Series Recap / Final Thoughts

[nobody30]

Now that it’s all over, I guess it’s time to say goodbye and give the whole series some thought, as I guess there won’t be much posting activity on single episodes or the finale any more.

So what is your opinion on the series as a whole? What were your favorite moments/ characters, and your least favorite moments/ characters? What would you have done differently with respect to story or character development?
 

First of all let me say that S1 was one of the best seasons of drama television that I have seen in years. It was fun to watch Emily take down  one villain after the other, I loved to hate Victoria but could feel with her at the same time, and the dynamics between the triangle Jack-Emily-Daniel (with some Fauxmanda in between) were great, not to mention the slowly growing relationship between Nolan and Emily.

 

So what happened that the show got off track a little in S2? Most fans would say it was because of “The Initiative”, and I agree to some point, but it was not the only reason. I mean S2 didn’t start out that bad, I remember many people complaining about the mother storyline, but personally I didn’t mind, it really started to lose quality at around episode 9 or 10 in my opinion (after the flashback episode with Victoria’s mother) when it became clear that everybody was on his/her own storyline, disconnected from one another, Aiden and Emily became the revenge couple, Jack had that stupid Ryan brothers storyline and Fauxmanda, Nolan had Padma, there was no deeper interaction or connection between the characters we used to love so much. I mean Aiden and Jack (major parts of S2 and Emily’s life) only met for the first time in episode 4 of S3, and Jack didn’t even know who Aiden was then, I wouldn’t have believed it myself if I hadn’t rewatched it!
 

The second reason was how they handled Daniel’s character development. From a doubting college boy into a CEO of a global company in just a year, really? It was obvious that they had to make him side with his parents to betray Emily, but it was way overdone with no way back, his story was basically over at that point.

 

The final reason was Aiden’s character development in my opinion. He had so much potential, I enjoyed the fights and games between Emily and him in the first few episodes of S2, and I didn’t mind that they were more than revenge buddies, but at some point the only reason of his existence became to be with Emily and to run away with her to some lonely island, and an endless make up break up was about to start. I would have wanted him to go much darker, to betray Emily in a way that couldn’t be undone, but every time they hinted in that direction I was about to get disappointed, until his story was way over, at least his death in S3 was epic.

 

In S3 they made up for large parts of S2, as they started to reconnect the characters, more of Nemily was featured again, I kind of enjoyed Jack being pissed at Emily too, because it brought back dynamics and emotion into their relationship (I guess he had every right to be pissed), and we had an awesome mid-season finale and one of the best season finales ever made (which could have as well been a series finale). On the other hand there where many lows too, blackout Emily and the aftermath of her getting shot for example, and the episodes leading up to that were kind of boring too in my opinion.
 

Again I think Aiden could have played a different role, I know many fans shipped Aimily, but it did the story no good, the ultimate tragedy would have been if he would have shot her in the end (there was some potential for that, as he was even willing to risk Jack’s life out of jealousy telling Conrad that Jack was the one tampering the brakes before the car accident). Daniel was a too obvious choice and you could see him being the one shooting coming way too much in the episodes leading up to it, and from that point on it was obvious that Daniel had to go, because there was no way that could have been undone or forgotten. I know some fans started to root for them again in S4, as Daniel seemed to redeem himself a little bit, but honestly you have to put at least some limits to a relationship, after all he was the guy who shot her in the stomach twice, left her to die and told her that it was his gift to the universe that he sterilized her with that for Christ’s sake, some things cannot be taken back, no way!

 

As for season 4, it’s true that there were many lows, filler storylines, and filler characters, the worst of them all being the mess called Ben. Why did this character exist in the first place again? Right, the only reason was so that he could hook up with Emily at some point to get Jack to act, anything else? No. And of course the whole storyline of David Clarke made no sense at all, I bet they never intended to bring him back to save his daughter’s soul like he did in the end, it was obvious to me that they wanted him to be some kind of bad guy (if not mastermind) in the beginning, which is why they made him act so weird. Instead they had to make Margaux some kind of antagonist as plan B, which didn’t play out as well either, as she was flip-flopping all over the place.
 

But then again so much happened in S4 that we have waited for such a long time, or were great emotional scenes absolutely worth watching, like Emily seeing her father for the first time, confronting him that she was his daughter, Daniel dying in Emily’s arms, Jack’s sad love confession to Emily, Emily coming clean as Amanda Clarke, and of course the final showdown between Emily and Victoria. S4 was kind of the Revenge aftermath, but it was worth watching and made the show come full circle, plus I really enjoyed the character development for Emily turning into Amanda Clarke, showing us what that meant for her.

 

The ending was a bit soapy maybe, but I really didn’t mind, because after all the darkness of the show and the loss and pain all the characters and especially Emily/ Amanda had to go through, it just felt right to have those 5 final minutes of happiness, and it made it easier to get closure.

 

Sorry for the length or that post, but I guess it’s my way to say goodbye to a show that was one of my favorites.
 

So what are your thoughts?

[alias1]

You're right about season one.  Absolutely brilliant. Season two was awful.  It was ridiculous to pair up her mother and the white haired man.  And they spent so much time making him the big bad, he just kind of fizzled out in the end.  I wish they could have kept original Takeda.  The new guy just never seemed right for the role and they abandoned that whole story line too.  

 

Please refresh my memory about the great mid season and season finale of season three?

 

I really like Emily and Aiden together.  Having Victoria kill him off made me hate her all the more.  She was always pretending to be the victim.  I guess she really believed she was most of the time.  The whole Malcolm Black story line was stupid too.  And so was the forced drama of Margaux and Louise.  I was disappointed they chose to separate Louise and Nolan.  They made such fun besties.  They never seemed to know what to do with Nolan.  He was such a great character.  I would have liked a spinoff with Nolan and Louise.   

 

I thought bringing David back was the stupidest thing they could do, but I grew to be ok with it.  They did a nice job of wrapping things up  at the end.  I'm really going to miss these characters.  Overall I loved this show, flaws and all.

[nobody30]

You're right about season one.  Absolutely brilliant. Season two was awful.  It was ridiculous to pair up her mother and the white haired man.  And they spent so much time making him the big bad, he just kind of fizzled out in the end.  I wish they could have kept original Takeda.  The new guy just never seemed right for the role and they abandoned that whole story line too.  

 

Please refresh my memory about the great mid season and season finale of season three?

 

I really like Emily and Aiden together.  Having Victoria kill him off made me hate her all the more.  She was always pretending to be the victim.  I guess she really believed she was most of the time.  The whole Malcolm Black story line was stupid too.  And so was the forced drama of Margaux and Louise.  I was disappointed they chose to separate Louise and Nolan.  They made such fun besties.  They never seemed to know what to do with Nolan.  He was such a great character.  I would have liked a spinoff with Nolan and Louise.   

 

I thought bringing David back was the stupidest thing they could do, but I grew to be ok with it.  They did a nice job of wrapping things up  at the end.  I'm really going to miss these characters.  Overall I loved this show, flaws and all.

 

As for the midseason finale, I was referring to the episode that Emily got shot in, though I don't remember if that was the midseason finale. And the finale, that was the episode where Emily finally cleared her father's name (leading up to that was the epic takedown of Conrad in the great scene with Charlotte the episode before that), Victoria kills Aiden in a very cruel way and delivers the body to Emily's house, what followed was probably the saddest scene of the whole series, Victoria confronts Emily at the graveyard that she knows her true identity, then the epic smackdown with the shovel, David resurfaces and kills Conrad and Victoria wakes up in the mental institution while Emily walks away just like that, that ending scene, just wow! You have to admit that was a hell of a finale!!

 

And don't get we wrong, killing Aiden made me hate Victoria even more too, and it was so sad! But S3 Aimily was just exhausting in my opinion. It started with Aiden framing and threatening Jack (breaks - Conrad), so Emily confronts him that he just did it out of jelousy, they fight, he asks her if she loves Jack, she doesn't answer because the answer is obvious (I mean she loved Aiden too at that time - no contradiction here), and by the end of the same episode they are together again, well ok. A few weeks! later they get secretly engaged and want to spend the rest of their lives together on the Maledives, in combination with framing Victoria at the wedding probably one of the most stupid storylines in Revenge ever. Not only would Conrad (the main villain) have walked away unharmed, how should running away with a false identity have worked out for them anyway? Emily is kind of a celebrity in Revenge land and supposed to be dead, so she is going to have a plastic surgery for a new face? How were they supposed to live, or hide until they are old and grey? Ok, so far so good, Emily get's shot and unable to conceive too, and because of that she pushes Aiden away. You would guess he would fight for the love of his life, but no, he immediately srews Niko (according to Nolan they are doing it so often at his place that they should get their own). Then Emily saves Aiden from Niko (because Emily's now crazy planting that sword to frame Aiden) and openes up to Aiden again, but Aiden is like, srew you it's over (get help, but not from me). Ok, now Emily's gone crazy, so in the end Aiden has to waterboard her back to sanity, then they kiss, then he leaves for the Maledives. She goes after him later so that he would give her a second chance, he says no, but despite that comes back because of his father, of course they immediatly hook up again (of course), they are together now, or not. Aiden tells Jack that they will never make it work (scene with Charlotte abducted), then in the same episode he tells Emily that they belong together (kind of forever). I was sad he died, but glad it was over at the same time.

Edited June 10, 2015 by nobody30

[alias1]

Oh, how could I have forgotten that great scene at the graveyard.  And then Victoria yelling in the mental hospital (like a crazy woman) "She's Amanda Clarke."  That was one of the best season finales.

 

I guess the back and forth with Aiden didn't really bother me (although the whole Niko story line was dumb), but we all knew that Jack was going to be end game.  It's funny having you remind me of all the ridiculous stuff they did with Aiden and Emily and yet I loved the show. 

 

The whole Padma story line was stupid, too, but I think that was in the Terrible Season Two.

 

I love that you started this thread.  I hope other diehard fans will chime in with their favorite (or not so favorite) moments..

[Glade]

Season 1 was absolutely brilliant, and made me love these characters, this ensemble cast where everything worked.  It also told 85% of the story.  I think if this show had been a ten-episode per season drama, set solely during the summer season in the hamptons, it could have held onto the greatness that season 1 had for four seasons.  As it is, the next seasons were reboots with varying degrees of success and tons of filler, resetting, and putting off the inevitable conclusion of what was developed in S1.   In my recent rewatch, it was all of season 1, and just a handful of episodes from the other seasons.

 

Having Conrad and Victoria remarry, and Emily resume her fake courtship with Daniel in S2 was ridiculous.  But then so was the initiative and all the plotlines that separated the characters.   I particularly loved the development of Nolan and Jack's friendship in the first season, but that dynamic was destroyed and took a long time to return.  I also never liked Aiden, what he brought to the show or the things the character did (killing Takeda, threatening Jack...)

 

The first episode of season three was good, but the rest of it (until the finale) I hated, and it made me hate Emily too.  Her entire stupid wedding plot made her into the writer's handmaiden for preventing character development and genuine change; Emily bringing the grayson clan back together, preventing victoria/conrad's divorce, blocking the sale of grayson manor and blackmailing daniel into a sham marriage was disgusting to watch.   They also played this dynamic over and over again where couples (patrick/nolan, conrad/lydia, emily/aiden...) would break up and then get back together again every single episode.  It was exhausting and killed any romantic satisfaction.  

 

Season four was better in concept--showing Emily struggling with the question of when to end her revenge and how to move on with life.  But then there was also lots of crap, more new characters/long lost family members... The saving grace was that they really did give the show a conclusive and powerful ending, despite the fact that the story and it's characters had been twisted and hammered into something hardly recognizable from the first season.    

[ketose]

The Daniel stuff kind of played into a narrative of inherited evil. In S1 Daniel was a dumb kid who wasn't close to his parents but needed him when he got into trouble. Emily was using him, literally sleeping with the enemy. Then Daniel did a quick 180, becoming a puppet master in his own right. Charlotte eventually avoided that evil by getting out of the situation (and because the actress was tired of doing that character).

 

I still think killing Declan was such an unnecessary and arbitrary thing to do. Then they just piled on by killing Jack's wife as well. Amanda kept her hands clean, but Declan's death was a direct result of her constant poking of Conrad. It would have been better if she just fatally poisoned him in episode one.

That's the other thing. His takedown was kind of anti-climactic. He was done in by monologging to his own (step)daughter. He didn't get a chance at revenge because he was stabbed after a prison escape.

 

One can argue that cast defections caused the changes in story. I argue that the lack of a clear storyline eventually made the actors want to leave.

[nobody30]

The Daniel stuff kind of played into a narrative of inherited evil. In S1 Daniel was a dumb kid who wasn't close to his parents but needed him when he got into trouble. Emily was using him, literally sleeping with the enemy. Then Daniel did a quick 180, becoming a puppet master in his own right. Charlotte eventually avoided that evil by getting out of the situation (and because the actress was tired of doing that character).

 

I still think killing Declan was such an unnecessary and arbitrary thing to do. Then they just piled on by killing Jack's wife as well. Amanda kept her hands clean, but Declan's death was a direct result of her constant poking of Conrad. It would have been better if she just fatally poisoned him in episode one.

That's the other thing. His takedown was kind of anti-climactic. He was done in by monologging to his own (step)daughter. He didn't get a chance at revenge because he was stabbed after a prison escape.

 

One can argue that cast defections caused the changes in story. I argue that the lack of a clear storyline eventually made the actors want to leave.

 

I get that Daniel's storyline was about inherited evil, or how much he was defined by his legacy, but they jumped the shark with his character development in S2 and S3, they should have killed him off much earlier.

 

I disagree about the takedown of Conrad, I thought it was a fitting end, and his monologue was one of his strongest scenes in all of 3 seasons and power acting by Henry Czerny. And Declan, yeah I didn't really care about him at all, so it didn't matter to me that he died.

 

I so much agree witch the lack of a clear stroryline ins S2-S4, it always seemed that it was all written along they way, altough the most important thing in my opinion would have been to have a clear storyline for every season, to know where the characters and storylines would end up by the end of each season, I never had that feeling to be honest.

[nobody30]

Season 1 was absolutely brilliant, and made me love these characters, this ensemble cast where everything worked.  It also told 85% of the story.  I think if this show had been a ten-episode per season drama, set solely during the summer season in the hamptons, it could have held onto the greatness that season 1 had for four seasons.  As it is, the next seasons were reboots with varying degrees of success and tons of filler, resetting, and putting off the inevitable conclusion of what was developed in S1.   In my recent rewatch, it was all of season 1, and just a handful of episodes from the other seasons.

 

Having Conrad and Victoria remarry, and Emily resume her fake courtship with Daniel in S2 was ridiculous.  But then so was the initiative and all the plotlines that separated the characters.   I particularly loved the development of Nolan and Jack's friendship in the first season, but that dynamic was destroyed and took a long time to return.  I also never liked Aiden, what he brought to the show or the things the character did (killing Takeda, threatening Jack...)

 

The first episode of season three was good, but the rest of it (until the finale) I hated, and it made me hate Emily too.  Her entire stupid wedding plot made her into the writer's handmaiden for preventing character development and genuine change; Emily bringing the grayson clan back together, preventing victoria/conrad's divorce, blocking the sale of grayson manor and blackmailing daniel into a sham marriage was disgusting to watch.   They also played this dynamic over and over again where couples (patrick/nolan, conrad/lydia, emily/aiden...) would break up and then get back together again every single episode.  It was exhausting and killed any romantic satisfaction.  

 

Season four was better in concept--showing Emily struggling with the question of when to end her revenge and how to move on with life.  But then there was also lots of crap, more new characters/long lost family members... The saving grace was that they really did give the show a conclusive and powerful ending, despite the fact that the story and it's characters had been twisted and hammered into something hardly recognizable from the first season.    

 

I agree that most of the characters they brought in in S2-S4 didn't really add something important to the story, and they didn't make me care for any of them big time. Mostly because their storylines were exhausting and boring (Aiden), flip-flopping (Margaux) or wtf why is that character even there in the first place (Ben). Not to speak of the countless 2-3 episode characters that were just filler all the time (Emily's "brother", Margaux's brother, Javier, and so on). If they want you to care for a character you have to understand where they came from, why they became the way they are, what their story is and what scars and secrets they carry with them. "Orange Is The New Black" does and incredible job at this for example with flashbacks, I also always loved the flashback episodes of Revenge. But I guess nobody ever really cared about the stories of the side characters anyway, they should have gone deeper into the world of Emily, Nolan, Jack, Victoria, Conrad and maybe Daniel. Especially Jack, Nolan and Conrad fell short with respect to this. How did Conrad become the man he was? How was it for Nolan to grow up, what about his relationship with his father? Why did Jack want to go to Haiti, some kind of atonement, finding meaning in life? They should have given those characters more depth.

[manticoraus]

The Daniel stuff kind of played into a narrative of inherited evil. In S1 Daniel was a dumb kid who wasn't close to his parents but needed him when he got into trouble. Emily was using him, literally sleeping with the enemy. Then Daniel did a quick 180, becoming a puppet master in his own right. Charlotte eventually avoided that evil by getting out of the situation (and because the actress was tired of doing that character).

 

I still think killing Declan was such an unnecessary and arbitrary thing to do. Then they just piled on by killing Jack's wife as well. Amanda kept her hands clean, but Declan's death was a direct result of her constant poking of Conrad. It would have been better if she just fatally poisoned him in episode one.

That's the other thing. His takedown was kind of anti-climactic. He was done in by monologging to his own (step)daughter. He didn't get a chance at revenge because he was stabbed after a prison escape.

 

One can argue that cast defections caused the changes in story. I argue that the lack of a clear storyline eventually made the actors want to leave.

Of ALL the returns from the dead Declan would have been so damned easy it disgusts me DAVID CLARKE managed it (Lydia was nice, Victoria needs a female foil and they burned Croyden as a possible partner, seriously the entire clan minus charlotte passed her around.. which was the issue with both characters)

 

"Well we secreted him away for testimony, turned out they cleaned their tracks but observing them tripped them up"  

 

Preventing character development S3... I think that was intentional  Emily didn't realize half her problems would resolve themselves if she didn't force her scheme for this one perfect situation... and then it fell apart due to the one thing that kept signalling it was an issue.  Not to mention her continuous descent into Victoria's own footsteps, even having scenes screaming Emily and Daniel are being victoria and Conrad must have been.

Edited August 8, 2015 by manticoraus

[ShellSeeker]

I just worked my way through this on NetFlix. Good soapy fun, for the most part, but they should have ended it in Season 3. That would have been a great final scene for the series, with Emily walking away leaving Victoria in the institution.

Season 4 was over-the-top (and I get that it was a nighttime soap, so some of that is to be expected) but I thought bringing David back from the dead was too much. 

I wish they would have kept Nolan and Louise together somehow. I loved the 2 of them and their friendship. The whole thing with her being upset about him not wanting a baby, not wearing his wedding ring, etc did seem contrived. She herself admitted that they got married just to allow her to get back control of her money and escape her mother's clutches. So suddenly transforming into the jealous wife did not ring true. At least she came around in the end.

I cannot remember the last time I hated a character as much as Margaux. 

[ribboninthesky1]

I've recently rewatched (most of) the series via Hulu.  I remember watching most of season 1 way back when, losing interest, and sporadically watching episodes from seasons 3 and 4. I wanted to see if time and binge-watching would change my perception of the series.  And...not really.  I still think this show would have been better as a one-and-done mini-series vs a multi-season show, the show began to unravel after mid-season 1, Nolan was a child in a man's body, I wish Ashley and Emily could have been genuine friends, Emily had the best chemistry and connection with Aiden, and despite the show's best efforts, I never felt a whit of sympathy for Victoria.  The one thing that stood out during season 1 for me was the cinematography.  It was beautifully shot.  I guess the budget went south with the subsequent seasons.

[ByTor]

I loved season 1 when it was all about Hamptons gossip, parties, and women wearing enviable clothing.  I watched through to the end, but I lost interest with Emily and her secret ninja skills.