‘Revenge’ recap: Amanda falls — but the show’s on the rise

Tazers! Smooches! Strippers at a baby shower! A pregnant woman defies the laws of physics to fall off a balcony! Actual blood on actual hands! "Intuition" may not have signified a full return to first-season form for "Revenge" — but it sure did bring the suds.

Amanda, Jack, and Jack Jr.
Amanda should know better by now than to stand anywhere higher than sea level with a Grayson, but it's not really her fault — now that she's gotten sucked into the Grayson quagmire, Jack isn't into her anymore, and when she and her suitcase show up at Emily's house, Em takes her on a Learjet guilt trip about how Victoria's the only one who knows where Em's mother is. Amanda gives in, and heads into the maw of Grayson Manor outfitted with an earpiece, the better to blackmail Victoria with David Clarke's (faked by Emily) journal.

Victoria admits nothing, but offers Amanda a hundred grand for the journal. Emily can work with this Plan B; if Amanda takes the money, the signature on the check will match the visitor's log at the mental hospital, thus proving that Victoria visited Kara.

At the impromptu baby shower Victoria throws for Amanda, things unravel rapidly. Amanda's stock goes up when she brings a few "colleagues" from the strip joint, and up even further when she gets Victoria to admit that the "unspeakable truth" about Kara is that she tried to kill Amanda when she was a child. Emily's patched in via earpiece again, but it's unclear at that point whether she hears that line (the audio is choppy), or whether it's even true (Victoria is…Victoria). Either way, Amanda and Victoria argue, and somehow, the act of two ladies in binding dresses and giant heels grabbing at a small piece of paper while standing still creates enough momentum to send Amanda plunging into the foyer below. Chaos ensues, but the cameraman makes sure to capture Victoria slowly raising literal hands covered in literal blood. Well done, "Revenge." Out of a possible ten Krystles, we'll give that eight and a half.

Amanda is rushed to the hospital. Her baby is delivered early and she's put in a medically induced coma (asked what to do if doctors have to choose, Emily authoritatively lies that Amanda wants them to save the baby first. Brrrrr). Jack is riven with guilt; Emily roams the halls and broods.

Foxy Aiden, Kara, and the late great WHM
Foxy Aiden visits Kara as she's getting ready to bolt the motel, this time lying that deep-cover FBI, and so was Gordon — who told him to interview Kara and retrieve a hard drive if he disappeared. Kara pretends to buy that, then tasers Foxy and ties him to a chair, as you do.

Foxy breaks a vase and cut himself loose with broken glass. He calls Emily to warn her that Kara is headed her way, but Kara hears about Amanda's plunge into Plot Bay and goes to the hospital, where Emily sees her stroking Amanda's forehead. Later, Foxy visits Emily at home, where she collapses sobbing into his (miraculously healed already from all the glass cuts) arms after having a flashback to a childhood incident in which, while David bellowed in the background, Kara held Em underwater.

Conrad, Daniel, and Ashley
Daniel is trying to bust Conrad on the investor returns, and for recruiting Ashley as his spy. Ashley eventually tells Conrad that she's not working for him anymore, which Daniel overhears, and it must really turn him on, because the last shot of them this episode is in bed. Elsewhere, Conrad meets his Initiative contact in an abandoned building, and she says ominous things.

The Porterzzzz
Declan's thieving friend won't give back the stuff he and Dec stole, so Jack has to tell the homeowner he'll pay him back once the bar reopens — except the bar fails another mold inspection (obviously). But Homeowner is in league with Thieving Friend and is trying to buy the bar. Whatever.

Dec and Charlotte have a cute moment at the hospital, though, when he offers her his jacket.

Nolan and the Teen CFO
Padma informs Nolan that his late father's storage-unit place called, and Nolan needs to go clear out the locker. It's news to Nolan that his father is "late" at all, and Gabriel Mann does gorgeous work with the scene where Nolan looks at the scrapbook his dad kept of all his magazine covers and accomplishments. (One cover shows Nolan in a pair of Bill Gates-y glasses. Excellent.) He brings Padma along to help him go through his father's belongings. They kiss, which should create drama, because Padma is obviously up to something, but it doesn't, because Nolan is just as obviously not attracted to her at all…and if the writers keep sticking her with clonky lines like "regrets suck," the audience isn't going to develop much of an interest either.

Odds and ends
When Victoria phones Amanda, the incoming call display on Amanda's phone reads "Grayson Manor."

The hospital set looks just like the one from "Scrubs."

Next week, Kara is ambiguously evil.

Catch all the sudsy fun of the full episode of "Intuition" right here: