Conrad, believing he’s dying, and, thanks to a nightmare in which Charlotte stabs him to death with a letter opener, is coming to terms with his own mortality.  He’s having real struggles with his past, the things he’s done, not only to David Clarke, but to his own family.  Amanda is by his side, helping him to come to terms with his crimes and seek atonement, while she’s making a change in his medication – swapping one prescription out for another that she supplied – part of Revenge school means taking courses in pharmaceutical compounding.  She’s also enlisted Father Paul, who she found at a monastery and, during a conversation in a confessional,  promised to help him clear his name if he’ll urge Conrad to follow the path towards rightness and goodness.  It seems that Amanda really does feel bag about what she did to the priest last week and wants to make things right – as long as he does as he’s told.

Nolan is having a housewarming party for the $10 million pad that Amanda bought him.  The party, like Nolan, is going to be over the top.  He wants dolphins or porpoises – he’s not sure the difference between the two – maybe some swans.   As a matter of course, everyone’s going to be invited, whether they’re wanted there or not.  Victoria will be coming and her invitation is hand delivered by her future daughter in law.   Nolan, making a flurry of phone calls to his party planners, invites Patrick, who overhears the calls and just happens to be called Mr. Grayson by the waiter at the club.   Even after Patrick corrected the waiter, Nolan still seemed to be, uh…intrigued by the little stud muffin.  Amanda isn’t happy that Patrick is coming because she still doesn’t trust him.  Victoria isn’t happy because she doesn’t want Patrick around a scoundrel like Nolan.

Victoria and Aiden are still, scheming against Amanda and Aiden takes the opportunity to let her know why he’s carrying the big old grudge against their shared nemesis.   Victoria learns that Aiden and Amanda were an item while Daniel and Amanda were an item.  Sure, she’s a tiny bit peeved, but completely delighted.   It’s just another item to add to her long list of grievances against the future Mrs. Daniel Grayson.   She breaks some land speed records getting to Daniel with the information and he has a blowout with Amanda, even putting a security system in her house, to ward off the former suitor.

Daniel is having his own set of problems with his new boss, Margaux.  She wants to do a cover story on Nolan for her magazine and Daniel thinks that she’d be better off putting Charlie Manson on the cover.  Nolan’s story is just to low-life for the likes of a Grayson.   The more he protests, the more Margaux pictures Nolan’s face on the front of her magazine.  She garners an invitation to the party by throwing her hot little French self in front of Jack Porter.  Charlotte’s hired a tailor to make a suit for Jack because, let’s face it, the guy only has one suit and he wore that one to his wife’s funeral – and it was probably off the discount rack at Gentleman’s Warehouse.

The party is in full swing and the mayhem begins.  I have to say that Nolan is one snappy dresser.  True to his Moby Dick meets Seaworld theme, he’s wearing a jacket that could only be described as one of the pieces from the Admiral collection by Bob Mackie.   Margaux makes a beeline for him to  tell him about her plans to have him on her cover.  Yes, she told Daniel to talk to him, but who doesn’t want to mess with a Grayson when you have the chance?   She then spots Jack, in his fancy suit, and the two go swimming amid the giant blowup swans.  Watching them together bothers Amanda, but she made her bed and his, so the best she can do is stand on the sidelines and pout.

None of these parties would be complete without Victoria making a grand entrance.  And she does, with Aiden on her arm.  The couple head straight for Amanda so they can air her dirty laundry in front of the other guests.   Oh, but Victoria should never have underestimated her opponent.  Amanda turns the table and lights into her about how the Graysons lost their fortune.   In a voice loud enough to be heard all the way to Martha’s Vineyard, she mocks Victoria by announcing how the Graysons are BANKRUPT.  Poor Patrick misses all the merriment by arriving at Nolan’s after the party, but he assure his host that no one – not his mom , not Amanda – are going to come between them.  Nolan’s working on those Kinsey scale numbers again.

Conrad’s working on saving his soul and misses the party entirely.  That’s a start.  He’s home and he’s told Victoria about his plans to come clean.  She takes it as well as one would expect.  She claws his face.  When that doesn’t change his mind, she lobs a vase at him, which misses his head but lands at the feet of Father Paul.  While she’s screaming that if he gets in the car it’ll be the last thing he does, Conrad and the priest tear out of the driveway with Conrad behind the wheel of his Ferrari.

Aiden meets up with Amanda on the beach and the two of them talk about how well their plan against Victoria is going.  She’s not happy that he told Victoria about their affair because Daniel may come unglued.  I wouldn’t worry if I were her.  Daniel will do whatever she wants him to.  It’s not like he has many options or friends these days.

Driving home, Amanda comes across the smashed and burning Ferrari.  When she runs to the side of the road, she finds Father Paul, who looks pretty dead.  Conrad then walks up, bruised but alive.  Was it his meds?  Did he have a change of heart?  Did Victoria do an oil change and rotate the tires?

Empress