Revenge is back from winter break with steamy sex, a declaration of love and ZERO murders. Shockingly, no one dies in a freak yacht fire or at the hands of another socialite. Instead, “Bait” is all about the characters’ relationships. Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp) and Jack Porter (Nick Wechsler) struggle to connect due to their haunted past. We also see a new side of Emily’s relationship with cute cop, Ben (Brian Hallisay).
And that new side is 100% naked.
In “Bait,” we open to a sun-lit bedroom, where Emily and Ben engage in sexy, post-slumber party banter. Sex and a slumber party? That definitely puts a roadblock in Emily’s quest to kill the part of herself that wants love. Ben is careful not to use words like “us,” too much so Emily doesn’t throw up in her mouth.
In essence, Emily is allergic to love. She has survived thus far by clinging to her Count of Monte Cristo ideals. The Count from Alexandre Dumas’ novel, suffers greatly, surviving only by shutting off his emotions. In supernatural terms, e.g. if this were The Vampire Diaries, it’d be “flipping the humanity switch”–repressing all human emotion. And it works.
In order to shut down his emotions fully, The Count, and thus, Emily, follow basic rules: no friendships, dating, or any human emotion except what’s needed for battle. The Count has alliances, not friends; slaves, not wives. He stuffs down every human part of him and becomes a sociopathic revenge-machine. And that’s exactly what Emily does to survive.
And she has survived A LOT. Emily survived multiple attacks on her life while avenging her father’s death (only to find out he’s not dead, just a liar). And just before that revelation, her one true love, Aiden Mathis (Barry Sloane) dropped dead. Aiden was killed last season by Victoria Grayson (Madeleine Stowe). Victoria, a longtime enemy of well, everyone, poisoned his tea. Yup–that’s how you take down a trained assassin from Australia, with tea.
So with Aiden gone, Emily is merely a ghost of a girl she used to be. She’s become so good at repressing emotions that I wonder if she even likes Ben. The last time Emily was all cuddly and sweet with a non-assassin, he was a mere pawn in her revenge plot. In fact, hot cop, Ben, does have access to secret files Emily needs to take down the Graysons for good.
Is that why she slept with him? For intel? Or does Emily feel actual, human emotions for him? It’s hard to tell. Ben’s sweet but he doesn’t have the Jack Porter, I’ll-love-you-till-I-die look. But Ben does tell Emily he prefers sex to talking about the past, so they could be soul mates. We’ll see.
Many questions about Emily get answered in a brilliant scene with Jack. Although Jack and Emily never officially dated, they’ve loved each other since childhood. Jack, someone who has not turned his humanity off, is able to to love Emily openly, with all of his being. But Emily, who’s in survival-fuck-mode, cannot seem to feel anything real.
Emily’s inability to let herself feel, long after her original revenge plot has ended, really shows her true character. Jack put himself out there, declaring his love to Emily, but it’s just too late. We’ve watched Emily suffer in silence, loving Jack, knowing she couldn’t be with him.
Emily’s had to watch Jack go through life settling, dating all the wrong women, just waiting. Everything Jack does is just another way to kill time until Emily can finally love him back. But we’ve never seen Jack declare his love so boldly. And it’s heartbreaking to see Emily’s reaction.
Emily reminds Jack that (although sleeping with Ben) she still doesn’t date. “I can’t” she mutters through tears. Jack leaves, broken-hearted and Emily sobs like a child. Another rule broken, and the tears don’t stop.
Is she sad because she can’t love Jack? Or because she won’t?
After all, Jack’s been there with Emily since the very beginning. He knows her pain, know her secrets, and he won’t let her get away with fucking through the pain. And maybe that’s why Emily can never been with Jack–it’s too much of a reminder of everything she’s lost. As with Ben, he’s just another pretty face. A pretty face and a gun.
Poor Jack.