In continuing with the theme of the
last blog, I couldn’t help but think of ABC’s Revenge when trying to catalog contemporary television shows that
could be classified as working through mommy/daddy issues. This primetime soap is centered on the
premise of “father worship” as it’s the story of a daughter who spends the
majority of her young adult years trying to avenge the wrongful persecution and
death of a father she believes could do no wrong. As discussed in a previous essay, the Machiavellian-like
narrative (with loose post-9/11 themes) concerns a rich and powerful family,
the Graysons, who run in powerful political and corporate circles, and,
occasionally, consort with illegal underground organizations that rule over
both. The main character, Emily Thorne,
a.k.a. Amanda Clarke (Emily VanCamp), arrives in the Hamptons to position herself
among the elite, and this family, in the hopes of avenging her father’s death. Her father, David Clarke, had been the lover
of the matriarch of the main family – Victoria Grayson – and ultimately the
unwitting fall guy for a terrorist attack against an American flight.
Although I thoroughly enjoyed the
show in the first two seasons, suspension of disbelief became slightly harder
to muster up as the incredulous plotlines proliferated throughout the duration
of Emily’s revenge plans in later seasons.
However, there have always been enticing plots. Emily’s epic battles against Victoria (Madeleine
Stowe) have always been high quality drama and her co-conspiring banter with
her bff, Nolan Ross (Gabriel Mann), has been excellent comic relief. The “will they, won’t they” romantic subplot
between her and her childhood best friend, Jack Porter (Nick Weschler) has
always provided tender, sorrowful moments.
And Emily’s relationship with Daniel Grayson (Joshua Bowman), the
spoiled rich son of the power family, at various points was fascinating as it
was often hard to tell (at least in the beginning) where her real feelings for
Daniel ended and the where her manipulative plans to enter his family
began. When the show actually found her
marrying the son after a faked pregnancy, in the efforts to carry out an
elaborate scheme in which she would frame his mother for her murder, I was
sitting at the edge of my seat. And when
that plot ended with Daniel learning (most of) the truth about her and shooting
her in a drunken rage, sending her almost to the real iteration of the death
she was trying to stage, I was impressed with the melodramatic arch of this
show. And when that plot twist ended in
the Emily’s inability to have children, I almost teared up along with the main
character who had already lost all her other family because of the cruel
Graysons. And, not many episodes later,
when the show found her finally ready to move on and to abandon revenge to
embrace the happiness she had found with her once fiancé, Aiden, only to find
him strangled to death in her beach house (compliments of Victoria), I again
found myself wanting to weep along with the main character. I think Revenge
has given viewers the most tortured character on television since, perhaps, 24’s Jack Bauer.
But beneath all the far-fetched
plots and high-paced action, has always been the story of a distraught
daughter. The show has well utilized
flashback episodes of Amanda Clarke as a child living an almost idyllic life
with her single father: scenes of
father-daughter play on the beach, heartfelt conversations on their porch
swing, talks of the forever-nature of their love (one symbolically recorded in
various spots in the form of a double infinity mark: on their porch rail, on the wooden box that
houses all the secret proof that would launch Emily’s revenge plans, and
eventually on her own wrist as a tattoo that would serve to remind her of her
oath to avenge her father’s wrongs).
VanCamp has played the wounded daughter well. And this year she got to play this role in a
new way year when the show gave viewers a new twist to this damaged daughter
storyline, bringing David Clarke back from the dead.
At this point, I must admit, I
almost stopped watching the show. Sure,
I was anxious for the reunion of this father-daughter duo, but since his
unfathomable return also accompanied his illogical reunion with Victoria
Grayson, I found my patience with the program growing thin. And although I let episodes sit for a weeks on
my DVR, I eventually returned to the show and was glad that I did. It was heartbreaking to see that David’s
return from the dead wouldn’t bring about the end of Emily’s troubles or quests
for revenge or her seeming-battle-to-the-death with Victoria. (By the way, if read with some creativity,
Victoria – who arguably exists as an evil stepmother type figure for Emily –
and Emily’s relationship could be seen as a variation on the Electra complex).
The mid-season finale of the show
again highlighted its dedication to playing out father issues but – in this
case – not just Emily’s. A good amount
of the episode was devoted to Daniel Grayson who had recently learned that he
was to be a father to the child Margaux, his former girlfriend, was
carrying. When Margaux first informs him
that she wants him to have nothing to do with the baby because of his recent
infidelity and past unethical behavior which paralleled that of his father’s,
Daniel was sent down memory lane remembering the times that he had tried unsuccessfully
to break free of his father’s corrupting influence. The episode is framed with a voiceover of
Daniel reading a letter he wrote to his father around just this very theme and
for a few minutes it appears that Daniel is so distraught that he may commit
suicide. However, then Margaux calls and
asks him to come home, declaring that she and the baby need him. For a brief moment, it appears Daniel could
get his happily ever after away from his father’s legacy. But, sadly, he was not the product of just
one horrible parent, but two. [Spoiler
Alert]
The remainder of the episode had
been devoted to drama unfolding from yet another of Victoria’s plots to destroy
Emily. Victoria had put an assassin, Kate,
posing as an FBI agent, on the scent of Emily which culminated in a violent
fight at Emily’s mansion – one that sent Emily falling through a balcony rail
onto the marble foyer floor one story below.
Daniel, who had been contemplating his life history on the beach just
feet away, heard the commotion and headed into Emily’s house to investigate. When he sees Emily on the floor he moves
toward her. Emily immediately tells
Daniel to run, but he doesn’t, and he is met with two bullets to the chest from
Kate’s gun before Jack enters the scene to her down. (Not unimportantly, the shots from these
exchanges can be heard one house over where Victoria, who put these events in
action, is sipping wine with David).
As
Emily tries to comfort the dying Daniel, telling him that he’ll be alright, he
smiles feebly and quips that she is lying to him until the very end. In a reprise of a conversation from just a
few episodes prior – when Daniel had asked Emily if any part of their
relationship and her feelings for him were real – Emily leans over Daniel with
tears in her eyes and tells him that “it wasn’t all pretend,” referring to
their relationship, to which he responds, “I know,” just before he dies.
While
children do not usually bear the scars of their parents’ actions in quite so
dramatic a fashion as they do on Revenge,
this primetime soap provides viewers with a deliciously sad and hyperbolic
example of the ways that sons and daughters do get caught up living lives that
are plagued by the issues they inherit from their mothers and fathers. And while a lot of the subplots cause me to
roll my eyes, I look forward to the return of this show in a few weeks… and I
especially can’t wait to see the scene in which Victoria realizes that her own
actions led to her son’s death.
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