EMILY VANCAMP as Emily Thorne - REVENGE - "Madness" Revenge Review: “Madness” (Season 4 Episode 12) REVENGE - "Madness" - David finally decides to settle his debt to Victoria while Emily helps Nolan with a takedown of his own, on ABC's "Revenge," SUNDAY, JANUARY 11 (10:01-11:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Danny Feld) EMILY VANCAMP

Revenge Review: “Madness” (Season 4 Episode 12)

Ashley Bissette Sumerel Revenge, Reviews

Will Emily Thorne ever get her happy ending?

What’s been so interesting about this season of Revenge is seeing the dynamic between Emily and David now that he’s turned up alive and is very much a part of the story. The fact is, they still don’t know each other all that well, and it’s only recently that David learned Emily is actually Amanda. I’m starting to think theirs has been the relationship driving the show from the start.

I mean, okay, we knew that Emily was doing everything she was doing because of her father, but this season seems to suggest a new goal: for Emily and her father to actually have a relationship with each other. But just when things are looking like they might work, and Emily might be able to move on and have a life with her father, everything goes wrong in “Madness.”

In many series, it is a romantic relationship that drives the story. For Emily, there’s been Daniel, Aiden, and of course, Jack. With Daniel and Aiden both gone now, it makes sense that there would be a push for Emily and Jack to finally be together. Right? For most of Revenge, that has been my hope. And after Daniel was killed, I was feeling certain they would get a shot at being together.

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Now, though, I’m not so sure. Jack and Emily are just so different. Jack could have easily become a darker character by now, but he remains this hero who can’t quite get things right. In “Madness,” he is so certain that he’s making the right choice by getting the cops involved with Malcom Black, but it goes wrong so quickly that he barely has time to breathe.

More to the point, Emily/Amanda’s story has never really been about Jack, or any love interest for that matter. Yes, her loves have come and gone, but her story has always been about her father. So when she tells David to spare Victoria and run away with her to start over, so they can finally get to know each other it’s clear that’s the only happy ending that will ever matter for her. I also think this makes Jack expendable, and I have to wonder if he’ll be the next character we lose.

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What do you think? Leave a comment below, and don’t forget to rate Revenge Season 4 Episode 12, “Madness.”

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Ashley Bissette Sumerel is a television and film critic living in Wilmington, North Carolina. She is editor-in-chief of Tell-Tale TV as well as Eulalie Magazine. Ashley has also written for outlets such as Rolling Stone, Paste Magazine, and Insider. Ashley has been a member of the Critics Choice Association since 2017 and is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic. In addition to her work as an editor and critic, Ashley teaches Entertainment Journalism, Composition, and Literature at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.