Revenge 4.11 Review: Epitaph

It’s always difficult to decipher where a series will head after losing a prominent character. The transition was made a little less difficult for Revenge in ‘Epitaph’ though since Daniel, while remaining present in the series, had long since lost his importance in the story. Unfortunately this meant, at least for me, that Daniel’s death didn’t hold as much significance as it probably should have. Emily’s flashbacks to being in bed with him, Victoria imagining doing his tie,, Margaux dropping her phone at hearing the news, and even Jack’s ‘I can’t believe it’ all felt extremely cliché and melodramatic. I understand that melodrama is what Revenge excels at, but if Daniel’s death did anything for the series it increased the tension in a storyline that was already entertaining.

It seemed odd that the series had so quickly introduced and then disposed of FBI agent Kate Taylor (aka the elusive Malcolm Black’s daughter) in the mid-season finale, ‘Atonement’, but both her and Daniel’s deaths forced Revenge’s characters into immediate damage-control which made ‘Epitaph’ a thrilling watch. Emily was forced to concoct an elaborate lie that implicated herself in Daniel’s death, Jack had to back her up to ensure that Emily, the crime scene and Kate’s disappearance were believable, David had to dispose of Kate’s body, Victoria had to play along and betray the memory of her late son, and Nolan did his usual thing – sent Kate’s phone to Miami so that Malcolm would follow it there and meet his unfortunate end at the hands of some drug lords David contacted about his whereabouts. This was all a very entertaining continuation of the Malcolm Black storyline, and while I was concerned that Revenge had pre-emptively exaggerated his character, arriving in the Hamptons and immediately killing the police chief indicates he’ll be a formidable adversary for Emily for the rest of the season.

Although ‘Epitaph’ did tend to lose its momentum when focusing on the loss of Daniel it didn’t entirely fail at honouring his character. The scene in which Emily had to explain why Daniel didn’t have any defensive wounds to officer Hunter and she responded by saying that she understood why Daniel was angry at her – because of the horrible things she had done to him – indicated some remorse on Emily’s part. It’s a rare side we see of Emily, and she may have very well being lying (as usual), but after all, an epitaph aims to honour someone, and I like to think it was the writers way of saying thank you to a character that had served the series well while he could.

Quote of the episode:

Lousie: ‘Did you hear? About Daniel Grayson?’

Nolan: ‘I did. I’m sorry, I know you two were… colleagues?’

Rating: 3.5/5