*SPOILER ALERT* How far are you willing to go for revenge? When someone ruins not only your life but is also responsible for the death of the person you most care about, could you ever forgive them? ABC’s new hit show Revenge follows the complicated plans of a young woman who won’t stop until she gets even with the people who ruined her life.
As a child, Amanda Clarke spent her summers living on a beachfront property in the Hamptons with her dad, David Clarke. One night a SWAT team invaded their quiet home and arrested her father for laundering money to the terrorists responsible for 9/11. David Clarke ended up convicted of the crime and later died in jail. Ten-year-old Amanda was left in the hands of psychiatrists who decided that because she believed her father was innocent, she needed to be institutionalized. Upon her release years later, she received a box that contained all the evidence her father collected to prove his innocence. David Clarke had been set up by everyone he trusted. Amanda vowed to avenge her father’s death and destroy the lives of everyone who destroyed hers. She switched names with Emily Thorne and returned to the Hamptons house she shared with her father.
It’s there that she meets her very powerful neighbors, the Graysons, who were the people mainly responsible for her father’s conviction. Conrad Grayson’s company had laundered money to the terrorists. Conrad realized he needed to pin his crimes on someone else in order to save himself and his family. His wife, Victoria Grayson, had been having an affair with Clarke, and despite her love for him, she helped her husband frame him. In order to get close to the Grayson’s inner circle, Emily decides to date their son, Daniel Grayson. Emily had trained herself to not get emotionally attached, but after just a few short months she accepts Daniel’s marriage proposal. Daniel does not know the true identity of his fiancée, nor does he know what she has been doing behind his back. During the time they have been dating, Emily has been secretly ruining the lives of the people the Graysons had bribed to condemn her father.
She started with Bill Harmon, a trusted family friend who testified against her father, and took away what she knew he cared about most: money. With the help of ally Nolan Ross, she tricked Harmon into thinking he should invest all his stock into a company that was actually going bankrupt. In the next episode, Emily destroys Tom Kingsley, the prosecutor responsible for convicting her father in order to win an election. Emily blackmails the senator and causes him to forgo reelection and lose his career. Then Emily moves on to Dr. Michelle Banks, a psychiatrist responsible for institutionalizing her as a little girl in exchange for an upscale client list from Victoria. Emily turns Victoria against the doctor, and Victoria ruins the doctor’s reputation and puts her out of work. And finally Emily burns down the house of the author who became famous after publishing a book of lies about her father.
But of course trying to coordinate so many people into one plan creates problems. For instance, when the fake Amanda Clarke (the real Emily Thorne) decides to pay a visit to the Hamptons, she causes complications for Emily. Fake Amanda starts dating the real Amanda Clarke’s childhood crush, Jack Porter. Jack thinks about Amanda all the time since she left 17 years ago, and he’s thrilled to be dating a woman he believes is actually Amanda. In later episodes when Jack gets suspicious that there is more to the situation than meets the eye, he ends up getting too involved. He reveals Victoria’s affair with David Clarke to the entire Grayson family and even lets them know that Clarke is Charlotte Grayson’s biological father. By calling out Victoria, he puts a large target on his back.
That, in a nutshell, is Revenge. Now that you’re all caught up, be sure to tune into ABC tonight at 9 p.m. and find out exactly how far Emily will go to avenge her father’s death.