findyourselfin

It was only addressed that he was with Conrad's parents on the flashback episode for the New Year's Eve. Then during all the time between that NYE and the summer where all happened is a big black hole on Baby Daniel's life

They actually did. Twice on one episode. It was right after Amanda revealed herself for Jack and Emily gave her a fake journal with some information to keep up the plot. Amanda and Daniel crossed paths when she was leaving Emily's house. He asks Emily if she's that Amanda Clarke, the daughter of David Clarke and Emily kind of resumes some lame story about "her". Later, Amanda is looking for the buried jar of seaglass and Daniel kind of confronts her.
I don't know if it's enough for Daniel to recollect some old memory but... it's something and he kind of reacted as if he had never seen her.


They actually recognized that Emily had feelings for him on a youtube special but then she got disappointed and the rest is history by now (at the time I read something that made me laugh but it's the pure truth: while she acknowledged family loyalty with Nolan, when Daniel was loyal to his family she spiraled ) and then she equally used him when she stole the evidence and made it seen like it was Gordon Murphy doing everything.

But I do think that Victoria loved David before the arrest, they talked about leaving and Conrad told her that she had to do what she did to save Daniel, otherwise they would be doomed and loose everything. Anyway, they're both vulnerable women who have a strong persona but when it comes to love they don't really know how to handle it (because, I do also think that Victoria has some kind of love/endearment for Conrad).
I know that we're supposed to feel/root for Emily and think that all that she does have a superior excuse to it so all must be forgiven, but that doesn't mean that she is the moral compass of the show (which I actually think that there isn't: they are all humans and they are all flawed) and that she's the most composed person when it comes to her feelings.

ShadCAT

Thanks for the perspective link! Never knew those existed. Definitely helps define some things.

josh_2307

Haha what i learn from this show since the beginning is they will never treat daniel rights and what he did always wrong. his job on this show just to be emily's key to get close to the grayson.. Totaly unfair..

findyourselfin

I really like them. Especially the fact that we got one from Daniel's perspective and another from Victoria's.
It's a shame it's only for youtube since they like doing those perspective things for recaps but went for only Nolan's recap for everything when they did the one for season one.

ShadCAT

They really should have made it all part of an episode, segments from each person. Would have been much better! I love season 1. I hope season 3 gets that feel back

brave princess

This season was just a mess, IMO. There never was a clear direction and clear storyline. Everything was just so convoluted with all this Initiative crap and all the different people with their own revenge schemes. Honestly, by the last few episodes I became so indifferent to the show and I hate that b/c this used to be one of my favorite shows. I used to tell all of my friends that they needed to watch it b/c it was so good.

But see, to me, while she's not really the moral compass b/c on this show they're all dirty in their own way, she's supposed to sort of be the heart of the show. The pain of knowing that her father was wronged by all of these people is the whole reason that she's so hell bent on "revenge". At some point this season, Emily lost that heart.

I could at least see that she felt remorse over using Daniel so terribly last season when he was head over heels in love with her, but this season she's so cold and heartless. And you know, maybe that was the point b/c Takeda made her refocus when she was training with him for months. My problem with her using Daniel is that he had nothing to do with what happened. Like you guys were saying, he was just a little kid when this all went down. He wasn't complicit in his parents' plot to pin an act of terrorism on her father. But for some reason Daniel was painted as this horrible person this season. Either that or he was made to look stupid and gullible.

It was like "Oh, look, he's trying to pin all of this stuff on Aiden and make him the patsy!" Emily, and especially Aiden, drove him to that point. I guess I just feel like the "white hats" on this show are no different than the "bad guys".

I'm very hopeful that with a new showrunner next year that we'll get a bit of the season 1 feel back. I want to be able to root for Emily. I want to see that she's not just a cold, heartless revenge robot that uses a man that loves her and she feels nothing while doing it. I need to see that there's more to her than what they showed me this last season b/c I've begun to root for the Graysons in this war and I shouldn't want to but that's what the writers have driving me to.

Pally

I agree with everything you wrote

findyourselfin

Yup. For me, she lost that once her revenge became one thing for the others to do. I got a feeling that she wasn't as involved on a thing that was supposed to be hers like she once was. We have so little examples of things that she has actually done this season by her own initiative (for now, I can only think about the takedown that involved the wife of that guy and that's it). Her mom, Aiden went after her behind Emily's back after he learned that she was Gordon Murphy's wife. Aiden having a place on Grayson Global happened because Aiden went to Nolan telling him how imperative it was that he gave David's check to him so that happened (against Emily's will). Aiden pressed the buttom that activated Carrion and drought the Grayson's bank account...
While Emily was lost in the middle of it all doing anything but being really concerned about her revenge. Only on the last few episodes she was really engaged on doing her own things.

Ugh, I hated that. They were like "oh, Daniel is so evil for stealing NolCorp" when he basically got NolCorp handed on a silver plater for him. He was doing what he got to do. We first saw him on season 2 drinking his sorrows out and being mad at Conrad because of Charlotte's inheritance, with also telling his father that he wouldn't invest his own inheritance in Grayson Global. Instead of that, he got control of the company as a way to stop his father and ended knowing first hand a part of the things that being the CEO of it meant. But he didn't do anything really bad

I'm rooting for the Graysons since the last few episodes of season 1. I just like the way that they are developed and their wicked family interactions. I think that they're entertaining and I like when I get to know about their past, so...
I like Emily but sometimes I feel like what she's doing isn't that on point (like pinning Amanda's death on Conrad. He isn't more guilt than Jack, imo. Jack knew for a good amount of time that the Ryan brothers were trouble but never went to the police or anything like that, he just played the guys along when he knew that at least one of them, wanted him dead. It was the same guy that ended up on his boat and killed his wife) and that's when I don't find myself rooting for her. They don't need to give me more reasons why Emily should get revenge for different people against the Graysons when I was perfectly happy with the only one that I first got. If they just stick to it, it's the best that they can do and I feel that the only way to get past it is to have Emily and Daniel marrying and she becoming a Grayson, in some way.

ShadCAT

Truth tea!

I am rewatching season 1 on netflix right now .. and man it was amazing. Season 2 doesn't hold a candle to it. They definitely lost direction and it showed. I'm just glad that initiative stuff is over with.

Regarding Daniel being painted in a bad light, I couldn't agree more. I feel that was done to push viewers more towards Emily being with Jack and that Daniel is nothing more than the son of his father. At least they still show he has a moral compass when he reacts to the horrible things his parents do. If you compare Daniel the way he is now at the end of season 2 to the way you see him in season 1, the difference is jarring.

I just want everything from season 1 back.

brave princess

You are so right. It was fine when Nolan was helping her to a degree but he still had his own stuff going on too. This season, I felt like everything he did was to help Emily and bring down the Initiative. The landscape on the show just got so busy that it seemed like even the writers didn't know who wanted revenge for what anymore. I know what the title of the show is but that doesn't mean that every character in it has to have their own revenge plotline and that's pretty much where we were at by the end of season 2. This is Emily's story and the others are players, significant and insignificant, in it.

Or how when he took over Grayson Global Aiden said how he's no different from his father b/c of how Daniel took over the company when Aiden, Emily and Nolan essentially did everything they could to make sure that Daniel took over. Again, another shining example of what I felt was the writers unsure of which direction to go.


I understand that there are some that are "rooting" for the Graysons but based on the premise of the show and the things that the Graysons have done and continue to do, I don't see that as the writers' intention. And when I say the Graysons I'm really meaning Conrad and Victoria. Charlotte really has nothing to do with her parents' schemes and Daniel has not been complicit with all they've done either.

Really? I need to rewatch the first season. Although it might just make me even more bitter about this season. In a way, after everything that's happened to Daniel over the last year, it's understandable that he would be a different person. I think the thing I love most about Daniel is that while so much about him has changed, his love for Emily has remained constant.

findyourselfin

This, so much this. You can have other plot lines that don't need to be directly revenge related. Season 1 worked just fine this way. First, we had Frank as the antagonist on the first 7 episodes and he did a good counter balance to the all revenge related things. He was involved with the Graysons and with Emily as well. When Frank kicked the bucket, Tyler was already getting the spotlight. Other character that ended up converging into the revenge plot line but it had nothing to do with his first intentions.

Especially if it's the Daniel that was portrayed on the middle of season 2... But (and I'll probably keep saying this until season 3 premieres) I was happy to see that after Daniel got free of the threats, it was evident that he lost some of the "darkness". I just liked so much to see him being hopeful about his future again.

brave princess

Exactly. By the end of the season, the only character that didn't really have a revenge plotline was Charlotte and when she finds out that her dad was responsible for Declan's death then there's not a single person that doesn't have some sort of revenge story.

He really did. I did not like the direction that they were attempting to take with his character. He is NOT his father and he's shown that more than once. Characters (read: Aiden) like to throw out things about how Daniel is just like his father or his parents or that he is truly a Grayson. He may not have ratted on them when he found out the truth about the David Clarke stuff but they're his parents, I wouldn't expect him to. Did he agree with what they did? No. Did he agree with what his dad did with having Grayson Global bombed? No. He said that he was disgusting. He's not this evil person that some characters (and fans) seem to try and say that he is. I cant' believe that there are some that think that Daniel possibly shooting Aiden makes him the evil one. Aiden ambushed him and then almost strangled him to death so I can understand that he might've been pushed to the point of shooting Aiden.

Although based on the fact that Daniel was also shot, it would seem like there was possibly a struggle for the gun and they both men were wounded. Hopefully, fatally for Aiden.

But yes, back to what you were saying about Daniel getting some of his hope back. He just seemed lighter, happier when he and Emily got back together. Like he felt like he COULD get away from his parents and the life that he had never really wanted in the first place. I want to see the Daniel that wrote poetry again.

ShadCAT

I don't think Daniel got shot. I think the blood on his shirt was just to leave a cliff-hangar as to what happened to Aiden. If he got shot he would not be standing there completely fine alongside his father

brave princess

Yeah, you're probably right. It just looked like he was in pain when he first got there but soldiered on anyways. For some reason, I thought he winced as he put the jacket on and looked down at his abdomen to where the blood stain was and buttoned up his jacket. Maybe I need to rewatch it again.

findyourselfin

I don't have anything to add, that's exactly what I think.


(and I don't think that Daniel was shot. Maybe wounded but if he was really shot I think we would see more blood than that? And, somehow, I don't think that he shot Aiden. If he had, the blood splatter would be similar to the one he had when he shot Tyler and not the rather big stain of blood on his cuffs)