‘Revenge’: Daniel Shoots Emily
In the final moments of “Exodus” it was revealed that Emily’s new husband Daniel (Joshua Bowman) pulled the trigger after his ex-girlfriend tried to commit suicide, since clearly everything is always Emily’s fault. He also overheard Ems telling Victoria (Madeleine Stowe) about her fake pregnancy, so that (plus alcohol) also influenced his game-time decision. Sunil told HollywoodLife‘s sister site TVLine that the decision to make Daniel the shooter did not come easy, but that breaking up the show’s (fake) golden couple will greatly change the game moving forward.
“We had about three different people that we were really seriously considering and then tried to make it work,” Sunil says. “We just wanted to do the one that’s the juiciest and that ultimately changes the show as much as possible.”
Um, massive understatement. Daniel has been Emily’s ticket into the Grayson family for three seasons, and now she’s going to have to seriously rethink her “Revengenda” if she still wants to take down Victoria. Of course, the shooting will also greatly affect Daniel, who isn’t typically a murder-y type of guy.
“[Daniel is] tormented by the nature of what he’s done,” Sunil continues. “You even get a sense after he shot her, there’s this flicker of regret. He [committed] a brash act. He’s been completely betrayed. It’s not like you don’t understand the impulse to do it. Carrying through with the act was the big moment for Daniel. He will have to wrestle with the demons of what that means and wrestle with the fact that now, he’s learned the truth about this woman that he’s given his heart over to back and forth over the last couple of years. You’re going to see a real transformation in him. There’s a regret that will come from it initially, but then it will grow into a strength, a hardening in Daniel Grayson, because the person he trusted the most has really upended the nature of that trust. It’s going to be a great journey we’re going to put him on.”
As for Josh Bowman himself, Sunil says that the actor was floored and (rightfully) concerned when he was finally picked to be the shooter, but the producers eased his worries by promising an exciting new path for Daniel.
“[Josh] was obviously very concerned, because it’s a big move,” Sunil says. “[Producers] kept assuring him, ‘We’re going to get you to an emotional place where we’re going to believe that you did it,’ and hopefully all you guys [watching] actually believed that he got there. I think he did. He did a fabulous job, but he was knocked out that he was going to be the shooter.”
‘Revenge’: About That Amnesia…
So much happened during the episode that our heads are still spinning, but we can’t take our minds off one thing — that Emily is going to wake up with amnesia! Emily forgetting everything about herself and her Revengenda is a troubling thought — what would happen to those weekly takedowns? — but Sunil claims that it will all be for the best.
“She has at the moment lost her memory of all of it, and you’ll see how we play out the amnesia storyline,” he says. “Because obviously, it’s quite the soap opera trope. [But] what we’ve done with it is [do it] the way that Revenge would do it: in a way that’s extremely satisfying.”
Another concern by the end of the night was Victoria — now that she knows part of Emily’s secret she should be a major threat going forward, especially since Emily has lost her memories. Sunil says that Victoria’s discovery will definitely breathe new life into her plot line, but he also assured us that Victoria won’t figure out everything all at once. (I mean, duh.)
“[Victoria] has no idea that [Emily is] Amanda Clarke at this point in time, but she at least knows that this woman is not on the level and that some of her suspicions are actually correct, which gives Victoria a great engine going into the second half of the season,” he says. “She now has the power in the relationship, which she hasn’t had obviously in the first half of the season.”
Now that should be fun to see. Finally, Sunil made it quite clear that even though Emily is down at the moment, we should never, ever count her out — the Revengenda will change, but it is still very much the focus of the show.
“She definitely still wants to take the Graysons down,” Sunil says. “That will never be a mission that leaves her, but again, with Victoria knowing who she is, and as we play things out coming back, she’s going to understand that the way that she has to go about this is going to be completely different than the way she’s done it in the past.”
What do you think, HollywoodLifers? Were you happy with the decision to make Daniel the shooter? Are you excited to see how the show changes now that Victoria “knows” the truth? Let us know in the comments!
— Shaunna Murphy
Follow @ShaunnaLMurphy