Revenge S 4 E 9 type TV Show network ABC

Revenge took a serious turn for the 24 on Sunday night with “Intel.” There was a super bloody interrogation. There was a fake suicide. And, most importantly, there was the revelation that there’s a big bad at the center of all of this and a hot FBI agent who’s working for him.

Oh, and perhaps the most important development this week: David Clarke has shaved, ladies and gentlemen.

Okay, okay, back to the actual important stuff:

Emily, a.k.a. Jack Bauer

From the outside, Emily Thorne has just about lost it. She seemed to have a case of crazy eyes during the opening scene of “Intel,” when she’s beating the bloody hell out of one of David Clarke’s hospital attackers. (All in the comfort of her own home, natch.) Thanks to her probing, he tells her his partner, Pete Dunn, was the one who was in contact with the real man who’s out to get David Clarke. But, rather inconveniently for Emily, it seems Pete hanged himself in the interrogation room at the police station.

But Emily poses a kind of crazy question: Was it really a suicide, or did Police Chief Alvarez kill Dunn because he’s part of a larger plan to bring down David? It smelled fishy enough for her to go on a totally-not-a-date-but-kind-of-a-date date with Officer Ben, who had just a couple nights ago stumbled to her house while she was in the middle of the aforementioned interrogation to ask her out. But it becomes clear that she’s only there to get information on Alvarez, so it’s not exactly romantic.

When she brings her theory to Jack and Nolan, both start looking at her like she’s yelling at herself à la A Beautiful Mind. Except, as is usually the case with Emily, she’s onto something.

NEXT: Sleeping with the enemy…

Bad Cop: Agent Kate Taylor

She may have been off on the specifics, but Emily got one thing right: Pete Dunn did not hang himself. Instead, as we found out at the OMG-no-effing-way end of “Intel,” it was FBI Agent Taylor who did it, which means she’s definitely not sleeping with Jack Porter because she likes his hair. Though that could be a small reason because that stuff is unreal.

And while Taylor is the one who’s part of a larger scheme to bring down David Clarke, Alvarez isn’t innocent either. He and Victoria meet (on a park bench, of course), and he suggests she stay away from David for a little while, insisting he could protect her. (And by protect, he means… okay we all know what he means.) But when she rejects him he gives her the always-effective take-me-or-die: “It’s your choice, but I would hate for you to be in the wrong place at the wrong time again.” Sounds like she just turned down the wrong man.

The Big Bad: Malcolm Black

It may have taken a while, but it seems we finally have our answer to the question: Who’s out to get David Clarke? Here’s what we know about Malcolm Black: He’s Canadian. He ran an illegal arms operation. He smuggled David into Canada shortly after he was stabbed and threatened to have Amanda killed unless David laundered money for him. He’s also, apparently, a “pyschopath.”

David Clarke

Clearly, David’s still a little embarrassed about that time his daughter saved his life by kicking the ass of his attackers last week. So now, in an attempt to be the hero, he’s going to confront Black himself. He comes to Nolan (this is after he apologized for calling him a liar on live television) and says that he’s “heading out of town” to find Black. In case he doesn’t return, he gives Nolan access to his and Victoria’s safe, telling him to show the contents to every news outlet in America.

Sure, it looks like he’s getting it together and that he’s got an Emily Thorne-style something planned, but this is much more Emily’s game than David’s. That is, unless we’re about to see an entirely new David Clarke, one who isn’t a confused, bumbling outsider. He did shave his beard, after all. New beginnings!

NEXT: Victoria had us all fooled.

Victoria

For a second there, I admit I thought Victoria Grayson may have finally been over this whole revenge thing. After all, she’s lost just about everyone and everything except David Clarke—and he’s starting to slip away, too.

There was definitely a moment there when I thought she meant it when she told David that she “can’t hold on for anger anymore” and wants to start fresh, even if it means with Amanda. And when she told Daniel that her near-death experience made her want just one thing: peace.

How silly of me. Victoria Grayson proves once again to be Victoria Grayson when she outs Emily Thorne as Amanda Clarke to Malcolm Black, by way of Kate Taylor.

My question is: What part of her thinks this could possibly end well?

Daniel

For any remaining believers in a Daniel/Emily romance, it looks like your dreams were squashed during “Intel.” He was miiighty flirtatious when he “ran into her” at the bar, he told her she’s pretty, yada yada—but it probably isn’t happening. Because Margaux’s pregnant, meaning she’s about to bring another bloodthirsty Grayson into the world.

Then again, Margaux didn’t seem keen on taking Daniel back when he came stumbling to her and she dropped that bomb. It seems more likely she wants to raise their baby without him.

Louise who?

Things were really bad for Louise, and they’re only going to get worse. Her fake mommy wants nothing to do with her, and now she finds out her BFF, Nolan, isn’t her BFF at all. After opening up to Nolan, she learns he’s been feeding information to Margaux for a cover story about her troubled Southern family.

Nolan has a rare-for-Revenge case of the regrets, and when he tries to back out, Marguax tells her editorial director to run the story on her family, no matter how rough or untrue it is, because “That’s what retractions are for, right?” Girl, it doesn’t work that way.