Charlotte Grayson

Charlotte Clarke (born Charlotte Grayson) is a fictional character on the television drama Revenge, portrayed by Christa B. Allen. The youngest of the Grayson clan, Charlotte has a good moral compass and lacks the rest of her family's scheming ways. Like Emily Thorne, Charlotte is intelligent - she defies expectations in school with her perfect academic record. Her character has endured a lifetime of emotional distance and subtle coldness from her mother, Victoria Grayson.

Description

Charlotte is the youngest daughter in both the Grayson and Clarke families. The legal daughter of Conrad and Victoria Grayson, Charlotte is actually the result of her mother's affair with David Clarke. She has an older half-brother, Daniel Grayson, and an older half-sister, Amanda Clarke. A straight-A student, she defies expectations with her perfect academic record at school. Charlotte is unlike the rest of her family, as observed by many others. This is because Charlotte, unlike the rest of her family, has a good moral compass. She has never done anything to intentionally harm someone for her own benefit, and this is one of the reasons Emily doesn't want to take revenge on her. Charlotte doesn't believe in being defined by your lot in life (even if hers is being born into an incredibly wealthy family). She constantly struggles to get away from the condemning, over-bearing eye of her mother, and of the rest of her deceitfully dysfunctional family. So while constantly trying to keep her family together, Charlotte’s also doing her best to keep herself in check, to not become the cold-hearted woman she at times believes her mother is.

Character arc

Season one

In the episode "Duplicity," it is revealed that Victoria often questions if having Charlotte was the right thing to do. This causes Charlotte to break off communication with her mother completely and engage in minor reckless acts.

Later during season one, Emily and Charlotte share a closer relationship, as Charlotte sometimes goes to Emily when she is having family troubles. In an interview with journalist Mason Treadwell, David Clarke reveals that Victoria had given birth to a Charlotte while romantically involved with him, making Charlotte Emily's younger half-sister. Naturally, this is a big revelation to Emily. When Emily tells Charlotte that Daniel proposed, Emily asked if it was alright with her. Charlotte responded positively, stating she always wanted a sister in her life, which took a big blow to Emily's emotions (Season 1 Episode 13).

After Emily finds out Charlotte is her sister, she tries to avoid all possible plans that would hurt Charlotte. Emily wishes to protect Charlotte and be there for her, without revealing her true identity and her revenge scheme. Emily later changes her plans for exposing Charlotte's paternity, after seeing her and Conrad getting on the right track again. When Charlotte's paternity is revealed, Emily is deeply saddened that Charlotte had found out the worst way possible ("Perception").

Charlotte has a hard time dealing with all the lies and betrayal in her family and begins drinking as well as stealing anti-depressants. Her boyfriend, Declan Porter, advises her to see a therapist. Her grandfather puts her family name over her head, saying that if she were to tell someone their family's secrets and those secrets were to get out, the family name would be ruined. However, Charlotte doesn't budge as she prefers the truth over her family's reputation. So, her grandfather threatens to not let Declan in at Collin's Prep because his test scores were low. Charlotte reluctantly complies, however, she takes prescription pills instead of getting help from a specialist as a result. Emily notices Charlotte taking pills at her engagement party and looks hurt and confused that Charlotte would resort to such measures. However, Emily isn't able to speak to her before Victoria shows up, and Charlotte not wanting to deal with Victoria, walks away ("Chaos").

Charlotte goes over to Emily's house and they talk about Charlotte's real father. Emily consoles Charlotte by telling Charlotte about the swing that their father built, trying to convince Charlotte that David Clarke may not have been all bad. In order to conceal her true identity, Emily says Amanda told her that story when she came over one time. They end their conversation with Emily holding Charlotte on the swing their father built ("Scandal").

Emily tells Nolan she was worried about Charlotte. When she goes to Charlotte's room, Charlotte has many magazines, newspapers, pictures, and records of David Clarke spread out on her bed. Emily asks what all of it is, to which Charlotte replies, "This is my version of father-daughter time." Charlotte unwittingly gives Emily photo evidence of the man responsible for her father's murder ( White-Haired-Man) - as well as the realisation that there is another journal.

In Reckoning, after a cold goodbye with her mother, she finds out that Victoria was a victim in a plane crash. She quickly begins to panic and calls Declan for help, who instead, without listening to her, tells her to leave him alone and to never call him back. When she feels like there's nobody else to turn to, she decides to overdose on pills. When Conrad enters her room, he finds her unconscious on her bed with the pills strewn around the floor. He shakes her body, waiting for a response, but she remains motionless.

Season two

In "Destiny," Charlotte was put into rehab some time after her suicide attempt. She stayed there the whole winter and even missed her mother's funeral. She convinces Conrad to let her go to Victoria's memorial service. Emily goes to visit Charlotte. She tells her counselor that Emily has been sending her postcards from around the world, she begs Emily for her to come to the memorial, unless it would be awkward for her because of the relationship between Daniel and Ashley. Before Charlotte leaves, she asks Emily to see her again, Emily agrees. Charlotte arrives at the memorial, and after giving a loving speech about her mother, she's told by her doctor that her blood tested 'positive' for a prescription drug. As she is being forcibly removed from the party, she brakes free and whispers to Emily that Victoria is alive and she knows where she is. Charlotte has been told that the government has been protecting Victoria until they can rebuild the case against Conrad, by Victoria. Victoria has been secretly talking with her for months with a burner phone, and Charlotte was the only one who knew Victoria was alive. When her room is searched, her doctor discovers her phone, and takes it from her. Charlotte is last seen crying and banging on her door trying to get out.

In "Resurrection," Emily claims since Victoria took her mother away from her, she is going to take Charlotte away from Victoria. She realizes Victoria is going to try and take Charlotte out of the country and use Charlotte's money to do so, but Emily says Victoria isn't going to take away her sister too. Emily gives Daniel information on Charlotte's doctor, he discovers his father has been paying him to keep Charlotte there, and to tamper with her drug tests. Conrad's plan was to show the judge how unfit Charlotte is, and as a result he allows Conrad to drain her account of her inheritance. Daniel has Charlotte freed but she refuses to leave with him as she doesn't trust him, she instead goes with Emily and plans to stay with her. Charlotte discovers from Emily about Amanda's pregnancy and becomes excited over the fact she is becoming an aunt. Even though she really isn't because Fake Amanda isn't the real Amanda, and Emily watches sadly that she cant tell Charlotte she is her real sister. Charlotte tells Victoria when Emily takes her to see her that Charlotte is going to become an aunt, Victoria is less than ecstatic. Victoria is more upset because Charlotte lost her inheritance, which Charlotte realizes Victoria is as cruel as she remembers, since Charlotte remarks Victoria was more worried about the money than her. Charlotte leaves angry and hurt while Nolan and Emily watch from a hidden camera from the car. Nolan thinks Victoria is complex, the way she pushed away Charlie to protect her. However, Emily is happy her plan worked, Charlotte decides to stay in the country, though is sad what she put Charlotte through. Later, Charlotte sees Victoria in the Grayson Manor. Victoria has led everyone to believe she was held for ransom. Victoria tells her it was the only way for them to be together. Charlotte begs Emily to keep their secret, after Emily sees that Charlotte needs her mother she decides that she won't use Charlotte to get to Victoria.

Charlotte in season two has tried to distance herself from her family even more. After learning of their fraudulent and treacherous activities, Charlotte denounces that they are her family and refuses to have anything to do with them. She refuses to put on a fake smile to save and better her family's reputation. She instead spends her time with Amanda Clarke, who she believes is her sister, and the Porter family (including her supposed nephew Carl). In the episode "Collision", on her 18th birthday, Charlotte legally changes her last name to Clarke in honor of her father.

After the death of Amanda Clarke, she has started to get involved in violent activities. For a short period of time she has changed into the good, smart girl she was before until a colleague of hers; Regina; talks bad about Amanda and Charlotte punches her at the Grayson Halloween Masquerade. After a while, Regina gets closer with her after seeing what Charlotte is going through and encourages her to have fun. They sneak in clubs illegally, and Charlotte and Regina put on a show by kissing each other, letting it be revealed in the tabloids. In "Engagement", she goes to jail after being caught sneaking in to the club one day. Daniel bails her out and has a talk with her. After Daniel asks her why she is so distant to her family, she replies "I just don't want to see anyone else come into this family and get hurt." Revealing she was pregnant.

In "Truth, Part II" after the chaotic events of preceding episode, Declan dies leaving Charlotte alone with their unborn child.

Season three

In "Fear" it is revealed that Charlotte has miscarried and has been spending her time at a Grayson home in France after learning of Declan's death. She returns to the Grayson Mayor and spends a lot of her time with Jack and Carl. Her relationship with Emily becomes estranged, realizing that she is becoming more like a Grayson. She later learns from Jack that Conrad was responsible for the bombing of Grayson Global, the cause Declan's death, which makes her see how evil Conrad really is and cuts all ties with him.

Personality

Charlotte Grayson is by far the most honourable and trustworthy member of her family, being the only Grayson who considers the truth to be more important than her family's reputation. She was originally coquettish and rebellious, like any other teenager, something her mother disapproved of. Charlotte is also highly intelligent and has a perfect academic record, despite the expectations of others. Charlotte was devastated when she learned that Victoria had wondered if giving birth to her was a mistake. Unlike Daniel, who was closer to Victoria than to Conrad, Charlotte ironically had a close and loving relationship with her father than she did with her mother, which was why Charlotte was devastated along with Conrad that Conrad wasn't her real father. Charlotte is also the only member of her family that Emily did not want to harm, and although she didn't know that Emily was actually Amanda Clarke, her half sister, she turned to her for support after learning the truth about her parentage.

Although Charlotte was originally sweet, friendly, and charitable, the constant disapproval of her mother, learning that she was David Clarke's daughter, breaking up with Declan, the emotional abuse and lies of her family, and the presumed death of Victoria, who was still her mother no matter how cold she was towards Charlotte, caused her personality to change to miserable and depressed. In the season finale, Charlotte was so upset that she tried to commit suicide, by overdosing on pills. She survived the attempt, and when she found out that Victoria was still alive, their relationship became much closer. However, it is strained again, as it is nearly impossible for Charlotte and Victoria to have the same views about life and each other.

In season two, Charlotte has become more aware of her surroundings and her family's deceitful ways. She no longer trusts her own family and she constantly tries to get away from their lies that are suffocating her. She doesn't care that her family's reputation could possible be on the line, she refuses to fake a smile for the press any longer. She becomes increasingly involved with Emily's revenge scheme, yet unknowingly. Even as she tries to break her Grayson ties with her family, she gets thrown back into their lies once again, and she is usually right in the center of them. She has been looking for ways to get out of the house, such as looking for volunteering jobs at pet shelters, something Victoria is disgusted with. Victoria constantly belittles Amanda, Declan, and Emily, saying that they are low-level citizens with nothing to offer. However, she believes they offer a realness and a love that she doesn't believe she gets from her own family.

Relationships

• Amanda Clarke (otherwise known as Emily Thorne): Charlotte is Emily's younger half-sister. Emily discovered Charlotte was her sister when watching an interview of her father conducted by Mason Treadwell. Charlotte is the only Grayson who doesn't know what really happened to David Clarke. After Emily finds out Charlotte is her sister, she tries to avoid all possible plans that would hurt Charlotte. Emily wishes to protect Charlotte and be there for her, without revealing her true identity and her revenge scheme. Later, Charlotte goes over to Emily's house and they talk about Charlotte's real father. Emily attempts to console Charlotte on the swing by telling Charlotte a story Emily remembers from her childhood (that she claims Amanda told her) about David building it, trying to convince Charlotte David Clarke may not have been all bad. They end their conversation with Emily cuddling with Charlotte on the swing that their father built ("Scandal"). Emily told Nolan she was worried about Charlotte, when she went to Charlotte's room, Emily sees that Charlotte has many articles, newspapers, pictures, and records of David Clarke. Charlotte unwittingly gave Emily evidence of the person who murdered their father, with a picture Victoria had hidden in the lining of her jeweler box. Despite Emily wishing to help Charlotte, she cannot tell Charlotte that she is the real Amanda Clarke without jeopardizing her revenge plans. They are really close and Emily is one of the few people Charlotte completely puts her trust in, even trusting her over her own family. Emily reveals that Charlotte is instrumental in Victoria's downfall, meaning she can use Charlotte to hurt her relationship with her mother. Although she said she wasn't going to use these means after her first try, Amanda's death greatly affected Emily. Her hunger for revenge against the Grayson's fueled more than ever, and she plans to use Charlotte in someway to hurt the Grayson's, especially Victoria.

• Victoria Grayson: Victoria loves her children very much, although she had a better relationship with Daniel than with Charlotte. It was later revealed that Charlotte was actually David Clarke's daughter, and the reason Victoria was so cold towards Charlotte was because she reminded her of the fact that she had betrayed David. As time went on Victoria's whole family turned against her, but after surviving the White haired man's attempt to assassinate her, she became closer to Charlotte. However, she constantly belittles Charlotte, disapproving everything she does. She certainly doesn't like Charlotte hanging around Emily and Amanda, who Charlotte ironically is closer to them than her own mother. However, she does love Charlotte, even if it appears she sees her as a disgrace. Victoria always mentions how much Charlotte reminds her of David, not only by her physical appearance, but also by her mannerisms and wit.

References

External links

• Charlotte Grayson at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website
• Revenge on ABC
• Hamptons Exposed
• Revenge at the Internet Movie Database
• Revenge at TV.com
• Revenge at TVGuide.com
• Revenge ABC Revenge on Facebook
• Revenge on Twitter