Revenge -- Kind Of A Lack Luster Finale

I don't know what I was expecting from this finale. It was hyped to the nth degree. I guess I was at least hoping for the scene when Amanda finally tells Victoria who she really was. There was even a perfect moment to do it, but she never did. The one who learned who she was was a Johnny-Come-Lately character that had no investment in knowing who she was.

While Dumb Daniel [and that name is well-earned] is sleeping, Amanda makes it appear someone broke in, tore apart the place while they slept and stole the evidence from his briefcase. She screams when she comes down stairs and he buys her story hook, line and sinker. He suggests they head back to the city immediately. She says she will, but she has to do something, first.

Daniel calls Conrad to tell him what happened and he tells him White Hair was probably behind it as he planted a camera in Amanda's bedroom. So the scene from last week of Daniel finding the hidden camera wasn't him finally being clued-in on Amanda. He thinks White Hair is behind it, just like Conrad thinks all the cameras planted in the Grayson mansion were all done by White Hair.

Amanda heads over to Nolan's for his help. You know, you really have to wonder just how much of her revenge plots she'd have actually been able to pull off if she didn't have Nolan's help. She finds Nolan missing and a note taped to his computer for her to call White Hair's cell or Nolan dies. Amanda arranges to meet White Hair. He makes her chloroform herself and she wakes up chained up next to Nolan. She claims to White Hair the evidence is in a bus locker, as well as having scheduled a timed-email to distribute the info.

Once he leaves, Amanda slips her trusty lock pick out from her sleeve. Guess White Hair didn't think to search her for any concealed weapons. She releases Nolan and asks him to do something for her, while she intends to wait for White Hair to return and to kill him.

Conrad tells Vicious Vicky that because she took that evidence and it got stolen all their lives are now in danger. She refuses to back down. She goes to meet McGowan and he tells her the evidence suddenly appeared in the trunk of his car. Proving Daniel gets his cluelessness from his Mommy, Vicky think it was Daniel who did it. It was actually Nolan who did it at Amanda's behest. Wanting to really tighten the noose around Conrad's throat she calls Lydia and convinces her to testify. Daniel informs the Vicster that he wasn't the one who gave the feds the evidence. Conrad warns Vicky if she gets on that plane it'll be the last thing she does, and he realizes Lydia is going off to betray him and possibly going off to her death and he doesn't even try to warn her.

Amanda waits for White Hair to return and gets into a fight to the death with him. Only when she's about to kill him she has a flashback of her and her daddy letting a lame bird go free and decides to let White Hair live. And I cry, "Cop-out!" Not to mention incredibly stupid. White Hair kidnapped Nolan and was prepared to kill him. He's a terrorist who killed a whole plane load of innocent people. He murdered her father in cold blood. And yet she has some sentimental flashback and lets this dude live. A dude who kill still go after both her and Nolan and kill them. From that moment on the finale took a major nosedive.

I think the show was worried about having a lead character who was a sociopathic murderess. You could kind of see the way they started to try and rehabilitate Amanda and make her revenge plan seem more righteous in the flashback episode of Amanda only deciding to get revenge on everyone after they killed the man who was going to rat them out.

I have to admit Amanda isn't my favorite character on the show. It isn't because she's out to get revenge; that's actually her best quality. It's that Emily Van Camp doesn't really play the role with much layers. You don't see any great conflict in her over the things she's doing. She's a pretty cold emotionless fish about it. Suddenly, having her not be able to go through with this revenge plot just makes the character seem weak and not sympathetic.

Second big mistake was suddenly ending the Daniel/Amanda/Jack triangle. After building the whole thing all season and it suddenly getting interesting with Daniel becoming more like Conrad and Jack/Amanda sharing a kiss, now that Amanda feels her revenge plot is over, she dumps him like a bad habit. So much for her actually having developed any real feeling for him.

Instead Amanda is suddenly in love with Jack, especially after they bonded after watching Faux Sammy die after the pooch literally aged overnight. She goes to Jack to tell him who she really is and find Fauxmanda back and pregnant with Jack's baby. After wishing them well, she heads back home.

Of course, there's no explanation for why Mr. T suddenly let Fauxmanda go. Isn't he afraid she could turn him in as the real killer of Tyler and that he kidnapped her?

After hearing that Daniel and Amanda have broken up, Vicious Vicky pays Amanda a visit to gloat. She even reveals the engagement gift that she gave Daniel and Amanda was just an empty box. This was the perfect time to put the gloating beyotch in her place and reveal who she really is, but Amanda just lets her slither out the door thinking she's the victor. And for some reason White Hair doesn't tell Conrad that his almost future daughter-in-law is really Amanda Clarke. So basically no one still knows who she really is that is important.

Earlier Ashley had informed Daniel she had seen Jack and Amanda kissing. She's around when a dumped Daniel is about to hit the bottle. You can see where this is heading a mile away. Before the night is over she'll probably be warming his sheets and next season she'll possibly be doing the same for Conrad, since when he gave her that expensive car that seemed to be what he was hinting at. Only problem is Ashley is one of the three worst characters on the show and nothing they come up with is going to make her better. They should cut their losses and just write her out. She's a poor man's Tyler.

The other two worst characters on the show, Declan and Charlotte have their own little drama in the finale. Charlotte digs up dirt on Jaime, the classmate she saw coming out of his shower. Declan knows she did it and is disgusted by her. When Charlotte hears the plane that Lydia and Victoria. She calls up Declan but he gives her the cut direct and she ends up overdosing on her pills. Conrad finds her in her bedroom.

Nolan drops by to tell Amanda he backed up some of the information they handed over to McGowan, so everything wasn't lost in the plane crash. He also plays a tape for her that appears to suggest it was Victoria who suggested to White Hair that they frame David Clarke. In it it's revealed that David is keeping a secret; Amanda's mother is still alive. So now she has a new quest to find her mommy.

So the big cliffhangers are: Fauxmanda is pregnant with Jack's baby, or so she claims, which will keep Jack and Amanda apart. Amanda has learned her mommy is alive, a mommy that had never been mentioned until the last episode of the show. Charlotte may die from an overdose. And Victoria and Lydia may have died in the plane crash.

To me none of those cliffhangers are the least bit enthralling or even interesting. The Jack/Amanda thing has been weak at best. They were just kids and they never had a real romance and there wasn't much on the Jack/Amanda front all season. Up until a few episodes ago Jack was obsessed with Fauxmanda and then in the last episode they were suddenly in love. Really who cares about Mrs. Clarke when she had no part in the show up until now. And does anyone really care if Lydia or Charlotte are dead? They're not going to whack Victoria because she's actually the best character on the show.

As for all of Amanda's voice overs about her revenge, it all turned out to be her blowing hot air. Because when push came to shove she didn't put her money where her mouth was and get revenge on the man who murdered her father in cold blood.