“Engagement can be a commitment to love or a declaration of war. One must enter every battle without hesitation, willing to fully engage the enemy until death do you part.”

Amanda and Daniel are officially engaged again.  She plans a dinner for two on the roof of his office building, surprises him with two plane tickets to Paris and she’s wearing the ring he gave her the first time they were supposed to be headed down the aisle.   The couple can’t wait to deliver their news to the Grayson clan, especially Victoria who took it about as well as could be expected.  She’s hoping that they’ll have a long engagement, but they tell her no, they’re going to be in Paris in two weeks and, oh, by the way, we’re going to live there.   Victoria pulls her son aside to have a chat with him about making the same mistake twice but he reminds her that she’s not the only one.  After all, she has not one but two bastard children.  Ouch.  As long as Victoria is miserable, Conrad is happy, so he congratulates his son but wants to know what his plans are for the future, since Daniel intends to leave Grayson Global and takes his share of the money with him.   He asks Daniel if the next fifty years will be spent eating croissants and jetting around the world, but it didn’t sound like Daniel had any real plans beyond doing just that.   Living on love and a huge amount of dough – life is good.

Luckily for Daniel, his secretary calls right in the middle of the conversation and she tells him that a package has arrived from Takeda with some background on Aiden.  Takeda left nothing to the imagination and provides Daniel with every last little morsel he has on Aiden, including the fact that Aiden’s father was the baggage handler for Flight 197.  Daniel goes a little crazy on him, and then fires him, but not before opening his big mouth and asking Aiden if the whole plan was to get back at “Them”.  Aiden asks him who “Them” is, but Daniel only says that it’s someone he trusts more than he trusts Aiden.

Jack and double-agent Ashley are at The Stowaway working on their plan to take down Conrad and keep him out of the governor’s office.   Ashley says that she doesn’t have much on Conrad and Mrs. Stoddard but that she might have something else.  She asks Jack how brave he is.  Good question, Ashley.

Amanda is hanging around Grayson Manor to ask Charlotte to be her maid of honor and to bug the hell out of Victoria.   Charlotte’s latest bad influence, Regina, stops by with a goody bag and the two make plans to go shopping.  Amanda makes her way downstairs and sees that Victoria is pouring over letters she’s been getting from wannabe long-lost sons.   It seems as if every 40 year old man in the country is interested in becoming the heir apparent to the Grayson fortune.  Amanda, looking as innocent as she can, tells Victoria that she doesn’t understand why her future mother in law doesn’t see the beauty in the planned life in Paris, give the fact that Victoria went to art school there.   They each enjoy a bowl of milk, lick their paws and Amanda leaves.  Jack walks in and shows Victoria the picture of Conrad with Mrs. Stoddard.  She’s smarting  a little from that so she decides to tell Jack that he’s the reason Amanda and Daniel broke off their first engagement.

Amanda’s on the phone with Nolan asking him why Jack and Victoria are talking.  Nolan tells her that she can’t protect Jack forever but she’s adamant about keeping her promise to (fake) Amanda.   Aiden stops by to see Nolan and tells him that he’s been fired but would like some help from Nolan on some other things.  Nolan offers him a job as his bodyguard and tells him that he can be Aiden’s Whitney, because he needs something to do while Amanda finishes her endgame.  Aiden says that there is no endgame.  Killing Trask didn’t do any good and he wants her to stop.   The first thing he’d like from Nolan is to drain the Amanda Clarke Foundation account, but Nolan tells him that the Falcon made it unhackable.  So, Nolan goes to see Edith, AKA The Falcon, in jail.  He promises her that if she helps him, he’ll erase all of the files that got her arrested.  Edith says that Patrick, Victoria’s son, tried to find his mother but she had her henchmen pay him $5 million to disappear, then asked Edith to destroy any trace of his identification.  Nolan asks her what the Initiative has planned for the Carrion program, but she explains that they can’t touch it without her help.   As she says, it’s just a matter of who wants it more, then gives Nolan a riddle for accessing the account – you’ll find it in a place hiding in plain sight.

Victoria pays a visit to Allison Stoddard to find out what’s going on between her and Conrad.  Allison tells Victoria that she’s not interested in Conrad, but is trying to save her own husband’s life.  The governor has a heart condition and she’s afraid that a second term will kill him.  She’s been giving Conrad information to sabotage her husband’s campaign.   She also tells Victoria that is she loves Conrad, she’ll make sure that he only serves one term, too.

The engagement party is at Amanda’s place and Victoria offers a toast welcoming her to the family.  Then she asks for a moment alone with Amanda so that she can tell her that she doesn’t look like a woman in love.   Amanda assures that they’ve already discussed having children, Victoria’s grandchildren, then leaves her to stew in her own disappointments and regrets.   Daniel and Amanda have a conversation about Aiden and he lets her know that Aiden’s been fired because of his past.  She knows that the only way that Daniel found out was through Takeda.  Conrad comes over and hands Daniel that big fat check he was waiting for, but asks him to reconsider.  Daniels says that he has plans for it, but that he should remove Aiden from The Amanda Clarke Foundation account ASAP because he can’t be trusted.  Then Daniel gets a call from the cops who’ve picked up Charlotte outside of a club where she’s been staggering around and throwing up.

Amanda spots Takeda out on the porch and the two walk to the dock to have a talk about Aiden.  She’s furious at Takeda for putting Aiden at risk, but Takeda says that Aiden put Amanda at risk.  He’s aware that the Initative is planning another strike, bringing fear, chaos and profit and that it’s job alone to stop it.  After he walks away, Jack approaches Amanda and wants to know why she’s marrying Daniel.  She tells that him that she tried to talk to him before, but then they found out that (fake)Amanda was pregnant, so all bets were off.  She promises to explain it all to him some day but Jack is sick of the secrets, half-truths and some days that never come.   Nolan steps out and after talking to Amanda, has a lightbulb moment, then runs off to solve Edith’s riddle.

Nolan is at the arcade in front the Street Fighter game and knows that Edith’s high score is the entry code for the computer and her password.  He calls Aiden to tell him, but Aiden has a little something else on his plate at the moment.  Takeda is at his house and the two of them take up samurai swords, in a duel  to death – Takeda’s actually.

Daniel picks up Charlotte and she tells him that she’s pregnant, which explain all that puking.  Looks like Jack and Declan are on a mission to populate the Hamptons one baby Porter at a time.  The governor’s wife gives a press conference about her husband’s illness, securing Conrad’s place as the next leader of The State of New York.  Victoria’s having a brandy at The Stowaway and Jack plays her the tape of the plot by Conrad to kill (fake)Amanda.   Nolan and Aiden are just about to access the ACF account when Amanda walks in.  She tries to stop them but Aiden pushes “enter” and the funds are drained from that account into a new, top-secret one.  Within seconds, what looks like the electrical grid for the entire Northeast goes dark.  Edith the Falcon is smiling, and Carrion is working.

The two hour season finale is next Sunday, May 12th.

Here’s a link to a funny ad that Emily VanCamp, in character,  did for Time Warner Cable’s Start Over.   http://www.youtube.com/twc

Empress