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" A juicy, unexpected death is always one of the best twists a show can pull. That said, it&amp;#039;s also one of the riskiest - and not just in terms of losing a potentially huge personality. I don&amp;#039;t suppose many viewers will mourn Revenge&amp;#039;s Amanda for too long, but her passing left a lot of things up in the air. Would the show be able to keep up the momentum and keep things interesting? Well, yes. Mostly. The beginning of the episode in particular was damn good - Emily&amp;#039;s traditional voiceover was tinged with bitterness and ire, and when you hear her murmuring about retribution, it&amp;#039;s easy to think that the residents of the Hamptons should start looking over their shoulders a little more.  It was thrilling, too, when we see Emily at the beginning of the instalment, because it seems that Amanda&amp;#039;s death is the one thing that will make her lose control. For a moment, it&amp;#039;s unclear what the hell she&amp;#039;s capable of because for once, her emotions are taking over. The terror of the unknown is right there in Nolan&amp;#039;s face as he begs her to pause for a moment, only for her to turn and growl that she&amp;#039;s covered in the blood of one of the only people she&amp;#039;s ever loved. Perhaps the shaking hands covered in blood scream Lady Macbeth a little too obviously, but that&amp;#039;s easy to forgive when Emily VanCamp is giving us all of the emotions. She&amp;#039;s brandishing guns and threatening the Graysons and you just want her to go through with it, though of course she&amp;#039;s able to hold herself back - mostly when she rediscovers Amanda&amp;#039;s locket, complete with an old photo of the &amp;#039;sisters&amp;#039; together, and she breaks down. But while this opening sequence is by far the highlight of the episode - not much could stand up to that - I&amp;#039;m pleased that Emily&amp;#039;s emotions are constantly bubbling underneath the surface throughout. They&amp;#039;re there when Charlotte thanks Emily for being such a good friend to Amanda, and her guilt is impossible to hide. They&amp;#039;re there when Aiden grabs Emily and kisses her and hugs her to calm her down. They&amp;#039;re there in her stunning eulogy, filled with double meanings about the &amp;quot;identity&amp;quot; Amanda adopted. And they&amp;#039;re there when Emily, her hands back on the computer of Grayson-damning-evidence, throws the laptop into the sea in a vow to go back to basics.  Yes, this seems like a symbolic moment not only for Emily, but for the show. Many viewers seem to have complained about the over-complicated Initiative storyline, and the fact that Emily has strayed from her original intentions in terms of getting revenge on the Graysons. But this episode appears to be the writers telling us that things may be about to change, as Emily wonders to herself how she could have strayed so far and talks about how she no longer needs the laptop because it just clouded her judgement. &amp;quot;No more distractions.&amp;quot; Of course, the Initiative hasn&amp;#039;t gone just yet, and indeed this is probably the least interesting part of the episode. I don&amp;#039;t care too much for the Graysons&amp;#039; troubles with new Initiative figurehead Trask, nor for Aiden&amp;#039;s ascension to the Grayson Global board, nor for Nolan finally handing over Carrion to Padma after confirming that the old finger-in-a-box did indeed belong to her father (yeugh). I did quite enjoy Daniel&amp;#039;s success in getting rid of the bug in his office by asking for the clock it was hidden in to be fixed, but that was mostly just a slight amusement. It doesn&amp;#039;t seem we&amp;#039;re going to be losing these aspects of the show for some time, but luckily it didn&amp;#039;t seem to take up much space this time around - and even the Graysons&amp;#039; attempts to rid themselves of blame for Helen&amp;#039;s death play into the more interesting segment as the search is on for the laptop.  Emily only gets her hands on it via Jack, who&amp;#039;s on a revenge mission of his own. Jack&amp;#039;s never had an awful lot to do in Revenge - he&amp;#039;s been a convenient plot device, or a way to let us into Emily&amp;#039;s emotional, human side. But in this episode he came into his own following Amanda&amp;#039;s death, vowing to avenge her and complete her fight against the Graysons (well, he doesn&amp;#039;t know everything). Nick Wechsler&amp;#039;s actually really great in this instalment - it&amp;#039;s hard not to get stinging eyes when Jack hears of Amanda&amp;#039;s death, but even more affecting scenes come when he&amp;#039;s back home and worries that he never really knew Amanda at all. He&amp;#039;s clearly conflicted, but his anger actually helps move on the plot as well, as smashing the couple&amp;#039;s beautiful glass of meaningful stones reveals a key to a locker - which just happens to hold the laptop and Amanda&amp;#039;s personal effects. In other words, Jack finds out that Emily actually knows Amanda a lot better than she&amp;#039;s been letting on - and he&amp;#039;s furious with her. This is another moment at which Emily&amp;#039;s feelings are all too clear, as she&amp;#039;s desperate to tell him the truth about herself (for a moment, honestly, I wondered if this would be the moment that Jack would find out). And after all, Jack is the love of her life. Seeing him hurt cuts her to the bone, and he reignites all her feelings of guilt when he asks why she didn&amp;#039;t try to deter Amanda from her revenge mission.  I honestly don&amp;#039;t know how Jack&amp;#039;s going to deal with the revelations of this episode, and how things will move forward from here. But in case we were in any doubt that Revenge knows how to keep us interested, we end on something of a cliffhanger. Charlotte, feeling bad that Amanda has no-one outside the Hamptons at her funeral, is on a mission to track down her foster family. But Emily knows nothing of this, so it must be something of a shock that - as she grieves for her &amp;#039;sister&amp;#039; in the lashing rain - her foster brother is now in Montauk. Boy, is this going to get complicated... Thorney Moments    I know Jack was very determined and all, but I find it kind of hard to believe that he was up and about so soon after being shot and almost killed...   Is Ashley starting to have scruples about her job? I seriously doubt it given what she&amp;#039;s done in the past, but that could be interesting.   Emily watching Victoria hug Charlotte post-identifying-Amanda and her disgusted head-shake was great.   I&amp;#039;m so confused about whose side Daniel is on from week to week, and I kind of like it.   Jack asking to speak to Conrad alone, sitting up with ANGRY EYES as the music swelled, was ridiculous in the best way.   Also, Jack standing next to Conrad at his press conference - as Emily realised he has the laptop - sizzled with tension.  What did you think of the episode? Let us know below! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/revenge/review/a464854/revenge-retribution-recap/>