REVENGE: HOW ABOUT SOME ACTUAL RETALIATION THIS TIME?

The Count of Monte Cristo was my second favorite book as a child (I had tough childhood, alright), so the whole idea of  vengeance really speak to me. Last season though, what Revenge (ABC) was lacking was the actual revenge. Emily/Amanda could not even finish her father's murderer, which to me looked pathetic. No, I understand it's soap and that the creators are afraid that part of the audience would get upset if Emily (I'll go with calling her Emily) crossed this line. Plus, they would then need to invent another evil-evil-evil person to do everything they prepared for the white-haired-man in season 2.

I also think starting every episode with little Amanda yelling "Daddyyyy!" is extremely annoying. But overall this series was above average, Emily VanCamp is squinting eyes very convincingly and Madeleine Stowe is great at giving fake smiles.

So the creators decided to use a template from the last season and start the first episode of season 2 with Jack's boat, "Amanda", sunk with a dead men's body in it on Labor Day (again), only to continue with narration of the events that happened three months before that. We then see Emily provoking a near death experience, under the watch of Takeda, the Japanese who shot Tyler, and a new British guy, in order to recover some memories about her mother, who might be still alive. I am actually worried about how they're trying to make Emily look superhuman, it makes the story less believable (haha).

So, as a result of this self torture, Emily remembers how she visited her mom in a hospital with a statue of an angel in front of it. She's close to dying but the Britt takes her out of the water just in time.

In a meanwhile we learn that Daniel is grieving over his dead mother and thus drinking all day long. His father wants him to move his funds from the trust to the company, but Daniel hesitates and later declines.

Charlotte is in a rehab and she expresses a wish to attend the auction on Memorial day (again) dedicated to the late Victoria Grayson. She seems focused and overall reborn.

Jack is with Amanda, who's now heavily pregnant and is said to deliver in four weeks, and he's deeply depressed. Later Emily hints that the baby Amanda's expecting might not be Jack's and he cheerfully embraces this suggestion, so Amanda says she'll make an appointment for the DNA test.

On a way to the Hamptons, Emily picks up Nolan Ross from his boxing section. Nolan was my favorite character in the show, now with slightly changed hairstyle and the whole boxing thing, he reminds me of Dolph Lundgren.

He apparently sold his summer house and now wants to stay at Emily's, which she's not thrilled about, but anyway lets him.

Together with Nolan Emily visits an abandoned hospital where her mother was treated. We learn that there was a record of a mental illness in Emily's family, so no wonder she turned out to be this kind of a psycho. We also learn that Victoria visited Emily's mom in this hospital at some point.

Emily visits Charlotte in a rehab and learns that Daniel and Ashley are now together, so she appears fully prepared (i.e. looking gorgeous) at the auction that Ashley, who's trying to take Victoria's place, hosts.

Ashley says a couple of words about Victoria (the speech was hardly inspirational), but then Charlotte takes a word and as she says that she (Charlotte) is a new person now, a phone of her "rehab controller" rings  and he then says Charlotte's blood tests returned positive results on the drugs use.

Charlotte freaks out and yells that the results are fake and whispers something to Emily's ear. From the further development we understand that Charlotte's father tried to get to her part of heritage from Victoria, that's why he wants her locked in a rehab.

And here we come to an obvious turn...Victoria is alive! (Tadadaaa!). Emily finds her hiding in a house off the beaten track (Charlotte told her).

Of course, it would have been stupid to think that the main antagonist of the show and its best actress would disappear like that. So hardly anyone believed she actually died in that plane crash, the question was only how she survived it.

Victoria says that Feds are the ones hiding her to compile a case against her husband, but as Emily with Nolan's help installs a camera in Victoria's place, turns out that she actually has a deal with the white-haired-man, whom he now tells to eliminate Emily.

The questions:
Whose dead body we see in the beginning? All details point to Jack, so it means it's definitely not Jack!
Who's the Britt (maybe, he's the one that dies on the Labor Day)?
Is Emily's mom alive?
For how long Victoria will be hiding?
Is baby really Jack's? If not, how Amanda sabotages the DNA test?

I believe the episode was pretty fine, and in comparison with all the new series that turn out to be a pure crap, it's a really good watch.

Score: 9/10