Hello Revolution series lovers,
This is my first review of this relatively new apocalyptic series.
However, I have watched the show since it premiered. There has been much talk of Revolution ratcheting up the story telling a notch since the series went on hiatus 4 months ago. From my personal observations, it was needed.
Some of the writing was pretty bland. Suspense was slow in coming, and when it did come, many viewers had already figured out what would happen next. There are still some problems with the series left over from the beginning of the season.
An example of this is the 12 hour warning that the rebels received informing them that they were about to be attacked in the episode of The Stand. Since when is 12 hours not enough time to evacuate, especially when Randall shows up with a squad of Monroe’s militia (in this episode), and Echo Base is evacuated in minutes.
Why has Tom Neville (Giancarlo Esposito) not overthrown weak and weary Sebastian Monroe (David Lyons)? Neville is a much better Big Bad any day of the week than Monroe. If Monroe is going to be a bad guy, let him show how bad he is. Other than the sword fight with Miles, Monroe never gets his hands dirty. Should he not enjoy his work a bit more by tormenting his victims personally?
The good guys are too good. They are given opportunity after opportunity to get rid of the bad guys and do nothing. Miles Matheson (Billy Burke) had the perfect opportunity to kill Monroe at the end of the first half of the season, and got all soft hearted, letting him survive to torment and kill the good guys another day. It is not like there was no other bad guy available to take his place.
Ghosts:
This episode begins with the burial of Danny(Graham Rogers) who died a hero of the resistance. Rachel (Elizabeth Mitchell), grieving, as any mother would, reaches for her daughter’s hand but Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos) pulls away. She obviously feels ambivalent toward her mother, if not outright hostile about the events that have led up to Danny’s death.
Night falls, scouts report in that there are no other helicopters to worry about, so it seems like everything is back to normal. Except that Miles does not agree. He feels that the resistance, so far, has managed very little. He wants to become more than just a nuisance to Monroe, “you wanna take down Monroe, you gotta hit him hard. You gotta decimate his men; burn Philly to the ground”.
Then, he provides more interesting information, “if I’m going to do this, I need my guys, my militia officers”. Does this mean that we are about to see Miles go into the belly of the beast, into the heart of the enemy to get his men from Monroe? If so, how will he do this?
Once the plans have been hatched and discussed, everyone heads for safer ground. They arrive at Echo Base, the new safe haven in what appears to be an old abandoned hospital. Later in the evening, Charlie and Nick (Derek Webster) prepare to leave on a raid.
Rachel has just lost her son and is obviously terrified that she will lose her daughter as well, so she protests. Charlie’s response, “I gotta do something”. For someone who really cared about her brother, she really has not grieved for very long. Anyone who has lost someone they really care about will take much longer to get over it than Charlie has. This, to me, is where some of the writing in this show bothers me. Men can get away with acting tough and pretending things do not bother them, but Charlie should have a chance to show that she is in pain.
Aaron (Zak Orth) is unpacking his pack. He removes the two pendants they retrieved and places them on a desk. As he leaves to take care of other business, the two pendants begin to glow, which turns out to be rather significant.
In Monroe’s camp, the guy with the only working laptop has a satellite image of a map of the pendant’s location in real time. Randall Flynn(Colm Feore), the newest bad guy tells Monroe he has the means to the goal for Monroe – power, both in the form of electricity, and the other more abusable kind. They look so dastardly plotting together, do they not? Again, is it possible that a satellite orbiting the Earth 15 years after the power goes could still be working perfectly?
Meanwhile, Miles and Nora(Daniella Alonso) are looking for an old Militia buddy. As they question people about his possible where-abouts, it does not go unnoticed.
There always has to be someone who is happy to sell information to the bad guys. This low life shows up in the North Virginia Militia Camp to sell information that Miles is headed to a town called Culpeper looking for a rebel named Jim Hudson. Fortunately, the low life gets what is coming to him – death.
Back at Echo Base, Rachel is working on some math equations while gazing through a microscope at the pill shaped object that she removed from her son, Danny. We have no idea what the device is for, but it will obviously be quite significant at a later time.
Miles and Nora arrive in Culpeper and find Jim working in a library and going by the name of Henry. His real name is Jim Hudson (Malik Yoba) He is also married to the other librarian. Once they get him alone to try to convince him that they need him to help their rebel army, he pulls a gun on them and tells them to leave. He obviously has it pretty cushy in his current life and wants it left undisturbed. So would I.
It turns out that, yes, it was Mile’s fault, yet again, that Jim is now a librarian. He helped get Miles into Monroe’s bedroom, but Miles left them holding the bag.
Miles, obviously, was kind of a jerk. That is why Miles has come; to finish the job. Would I trust Miles to mess me over a second time? Not likely. Obviously, people in this show are more willing to forgive and forget, or, their hate for Monroe is stronger than their common sense.
The fight between Charlie and Rachel comes to a head when Charlie returns from her mission with blood on her face(not hers) and raw bruises on the back of her shoulder.
Rachel sees the damage and wants to look after her daughter. Charlie has no interest in being mothered. The battle heats up when Rachel attempts to order Charlie to stay at the base. Remember, she desperately does not want to lose Charlie too. As Charlie mouths off, Rachel loses her composure and slaps her daughter across the face. That ends things pretty quick.
That is when Aaron arrives, wondering what is going on, just in time for Rachel to notice that the pendants are glowing. The both of them rush outside to discover that the camp is about to be under attack.
As Miles and Jim negotiate their positions, a few things happen, Jim’s wife walks in wondering what is going on, and who the heck is Jim. I thought that he would tell her the truth, but we find out later that he neglects to inform her about who he really is. He is Conan the Librarian, according to Miles, and, although he pretends to be, he is not named Henry. Confused yet? Well, the bad guys know his real name, and they are coming.
Speaking of attacks, everyone is evacuating Echo Base. The only one who seems to have vanished is Rachel, so Charlie and Aaron duck back inside the building to find her. Randall arrives outside the hospital then leads the way inside; such bravery.
Inside, Aaron and Charlie try to get Rachel to leave, but she is intent on destroying the pendants. She pours a variety of liquids into a pan in the sink, then pulls a flash drive out of each of them and throws them into the liquid. This effectively destroys the pendants ability to create power.
Randall, who has been tracking the signals, realizes that something is up when those signals vanish. His troops outnumber the three rebels inside the building. Things are not looking good when the armed men take up positions outside all of the exits.
As Randall discovers the destroyed Flash Drives, he has a flashback to the time when everything was normal. The doorbell rings. It is the Army with bad news. Their son has been killed in action in Kabul. This obviously has a deep and lasting effect on him. We see that, like Tom Neville, Randall Flynn has his own demons forcing him to behave in ways that would likely not make his family proud.
The first thing that Rachel, Charlie and Aaron do is look for a place to hide. While they are doing that, Rachel provides a bit more information about what is going on. Her pursuer, Randall Flynn, was the Assistant Secretary of the Department of Defense, the D.O.D, and her boss. She was building a weapon.
Back at Culpeper, Miles and Nora have discovered a “Kill Squad” on their way. Henry, I mean, Jim, is very unhappy that Miles has blown his cover. Again, Miles is bad news. Now Jim has no choice but to fight. If I were him, I’d get the battle over with, then punch Miles in the nose.
An important discussion, relevant to the story line takes place at this point. Miles tells Jim that guys like them cannot have relationships. Their love for another person could get that person killed. Nora, who has a semi-regular relationship with Miles, gives him a look.
At Monroe headquarters, Tom Neville enters Monroe’s office. Monroe provides the polite, but obviously feigned concern for Tom and his wife and how they are coping after the report of his son’s death. Tom, provides an award winning performance of looking like he is still grieving but putting on a brave face. That is not why he is there, however.
Tom is feeling a little insecure regarding his position since Randall has gone to retrieve Rachel on his own. Monroe assures Tom that it is because Tom needs time to grieve. Tom, still bothered, asks Monroe if he trusts Flynn. Monroe responds, “no, but you know me, I don’t trust anyone”.
As Randall continues to look for the three rebels, we witness more of the back story between Flynn, Rachel and Ben (Tim Guinee). One month before the blackout, they attempt to persuade Randall that they are still not ready to go ahead.
Randall, the guy with the money, and likely, the guy being pressured by all the military brass, insists that they are ready to go ahead. He also has his own agenda, as we are reminded when we see that he is holding his son’s dog tags in his hands as he gives the order to proceed.
Jim Hudson steps out into the middle of the street as Monroe’s bad guys approach. It is a bit reminiscent of one of the 
Westerns of the 1960’s where the hero faces the bad guy in a shoot out. You go, Jim. We know he is outnumbered. Just when we are wondering where Miles and Nora are, we find out.Miles steps out from behind a tree and tells Captain Dekert (Nestor Serrano) that he should surrender because he is surrounded. Dekert grins, not buying that at all. A fight at close quarters ensues.
Just as Jim dispatches one of the bad guys, he looks up at the window in the house in front of him. His wife is looking back. Dekert notices that important look. He heads toward the house. After all, what is better at getting someone’s attention, and then their cooperation than a hostage?
Charlie, Rachel and Aaron get separated. As the tension mounts, and Charlie gets ready to shoot whomever is skulking around in the next hallway, she comes across Aaron. While we are wondering where Rachel disappeared to, it might also be a good time to wonder why, when there was gunfire earlier at the discovery of the three of them in the kitchen, none of the other soldiers came running toward the noise.
Should they not have become the center of attention? Instead, Charlie not only killed the bad guys, but no one seems to be looking for them in their particular area of the hospital. The place should be swarming with bad guys.
Rachel gets caught by Randall’s men. As they exit the building, Randall shares his game plan with her. He is just using Monroe to get what he wants; a new world order where the power is in the hands of the few, namely him.
All this is because of the loss of his son. He is putting an end to all the fighting, once and for all. Naturally, as soon as they exit the building, Aaron and Charlie fire on them. With lots of luck, and a much better aim than these lame bad guys, Rachel is able to break free and run off with Charlie and Aaron. Yay!
It turns out that Dekert was not interested in a hostage after all. This short sighted doofus wants to kill Jim’s wife. He likely thinks that, although his men are being slaughtered outside, that he will win in the end and then be able to report back to Monroe that both Miles and Jim are dead.
As he prepares to kill the young woman, Jim comes up behind him and finishes him off with great gusto. At the end of the battle when the bodies are being removed, Jim is forced to face his now distraught wife who has realized that this is not the man she thought she had married. Jim tells Miles, “You wrecked my life… again, you damned wrecking ball”. I was really hoping he’d punch Miles. Main character and hero of the series or not, he deserved it.
Miles, Nora and Jim catch up with the rest of the rebels at their rendezvous camp. Miles’ first concern is for Rachel. They are not far off. They are, in fact, making peace with each other. Rachel has learned that Charlie is quite capable of looking after herself, and Charlie has now forgiven her mother for not being around for most of her life.
As this episode draws to a close, Aaron approaches Rachel. He needs to understand, “we almost died today. I deserve to know what is going on”. There is a place called the tower, Rachel begins…
Thanks to Kenn for final staging of a special audio video clip in this news article and thanks to you for stopping by WormholeRiders News Agency!
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Regards,
Thank you.
ArcticGoddess1 (Patricia)