Revenge is the one show I watch IMMEDIATELY, without fail, once it’s DVR’d.  (I hate commercials.)  I think the show works especially well because the main character—well, heck, ALL of the characters are fatally flawed in some way.  NO ONE is a goody-two-shoes, and everyone has their price.  The general plot of Revenge is based on the classic novel The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas (which Louise pointed out a few weeks ago), which is cool because most successful book-to-screen stories these days seem to center around vampires or angsty teens.

 

But back to the main character, Emily Thorne/Amanda Clarke.  Can we say “Daddy issues”?  Emily has made it her mission in life to exact “Revenge” on every single person who had even the slightest hand in setting her dear old dad up to take the fall for the bombing of Flight 197.  

Emily is so tragic, and at the same time, so incredibly loveable, that you just have to root for her, even when she’s ruining people’s lives, relationships, businesses, financial statuses, and reputations left and right.  Emily VanCamp’s a great actress (I was so excited to see her in the Captain America movie!), and I love watching the episodes where she unravels, only to pull herself up and vow to work even harder to complete her dastardly plans.

 

Every angry woman needs an archnemesis.  Enter Victoria Grayson, queen of the Hamptons, matriarch of the Grayson family, villainess extraordinaire.  She is one baaaaad mama jama.  And who doesn’t love Madeline Stowe?  They totally got me when she blew up Grayson Manor with herself inside.  I did not see it coming that she faked her death.  Duh.

Queen Vicky's throne caused quite a stir in the furniture industry.  I've seen copies of this chair in every furniture store I've been to in the last two years.  AND they found it and brought it back for her to (supposedly) sit in when she blew up the house--using HER OWN MOTHER'S CORPSE as her body double!

 

At the beginning of the whole mess, when Emily sinks her claws into Victoria’s son, Daniel, Mama Grayson is not having it.  Victoria is smart and cunning, and she’s the one person who has been able to see through Emily from the start.  However, it’s taken her until the end of Season 3 to figure out Emily is actually Amanda Clarke.  Too bad Emily had Victoria locked up in a mental institution before she could tell anyone.  Too bad Emily didn’t lock Victoria up before she had the chance to kill Emily’s boyfriend, Aiden.  I loved Aiden.  The show wasn't the same without him.

 

 

The leads are important, but every character on the show is fascinating in his or her own way.  Jack is the resident “good guy” (and Emily’s ultimate love interest), but we’ve seen on more than one occasion that he will bend the law to help out his friends.  I was happy to see Jack and Emily get together in the finale, but I would have loved for them to have more time to build it up.  There was too much other action that took away from the time for the bedroom action!

Did anyone else cry when Emily gave Jack a puppy who looked just like Sammy at their wedding?!?

 

Nolan is basically Bill Gates, and he’s a wicked good hacker to boot.  He’s beside Emily no matter what—a true BFF.  And I LOVED the addition of Nolan's fake wife, Louise.  

 

 

She was a lovely Southern lady, if a little touched in the head.  She loved fiercely, and only wanted love in return.  She did the right thing in the end, leading Emily to the death-faking Victoria.  But back to Nolan, ABC is planning a possible spinoff called Kingmakers, and I'm wondering if, given the cliffhanger of Nolan meeting a new "Emily Thorne" at the end, he will be in it.  Fingers crossed!

 

The rest of the Grayson family:  Conrad, Daniel, and Charlotte, are all nuts/ruthless/tragic/loveable.  Too bad all of them are dead.  (Well, except Charlotte, who wasn't a Grayson in the first place.)  I really thought (hoped) they were going to resurrect Conrad at the end, because, while we saw him bleed out on the road, did we *really* see him die?  I'm still holding out.  Heck, sometimes I found myself rooting for Conrad, even though he was the one responsible for Flight 197!  And the show was never the same without Daniel.  His death created a huge void for me.

This shot is obviously a promo joke, but it's so against character, I had to put it in here.

 

And speaking of dying, did they HAVE to kill Ben, Emily's latest love/the only detective on the island?!?  And did Courtney Love have to do it?!?  WTH?

 

At least they killed Victoria.  It was about time.  I was happy that David did it and not Emily, because they were going to kill him off with the cancer, so might as well have him go down swinging.  He was dead at the beginning of the series anyway.

 

In the end, who was the real "winner" of the whole revenge scheme?  Margaux!  That's right.  She was one angry lady after Emily covered up Daniel's real killer, plus, if she hadn't gotten so crazy during an argument with Emily, she wouldn't have stepped out into the street, got run over, and lost her baby.  She wanted to take Emily down so bad, but in the end, she admitted her wrongs and turned herself in, ready to take her punishment like a boss.  I never really liked Margaux until the final episode.