Weekly Hamptons Revenge Recap: Season 3, Episode 2: “Sin”

Welcome back to our weekly Revenge recap series, where you’ll get the Hamptons perspective on ABC’s hit show. Consult our primer for characters and background, then make sure to check out last week’s recap to see what you missed.

And now, Episode 2: “Sin”…

Victoria is enjoying (as much as she “enjoys” anything) a beautiful sunny day on her yacht with Emily’s ex Aiden, who insisted on meeting with her in private. She’s skeptical when he tells her that he thinks Emily and Nolan are responsible for the Graysons’ money woes, but he convinces her to at least look into the matter.

Emily catches Daniel red-handed, reading Margaux’s high-end fashion magazine, and points out his interest in it was only piqued after meeting with the French beauty. Daniel says he just wants to do business with her. Could this have anything to do with Margaux’s sultry accent and long legs? Emily offers to make dinner reservations so the three can discuss it.

Hamptons Authenticity Alert: Did Emily say she’d call “Muse” to make reservations for dinner? As in Muse in the Harbor in Sag Harbor?

Meanwhile, Charlotte heads to the mean streets of Montauk to visit Jack and his baby Carl, who doesn’t appear to have aged in the six months since we’ve seen him. Jack is happy to see her, but feels bad when Charlotte blames herself for Declan’s death, knowing that it was actually Conrad’s fault.

Emily shows up at Nolan’s swanky new house to witness him bidding adieu to a nameless half-naked hunk he spent the night with. Nolan says nameless hookups are preferable to his past romantic encounters, recalling crazy Tyler from season one and milquetoast Padma from last season (he actually says “PTSD: Padma Tyler Sexual Damage”), and asks Emily what’s next on the revengenda. She tells Nolan he needs to hold onto the Infinity Box while Daniel is around. She then pulls out her trusty red sharpie and Grayson Global photo and explains her next takedown is going to be a little different…

Next, we meet Father Paul Whitely, who Emily has selected for her wedding to Daniel. Surely Emily wouldn’t go after a priest, right? It just so happens this soft-spoken man of god used to work for the devil: Grayson Global. Emily immediately begins her scheme, mentioning the coincidence that he’s going to perform the wedding of Conrad Grayson’s son.

Father Paul takes the bait, heads to Grayson Manor and sees Victoria, who is surprised and less-than-thrilled to see another reminder of crimes past. He tells her he’s made peace with his “sins” against David Clarke, while always-sympathetic Victoria rolls her eyes and suggests he chat with Conrad, who usually views God as a competitor but could use someone to talk to. Conrad is less than pleasant to Father Paul, who says he should atone for his transgressions before his imminent death from fake Huntington’s disease. He offers Conrad a shoulder, but Conrad asks him to leave.

Later, Emily and Daniel have dinner with Margaux—at a restaurant that is clearly not Muse in the Harbor—and Margaux is excited at the prospect of working with Daniel. Margaux says she knows her father would rather she sit around all day and work for charity, and then looks at Emily, who pretends to pretend not to be offended, and apologizes, not wanting to discount any of Em’s “good works.” Oh, Margaux, if you only knew. Emily excuses herself and runs into Charlotte, who has just heard from Ashley that Emily’s been spreading rumors about Victoria’s supposed “affair.” Emily is upset to lose Charlotte’s trust.

Against Nolan’s advice, Emily begins her plan against the seemingly reformed Father Paul by luring him to a dark, seedy hotel (probably in Montauk) after calling him pretending to be a woman in need of help. When he arrives at the hotel, she Takeda-chops him and he goes down.

Victoria welcomes Nolan to the neighborhood and insinuates that she knows he and Emily are responsible for her money problems. Later, Aiden continues his efforts to sway Victoria and makes headway upon showing her the deed to Nolan’s house, with Emily’s name on it.

Margaux hits on Daniel and tries to seduce him. We later learn he turned her down because he loves Emily, but he takes the job anyway and says he’ll slum it and open his office in Montauk.

After a nice frenemy conversation with Emily, Victoria decides it’s time to invite long-lost son Patrick over for dinner. Victoria thanks Patrick for being the bigger person when Charlotte was cold to him and she presents him to the rest of the family, who all have the same mean-spirited response to Victoria’s first-born. Patrick tries making conversation with his newfound family, but Conrad, Daniel and Charlotte would rather make him feel small and unwanted. Conrad brings up the millions of dollars Victoria gave Patrick years ago to stay away, and Patrick reveals that he never saw a cent of it; former Grayson security guy/lawyer/hitman Frank Stevens (who died in Season 1) threatened to hurt him if he didn’t give it back. Conrad laughs and says he had nothing to do with that—it was Victoria who sent Frank after Patrick! Emily gets up to get Conrad another drink (real subtle, Emily) and Victoria apologizes to Patrick and demands that her family show him some respect. Conrad, drugged from Emily’s drink, gets upset and almost passes out again, making everyone think that Victoria got him too worked up.

Jack feels guilty when Charlotte won’t stop blaming herself for Declan’s death and tells her the truth about Conrad’s involvement in the bombing. She promptly goes to Conrad and disowns him.

Emily visits Patrick at his room at the South Fork Inn (where?) to get to know him, but Victoria has already warned him about her, so he closes the door in Emily’s face. Not one who takes rejection well, Emily heads to church and slips a blue envelope containing incriminating photos of Father Paul (which she took after he passed out) into the collection box. Later, she ends up feeling guilty when Father Paul shows her the outreach he does for homeless people and realizes that he may not deserve her wrath after all—but it’s too late. A fellow priest shows him the envelope.

Hamptons Authenticity Alert: There is no South Fork Inn in the Hamptons.

Conrad shows up at the empty church to find only Emily, who tells him Father Paul is gone. The two talk about penance and forgiveness, and Conrad discloses that he truly wanted to visit Father Paul and repent for his past sins before he dies. Emily rushes to Nolan’s place, admits she was wrong about Father Paul, and then reveals her next plot: undo her takedown of the kindly priest and get him to get Conrad to confess to framing her father.

Closing Thoughts

“Sin” proved to be another solid episode of Revenge, with some sexy moments and good character interactions. Did anyone else love the constant re-gifting of Nolan’s blueberry muffins? My main issue so far this season is with Aiden—if he’s so intent on ruining Emily, he should just expose her true identity—unless this is all part of a greater scheme that Emily is in on.

Season Three, Episode Two Takedown: Father Paul Whitely
Best Moment: Grayson family dinner
Worst Moment: Jack and Emily talking about the past while looking at puppies. I disliked the scene so strongly that I didn’t even mention it in the recap!
Question of the Week: Who murdered Frank Stevens?

Congrats to Jarrad Climpson, who correctly answered our last Question of the Week. Check back Thursday for a Revenge Top 5 list and get the scoop on Episode 3, “Confession,” on Monday.