Happy Throwback Thursday! Today I’m recapping the finale of ABC’s drama Revenge, a series that I just finished binging from beginning to end in about 3 weeks. I really enjoyed the finale - I thought it was a fitting end to the series and had just enough twists to make it not all cheesy and fluffy. It also felt like they wrote in an option for a spin-off starring Nolan, but I guess that never happened.
As a reminder: When she was a young girl, Amanda Clarke’s dad was wrongfully imprisoned for acts of terrorism. He died in prison and Amanda devoted her life to taking down the people who framed him. Along the way, she [MAJOR SPOILERS, OBVIOUSLY] went to Juvie, switched identities with a girl named Emily Thorne, got married, found out her dad was actually alive, lost a fiancee, discovered she had a sister, reunited with the boy next door from her childhood, and had all around great dresses.
In the finale, we hear different variations on the theme that people aren’t born bad, it’s the choices that make that define them. We hear that about five different times said by almost every character on the show. Obviously, it’s time for Amanda to reconcile with all the destruction she’s caused in her little quest.
Amanda - who has straight hair for this last episode, so you know she’s serious - is on trial for killing Victoria Grayson. Which is funny since we just learned that Victoria is very much alive and simply passed off her mother’s body as her own when she burned her old house down.
I honestly didn’t expect the show to go this dark when I started watching it in season one.
Amanda surprises everyone by confessing to Victoria’s murder. Everyone except Nolan, of course, who is always perfectly in sync with Amanda and gets to work on helping her escape from the max security prison she’ll soon be escorted to.
She’s not there for 12 hours before Nolan shorts out the power of the prison and Amanda slips out the air vents. Of course, in keeping with tradition, Nolan is there to greet her at the prison door. And Jack is there too!
The three people - one of whom, remember, just escaped from prison - casually hang out in front of the prison. Nolan drops a great line about how Amanda is “Miss America’s Most Wanted,” and the trio discuss their plans to take down Victoria.
Also discussing Victoria is Louise, the girl with the worst southern accent you’ve ever heard, at Victoria’s very low-attended funeral. Victoria herself is in attendance in the back row, scoping out the fact that her children did not show up. She suddenly is very compelled to accept Louise as her own daughter.
Somehow the team figures out where Victoria has been hanging out - Victoria’s mom’s house - and go there to see what clues they can pick up. Which I guess Jack and Amanda seem to think is the perfect environment to finally give into their love, as he puts the moves on her immediately.
Which I’m fine with, since we’ve been waiting on this for four seasons.
They have a heart to heart and admit what they’ve always felt for each other, then they finally kiss. And then make out… And then, of course, he takes his shirt off. And…. Wow, this escalated quickly. I think they slept together in Victoria’s mom’s bed.
That’s pretty twisted.
In the morning, Jack runs off to get breakfast and Amanda checks in with Nolan, who has realized that the assassin who killed Ben is still out there and headed for the house. They call the cops but they’re too late - Jack was stabbed.
Amanda shows more emotion than she’s allowed herself to show in four years when she cries at his bedside, “Please don’t leave me, I need you.” Beside them, Nolan does his patented one-tear cry, which is a thing I have seen actors do in person and I still don’t understand how its possible.
The Wonder Twins swear that they are going to take Victoria and Margot down if it’s the last thing they do. Nolan carries out his end of the promise by hacking Margot’s computer, listing her crimes, and confronting her about the person she’s become.
Margot says she never meant for it to get this out of control - I think every character could say that at this point - and she did everything in Daniel’s name. She tells Nolan that they’re the same - everything they did was out of loyalty to the people they love.
It’s Nolan’s turn to say that it's our decisions that define us and encourages Margot to join team anti-Victoria. She does so and helps him put Ben’s killer behind bars as a show of good faith.
And can I just say… If we make it to the very end of this show without a HUGE recognition from Amanda as to how amazing Nolan Ross has been to her HIS ENTIRE LIFE, then I’ll be ticked.
Back at the hospital, Jack wakes up to David at his bedside. Which is apparently the perfect opportunity to ask for his approval. “When this is all over, I want to marry your daughter. I was hoping to have your blessing,” he says.
GOOD. Enough waiting, we know where this is going! Let’s get some rings on those fingers so you can live happily ever after!
Honestly, out of everyone on this show, Jack and Charlotte have been through the most unbelievable pain. They deserve happiness.
David gives his approval. Which means Jack is going to marry Amanda Clarke twice in his lifetime.
Meanwhile, the future Mrs. Jack Porter has found Victoria with Margot and Louise’s help and is out for blood. Straight-hair Amanda pulls out a gun and raises it on Victoria. The Grayson matriarch points out all the cameras in the room, but Amanda seems to be past the point of caring.
This is a great scene between the two women, but just sad and tired and angry that it’s come this far. “I died long before you were born,” Victoria says, urging Amanda on. “This is just a formality.”
Amanda goes to pull the trigger and… Wait, what? Her dad shows up and shoots Victoria instead! When Amanda is confused, he explains that he was saving her soul by preventing her from committing murder. Okay, I get that, he’s dying anyway, he may as well take on that burden. AND THEN OH MY GOSH VICTORIA SHOOTS AMANDA.
WAIT, WHAT?!?!
The camera zooms out above Amanda and Victoria, laying side by side in black and white clothes, slowly bleeding out.
Cut to Amanda at her dad’s double infinity-engraved gravestone. We learn that he went to jail for Victoria’s murder but was granted “compassionate release.” Father and daughter got to spend a year together before he passed away. And in his dying breath, he told Amanda that he loves her “infinity times infinity.”
Aww, that’s sweet. He even fixed the porch handrail so she could always have that carving.
Amanda does a voiceover that quotes her very first voiceover in the pilot. “Upon embarking upon a path of revenge, Confucius warns that you should dig two graves.” She says that he was right and she was only saved from her grave by her father’s infinite love. All things considered, that’s true.
As we see Amanda dressing for her wedding day, we see a giant surgery scar down her chest. Nolan helps her get ready and they finally have a heart to heart about how much they care about each other. Nolan is worried that he won’t have a purpose now that their revenge quest is over and Amanda just smiles and says that he’ll find a new purpose. Hmm…
Nolan walks her down the aisle - AS HE SHOULD - and she marries Jack and it’s really beautiful. They kiss and Nolan cries and it’s perfect. At the wedding reception, Jack toasts literally everyone who has died, including Declan, Aiden, Ben, Emily, and David. But screw the Graysons I guess since none of them - not even poor Daniel who really got the raw end of the deal - get a shout out. Y’all, Charlotte is sitting RIGHT THERE.
Everyone is happy and smiling and Amanda is giving Jack a new dog and then suddenly THEY CUT TO HER IN A HOSPITAL BED.
WAIT A MINUTE.
THE WHOLE THING WAS A DREAM?!? SHE’S IN A COMA?
WAIT, WHAT?? SHE NEEDED A HEART DONOR, SO THEY PUT VICTORIA’S HEART IN HER CHEST? YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING M - oh wait, never mind, that was all a nightmare.
Oh my gosh, can you imagine?!?
Amanda wakes up on the boat she and Jack are using to sail off into the sunset, happily in love.
The story is all wrapped up but then… We see Nolan, alone once more, staring at the bar, trying to figure out what to do next… And a guy walks up with a paper, saying Amanda Clarke says he’s the guy to see. You see, his mom’s been falsely accused, and he needs help to get revenge.
“Well played, Ems,” Nolan smiles.
