Well, I’ve got to hand it to Revenge. In a thrilling two-hour season finale, they delivered basically everything I’ve wanted to see from the show and corrected a lot of the flaws I felt the season had.

If you haven’t seen the episode (or, for many, the bulk of this season), spoiler alert.

So much happened! In particular, the latter half of the finale was really thrilling.

The first thing the show did right was tighten the focus on who the real villain is: Conrad Grayson. This season, plots became too murky with talk of The Initiative – a faceless, evil organization. The finale set things straight – Conrad is in the inner circle of the organization, a collective of greedy, heartless business people who manufacture fear and profit off it. A plane goes down, sales of airport security devices go up. A bomb goes off at Grayson Global, Conrad is able to look like a hero and win an election. The show needed this focus.

The second thing the show did right was killing off Declan Porter. I have nothing against the actor, but that character never really went anywhere. His storylines this season were too disconnected from everything else to matter. He was interesting only in how his relationship with Charlotte tied Jack Porter to the Graysons. And even then, the fact that Amanda Clarke is Charlotte’s half-sister served that purpose. Having him die just after discovering that Charlotte is pregnant with their child – and at the bloodied hands of Conrad Grayson! – meant he went out in a blaze of crazy, twisty glory. The series will be better off without a useless character, and a heck of a lot of drama came out of the development.

The third thing the show did right was ending the season with Emily revealing herself to Jack as Amanda Clarke. The tension between the two of them was one of the best things about the show in season one, and when Jack went and made a family with the woman he thought was Amanda, it killed some of the drama. Things are more exciting when that relationship, even if it’s unrealized, is at risk. Jack is in SO deep now. His brother and the mother of his child were murdered by Conrad Grayson. He and Emily have a common goal now. This is going to be amazing.

There were a lot of other twists and turns that we could discuss, but I’ll leave those for you guys in the comments. I really think the show accomplished a lot in this finale, and I’m surprised to find myself really looking forward to a third season.

Stray thoughts:

• I don’t know about you guys, but I’m feeling pretty through with Aiden. I wouldn’t have minded if he’d escaped to Italy. Instead, it looks like Daniel killed him. I’m totally OK with that, since the idea of the Grayson heir having some real blood on his hands is intriguing.
• Nolan is now being pinned with the terrorist act. Yikes! What will Ems do without the Q to her Bond?
• Victoria came out of this mess looking less evil than Conrad, but I don’t expect that to last long.
• For a while there, I thought Ashley had overstayed her welcome on the show. But I enjoyed her allegiance with Jack in the last few episodes of this season, and I really wouldn’t mind her staying around in the Grayson universe.