‘Revenge’ Finale Discussion Thread: Dig Two Graves

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains details of tonight’s Revenge series finale.

“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.” That Confucius quote set the tone for ABC’s Revenge. By the end of season 3, it looked like Amanda Clarke aka Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp) near life long scheme to decimate Victoria and Conrad Grayson (Madeleine Stowe and Henry Czerny) — the Hamptons, Long Island power couple who allegedly killed her father — came to fruition. Amanda made sure Victoria was committed to insane asylum. But unknown to all, Amanda’s father, David, was always alive. He resurfaced from hiding and promptly offed Conrad. Mission accomplished for the most part.  Revenge could have stopped right there, however, the show continued without filling the second grave it always promised. Emily Thorne/Amanda Clarke’s revenge scheme, and its aftermath, went on.

Of course, that changed tonight, as the series finale drew to a close. Finally the two graves had their bodies. Shocking, wasn’t it, that e- you know what, let’s table that discussion for a second. Instead, let’s talk about the last episode a bit. First, some highlights?

–Mother’s Day, so much more awkward now, right? Repurposed corpses and all. I’ll leave my commentary at that, but feel free to spoil in comments.

–“You deserve to burn in hell.” — “We’ll continue this conversation there.” This exchange between Amanda and Victoria before, well, the end felt straight out of the Joan Crawford playbook. Melodramatic and subtle all at once, it summed up everything about the series.

–“I died long before you were born. This is just a formality.” Victoria’s last words, one for the history books. Soapy and serious, unapologetically committed to the show’s tone and to Victoria’s arc. Just the right amount of cheese.

But for all the zings and soap beats, many fans complained on Twitter that the episode was far too short, considering the number of loose threads left to tie up. More than a few felt the two-hour season final of Once Upon A Time was an insulting counterpart to Revenge‘s single hour. But in the end, of course the most important thing is that ending. Damn.

Brief spoilers

A happy ending for Amanda? Maybe? After a final confrontation, Amanda/Emily prepared to shoot Victoria as her final revenge. Only to have her father step in to deal the killing shot himself, and spare Amanda the burden of having committed murder. Victoria managed to live long enough to shoot Amanda, but… Amanda survived. The episode then seemed to skip through what felt like months of plot and decades of Soap Oprea cliches, in under ten minutes. Amanda’s father dies after going to prison. We learn that the two graves were filled by Victoria, and by Amanda’s father. Amanda gets married. A weird dream (flashback?) implies Amanda was saved via heart transplant from DUH DUH DUH Victoria. Or was she? I think it was meant to be ambiguous. And then… sailing off into the sunset on a boat.

So, was it a copout? Crazy enough to live up to a crazy series? Should it have ended after three seasons? Should the finale have been two hours? And seriously, what the hell with that ending. Sound off in comments, and say goodbye to Revenge.