Courtesy of NBC
Revolution kills a week by stranding the majority of the core cast in an abandoned junk yard and killing off the Red Shirts one by one. Meanwhile, Rachel (Elizabeth Mitchell) goes on the offense so that Aaron (Zak Orth) can gain access to the Tower.
Let’s bitch it out…As always, let’s break down the pros and cons:
+ (Pros)
- Mysterious People: There’s a quick shot from a group of people watching Monroe (David Lyons) and Randall (Colm Feore) try to access the Tower. Who are these people? Where’s Grace (an unseen Maria Howell)? It’s such a fleeting moment without any kind of exposition, I’m genuinely curious to see what the story is with this place and its inhabitants. What could be more powerful than power?
- Cliffhanger: I’ll refrain from asking why Rachel could’t simply lob the grenade into Monroe’s tent and save us all the trouble, but at least there’s some semblance of excitement to see whether next week’s episode opens with two of our core cast impersonating spam
– (Cons)
- Nora’s (Daniella Alonso) escape: After upping the dramatic stakes by having her captured by Monroe last week, she spends all of five minutes of airtime being tortured before turning back up in Miles’ (Billy Burke) camp? Talk about throwing away any kind of narrative urgency! And for what? So that we can pretend that she’s gone looney tunes in a Revolution re-enactment of 10 Little Indians?
- Character consistency: Monroe doesn’t trust Randall because he doesn’t like him? Fair enough (Randall’s so slippery, he’s practically coated in grease). The issue is that it’s been established that Monroe has become increasingly unstable and paranoid, so why does he nearly kill Randall for not telling him about the Tower and fail to do anything to Sanborn (Leland Orser)? The other scientist clearly also knew about the Tower the whole time, and he’s less useful than Randall, so why is Sanborn allowed to live? Oh right…so that he’s around to drive Nora back to Miles’ camp and then arbitrarily be killed. Riiiight
- Faux drama: The faux-drama between Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos) and Jason (JD Pardo) about how she can’t trust him because he’s lied before. The faux-drama of Neville (Giancarlo Esposito) not trusting his son because he blames him for having to switch sides. The faux-drama when Miles goes after Jason for committing the murders. It’s all just phoney-baloney drama designed to stretch out the narrative in an episode that is itself already a stall tactic to delay the core group’s arrival at the Tower. We know that neither Jason or Nora has betrayed the group, so why does the show insist on insulting our intelligence by trying to convince us otherwise?
- Jim (Malik Yoba) as foe: This bit had potential: in many ways it mirrors Miles’ relationship with Monroe: betrayed friendship as a result of Miles’ habit of effing everyone over. This could have been really interesting…at least until you realize that there’s no sense of betrayal or shock because we don’t know who the hell Jim is! Let’s face it: we know he and Miles were friends long ago and that Jim has a wife. Aside from that, however, he’s a cypher and he’s barely been on the show (he appears in three: 1×15 ‘Home’, 1×13 ‘The Song Remains The Same’ and 1×12 ‘Ghosts’)! In all honesty, I’d nearly forgotten all about him until he decided to crash the away party and pull a Michael Myers. So the guy’s a killer….and now he’s done. Resounding shrug.
Courtesy of NBC
~ (On The Fence)
- Episode titles: At this point it’s pretty clear that the show is just riffing on famous properties, right? Does that make Revolution more clever, or does it just make us wish we were watching the original?
- Thank god Miles can fly a helicopter: Because, of course he can. He’s Miles freakin‘ Matheson. He’s the Chuck Norris of Revolution
Best Lines:
- Generic Guard (when Sanborn says he’s there to kill Nora): “Too bad, she’s a fine piece of tail” Way to stand-out with your one line, day-player!
What are your thoughts: did you enjoy the murder mystery or find it oh-so-tedious? Are you excited by the possibility that both Rachel and Monroe are paint smears on the tent wall? Who are the mysterious Tower people? Did they eat Grace? Sound off below
Revolution airs Mondays at 10pm EST on NBC
I felt the same way about this episode – it was a stall tactic, for sure. I fell for it though; I really didn’t know who was doing all the killing – I wondered if it truly was Nora or if it was Sanborn, I definitely didn’t think it was Jason – he’s way too into Charlie to go against her. I was surprised that it was Jim, but I also didn’t really care, ’cause, like you said, I know nothing about him. I don’t trust him or distrust him. He’s just like, there. I thought the way it was revealed was kinda cool – with the initials on the knife, but I was sad that Sanborn got killed off. I like the actor. I liked him on ER, at least. Plus, I thought they needed him to run the generator thingy. Guess not.
There’s no way anybody survived the grenade, but now that I think of it, maybe they will have Rachel survive because she’s got that thing in her leg…?
Does anyone else find it odd that Miles founded the militia and yet, it’s called the ‘Monroe’ militia? Why not the ‘Matheson’ militia? The M emblem would still be appropriate.