Revenge (TV series)

Revenge is an American television drama series that airs on ABC about a girl who, under an alias, has returned to The Hamptons with one goal -- to seek revenge on those responsible for destroying her family.

Season 1

Pilot [1.01]

"Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves." - Confucius(504 B.C.)

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Emily: When I was a little my understanding of revenge was as simple as the Sunday school proverbs it hid behind. Neat little morality slogans, like 'Do unto others' and 'Two wrongs don't make a right.' But two wrongs can never make a right because two wrongs can never equal each other. For the truly wronged real satisfaction can only be found in one of two places: absolute forgiveness or mortal vindication. This is not a story about forgiveness.

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Victoria: Don't let them see your weakness. That's the first thing they'll use against you.

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Nolan: What a waste of humanity.

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Nolan: Welcome home, Amanda.

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Emily: Amanda Clarke no longer exists.

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Emily: When everything you love has been stolen from you, sometimes all you have left is revenge. Like I said, this is not a story about forgiveness.

Trust [1.02]

Emily: Trust is a difficult thing, whether it's finding the right people to trust or trusting the right people to do the wrong thing. But trusting your heart is the riskiest thing of all. In the end that you can truly trust is ourselves.

Betrayal [1.03]

Victoria: Charlotte, it's 11 o'clock.

Charlotte: Yes mother, it happens twice a day.

Duplicity [1.04]

Nolan: [to Emily] Show's startin'. Correct me if I'm wrong but, I smell the distinct aroma of retribution in the air.

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Emily: The greatest weapon anyone can use against us is our own mind by preying on the doubts and uncertainties that already lurk there. Are we true to ourselves, or do we live for the expectations of others. And if we are open and honest, can we ever truly be loved? Can we find the courage to release our deepest secrets? Or in the end, are we all unknowable, even to ourselves?

Guilt [1.05]

Emily: In revenge, as in life, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. In the end, the guilty always fall.

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Nolan: What's my little girl with the infinity tattoo up to today?

Emily: Suddenly she's thinking of filing a restraining order.

Nolan: Well, isn't that the pot calling the kettle black.

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Emily: Guilt is a powerful affliction. You can try to turn your back on it, but that's when it sneaks up behind you and eats you alive. Some people struggle to understand their own guilt, unwilling or unable to justify the part they play in it. Others run away from their guilt, shutting their conscience until there's no conscience left at all. But I run toward my guilt. I feed off of it. I need it. My father died never knowing if I would ever come to believe his innocence. For me, guilt is one of the few lanterns that still light my way.

Intrigue [1.06]

Emily: They say vengeance taken will tear the heart and torment the conscience. If there's any truth to it, then I now know with certainty that the path I'm on is the right one.

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Emily: Like life, revenge can be a messy business. And both would be much simpler if only our heads could figure out which way our hearts will go. But the heart has its reasons which reason cannot know.

Charade [1.07]

Emily: As Hamlet said to Ophelia, "God has given you one face, and you make yourself another".

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Nolan: [to Tyler] Ah, ambiguous sexual identity — I get it. I’m about a three on the Kinsey scale.

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Emily: Just as there are two sides to every story, there are two sides to every person. One that we reveal to the world, and another that we keep hidden inside: a duality governed by the balance of light and darkness. Within each of us is the capacity for both good and evil. But those who are able to blur the moral dividing line hold the true power.

Treachery [1.08]

Emily: There's an old saying about those who cannot remember the past being condemned repeated. But those of us who refuse to forget the past are condemned to relive it.

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Emily: This wasn’t part of the plan.

Nolan: Neither was aiding and abetting your evil twin.

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Emily: The past is a tricky thing. Sometimes its etched in stone, and other times its rendered in soft memories. But if you meddle too long in deep dark things, who knows what monsters you'll awaken.

Suspicion [1.09]

Emily: Its been written that a lover is apt to be as full of secrets from himself, as is the object of his love from him. For my father, the secrets withheld by the woman he loved proved powerful enough to destroy him. I'm just beginning to now understand the enormity of that burden.

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Emily: We all have secrets we keep locked away from the rest of the world: friendships we pretend, relationships we hide. But worst of all is the love we never let show. The most dangerous secrets a person can bury are those we keep from ourselves.

Loyalty [1.10]

Emily: My father wrote, "Always question where your loyalties lie. The people you trust will expect it, your greatest enemies will desire it, and those you treasure the most will, without doubt, abuse it.". Some say loyalty inspires boundless hope. And while that may be, there's a catch: pure loyalty takes years to build, and only seconds to destroy.

Duress [1.11]

Emily: Defense lawyers use the term duress to describe the use of force, coercion, or psychological pressure exerted on a client in the commission of a crime. When duress is applied to the emotionally unstable, the result can be as violent as it is unpredictable.

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Emily: I googled friendship on the interwebs. Apparently when you have a fight with a friend you're supposed to apologize.

Nolan: Word of advice, leave the joke cracking to me., you suck at it.

Emily: And the apologizing, how am I doing there?

Nolan: I'm not expert but, I think an apology involves the words "I'm sorry"?

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Emily: Duress impacts relationships in one of two ways: it either tears people apart or strengthens their connection, binding them tightly in a common objective.

Infamy [1.12]

Emily: For the average person leading an ordinary life, fame holds an hypnotic attraction. Men would sooner perish than exist in an enmity, but the unlucky few who've had notoriety forced upon them, infamy can be a sentence more damning than any prison term.

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Emily: People are fond of saying that you cant un-ring a bell, and while that may be true, you can certainly smother its ring to the dull world of conjecture and lies. But some words ring out like church bells, rising above the din, calling us to the truth. Some words are immortal. Long buried or even burnt, they are destined to be reborn like a phoenix rising from the ashes. And when they do, they can literally take your breath away.

Commitment [1.13]

Emily: Some say that our lives are defined by the sum of our choices. But it is'nt really our choices that distinguish who we are; Its our commitment to them.

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Emily: This seat taken?

Nolan: It's a free beach.

Emily: Amanda's gone.

Nolan: Yeah, well, kudos to you. Looks like the ends finally justify the means, or should I say meanness.

Emily: Are you finished?

Nolan: I don't know. Are you?

Emily: I'll never be finished. But after what happened to Jack I think it's clear I need to minimize the fallout from what I'm doing. I think it's a good time to press pause on all of this.

Nolan: And do what?

Emily: Regroup. Maybe there's a better way to level Victoria than by marrying her son.

Nolan: And what do you plan to do with Daniel?

Emily: I'm gonna give him his ring back. Tell him that I need to give marrying into his family some more thought. That's actually kind of true.

Nolan: For once. [puts his arm around her] Baby steps.

Emily: Don't do that. [he takes his arm back]

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Emily: For some, commitment is like faith, a chosen devotion to another person or an intangible idea. But for me, commitment has a shadow side, a darker drive that constantly asks the question - How far am I willing to go?

Perception [1.14]

Emily: Years ago, I met a boy who introduced me to a book 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'. In it, William Blake writes "If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is - infinite". But in reality, our perception is often clouded by expectations, by experiences. As of late, I find my perception is clouded by only one thing - revenge.

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Nolan: What's on the revengenda this evening, hmm?

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Emily: Truth is a battle of perceptions. People only see what they are prepared to confront. Its not what you look at that matters, but what you see. And when different perceptions battle against one another, the truth has a way of getting lost, and the monsters find a way of getting out.

Chaos [1.15]

Emily: There comes a moment in each of our lives when the control that keeps us sane slips through our fingers. Most of us aim to seize it back. The best way to fight chaos is with chaos.

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Emily: Chaos, by its very definition, cannot be controlled. Once introduced, all order and intention is rendered useless. The outcome of chaos can never be predicted. The only certainty it brings is the devastation it leaves in its wake.

Scandal [1.16]

Emily: My father's false imprisonment taught me that in a crisis, you quickly find out who your real friends are. Tragedy and scandal, it seems, have a unique way of clarifying people's priorities.

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Emily: Adversity creates unexpected alliances. But treaties of this nature seldom form within an equality of power. Loyalties forged in apprehension and mistrust...easily broken when held up to the unforgiving light of the truth. But in the darkness of our most desperate hours, its often these loyalties that lend us the strength to do what we know must be done.

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Emily: A conflicted heart feeds on doubt and confusion. It will make you question your path, your tactics, your motives. When you stare ahead and darkness is all you see, only reason and determination can pull you back from the abyss.

Doubt [1.17]

Emily: Doubt is a disease. It infects the mind, creating a mistrust of people's motives and of one's own perceptions. Doubt has the ability to call into question everything you've ever believed about someone, and reinforce the darkest suspicions of our inner circle.

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Emily: Nature can be cruel. Predators are everywhere. Those who don't need to be protected from outside forces often need to be protected from themselves.

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Emily: In society, women are referred to as the fairer sex, but in the wild, the female species can be far more ferocious than their male counterparts. Defending the nest is both our oldest and strongest instinct. And sometimes, it can also be the most gratifying.

Justice [1.18]

Emily: Justice, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Some see an innocent victim, others see evil incarnate getting exactly whats deserved.

Absolution [1.19]

Emily: Absolution is the most powerful form of forgiveness; a full pardon from suspicion and accountability. Its the liberation of a stolen future, a future my father never lived to see. Absolution is a mercy the people who killed him will never know.

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Emily: Absolution is the washing away of sin, a promise of rebirth, and a chance to escape the transgressions of those who came before us. The best among us will learn from the mistakes of the past, while the rest seem doomed to repeat them.

Legacy [1.20]

Emily: When deception cuts this deep, someone has to pay.

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Grief [1.21]

Emily: They say grief occurs in five stages. First there is denial, followed by anger. Then comes bargaining, and depression. For most, the final stage of grief is acceptance. But for me, grief is a life sentence without clemency. I will never accept, and I will never forgive, not even after the man who killed my father lies dead at my feet.

Reckoning [1.22]