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"Finally. If you&amp;#039;re going to be a show like Revenge, which is built on secrets, and you&amp;#039;re going to name your second season finale &amp;#039;Truth&amp;#039;, you&amp;#039;d bloody better plan on delivering. There was one particular truth I&amp;#039;d been dying to see unveiled on the series and thankfully, it finally was - but only in the dying seconds of the episode.  Because - and here&amp;#039;s where things are about to get spoilery - while Emily&amp;#039;s determination to hide her true identity from Jack was understandable and interesting, there comes a point when it&amp;#039;s no longer sustainable. That Revenge decided to throw everything up in the air and have her tell him - with the nice touch that she knows &amp;quot;deep down [he&amp;#039;s] always known the truth&amp;quot; - is a welcome twist; one that seems believable given her love for him (which is referenced all the way through this finale) but which also has huge ramifications for the future of the show. This is the truth I wanted, and it&amp;#039;s the truth that the show delivered. It&amp;#039;s just a shame that the sometimes rather meandering two-hour finale wasn&amp;#039;t all as explosive - if you&amp;#039;ll pardon the pun.  For example, while Charlotte&amp;#039;s surprise pregnancy was a welcome soapy twist last week - and the news spreading is another of the truths this week - I just can&amp;#039;t bring myself to care about her bizarre friendship with rich bitch Regina which, we discover, is all based on the fact that Regina is harbouring a secret, burning desire for her (and frames Declan to get closer to her). This is so evidently a plot device - to split Charlotte and Declan apart before the later &amp;#039;devastation&amp;#039; - that it&amp;#039;s really not interesting enough. We only met Regina about three episodes ago. Who cares? And I have to say that Declan&amp;#039;s death - while billed as the &amp;quot;devastating&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;shock&amp;quot; moment of the episode - didn&amp;#039;t move me all that much. Oh, I understand that the ramifications of it are immense - and Nolan&amp;#039;s tears were truly moving - but I&amp;#039;ve never cared for the character and the goodbye message to Jack recorded on Nolan&amp;#039;s phone was unbelievably corny.   But luckily, while this season finale did have some mis-steps - and the two-hour running time meant that the pace wasn&amp;#039;t always as quick as I might have hoped - there were plenty of delicious moments as well. Take Declan&amp;#039;s death - boring in itself, but salivating in terms of its consequences. Not only is Charlotte now pregnant and unaware of her boyfriend&amp;#039;s death (Victoria touchingly unable to bring herself to tell her), but Jack - who has been slowly but surely pushed closer to the edge - is now so furious at Conrad&amp;#039;s machinations and Porter-ruining schemes that he finds himself holding a gun at the gala celebrating Mr Grayson&amp;#039;s election as governor. Luckily, Emily&amp;#039;s there to tell him the big truth that he - and we - all needed to hear, and so the true effects of Declan&amp;#039;s death are not yet known. But that doesn&amp;#039;t stop the possibilities from being exciting. And while the episode did suffer from, perhaps, an overload of plot (by the end of the instalment you&amp;#039;ve almost forgotten about the whole Aiden-slaying-Takeda thing or Jack&amp;#039;s hunt for the laptop) - there were also some truly salivating moments.  I particularly enjoyed the &amp;quot;truth&amp;quot; surrounding Conrad and the Initiative; namely, that he bought his way into the inner circle for the sole purpose of profit. Victoria might be a heinous, heinous woman, but she&amp;#039;s not as morally corrupt as her husband, and it&amp;#039;s the realisation of just how bad a man he is that leaves a lasting impression. You can argue about Victoria until the cows come home, but ultimately I do think she truly believes the framing of David Clarke was justified in that it served to protect her family. The discovery that Conrad has been working alongside the Initiative - willingly, and for the sole reason of profit - is something else entirely. I don&amp;#039;t think I&amp;#039;ve ever seen Victoria as vulnerable. Victoria is not the only one unravelling, either - Emily&amp;#039;s in an apparent constant state of fear about Jack and uncertainty about what to do, and her relationship with Aiden is taking a hit. Not only does she discover in horror that he murdered Takeda, but then that he kept the true nature of Takeda&amp;#039;s motivations a secret (namely, that his fianc\u00E9e was on Flight 197 and he wanted to avenge her). And when Aiden insists that they give up their goal of revenge and flee, Emily is unable to do it.  Of course, there&amp;#039;s an added time crisis given that Aiden&amp;#039;s being set up as the man responsible for the New York City blackout and, later, the explosion that rocks Grayson Global and leaves Declan dead (incidentally, the explosion was one of the highlights of the episode - uncomfortably, perhaps, but the sense of the fear and the quiet and the noise was done really rather nicely).  It&amp;#039;s no real surprise when Aiden is taken into custody; what is a surprise is when he is released and Nolan ends up being held (with the help of dramatic evidence from Padma, who implicates him entirely and names him as the Initiative; I don&amp;#039;t know if she was set up to do this or what and I don&amp;#039;t entirely care, to be honest). Aiden&amp;#039;s freedom allows him to attack Daniel - and for a moment I honestly thought he might kill him. Instead, he seems largely to be there to tell him to let Emily be free, but what I focused on was him referring to Daniel as &amp;quot;mon fr\u00E9re&amp;quot;.  This entirely threw me for a loop - was Aiden revealing that he&amp;#039;s Victoria&amp;#039;s long-lost son? I mean, that would be entirely ridiculous, but I wouldn&amp;#039;t put it past Revenge. But my theory seemed to be disproved, as Victoria answers the door to someone she does not seem to recognise before realising it is indeed her abandoned child Patrick. The drop of the brandy glass is obviously amazing, but this left something to be desired; I understand that you cannot have a finale which doesn&amp;#039;t address a storyline like this, but with no real resolution (we don&amp;#039;t see Patrick&amp;#039;s face) or any new information, this seemed like a shock for the sake of it. With no build-up. As for Aiden himself, I can&amp;#039;t help but wonder what&amp;#039;s happened to him given that Daniel shows up at his father&amp;#039;s gala with a bloody shirt. Hmm.  So I suppose this finale of Revenge was pretty appropriate - like the season as a whole, it was something of a mixed bag. There were certainly stunning, exciting, moving moments, and there were also meandering, unimportant sidelines. There are things I&amp;#039;ll be interested to see next season, though, and at least I can thank Revenge for one thing: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m Amanda Clarke.&amp;quot; Thorney Moments   All I could think about Declan and Regina being locked in the ATM vestibule for upwards of five hours is that surely one of them must have needed to use the bathroom.  Emily VanCamp was just superb in this episode, from her devastation over Takeda to her steely determination to make Aiden leave and save himself from the Initiative to her ultimate revelation to Jack. She knows how to use her face, that girl.  &amp;quot;Your glibness never ceases to chill me to the bone.&amp;quot;  I love how there are no masterminds in Revenge. Conrad might be working for the Initiative, but he&amp;#039;s clueless about Ashley&amp;#039;s disloyalty; Victoria might be brilliant, but she still trusts her husband enough to tell him about Jack&amp;#039;s plans.  If I heard correctly - and oh God, I hope I did - at one point Victoria just pointed at Daniel and said: &amp;quot;Summoned.&amp;quot; Amazing. I am going to do this from now on.  Emily in tears but having to talk to Daniel on the phone after her confrontation with Aiden about Takeda was incredible. The hurt! The pain! The explosion was brilliant, don&amp;#039;t get me wrong, and it made me gasp. But it also almost made me wish that Revenge had split its season finale into two weeks. Any thoughts?  &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s got to be a mistake.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;There is. I am done looking at it.&amp;quot; Burn.  I was looking so hard at Victoria that I didn&amp;#039;t notice just how awful Conrad is - becoming a &amp;#039;first responder&amp;#039; at the explosion and including a minute&amp;#039;s silence for Declan in his speech were all for political capital, for example. As Ashley says, he really doesn&amp;#039;t miss a trick.  It&amp;#039;s still really insane to hear Emily called &amp;quot;Amanda&amp;quot; - by Aiden, for example.  &amp;quot;Do it. Pull the trigger. I deserve it.&amp;quot; Victoria feels.  Charlotte visits the Teenage Mommy website, apparently. Hmm. (But Victoria being unable to tell her about Declan was brilliant.)  Jack&amp;#039;s assassin disguise - glasses and a baseball cap - was incredible.  &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m Amanda Clarke.&amp;quot; Yay!  What did you think of the episode? Let us know below! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/revenge/review/a480883/revenge-truth-season-finale-recap/>