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Revenge Review: Rules of Engagement

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I've started and stopped and erased and restarted this Revenge review at least four times. That's how many directions my brain is going in as a testament to the fact that "Engagement" was such a good episode I can't complete a coherent thought.

Seriously. So good.

I have so many questions right now, chief among them?

What did Aiden just do?

Emily and Nolan Talk

Aiden killed Takeda, guys. Killed him. With a sword through the throat. Maybe chest. But Aiden killed his mentor.

I had to slap my hand over my mouth and stifle a gasp.

In Aiden's defense, Takeda did try to kill him first. And he sent a file to Daniel to reveal Aiden's identity as the son of Trevor Mathis, baggage handler. And Takeda told Aiden to leave Ems alone because this was her mission to complete by herself.

(And he wasn't the real Takeda anyway. Did you Revenge casting people think we wouldn't notice?)

The way Aiden kept talking to Takeda, it was like he had been with Takeda for longer than Emily, but that's not true since she's the one who asked Takeda to help him when she was sent on her first mission and ended up rescuing Ashley. But still, he seemed to feel that Takeda would never be done with them, so he took matters into his own hands and decided that they would be done with Takeda.

I can't even begin to think of how Emily will react when she finds out that Aiden killed Takeda. Sure, she was mad at Takeda for telling her that she needed to get rid of Aiden, but I can't say she'll be pleased to learn of his untimely demise.

Now that he's dead, I'm more interested in him than ever. What was his plan that seemed to be greater than Emily's? What did the Initiative take from him? What nefarious scheme was Aiden alluding to right before he took Takeda out?

All of these questions and no Takeda to answer them. And no electricity for Nolan to use his hacker Google to find out.

The Fa1c0n, ever the tricky one, built a trigger into the Amanda Clarke Foundation and Carrion. When and if someone should try to drain the foundation's account, Carrion would be triggered, starting the next phase of the Initiative's plan.

Which is exactly what Nolan and Aiden did; take all the Grayson's money and turn out the lights in New York.

I know Aiden wants to get Emily to give up her revengenda, however this is not at all the way for him to go about it. 

I doubt she'd listen if he explained to her how he felt after killing Trask or begged her to walk away, but would it have hurt him to try that first? It's not like the Graysons won't self-destruct eventually on their own.

I'm slightly confused by the leaked audio of the current governor's wife talking about the governor's heart condition. It seemed like Victoria recorded the conversation and then handed it over to Conrad, but then again, I kind of think she could have leaked that audio herself and just told Jack that Conrad did it. Either way, she's planning to derail his campaign, or says she is. 

If Daniel hadn't rescued Charlotte, she'd be on her way to tanking Daddy's campaign herself, first by making out with a female schoolmate under the glaring lenses of the paparazzi and now by following in Mommy Dearest's teenage footsteps.

Charlotte is pregnant

I don't even know what to do with that information aside from just putting it out there. Charlotte is pregnant with, I assume, Declan's baby. Things are about to get way cramped in the two-bedroom apartment above the bar. 

Other Revenge-y goodness:

  • I don't love Daniel and Emily together, so their engagement is sort of "meh" for me. But I did love Victoria calling Emily out on not looking like a woman in love. It's one of those weird moments where we see Victoria as someone who has loved before, and been loved, enough to know love when she sees it. Emily's deflection didn't work. 
  • Emily and Jack's conversation on the porch was kind of heartbreaking. He can handle the truth about her identity and why she's there. It's time he knows her secret.
  • Nolan, as always, was amazing. 

What did you think of "Engagement"? Were you shocked when Aiden killed Trask? Check out the Season 2 finale promo below and share your comments on all things Revenge:


Editor Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
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Rating: 4.7 / 5.0 (191 Votes)


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    Nolan is the worst hacker/cracker I've seen on television. Hacking a computer/network is not just about sitting at your laptop and running hacker software, you have to do the leg work. If they wanted the password to the Greyson account, they could have spied on the Greysons through a number of other measures to get it. Watch the second version of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo it gives you a pretty good idea. Banks overall are not easy to hack into, ESPECIALLY banks for billionaires. Nolan I like as a character, however he needs to step up if he wanted to know what the initiative was up to with his program, go and find out by finding their base of operations and accessing their network.


    I have to say, all those transitional episodes were worth it. TAKEDA MUST DIE. If you don't know by now that Takeda sending Emily to the Hamptons and then Aiden after to her had nefarious purposes then you are 2 steps behind. Aiden gets a gold star by figuring it out. The student must sometimes kill the master especially when the master is evil. Don't you watch martial arts movies? Look, some people only want the original cast but people we must evolve, Emily had ten years to train for this, she has a long life filled with people that we don't know about that have helped her along the way. Who we will eventually meet over the seasons.


    OKAY !!! I had some catching up to do but damn, the city that never slpeeps is SLEEPING !!! WTF !!! and did I see right? $3 Bil looool.
    Anywho Charlotte is preggers? how ironic ! Her mom was too at that age, different circumstances I assume. Is Declan the father? what is she gonna do?
    I felt bad for Vic the previous episode...the way Daniel treated her after the truth got out... bleh, I hate the guy, every time I see him Ems, makes me gag ! Totally unexpected when Vic showed up at Nolan's office...

    Can't believe Aiden killed Takeada-sensei !!! I agree, he's got a temper, and that same temper caused the activation of Carrion...
    The Falcon is a woman !!! Loved it ! But I have to consider her as a foe.
    Man, Ems NEEDS to tell Jack. Coz the whole thing is starting to smell REAL bad !!! Man the finale is gonna ROCK !!! It better !


    Miranda, I think you meant to ask if the fans are sorry Aiden killed Takeda. Trask was killed episodes ago.


    Sharon, you're missing some other good shows - scandal, Grimm, arrow, beauty and the beast, Nikita (she is da bomb)., the client list, man that show is hot. You're missing those for baseball? Lol. Just teasing. But those shows are really going great.


    I agree with invested. I would have preferred Aiden to die rather than Takeda. How could they let the mentor be killed by the student? If I was Emily I might not have been that upset, bur for Aiden to kill him? Not happy at all. T's a villain I wanted to see around longer.


    As others have said,,,mindblowing episode. So much packed into the show. Takeda was not the same, but didn't see him getting killed either. Aiden does have a temper problem.

    Jack deserves the truth, amen to that.

    Charlotte pg omy!!!!!


    Please can Charlotte just R.I.P already....NOBODY likes her. Or Spaniel can go too....he is only high and mighty when he has someone else do his dirty work and then he acts all cool....but the boy is really weak no matter what facade he puts up. But in all honesty, revenge needs to get its shit together for s3...s2 has been great at times, but mostly confusing. Way too many extra characters and too much ado about nothing when it came to Ems's mother, The Initiative and The Falcon.


    MINDBLOWING. But i dont understand what a city blackout has to do with anything? Or im just kind of lost? Someone explain please? lol

    It has been explained over last half the season.

    Its because of Nolan's virus, Carrion, which they handed over to Initiative. Falcon most likely made it so that transferring funds would trigger it.
