ABC’s ‘Revenge’ series finale spoilers: Boss on Madeleine Stowe shocker

“Revenge” loves pulling fast ones on its audience, and on the penultimate episode Sunday night they actually tricked even the media. They had Madeleine Stowe go out and do this whole “farewell interview tour,” which is the sort of thing that you have someone do when they are definitively leaving the show. As it turns out, not so much. Victoria really did fake her death, and with that comes the setup for an epic series finale Sunday, one that will feature the final showdown between Stowe’s character and Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp).

So why go through all of this trouble to set this up? Speaking to TVLine, showrunner Sunil Nayar claims to expect a certain amount of fan frustration over the decision that was made, but is doing his best to promise that this will be worth all of the hype in the end:

“Realistically, that’s exactly what I was expecting to get, but even the people who might feel cheated won’t feel that way when they see the last episode. You get those last moments from these two women that the audience deserves and wants. [Faking a death is] something that other shows have done before, but we love the way we went about doing it, and the repercussions of the action of having done it. It wasn’t just a cheap fake-out, and there was no other way to end the show than to have these two women in the last episode. Even people who are mad at us for doing it will watch the finale and say, “I’m actually really glad they did that.”

So will Victoria actually die for real in the finale? We’re not sure at this point, but the title for the last episode is “Two Graves.” Somebody has to fill these graves, right? Given Emily’s own desperation and her downward spiral, we’re starting to wonder if there is any other way that she gets out of this other than not getting out of it. The ideal ending is her and Jack being happy, but we’re not sure she even knows how to be happy.

Head over here to watch the promo for the “Revenge” series finale, if you haven’t seen it already. Also, sign up to get some other TV updates on everything we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: ABC.)