Pilot (Revenge)
Encyclopedia
"Pilot" is the first episode of the American television series Revenge
premiered on ABC
on September 21, 2011. The episode was written by Mike Kelley
and directed by Phillip Noyce
.
The series starts with Daniel being shot, and falling lifelessly onto the beach while a party is going on in the background. The party celebrates the engagement of Daniel and Emily. Two more shots are fired into his back, but no one at the party can hear the shots, because fireworks are going off. Emily is seen in an elegant red dress wiping sand off her hand. She informs the party planner, her friend Ashley, that Daniel is walking the beach because they had a "thing," presumably an argument. Victoria makes a passionate speech about Emily and her engagement to Daniel. She then privately and fiercely demands Emily of her son's whereabouts. Declan and Charlotte (Daniel's sister) find Daniel dead on the beach and Charlotte cries for her mother. As everyone rushes to Daniel's body, the scene flashes back to five months before.
Emily has come back to the Hamptons and is renting the beach house she once shared with her father, David Clarke. Emily's realtor says that the beach house now belongs to Lydia and Michael Davis, who are currently in a divorce; Michael left Lydia for a woman half Lydia's age, the realtor adds. Emily looks out at the water and sees a carving in the porch ledge. She recognizes it as double infinity, and flashes back to when she and her father played on the porch with sand. Her father tells her he loves her infinity, drawing the infinity symbol in the sand, and infinity, drawing the symbol again so it interlocks with the first. The realtor also points out that the Grayson's are living right next door, and Emily says she'll take the house. As Emily is moving in, Victoria's son Daniel comes home from college at Harvard, and his sister Charlotte strikes up a relationship with Jack Porter's brother, Declan, at the tavern.
Nolan Ross meets up with Jack Porter and offers to buy his boat named "Amanda" for a large sum. Jack refuses because he is sailing to Haiti in a week to help with the quake. A bank representative comes by the tavern that Jack and Declan's father own. He takes Jack's father aside to tell him that the bank will take over the tavern if the debt on the loan is not paid off by the end of the month.
Victoria announces that she will be hosting a charity event on her large boat and will auction a piece of art from her private collection. Victoria chooses to auction off a Manet painting instead of a van Gogh, because her best friend Lydia gave her the van Gogh. Lydia reveals quietly to Victoria that her ex-husband is threatening to put the beach house on the market. Lydia runs into Emily on the beach, and Emily tells her that she is renting out the beach house that Lydia and her husband shared.
Emily has flashbacks and watches a video of a trial in 1995 that shows Lydia, her father's administrator, testify falsely against her father. David was revealed to have been falsely accused of being responsible for the crash of Flight 197. Emily remembers her father being captured by FBI agents when she was young, and she was forcefully removed from her father's care. Back to the present day, Emily then secretly takes pictures of Lydia having an affair with Victoria's husband. She then goes to the South Fork Inn, where Conrad and Lydia have secretly chosen to meet, and they have a sexual affair. After sleeping with Lydia and eating soup, Conrad has painful stomach pains and is in need of medical attention. As he is rushed to the hospital, Emily asks Lydia if Conrad is her husband and offers her a ride to the hospital. Lydia declines and flees the scene. Emily then runs into Jack Porter and his dog Sammy. She recognizes Jack, and leaves in a rush.
Victoria rushes to the hospital thinking that Conrad is in a serious condition. The hospital reveals to Victoria that Conrad should not eat spicy things at the South Fork Inn, because they would upset his stomach. Victoria questions this; she thought that Conrad had gone golfing, but the South Fork Inn is located 30 minutes in the opposite direction of the golf course. Victoria then notices a South Fork Inn robe in the hospital bed and fiercely says "Don't do it again" to her husband's face.
Emily attends the Memorial Day charity party hosted by Victoria, and her friend, the party planner Ashley, introduces Emily to Victoria. Emily mentions her meeting with Conrad and Lydia at the South Fork Inn, the previous day, in front of Victoria. Victoria realizes that Lydia is sleeping with her husband, Conrad. Victoria then makes a beautiful speech and lets the crowd know that Lydia has won the art auction. However, Victoria sends Lydia home with the Van Gogh "as a reminder of the friendship they shared."
Emily strikes up a romance with Daniel and flirts with him throughout the rest of the party. Nolan Ross, who was at the charity party recording the entire event, recognizes Emily Thorne as Amanda Clarke. He goes to her house and offers to help her seek vengeance on the people who destroyed her and her father's lives. She refuses his help and states that Amanda Clarke no longer exists. Emily then flashes back to her 18th birthday when Nolan came to pick her up from a detention center. Nolan reveals to Amanda that her father has died, and that he was falsely accused and did not have anything to do with the crash of Flight 197. Nolan also said that her father was the only person who invested in his company in its early stages, and now that she is 18 years old she is officially a 49% owner of his company. Nolan hands her a box, with the double infinity mark carved on the top, that her father left for her and a series of diaries he wrote.
Emily's father, in his letters and diaries, asks her to forgive those who wronged her and live a life full of happiness. However, she refuses and chooses to take revenge on those who destroyed her family. Victoria confronts Conrad about the affair, and he reveals that he gave up everything once to show how much he cared about her. Victoria rebukes him, saying that she returned the favor and destroyed a man, but Conrad states that that was all her idea. Emily goes out to the boat deck of the beach house and holds a watch she found in the box that reads, "David, until forever, Victoria." Victoria watches Emily from her balcony and calls her husband's head of security to find out everything he can about Emily Thorne.
A flashback reveals that Emily posed as a maid at the South Fork Inn earlier and poured a small amount of an unknown clear liquid into Conrad's soup, causing him to end up in the hospital.
.
and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
. It was the highest viewed scripted telecast in the hour for ABC since the premiere of Eastwick
two years before.
In Canada, the pilot was watched by 523,000 viewers.
Revenge (TV series)
Revenge is an American television drama inspired by the Alexandre Dumas novel The Count of Monte Cristo starring Madeleine Stowe and Emily VanCamp. It debuted on ABC on September 21, 2011, and currently airs on Wednesday nights at 10:00 pm Eastern/9:00 pm Central...
premiered on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
on September 21, 2011. The episode was written by Mike Kelley
Mike Kelley (writer)
Michael "Mike" Kelley is an American television writer and producer and creator of television series Swingtown and Revenge.-Early life:...
and directed by Phillip Noyce
Phillip Noyce
Phillip Noyce is an Australian film director.-Life and career:Noyce was born in Griffith, New South Wales, attended Barker College, Sydney, and began making short films at the age of 18, starting with Better to Reign in Hell, using his friends as the cast...
.
Plot
In the series premiere, Emily Thorne returns to The Hamptons, revealed to have been where she and her father spent each summer before his arrest. Emily returns to Southampton and rents the house she once shared with her late father, now owned by a woman named Lydia Davis. Emily begins to put her plan into action but gets sidetracked by an old friend, a potential new romance, and an unwanted ally. She soon starts to learn everyone's hidden secrets, and makes it her goal not to forgive those that destroyed her family, but to get revenge.The series starts with Daniel being shot, and falling lifelessly onto the beach while a party is going on in the background. The party celebrates the engagement of Daniel and Emily. Two more shots are fired into his back, but no one at the party can hear the shots, because fireworks are going off. Emily is seen in an elegant red dress wiping sand off her hand. She informs the party planner, her friend Ashley, that Daniel is walking the beach because they had a "thing," presumably an argument. Victoria makes a passionate speech about Emily and her engagement to Daniel. She then privately and fiercely demands Emily of her son's whereabouts. Declan and Charlotte (Daniel's sister) find Daniel dead on the beach and Charlotte cries for her mother. As everyone rushes to Daniel's body, the scene flashes back to five months before.
Emily has come back to the Hamptons and is renting the beach house she once shared with her father, David Clarke. Emily's realtor says that the beach house now belongs to Lydia and Michael Davis, who are currently in a divorce; Michael left Lydia for a woman half Lydia's age, the realtor adds. Emily looks out at the water and sees a carving in the porch ledge. She recognizes it as double infinity, and flashes back to when she and her father played on the porch with sand. Her father tells her he loves her infinity, drawing the infinity symbol in the sand, and infinity, drawing the symbol again so it interlocks with the first. The realtor also points out that the Grayson's are living right next door, and Emily says she'll take the house. As Emily is moving in, Victoria's son Daniel comes home from college at Harvard, and his sister Charlotte strikes up a relationship with Jack Porter's brother, Declan, at the tavern.
Nolan Ross meets up with Jack Porter and offers to buy his boat named "Amanda" for a large sum. Jack refuses because he is sailing to Haiti in a week to help with the quake. A bank representative comes by the tavern that Jack and Declan's father own. He takes Jack's father aside to tell him that the bank will take over the tavern if the debt on the loan is not paid off by the end of the month.
Victoria announces that she will be hosting a charity event on her large boat and will auction a piece of art from her private collection. Victoria chooses to auction off a Manet painting instead of a van Gogh, because her best friend Lydia gave her the van Gogh. Lydia reveals quietly to Victoria that her ex-husband is threatening to put the beach house on the market. Lydia runs into Emily on the beach, and Emily tells her that she is renting out the beach house that Lydia and her husband shared.
Emily has flashbacks and watches a video of a trial in 1995 that shows Lydia, her father's administrator, testify falsely against her father. David was revealed to have been falsely accused of being responsible for the crash of Flight 197. Emily remembers her father being captured by FBI agents when she was young, and she was forcefully removed from her father's care. Back to the present day, Emily then secretly takes pictures of Lydia having an affair with Victoria's husband. She then goes to the South Fork Inn, where Conrad and Lydia have secretly chosen to meet, and they have a sexual affair. After sleeping with Lydia and eating soup, Conrad has painful stomach pains and is in need of medical attention. As he is rushed to the hospital, Emily asks Lydia if Conrad is her husband and offers her a ride to the hospital. Lydia declines and flees the scene. Emily then runs into Jack Porter and his dog Sammy. She recognizes Jack, and leaves in a rush.
Victoria rushes to the hospital thinking that Conrad is in a serious condition. The hospital reveals to Victoria that Conrad should not eat spicy things at the South Fork Inn, because they would upset his stomach. Victoria questions this; she thought that Conrad had gone golfing, but the South Fork Inn is located 30 minutes in the opposite direction of the golf course. Victoria then notices a South Fork Inn robe in the hospital bed and fiercely says "Don't do it again" to her husband's face.
Emily attends the Memorial Day charity party hosted by Victoria, and her friend, the party planner Ashley, introduces Emily to Victoria. Emily mentions her meeting with Conrad and Lydia at the South Fork Inn, the previous day, in front of Victoria. Victoria realizes that Lydia is sleeping with her husband, Conrad. Victoria then makes a beautiful speech and lets the crowd know that Lydia has won the art auction. However, Victoria sends Lydia home with the Van Gogh "as a reminder of the friendship they shared."
Emily strikes up a romance with Daniel and flirts with him throughout the rest of the party. Nolan Ross, who was at the charity party recording the entire event, recognizes Emily Thorne as Amanda Clarke. He goes to her house and offers to help her seek vengeance on the people who destroyed her and her father's lives. She refuses his help and states that Amanda Clarke no longer exists. Emily then flashes back to her 18th birthday when Nolan came to pick her up from a detention center. Nolan reveals to Amanda that her father has died, and that he was falsely accused and did not have anything to do with the crash of Flight 197. Nolan also said that her father was the only person who invested in his company in its early stages, and now that she is 18 years old she is officially a 49% owner of his company. Nolan hands her a box, with the double infinity mark carved on the top, that her father left for her and a series of diaries he wrote.
Emily's father, in his letters and diaries, asks her to forgive those who wronged her and live a life full of happiness. However, she refuses and chooses to take revenge on those who destroyed her family. Victoria confronts Conrad about the affair, and he reveals that he gave up everything once to show how much he cared about her. Victoria rebukes him, saying that she returned the favor and destroyed a man, but Conrad states that that was all her idea. Emily goes out to the boat deck of the beach house and holds a watch she found in the box that reads, "David, until forever, Victoria." Victoria watches Emily from her balcony and calls her husband's head of security to find out everything he can about Emily Thorne.
A flashback reveals that Emily posed as a maid at the South Fork Inn earlier and poured a small amount of an unknown clear liquid into Conrad's soup, causing him to end up in the hospital.
Critical reception
The pilot has been met with positive reviews, with an initial score of 65 out of 100 from MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
.
Ratings
The pilot episode scored a 3.3 adults 18-49 rating and 10.02 million viewers. Winning the 10pm hour time slot, against CSI: Crime Scene InvestigationCSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced...
. It was the highest viewed scripted telecast in the hour for ABC since the premiere of Eastwick
Eastwick (TV series)
Eastwick is a 2009 screwball comedy series based on John Updike's novel, The Witches of Eastwick. The series was developed by Maggie Friedman, and starred Paul Gross as the infamous Darryl Van Horne, alongside Jaime Ray Newman , Lindsay Price, and Rebecca Romijn as the eponymous...
two years before.
In Canada, the pilot was watched by 523,000 viewers.