After months of waiting, anticipation for Revolution’s return is left hardly satiated as the one major gift to the viewers doesn’t forgive all of the holes and problems in the episode.
Cliffhanger’s Continuation
With the turret winding up under the base of the helicopter, things were looking grim at the end of the fall portion of Revolution. Had the shot continued, clearly everyone in the field was going to be mowed down in a shower of bullets and blood. Right? But instead, they turned and ran to freedom, making that cliffhanger all the more infuriating thanks to how easily the crisis was diverted. At least kneecap someone or something to make this matter!
Obviously the show cannot continue on without these characters, so the expectations were for the cast to get out of this situation somehow. Yet it still seemed too easy as they took shelter in the decaying shell of an old building seconds before it took a missile to the gut from the pursuing chopper. Flames erupt from its depths to an extent that would make Harry S. Truman proud; yet again we find Miles and the gang safe in an aptly placed freezer. Sure their luck is going to run out soon!
Escape From Monroe’s Base (Continued)
Before they can celebrate with the addition of Danny and Rachel to the party, there is one last leg of the journey out of the Philly area and away from Monroe, who has now put a target on Miles’ head. Thank goodness for hammerspace, which is where I imagine the gang was stashing a horse and buggy, militia uniforms, coffins, and a dead guy. The brand on Charlie’s wrist was a nice touch as the lack of use in the plots so far was impossible to miss, but the lack of explanation for the group attaining these items is just lazy. Not only that, but then everyone poured from their coffins in a clown car like fashion since the camera angle made only two coffins visible most of the time, as opposed to the five needed for Miles, Danny, Rachel, Aaron, and the corpse. If only that corpse had been Danny…
With the first ten minutes of the show edited together as if the viewing was being dictated by someone a little too trigger happy with the chapter skip button on the remote, Revolution is not off to a great start.
Not His Father’s Son
Now that Monroe has a power source, the disappointment from Miles not rejoining him at the head of the militia is short lived as he turns full attention towards putting this advantage to use immediately, striking at the rebel forces within the republic. As Neville runs through the rebel camps, calling in air strikes as each new location is revealed, it becomes clear that Jason is not the same man as his father.
Thanks to the handy dandy flashbacks, we know that Neville did not become the man he is today by accepting his weaknesses, so it’s not surprising that he is a little more than peeved at his son’s doubts about “decisively” slaughtering innocent families tied to the rebel camps. Another thing we’ve learned about Neville is that he packs a punch, and now Jason knows it too as his father takes out a surprising amount of anger on Jason’s face for being a shameful disappointment by reminding himself of the same weaknesses that Monroe just reprimanded him for. It’s hard to imagine that Mrs. Neville is going to go along with Neville’s orders to “never come home again” since she wears the pants in the family, but until the inevitable family reunion Jason has been cut free to work his way into Charlie’s group.
Jason’s first attempt is by warning Charlie about the air strike coming in, but unfortunately his abandoned puppy face doesn’t convince her that he is worthy of adopting since he has done so much to disprove his trustworthiness. But this is television, and they are a boy and girl of around the same age, so it doesn’t take a genius to see where this is going to lead, especially now that they can bond over the loss of their family.
Quality Time With Miles and Rachel
With the main body of the group at the rebel headquarters in Annapolis, Miles and Rachel go off on their own to find some thermal guided missile launchers. Guess they didn’t think to pack those along with the coffins in their infinite storage space… Finally we can get some words to go with those glances between the two in the earlier scenes, but honestly not a whole lot is explained to any acceptable level. For starters, Rachel has no response to Miles saying that he saw her dead body. Was she given some magical potion to make hear appear to be a corpse, or was it a decoy corpse of another blonde woman? Maybe she’s just really good at holding her breath. And why fake her death in the first place?
When Rachel doesn’t respond Miles continues by saying that he’s sorry he can’t make all of this up to her because he’s to blame for where everything has led. We know that he was there when she turned herself in to the militia, so it must be something more personal since he’s never really seemed too apologetic about his past before. So Miles saying something like this to her means that they have some special bond. Granted, an easier way of figuring this out was simply to notice how close their faces were to each other. Tsk tsk…
To cap off this side quest full of questions, Miles and Rachel make it to her friend John’s house, that just so happens to be sitting on top of his shop where he spends his free time building gadgets and storing weaponry, since I’m assuming he didn’t piece those together as well. Who knows where he gets the parts to build it all, but all signs point to his new friend Randall as he blasts his sonic gun with incapacitating force at his guests. We don’t get to see what Randall would want with Miles and Rachel and they manage to escape this situation, but more questions are added to the list entitled “What the heck is going on!?” Danny Is Dead!
I figured it would be a little too insensitive to put that subtitle in all caps, with “FINALLY!” as added emphasis, but we’re all thinking it. Danny needed to go. His character was lame, time wasted keeping track of him was only a detriment to the rest of the plots as those minutes could have been used to further flesh out the rest of the show, the constant pursuit by the group kept the scale of the show from growing as they were forced to go episodic in structure week to week, and his hair was just stupid, growing worse with each episode. So don’t be afraid to cheer for his death along with me in a volume that might scare your mother as well.
With Danny’s need to prove himself putting him in the line of fire during the stand off between man and helicopter in front of the base (a quick 180 from his desire to just go home after finally being rescued), odds were looking pretty good that he would get the ax as he was the least important to the story now that he was no longer the catalyst. Yet even when he picked up the missile launcher after Miles failed at taking the helicopter out, doubts ran high about just how lucky we would be. Fear turned to imagining this would just be an attempt to build Danny up into a character to cheer for as he finally adds to the fight instead of being known solely as the reason everyone is in the situation they are in, but then as one bullet after another ripped through his body, the likelihood of survival bled away.
At the risk of making myself sound like even more of a monster, we’ve got one more upside to Danny’s death to consider in line with the story being able to move on and become something more. Basically now that Charlie doesn’t have her brother to focus all her worry on, and no family to go back to, she can fully embrace the fight against the militia that she was jumping in and out of when opportunities arose along the way. It’s better for the show, and hopefully her character will finally develop into a truly BA individual to carry this show on an equal level as her uncle.
Final Thoughts
With the editing problems, the lack of conflict for a large portion of the episode, and the addition of a character that no one likes (no matter how short this lasted), Revolution needs to improve if it is going to hold audiences captive for the rest of the season. Then again, they do get a pass for killing Danny. For now, anyway.
So what did you think of this episode of Revolution ? What all happened between Rachel and Miles in the past? What is this tower that Randall got into and why did this upset Rachel? What is Level 12? Why did Neville tell Monroe that Jason is dead? It’s probably because Monroe would see this as a weakness that could dampen his motivation in certain situations, as his wife did in the last episode, but there’s no way this lie will stand. Fingers crossed that Neville does turn sides as well, though. How did Danny know what he was doing with that missile launcher? Why is Randall suddenly team Monroe? And last, but not least: what the heck was Rachel smuggling in Danny’s body? Let me know your thoughts on all things Revolution below.
