Awesome / Revenge (2011)

• Pretty much all of Emily's takedowns of her targets:
  • Emily's comprehensive takedown of Lydia, not only destroying her friendships and getting her banished from the neighborhood, but making sure she gets nothing in her divorce, when she and her husband were equally unfaithful. Plus, she set the husband up with the woman he cheated with.
  • In the following episode, how she plays Bill Harmon and utterly destroys him and his company.
    • To elaborate, she leaks to the press that Nolan will be giving an exclusive contract to a specific cellular company. Harmon hears this and tells his employees to invest everything in said company. Turns out, Nolan never intended to give the contract to that company. In fact, he was planning on handing it to their rivals. Harmon loses several billion dollars worth of investments and to put the icing the cake, Emily ruins his attempt to cover it up by personally calling every single one of his investors to inform them of the development.
  • Ruining the political career of a senator who years ago prosecuted her father and refused to admit evidence that would prove his innocence in order to win the trial.
  • Paying back one psychological torment with another, when she kidnaps the psychiatrist who pressured her into believing the lies about her father and then anonymously calls the police, leaving the doctor to spend the rest of her life wondering who it was and if they'll ever come back.
    • Plus, destroying her business by stealing the tapes of her sessions and putting them online, including her own sessions so no one will suspect her.
    • It actually gets better, given one of the doctor's patients was Victoria, and that her own "confessions" she made to the doctor were all about how she was falling in love with Daniel but afraid to get close to him. So by revealing the tapes, she (a) Destroys the doctor's practice and insures she'll never get clients from the Hamptons set again, (b) Humiliates Victoria and drives a wedge between her and Charlotte, (c) Furthers her seduction of Daniel by letting him see her "embarrassing confessions." Not bad for an afternoon tea.
  • Burning down Mason's house, starting with his treasured only copy of his memoirs, while leaving behind "Amanda's" lighter to implicate her and get rid of a Spanner in the Works. And she gets away with her father's interview tapes.
• After Lydia threatens to become too much of a Spanner in the Works, Emily shows she's also skilled at Xanatos Speed Chess by quickly framing her for everything that's happened so far.
• Victoria smiling to Lydia and hugging her as she delivers a brutal verbal takedown:
  Lydia: "I am so happy that we're friends again."
  Victoria: "Well it certainly appears that way, doesn't it? Then again, appearances can be deceiving, can't they. You've practically made it an art form. Understand something, Lydia: every time I smile at you across a room, or we run into each other at a luncheon, or I welcome you into my home, let that smile be a reminder of just how much I despise you. And that every time I hug you, that warmth you feel is my hatred burning through."
• In a dark way, the moment when Victoria shoots Helen Crowley. The woman attempts to use the 'You wouldn't kill a human being' argument on her, but Victoria shoots her before she's even finished speaking. Double points for subverting a potentially long moment of false tension with no payoff and showing how far Victoria will go for her children.
• The real Emily (who Amanda switched identities with) takes Frank down with a tire iron, just as he's about to reveal Amanda to Victoria.
• When Grandpa Grayson verbally eviscerates Conrad on his failure as a father.
• When Tyler is being arrested for attacking Daniel's birthday party, it's revealed that Emily took advantage of the situation to frame him for Frank's murder as well. Now, bear in mind that when Tyler showed up, Emily thought he had left town for California, and yet she still managed to put together a plan to put him away for a long time on the fly. I think it's safe to say at this point that Emily is a master of Xanatos Speed Chess.
• Mason Treadwell's Heel–Face Turn, destroying the Graysons' defense plan for Daniel and then telling Victoria he's perfectly willing to reveal their framing of David Clarke and go down with them. "It's a small price to pay for restoring my soul."
• Emily's brutal beatdown of the thug Victoria hired who beat up Jack and had Daniel assaulted in prison.
  Emily: (Seductively whispers in his ear) This is for Jack! (Beats the ever loving shit out of him, and then kicks him in the stomach over and over again) And that was for Daniel!
• Emily improvising to frame Lee for Tyler's murder — in doing so, she gets Daniel out of jail without implicating Jack.
• Emily's fight with the White Haired Man. The guy is a trained assassin with what must be several decades of experience on her, and she still kicks his ass. And then she lets him live, because that's what her father would have wanted. True, that last part blows up in her face, but it's still impressive as both a fight and characterization.
• Emily finally goes one better in season 2, episode 6, wherein she frames Conrad for Gordon Murphy's death, setting the stage for Daniel to take over Grayson Global, and apparently as part of a plan to deal with Mason Treadwell once and for all.
• Emily's takedown of Judge Barnes in "Power." What makes it even more awesome is that she didn't need to manipulate anyone or anything in order to make it happen, just convince his abused and long-suffering wife to expose him as the corrupt wife beater he is and finally stand up for herself.
• Any and all interactions between Emily and Mason in "Penance." For both of them.
  • Nolan also has a surprisingly badass moment in this episode when he warns Aiden that if he double crosses Emily, Nolan will make him pay.
• Victoria emotionally destroying her mother to get her own revenge.
• Amanda and Emily's last stand on the Amanda against Nate. Too bad it turns out to be a Dying Moment of Awesome for Amanda.
• Aiden's murder of Trask in "Masquerade," avenging his sister, Padma and her father.
  Aiden: I'm not going to shoot you. *chokes Trask out*
• Charlotte, of all people, gets one later in the same episode when she punches Regina at the masquerade party for speaking ill of the dead Amanda.
• Nolan taking down the Falcon. Emily even gives him the honor of crossing her out of the photo, which he richly deserves.
• Victoria's return from the grave in the second episode of Season 2 is this. The look on Conrad's face when she calls is priceless. And so is the resulting plot she orchestrates.
• Nolan parachuting into Emily's party, complete with dramatic suit rip.
• After three years of build-up, Emily gets Conrad to make an Engineered Public Confession of all his misdeeds, by tricking him into thinking she wants him to make one that would be considered under duress.
• One episode later, Emily manages to finally gets her ultimate Revenge and has Victoria committed in a psychiatric institution.
  Emily: Goodbye Victoria, (strokes her hair) get better soon.
  Victoria: (screaming as they inject her with a sedative) She's Amanda Clarke, She's Amanda Clarke, She's Amanda Clarke...!!!!
• Victoria's escape from the mental institution, calmly striding out the door under an umbrella that ensures she doesn't even get her hair mussed from the fire sprinklers.
• Charlotte leaving Victoria for good once she learns from Emily that she murdered Aiden.
• Emily giving her father the "The Reason You Suck" Speech he's had coming for so long, for not recognizing her and buying anything out of Victoria's mouth.
• Emily, David, Jack, Victoria and Ben working together and putting an end to Malcom Black
• In season 4, David is getting close to Natalie, a lovely woman who's the widow of Conrad's late father. At a party, as they make out, Natalie suddenly starts calling out for David to "stop it!" David realizes that Natalie used to be Conrad's lover but he dumped her and so she's now working on a massive campaign for revenge. Natalie gloats to David that she basically starved Conrad's dad until he signed the will leaving his money to her and is now going to ruin his reputation by telling everyone at the party that David attacked her. She turns to leave...and runs right into a smirking Victoria who recorded Natalie's entire confession. Victoria tells Natalie to sign over the money to her and then get out of town or she turns Natalie in for fraud and abuse. A defeated Natalie realizes too late that when it comes to being a conniving bitch, she's nothing compared to Victoria.