Revenge 4.20 “Burn”

This week in The Hamptons, fires, explosions and retaliation eviscerate everything in Queen Victoria’s wake. Convinced that Amanda Clarke (Emily VanCamp) is gaslighting her, Victoria Grayson (Madeleine Stowe) goes crazy. (Like, steal-a-cop’s-gun crazy). In one of the most shocking moments in Revenge history, Victoria Grayson blows herself the f@&! up.

What’s really unnerving about Victoria’s death is how methodically she turns on the actual gas light and sets fire to her former home. Once the mansion is filled with poisonous gas, Victoria flicks the lighter, watching the epic blast with a sociopathic stillness. Victoria dies (or does she?) as Amanda’s mansion suffers volcanic detonation that would make Michael Bay proud.

Watching Grayson Manor go up in flames isn’t as epic as The White House getting blown up in an action flick, but it’s pretty damn cool. The Manor represents all the evil the Grayson’s have inflicted over the years, hearkening to all the lives lost in this brutal battle between the Graysons and Clarkes.

The mansion exploding also awakens images of the 9/11-style attack the Grayson’s funded, the impetus for the war between the two houses. Or perhaps since a Grayson just burned down Amanda’s house, it symbolizes everything Amanda’s lost at the hands of the Grayson’s. At this point, Amanda has lost both her true loves, Aiden and Jack, her gay BFF, Nolan and her actual boyfriend, Ben. Whatever deeper meaning can be found in the destruction of Grayson Manor, what important fact remains …

Victoria Grayson is dead.

Even though Victoria has continuously exhibited signs of severe depression, her suicide still shocked me. The show has so many murders, one forgets suicide is a viable option. But it makes sense in light of her dark and twisted past. Even before the death of her husband and son, Victoria struggled with mental health issues due to childhood trauma. Victoria was quite young when her mother forced her to kill a man and take the blame. She was locked away in a psych ward, the very setting where she would later meet ginger sociopath, Louise Ellis (Elena Satine).

Yet before Victoria torches the place, we get to see the key players in Amanda Clarke’s life doing some burning of their own. In just one episode Amanda loses everyone close to her at the hands of her addiction to revenge. Amanda has finally avenged her father’s wrongful imprisonment and destroyed the Graysons for good, but that doesn’t mean she has her humanity back. “There are no battles left to fight,” Amanda tells her father, David. Yet, that’s just because Amanda doesn’t know her father’s latest secret.

As it turns out, Daddy Clarke (James Tupper) has cancer and ends the show getting chemo–alone. This will not bode well when Amanda finds out. Not only does her father lie to her face, Jack hops on a plan to Los Angeles without saying goodbye. That’s right, Jack and the collagen-filled lips of Stevie Grayson (Gail O’Grady) are taking baby Carl out of The Hamptons … forever!

What will Amanda do without Nolan, Jack and Ben? Well as long as we’re still following the plot of The Count of Monte Cristo, Amanda’s on track to a life of happiness. In Alexandre Dumas’ novel, The Count, on which the show is loosely based, a wrongfully imprisoned man breaks free and assumes a new life, a better life.

And much like The Count, Amanda Clarke sheds her false identity after exacting her revenge. Unlike the Hollywood version, the real Count drops his alter ego and moves to an island with his true love (Haitian slave if we’re being accurate). In Revenge, Amanda plays both the role of The Count’s daughter (exacting revenge in his honor) and the role of The Count, exacting her own revenge by stripping away her humanity and amassing great wealth to combat life-long enemies.

So with that dual role, it’s hard to see where Amanda’s going from here. If she follows closely in The Count’s footsteps, her next move is to find her true love and move to a private island. The Count is told as a cautionary tale against revenge but … ending up with a private island, unlimited wealth and your true love? That sounds more like glorification than caution. But it’s too soon to tell if revenge will be glorious for Amanda.

Even though this episode is packed with non-stop action, there’s still plenty of witty repartee. This episode has some great one-liners offered up by the now divorced, Louise Ellis and Nolan Ross (Gabriel Mann).

“You’re more depressing than a Yankee groom at a Southern wedding” – Louise Ellis

“Things have gotten Harry … as in S. Truman” – Nolan Ross

This humor lightens the mood amidst all the bloodshed and death. In the end, we’re left in the dark. How will Amanda survive Victoria’s final move? Will Victoria’s suicide be ruled a murder at the hands of Amanda?

Find out next time with “Aftermath.”