Revenge -- Thanksgiving Past

I actually thought this episode might be Amanda-free since it was promoted as primarily a Victoria centric episode. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. We got to see when Blanda met both Donatello and Ashley. We also got another dose of the worst element of the show; the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Yep, the sensei rat, Mr. T was back.

Mr. T had sent Amanda on a mission to infiltrate a girl-trafficking group run by a guy named Dmitri. Donatello was a bartender at the club they were working out of. And Ashley was among the party girls. She was low on money and needed to pay her rent. Amanda gave her money to disappear so she could take her place. Ashley never saw her face since it was done through the stall of the women's bathroom.

It seems Amanda was to find a girl named Coleen who was one of the party girls who Dmitri got his hands on. But in retrospect Amanda may have been a tool so the sensei rat could get his hooks into Donatello, as well. Donatello kills Dmitri when he taunts him about his sister, Coleen and then he becomes one of the sensei rat's ninja turtles. This story was actually the most boring part of the episode.

Nolan got a flashback,too. It was about his company going public. Him and his current significant other, Marco, broke-up when Marco learned Amanda had taken a lot of money out of the company and if Nolan had a choice he would picks the Clarke's over Marco. In the present, Marco is contacted by Daniel about helping him get his hands on Nolan's company using what he knows.

Jack's father, Carl, is having problems with a hood named Ryan, whose trying to muscle him for money. Carl's friend shoots and kills Ryan and Carl covers it up. It becomes obvious that Jack's new partner Kenny is Ryan's son. He may suspect Jack's father had something to do with his father's death and may have targeted Jack and Declan to get revenge.

The main story was about Daniel inviting Victoria's mother, Marion to Thanksgiving dinner. If Charlotte and Daniel think that Victoria is a bad mother, than they should have had Marion for a mother. Through flashbacks we see that Marion must have watched Mildred Pierce one too many times as she forced Victoria to act out the role of Vida and kill Marion's lover who was leaving her. Victoria did time, but because of her youth, she didn't do much of it. Then when Marion's new man crept into 15 year old Victoria's room, Marion threw Victoria out on the streets to keep her man.

Anyway, Daniel invites Marion for Thanksgiving dinner and she brings the new man she met on a cruise, Mr. Greavy. At the dinner, Victoria tells him what Marion did to her and he promptly dumps Marion. Then Victoria throw Marion out when she pleads she has nowhere to go.

It turns out Greavy was working for Conrad and Victoria and they him up to romance Marion, o he could then dump her. Conrad asks if she feels better about the past now? She says she'll know in the morning.

In the past, Daniel wanted to be a poet and he had the talent for it. Only Conrad paid the publishers he submitted his work to to reject it, wanting Daniel to find his future at Grayson. In the present, Conrad and Victoria agree Daniel has to be stopped from taking over Grayson because of The Initiative.

So, in both Conrad and Victoria and Jack's cases, the past has come back to haunt them. If Conrad had allowed Daniel to pursue his dream he wouldn't be poised to take over the company and Jack has unknowingly got into bed with a man who may be looking for revenge for what happened to his father.

It's terrible but the story with Jack and Conrad and Victoria is far more interesting than Amanda, her wooden boy toy and her moldy revenge plot.