of our favorite Hamptonians, by calling each episode’s winners and losers. Last night, we said goodbye to Eli James, Padma got caught up in the Initiative’s game, and Conrad worked on gaining the layman’s vote. Discover this episode’s winners and losers – there are but two winners this week – after the jump.

WINNERS

Eli James: We thought Eli would stick around the Hamptons to stir up more trouble for Emily, but his visit turns out to be but short-lived. Eli seems only to have used his new position as co-chair of the Graysons’ Amanda Clarke Foundation to wreak his own revenge on his former foster mom, Meredith Hayward, who treated him terribly, orchestrating a public press conference at the Stowaway so that he can expose her wrongdoings and humiliate her. Meredith retaliates, though, telling the crowd that it was Eli who set fire to her foster home years ago and allowed Emily to take the blame.

Emily: Though Emily’s devastated to find out that Eli set the fire – which sent her to juvie, changing her life indelibly – when he turns up to say his goodbye and tell her that Ms. Hayward had sold the letters written to Emily by her father to the writer Mason Treadwell, Emily forgives her foster bro. Going to visit Treadwell in prison (orange is not his color), she bargains with him to find out what was in the letters. Though they burned in the fire that Emily started at Treadwell’s home, he tells her what he remembers reading in them: that Victoria had had a second son as a teenager, and that she had put him in the foster care system – yet more delicious leverage for Emily to use against her enemy.

LOSERS

Meredith Hayward: Meredith’s trip to the Hamptons is even more fleeting than Eli’s. Invited there by Eli, who suggests to Victoria that the ACF could help Ms. Hayward financially, one minute she’s thrilled to be the recipient of a yearly check for $250,000 from the fund, and in the next finds herself shamed at the press conference meant to honor her. Later, Eli exacts his final payback by killing off Meredith, who we hear whimpering in the background of Eli’s phone call to Emily.

Victoria: After Eli invites Emily on board the ACF, Victoria grows suspicious of Eli, and is furious when he uses the press conference as an opportunity to expose Ms. Hayward. The news recently unearthed by Emily will no doubt come into play soon also, no doubt with an appearance from Victoria’s second son. Already second best to Daniel, Charlotte will be gutted.

Padma: Sent a video at the start of the episode from the Initiative, of her father with instructions on handing over the Carrion program in return for his life, poor Padma winds up getting kidnapped by Trask. Taken to the place where her father’s being kept, she’s approached once more by the Initiative with another mission, the details of which we don’t know about yet. No doubt it will cause quite a ruckus.

Nolan: Nolan makes Padma a promise he can’t fulfill, telling her that he will ensure her safety when she presents him with the video of her father. Later, as he and Aiden monitor Padma handing over Carrion to Trask and see her being hustled into the boot of his car, Nolan stops Aiden from shooting Trask. He sorely regrets his decision to curb Aiden since it might have saved both Padma and her father. Nonetheless, after a pep talk from Emily, Nolan’s back on the computer racking for answers. But his attempts to trace a blocked phone number belonging to the Initiative after they send him a text message along with a mysterious package (which turns out to contain the Carrion program) are thwarted, since his new Internet enemy, “the Falcon” has once again obscured all the codes Nolan needs the answers to.

Jack: On a mission to find out more about his rescue after last week’s brief altercation with Nolan, Jack endeavors to track down Kenny Ryan, which he does through Declan, who’s able to obtain Kenny’s phone number. Locating the number, Jack meets with Kenny to demand answers, though he denies his late brother Nate’s inclusion in his rescue, leaving Jack as bereft as he began. Though he’s confused about that, Jack, now on his own revenge path, makes the choice to accept a position on Conrad’s campaign trail to help the corrupt cardi-wearing politician with his plebeian vote. Of course, this newbie revenger must have ulterior plans for Conrad – and we can’t wait to see what those might be.