“The Othello Club” by J.D. Pennington has been adapted into a 6-part miniseries called The Revenge Club on Paramount+. The show follows a group of divorcees trying to get over their feelings of loss and grief together in a group setting. But soon after their first meeting, they head off to a pub, where the real talk begins. While at the club, they’re all about poise and sadness; when they’re downing pints, they’re immediately talking about how they absolutely despise their ex-spouses and want revenge. This is when a master plan starts to come together, and the lot of them decide to seek revenge, but for each other. The excitement of making new friends when you’ve got a solid plan is always fun, but this is an extra level of delight, because everyone is hurting, and when one person gets revenge, the rest feel somehow satisfied. So with that said, let’s dive into a quick recap of all the events of The Revenge Club.
Spoiler Alert
Who Is the First to Die?
In The Revenge Club, Malcolm gathers a bunch of divorcees for therapy. He’s a great therapist, but he also doesn’t know he’s invited a group of misfits into his life. The show begins with Emily’s story, where she learns very quickly that her husband, Dan, is cheating on her with her best friend. Turns out, this (now former) best friend has also stolen her job and further continues to live in the house she wanted to live in with Dan. This leaves Emily upset for obvious reasons, but the therapy isn’t something she seemed out. It’s because she was ordered by the court to attend, and that should’ve been enough reason for us to realize what’s going to happen soon. Anyway, the gang hears Emily’s story and immediately feels like it’s reason enough for revenge. They’ve each got something to do in this elaborate plan, but Calum is supposed to release some rats, which he fails to do because his daughter is supposed to be performing at the time.
However, the plan works out anyway, because when Tej plays the music, Charlotte (Dan’s current wife) is immediately haunted by what she’s done to her best friend, leaving her completely shattered. But this leads to Calum and Emily spending some alone time together, and though Calum apologizes profusely, Emily’s totally fine with it, because it all turned out okay. Finally, they end up getting together because apparently they’re deeply attracted to each other in this moment of vulnerability.
But meanwhile, Calum is struggling with his life as a father because his daughter has effectively started disliking him because she’s spending all this time with her mother. Steve points out that Calum shouldn’t use his daughter Bella as a shield, because clearly what he really wants is revenge. So the gang decides they’re going to plant some stolen papers and send in an anonymous tip. They get Rachel to go in as a substitute teacher and steal the Spanish paper. But in this time, Calum realizes that his ex-wife wasn’t actually lying; she genuinely forgot what the timings were, so he spends the day with his daughter in the same house as her. So Calum feels bad, and he drops the papers back off, with Steven by his side. But this leaves Rachel and Emily enough time to go to the pub and have some fun of their own. They see Calum’s wife with the headmaster and send Calum a picture, but Calum’s already feeling guilty about what he’s doing and keeps the papers with him anyway. So finally, he shows his ex-wife the video and asks to be awarded joint custody. But in the meanwhile, Tej realizes that Rachel isn’t actually divorced.
So the next thing you know, the gang is ready to go after Rachel’s husband, Jack. He’s put alcohol in an energy drink and called it “Broska,” so the gang plans on ruining the event. However, by the end of this event, Jack ends up dead, face down in the pool. Turns out his drink wasn’t just spiked with the truth serum; there was also ketamine. Now the police are involved, but they don’t know about the trauma bonding just yet. Also, it didn’t take Jack long to realize what the gang was up to, so he was already certain one of them spiked his drink and made him speak crap in front of the press.
What Happens to Dan?
In the meanwhile, Emily has a word with Charlotte, who seems to be in a bad state despite having stolen everything from Emily. She also has a baby now, but Emily tells Charlotte that Dan’s basically a terrible person because once a cheater, always a cheater, and it’s clear he’s going to choose someone else after he gets bored of Charlotte. Now Charlotte tells Emily the wedding is mainly to secure her life as a mother, but Emily’s already burned her ex-friend with harsh words. This leads Dan to give her a call and yell at her, and the next thing you know, he’s found dead on his own wedding day.
On the other hand, Tej has a brother who is now an influencer and has gotten into spirituality. But he’s also interested in taking Tej’s ex-wife for himself. Tej and Mira lost a child, which is why they got divorced, but Rohan literally doesn’t care about any of this, so when he invites a bunch of people for a spiritual awakening to their family restaurant, Tej decides to do his round of revenge, and that is by putting up pictures of Rohan partying in Ibiza when he was supposed to be in India. However, it’s revealed later that Rohan didn’t actually go clubbing; he did actually go for spiritual reasons, but the pictures were deepfakes. However, he asks Tej if he’s happy about what he’s done to Rohan, and Tej says yes.
At the same time, Steve’s wife, Sue, takes him back in because he tells her that his dad is “fading.” But Tej finds out that Sue’s faking it all because she wants the inheritance once Steve’s dad dies. When Tej tells Steve this, the latter gets very upset and walks away. This is all setting up the ending of the show, though. Meanwhile, Rita makes the biggest reveal ever. Turns out, she’s been so upset this whole time because she’s Malcolm’s mother and has joined this group specifically to tell him. Yes, she’s left Jim, the love of her life, but she’s also trying to reconnect with Malcolm. Guess Rita spent a lot of time trying to blame other people, but she finally realizes she’s still in love with Jim. But in the ultimate shocking turn of events, Sue ends up dead soon after Tej reveals the inheritance thing, so it’s very clear that this isn’t a coincidence anymore; someone from the group is definitely responsible, but who?
What Happens to Calum?
Steve has a weapon and also seems to be the most violent of the lot. This is because he’s served as a marine, and he ended up killing a commander because he thought a 19-year-old innocent boy was a spy. This got Steve dishonorably discharged, leaving him sour. To make things worse, Sue didn’t care for him at all when he came back because she cared more about his status than him as a person. Sue’s death is the most violent of the lot too. She’s found locked in her car with wasp bites all over, and she’s severely allergic. Additionally, just before one of the gatherings, Rita was found bleeding from the head, wounded from the rock that Malcolm got for the group to get comfort from. This is when everybody starts to suspect Steve. But it turns out he’s being framed; he runs away with his weapon, an actual gun, making him look even more suspicious. To stay safe, Calum takes Emily away to a remote holiday home, while Rachel and Tej hide out at her place, doing drugs together. I quite like this pairing and their friendship.
Anyway, Steve comes to see these two and tells them he’s being framed. Together, the three of them realize it’s Calum who has been doing all the murdering, because he had a girlfriend when he was 19 who ended up dead by suicide at the lake near this holiday home. But they think he killed her and made it look like a suicide. Rachel gives Emily a call, and it really looks like she’s afraid and running out of the house, away from Calum, with him even running after her, making us really believe he’s a murderer. He’s also lost everything, and his daughter, his only motivation, doesn’t even care about him anymore, so he’s got nothing left.
At the end of The Revenge Club, Steve, Rachel, and Tej make it to the home and save Emily as Steve shoots Calum just as he’s running away. Calum escapes, but it almost seems like he might’ve drowned in the lake too. However, this is not where the show ends. We find out that Steve and Calum didn’t hurt anybody. Turns out, the whole time it was Emily, and she only wanted to keep her new friends happy. Emily never had anything of her own. She feels like everything was stolen from her, and being able to help these people is the only way she feels useful. She drugged Jack and let him die in the pool. She pushed Dan after he called her and insulted her, and she killed Sue when she found out she was cheating poor Steve out of his money. Sure, Calum looks like he’s the murderer at the end, but he’s in on the whole thing, and it’s the only way they can end up together and be happy. Meanwhile, Malcolm learns that he’s Rita’s son from Jim, and despite Rita knowing who hit her, I think she won’t say anything when she wakes up because she wants a happy family too. It’s only upsetting that Emily hurt her at all, because she actually does care for her, and when we see her cry, holding her in her arms, I suppose it’s genuine tears. But even if Rita does end up saying what happened, Emily and Calum will have long escaped by then. So I guess, at the end of the day, it’s a happy ending.
