Monday, January 07, 2013

My Review of Revenge's 2x10: "Power"


Written by Joe Fazzio
Directed by Roger Kumble

Nolan (to Emily/Aiden): “You two – a fake up? Colour me impressed. If I didn’t know better, I’d already say Daniel’s thinking make up.”

Ah, yes – the obviously staged break up trick. Well, Daniel clearly isn’t that bright if he was easily fooled by the most obviously contrived “fake up” going with Emily and Aiden making sure that they ended their relationship in the same restaurant that both him and Conrad happened to be at the same time.

Then again, maybe that density is inherited because even Conrad seemed awfully convinced (or perhaps not bothered) that Aiden and Emily decided to have a public spat before going their seperate ways. Of course, the most interesting thing here is that their fake break up is very likely to lead to a real one as the rest of the season gets underway.

Emily didn’t really seem to have that much trouble getting back in Daniel’s good books and she seemed rather comfortable in his company as well and I don’t mean her faking it but genuinely seeming to enjoy it. Heck, she didn’t even need to kiss him at the end of the episode to get him on side but she still did. Just maybe Emily has some feelings for Daniel after all.

Also, just maybe Aiden has picked up on that as well because he certainly didn’t look all that pleased with seeing his girlfriend kissing her ex for the sake of the mission too. Then again, given that Helen Crowley (a character I’m finding myself enjoying a lot) has some leverage over Aiden too, perhaps a betrayal is inevitable with Aiden and Emily as well.

I don’t know why but I’m almost kind of disappointed that Aiden’s sister is alive and that Helen was able to get to Aiden so quickly as well, As much as I’m enjoying her as a villain, it’s interesting that she made very little effort in getting both Daniel and Aiden where exactly she wants them at the moment.

Still, at least in this episode Daniel tried to be a little smart by getting Nolan to come up with a programme for rogue files in order to learn more about Conrad’s other dealings but by that turn of events, he gave Nolan an advantage over him. I’m beginning to think that Daniel is the ultimate puppet with Emily, Victoria, Conrad, Nolan and the Initiative all vying to pull his strings in whatever way they can.

Speaking of Nolan, he was disappointingly underused in this episode after his bad ass stance in the last episode. I’m still really not sure what to make of him and Marco as well. Does Marco actually want to help out his former flame or is he another pawn in the Initiative’s overall arc as well? At least Nolan is being clever enough to maintain a bit of a distance with Marco at the moment, which is nice to see.

A little less nice to see is the continued existence of the Ryan brothers. I’ve tried caring about this storyline but it’s rather dull and uninvolving that I really just want the both of them gone now. At least they upped the ante by managing to get Jack in jail by framing with narcotics and a weapon but personally, I think it’s time Amanda, Declan and company got a little creative and have these two losers rue the day they messed with the Porters. Basically, something interesting needs to happen with this plot and fast.

Last but not least, I liked seeing Emily taking out someone this week with corrupt Judge Barnes. Using his wife Patricia, an incriminating letter and her idealism was a nice touch and it’s reminded how much I actually missed the takedown aspect of the show at times. However, Emily was surprisingly less subtle than usual about her connections to the Clarkes in this one. She better hope for her sake that Barnes isn’t as creative as Mason when it comes to putting things together or she’s basically screwed.

Also in “Power”

Interesting that ABC used Tyler Shield’s photo shoots from last year to promote the second half of this season.

Emily: “True power can never be lost or won. True power comes from within.”

Nolan’s nicknames for Aiden were amusing – London Fog and Remington Steele. Aiden seems to be getting along a little better with Nolan as well.

Emily: “With a lovely view of my beach house.”
Victoria: “I didn’t notice.”
Emily: “You certainly did the other night.”

Daniel: “What’s going on?”
Aiden: “What does it look like? Your ex-fiancée just broke up with me.”

Emily and Victoria’s little team up in relation to Daniel is actually rather amusing, especially given that Victoria really doesn’t trust any more than she’s previously done.

Nolan: “I don’t really care what you believe any more, Marco. I’m not the bad guy here but if you keep siding with Daniel Grayson, the only bad guy is you.”

Conrad: “I could get used to this.”
Victoria: “Oh, God help us all.”

Both Ashley and Padma were absent in this episode and Marco quickly found a potentially dangerous file/weapon of Nolan’s as well.

Helen: “I think it’s time we meet.”
Aiden: “I couldn’t agree more.”

Marco: “I want a chance to start over.”
Nolan: “And there are so many reasons why that is never gonna happen, not the least being I’ve fallen for someone else.”

Standout music: I couldn’t find any of the listing for it. I’ll check again later.

Emily: “Power can be hoarded to the mighty and stolen from the innocent.”

Chronology: A couple of days since “Revelations”.

“Power” is a solid but not spectacular return episode for the show. I do hope that the series really knows where it’s going with these overall storylines because it does seem like some tighter plotting needs to take place in some parts.

Rating: 7 out of 10

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