Revolution, Revolution, Revolution… [Shakes head disapprovingly] Still hasn’t quite figured out story telling in terms of episode structure and creating as few holes in the plot as possible. It does take a step in the right direction after last week, however; but only a small step.
Rebel Camp
While Charlie continues to hone her warrior’s craft by taking sword-fighting classes, Rachel answers some questions about what the heck is going on. At least kind of. What she does is tell Aaron about these microscopic computer floaties invading our lungs without permission because they’re in the air. Technically their purpose is to absorb electricity and replicate, but that doesn’t mean we have to be happy about these little guys trespassing in our nasal cavities. Hold your breath all you want, but they’re everywhere. This lack of restriction to location didn’t quite seem like the plan as Rachel says that it got out of hand, but when it comes to exposition it really still is fill in the blanks when it comes to this show.
The Disappointment Child
For whatever reason, Randall seems to really hate Neville, doing all that he can to push a wedge between Monroe and his trusted soldier as he courts favor from the militia leader. And boy is Neville peeved. Being called incompetent will do that to someone. With a fire under his butt, Neville sets out to prove his ability and importance to Monroe’s cause by not screwing up this really important mission given to him by his boss.
Which he does. I guess the rebels must really have something against Lionel Richie, giving him far less of the respect that Neville feels he deserves considering I’m pretty sure Neville called the man Lionel Richard. With an explosion, “All Night Long” is cut short, and members of the neighboring rebel camp take Neville captive after Charlie sends the butt of her weapon into his face. Taking out an enemy convoy is a decent idea when it comes to short term fighting, and getting a captive is also a lucky result of the accident, but what if a second convoy had driven through that same route to see why Neville wasn’t back yet? They’d come across signs of the explosion/accident and figure that since the rebels don’t have the luxury of automobiles, their base would have to be in close proximity to the crime scene. Seems like a pretty risky gamble, but these are the writers of Revolution we’re dealing with.
Sit Down And Stay A While
Miles helps make Neville feel at home with a few punches to the face, but Neville actually does far more torture to his captors than they do to him as he goes for the psychological approach. First he tries getting Miles upset by bringing up Danny and how the whole first half of the season was all for naught because after everything they went through in their rescue attempt, they were unable to keep him safe once he was finally free.
Neville also makes a joke about his end goal being to aggravate Miles enough to kill him so his secrets will die with him, but at least Miles isn’t stupid enough for that. Now Rachel, on the other hand... Had Charlie not been lurking in the shadows, Rachel would have gotten to satiate her pull for vengeance towards the man who she blames for the loss of her child, but the loud thwack as the food tray crashed against the guard’s head brought some unwanted attention Rachel’s way. How was she planning on explaining this when he came to? I guess “the ends justify the means” would do the job.
New Kid Proving Himself
Though Neville jamming out to his music put him in the running, Jason was easily the winner of tonight’s episode. “What’s a boy band?” put him ahead, but acting as if he believed what his father was feeding him about being hard on him for his own good was a move I did not see coming. Jason just hasn’t been defined as a character past being the dutiful son, so it’s great to see him coming into his own, even being a little spiteful to his father by calling him on his BS.
Not only that, but it also gave me back a little faith in the writers. At first I thought it was another huge mistake not thought out considering how easy it was for Jason to get into the interrogation room after Charlie just stopped her mom from breaking in (though Charlie could just be an idiot by figuring the door didn’t need to be guarded as the prior watcher napped on the floor), but it was all part of the plan! You got me writers, and I high five you for the surprising turn of events.
Making His Escape
I commend the writers for that, but Neville’s escape was on the lame side of things. For starters, how the heck did he get that nail to break out of his cuffs? We already knew that he was going to break free because Rachel was so adamant that it was going to happen, so what harm would there have been to tip the hand and show when he picked up the nail? Unless it fell from the ceiling into his restrained hands I’m calling foul.
Then he went and killed the man who suddenly had a nickname this episode, as if having a more memorable moniker would make us more sympathetic to his end, stabbed through the gut. It was sad, but it was about as affective as the confusing level of impact the death of that random woman who had one line during the episode had on Jason during the big shoot out. Maybe seeing a woman die made him think of the danger his mother was in again? But that’s unlikely, so next time scrap the shot.
Another surprise of the episode was that after all the bravado Neville had while being tied to the chair and his desire to prove Randall wrong about his importance to Monroe, he ended up running home to save his wife after his escape. I was positive he was going to follow Miles and the gang out to try and finish his mission, but instead he let his emotions win out. Personally I think carrying out his mission would have been a better storyline for the episode, giving more action to shoot, which would then push the bomb reveal to the end of the episode, but unfortunately they didn’t go that route. I would have also preferred him staying a prisoner of the rebels a while longer, but seeing Neville on the run with his wife should be worth this slip up in the end.
Final Thoughts
Now that there is a nuke in play, Rachel decides that maybe a trip to The Tower would be worth it after all. She and Aaron split from the group (maybe trying to recapture the feel of the scenes between Aaron and Maggie) to see if they can get the power back on, and though I’m not sure they’re really thinking this plan out since power could just bring nukes back into the hands of more groups, I’m glad that we are getting to step away from the mother/daughter and Miles/Rachel drama. And if everyone does shoot off their nukes when the power comes back, we could move into a post-post-apocalyptic world!
So what did you think of this episode of Revolution? Let me know your thoughts on the episode, the season on the whole, and where you hope the show will go by the finale!
