Mark's Remarks #002 - Readers' Picks - Revenge Season 4

After five days of voting, here are the scenes that you have voted as the Top 10 scenes of Revenge’s fourth season. If you’re curious about how the other scenes fared, you can see the results here.

• 
  
  SCENE #10 (88 Votes / 2.8%)
  
  4.21 "Aftermath" - Ding Dong, the bitch is dead
  

  When Nolan and Emily are in a room, they’re usually scheming, hatching a plan and honing the red sharpie, so it’s nice seeing them talk about their love lives and a life without revenge for a change. While these two might have been brought together by the revengenda, they have come to genuinely care for each other. Their friendship was one of the most wonderful aspects of the show and it’s what I’m gonna miss the most about Revenge.

  
  
• 
  
  SCENE #09 (91 Votes / 2.9%)
  
  4.04 "Meteor" - When asked to identify the perpetrator, Emily discovers David is one of the suspects
  

  What a brutal way for Emily to find out that her father has never died and has been alive this entire time. Emily VanCamp knocked it out of the park with her acting, from the subtle display of shock that it couldn’t possibly be David to the slow realization that it is in fact her father, you could feel every emotion Emily was feeling in that moment. It remains one of the most memorable moments of the show and I’m surprised it didn’t place higher than #9.

  
  
• 
  
  SCENE #08 (103 Votes / 3.3%)
  
  4.20 "Burn" - Mason returns / Victoria commits suicide
  

  I’ve always been a big fan of Mason, so I was glad they brought him for the last few episodes. He just has this smugly complacent quality about him that I find very entertaining to watch. And then, there’s Victoria committing suicide, or so we were led to believe. Upon rewatching the scene, I noticed a small detail that should have been a dead giveaway it was all a ruse.
  
  Most of the scene functions as a build-up to Victoria's final act: She's on the balcony to enjoy the view one last time, she walks around the manor and looks nostalgically around her, she turns on the fireplace and floods the manor with gas and takes a seat on her throne. And here is where Ken Fink, the director, got sneaky: We see a close-up of Victoria holding a lighter but when the camera pans out, we only see her arm and then the manor blows up. We never actually see her use the lighter because she never did - at least not while she was inside her former home. I have a new appreciation for this scene because of crafty it was directed and how it completely fooled me.

  
  
• 
  
  SCENE #07 (114 Votes / 3.6%)
  
  4.07 "Ambush" - Daniel and Emily in the elevator
  

  Emily and Daniel have chemistry, that’s undeniable. The scene showcasts that natural chemistry and how easily they play off of each other. But all the chemistry in the world can’t change the fact that these two characters were both taken on different trajectories that made it impossible for them to be a couple. There’s too much blood spilled between them but even with that history, they still care about each other enough not to go after the other one and simply leave each other alone. Also, Emily putting on her “Bitch, please.” face every time Daniel would start talking to her was priceless.

  
  
• 
  
  SCENE #06 (137 Votes / 4.3%)
  
  4.23 "Two Graves" - Jack and Amanda sail off into the sunset / Nolan receives Amanda’s parting gift
  

  This is it, the ending, the last we’ll ever see of Revenge. I’m happy Amanda got her happy ending but I personally found it a tad too happy, so I’m glad it was infused with a little darkness with Amanda’s recurring nightmare about having Victoria’s heart inside her. And while I understand the sentiment behind Amanda’s gift to Nolan, I’m disappointed Nolan didn’t find happiness in something other than revenge. After being crossed by all his love interests (except Tony), he deserves someone special in his life.

  
  
• 
  
  SCENE #05 (143 Votes / 4.5%)
  
  4.18 "Clarity" - Emily clears Daniel’s name and reveals her real identity
  

  When Margaux lost her child, Emily decided that it was time to clear Daniel’s name and it was probably one of the hardest things she ever had to do it. I don’t think she could have done it with Jack being there. Both actors did a great job displaying the different emotions they were going through in this moment. The world finding out about Emily’s real identity has been a long coming and I wasn’t disappointed when it did.

  
  
• 
  
  SCENE #04 (153 Votes / 4.8%)
  
  4.07 "Ambush" - Emily tells David who she really is
  

  What I’ve been waiting for since David was revealed to be alive in the Season 3 finale was this moment, when Emily would tell him who she really is. It was emotional, it was heartbreaking, it was devastating. The way Emily’s voice cracked when she uttered "You could have come for me" was incredibly saddening. But of course Victoria has to ruin the moment by being electrocuted. Damnit V, couldn’t you have waited for like two more minutes?

  
  
• 
  
  SCENE #03 (183 Votes / 5.8%)
  
  4.23 "Two Graves" - David shoots Victoria who shoots Amanda in retaliation
  

  One of the most entertaining aspects of the show was the verbal sparring between Emily and Victoria during the early seasons. The fake politeness and subtle punches they were throwing at each other were a delight to watch but there was nothing subtle about this last confrontation: Emily was out for blood and she was willing to spill it, even it she had to pull the trigger herself. Revenge always made it a point that Emily isn’t a killer but if Emily were to cross that line, we all know it would have been for Victoria. But David being the one to kill Victoria was a full circle moment: Emily sacrificed her entire life for her father, David sacrificed the rest of his for his daughter.

  
  
• 
  
  SCENE #02 (195 Votes / 6.2%)
  
  4.10 "Atonement" - Daniel’s death
  

  I was saddened to see Daniel go. The character work on him has been really great in Season 4, especially once he found out about Emily’s secret. His road to redemption was bumpy and one that ended in death but at least he went out on a high note instead of aimlessly being part of the show. Emily and Daniel’s last moments were subtle but effective, one last banter and Emily assuring him she did in fact love him. R.I.P. Daniel Grayson, you made a lot of shitty decisions but died with your heart in the right place.
  

  
  
• 
  
  SCENE #01 (209 Votes / 6.6%)
  
  4.23 "Two Graves" - Jack and Amanda get married / Jack makes a toast / Amanda gives Jack a puppy
  

  Amanda finally gets the happy ending she thought was out of her reach. It was a little too clean and tidy for my taste, even the show acknowledges that by having Emily say she considers herself lucky and that morality tales don’t usually have a happy ending. But nonetheless, I’m glad she’s at a good place in her life and not six feet under like many (myself included) expected her to be. Jack’s toast was a nice tribute to all the casualties and lastly, Jack gets a new puppy which might be the reason why I found this scene too cutesy.

  
  

Thank you for reading and participating in the first Readers’ Picks. What do you think about the results? Any surprises or scenes you think should have made it? Let me know in the comment below!

• 
  
  MY OTHER REMARKS
  
  PREVIOUS REMARKS
  #001 Episodes Ranked - Under the Dome
  #002 Readers' Picks - Revenge Season 4
  
  
  UPCOMING REMARKS
  Season Review 2015/16 - February
  
  Reader’s Picks - Grey’s Anatomy Season 12 - June
  Reader’s Picks - Nashville Season 4 - June
  
  Summer Review 2016 - July
  
  Wishlist Spring ‘16 - April
  Wishlist Summer ‘16 - July
  Wishlist Fall ‘16 - October
  
  Ranking the New Shows of 2016 - December
  Top 20 Returning Shows of 2016 - December
  
  

About the Author - Mark A. Ondo

21 y/o Austrian. Music lover, avid TV watcher, cheesecake muncher and pseudo writer. His taste in television is as eclectic as it gets and he dedicates more time to fictional characters than he would like to admit. He currently reviews Nashville and Last Man On Earth, writes about various shows in Mark's Remarks and creates Best-Scene Polls for Grey's Anatomy.

Most recently posted (All Articles)