Revolution: Dead Man Walking

Well played, Revolution.  The big event of the episode was the tease of a trial and execution for bad old Monroe. 

They certainly have killed off main characters in the story so as Monroe was captured, jailed, summarily tried and led to execution, dang you couldn't help feel bad for him, guilty remorseless bad dog that he is.

They did a nice job with a few flashbacks showing just where Monroe went from good guy to bad.  They've been able to show that Miles and Monroe as a team still have that magic.
You had to feel a bit bad for Monroe knowing he had lost one child at birth and another has been hidden from him, and by Miles no less.  
Even Charlie came to appreciate him. Whoa.

Only Rachel and her father seemed immune.  It was a bit awful that the father/daughter worked as a team to set up Monroe's lethal injection.  I know they both had Danny's death as a motive for revenge, but being an executioner takes a special type of person, doesn't it?  A soulless sort?

Dr. Porter, Rachel's dad, does the dirty deed while Rachel is the person preparing the drugs.  I've suspected her dad of collaborating with the Patriots all along.  I don't know that I think he is one, but he is single minded in preserving his town and keeping it safe at any cost.  He said himself in a conversation with Rachel in an earlier episode that she gets her stubborn single-mindedness (not a direct quote) from him.  All of her ruthlessness comes right down from this seemingly gentle man.

In any case, Monroe is declared dead by Porter, we see the Rangers tossing his plain wooden coffin in a deeply dug grave. Voila.

I knew from watching Rachel's face she'd put something non-lethal but death mimicking in the vial.  The question is, why save him?  To keep Miles from turning down the dark path Monroe had set to keep the revolution going?  Best to have ol' Monroe doing the dirty work, eh? 

I don't think she was phased by being told off by Charlie.  I wonder sometimes, everyone in forums keeps saying Miles is Charlie's dad, but what if Rachel is not Charlie's mom?  It would explain her deep feelings for Danny and her disconnect from Charlie.  So, if that were the case, who is Charlie's mama?  Just tossing that out there. (update: someone on Revolution's Facebook page posited that Charlie is Monroe's baby and Miles took her to Rachel and her husband for safekeeping when she was a baby.  Now that makes sense.  Miles is attached to Charlie because he loved Emma and once loved Monroe.  Good thought eh?)

In any case, the Monroe death arc ends with Rachel, spade in hand, methodically digging up Monroe's coffin.  That should be an interesting awakening.

Tom Neville 

Tom's storyline has him frog marching a wounded Secretary Allenford across country to find Jason who is in a camp being brainwashed and drugged silly into becoming a mindless killing machine.  Wounded or not I don't trust Allenford.

Suddenly she's completely against the Patriots and is all weepy and blah blah.  Set up city, I'm calling it.

Jason actually has become a stone faced killing machine. He isn't mindless though as he recognizes (but still tries to kill) his father.  He also has the wit to say that dear old mom was having an affair with some general or some such.  Ouch.  Neville, one of the most complex villains to grace the screen, manages to not kill his son, and he tells him through grinding teeth that Jason is all he has left and he's bringing him back no matter what.  

He sent Allenford off for water.  Think she'll be back with a group of killing machine buds?  Poor Neville.  I'm always a fan of characters being redeemed and he, like Darth Vader, does have some good in him.

Next week, Dr. Creepy arrives in Willoughby.  Dr. Porter seems quite familiar with him and not repulsed as a good country doctor would be.  Aaron seems to recognize Dr. Creepy when he sees his buggy go by, the Doc doesn't seem to recognize Aaron though.

Revolution: The Stand (Spoiler City)

After a three month long hiatus, Revolution returned tonight with guns blazing.  Somehow Monroe was able to power one, then two helicopters and send them to decimate rebel bases. 

The first base was taken down by a single helicopter in a matter of moments.  It has gatling type guns and rocket launchers.

The second base was the Rebel headquarters in Annapolis.  Two helicopters were sent there.  I have to assume they flew as near to each other as possible to be powered by the amulet in Monroe's possession. 

Once again I have to wonder at the unlikelihood of the fuel being viable and ready in the copters after 15 years, plus the availability of trained pilots and crew.

That aside, Neville's son Jason had a falling out with his psycho dad and refused to fight with him further.  Neville gave him the trademark Captain Neville pounding and left him for dead, even telling Monroe he is dead.

Jason was able to warn Charlie and crew about the impending arrival of Monroe's forces.  The Rebels decided to make a stand, fanning out fighters in front of their building in hopes of shooting the pilots and crew.

Meanwhile, Rachel and Miles head off to get some serious gunpower from a fellow of Rachel's nearby.  It turns out her friend is a Very Odd Duck who makes guns and weaponry as a hobby.  He is nervous and weasly because he turns out to be in mysterious Government Dude Randall's pocket.  He takes out Miles and Rachel with a sonic device then calls in Randall.

Our buddy Randall has Grace, poor put upon kidnapped Grace working on trying to get an elevator working in the deep underground power source sort of place they're in.  Turns out he needs to get down to the twelfth level.  Grace is left in the care of a giant sleezo of a guy who she seems to fear even more than she does Randall.

Let's hope Grace is rescued next episode.

Meanwhile, back at Rebel headquarters, the helicopters begin the attack.  Just in the nick Rachel and Miles fly in with their horse drawn wagon  (like you can keep Miles and Rachel tied to a chair), and Miles aims at a helicopter with a big a** gun. 

Unfortunately, the other copter shoots and knocks him down, and Danny runs bravely and gets the big gun and takes both copters out.  He is exposed however and one of the copters sprays him with bullets before it goes kablooie, and all of the efforts of our small band to find and rescue him are for naught, he is dead.

Plots inside of plots, we see Monroe all whiny and boo hooey at his headquarters after losing his copters.  Never fear, Randall has just driven up in a Cutlass and offers to help him, toady gun maker in tow.

In a last scene Rachel visit's Danny's body and tells him she loves him to the moon and back, just as she had right before his Randall arranged surgery (which theoretically helped his asthma condition).

Then she shockingly takes out a pen knife, raises his bloody shirt and makes an incision in the side of his chest.  Digging in, she pulls out a small tubular flashing light. 

In the previews for next week we see her heading to "The Tower" where she says she can turn the lights back on.  This is theoretically where Randall is holding Grace, I hope.  Grace deserves a break and I know Rachel can kill the giant toad guy guarding her.

Every episode which features lots of Elizabeth Mitchell time is a good episode, for me.  I think the acting for all cast is hugely better, the plot was tighter, it was a good return episode.

Other tidbits:

Aaron wanted to stop the revolution and go home now they were all together and they had Danny.  He also had plenty of questions for Rachel about her not being the ordinary housewife he had thought she was.

There was a wee moment of tension, dare we say romantic, between Miles and Rachel on the way to Mr. Odd Duck the Gun Lord's  place which she pushed off from.  Hmm, was Miles in love with his brother's wife lo those many years ago so he sent for her to "protect" her?  Tsk.  Separating her from her husband and kids, what a snake, no matter why he did it. 

Revolution Recap Clip

Fresh from the Revolution web site, a catchup clip in case BY CHANCE you forgot what the heck happened all those months ago.  The show returns Monday March 25. 

http://www.nbc.com/revolution/?__source=Reso_Revolution_MediaAds&hcoref=search&WT.srch=Google

Revolution: Nobody's Fault But Mine

I had to stop writing about the show for awhile because it had become TOO AWFUL. Somehow in the last few episodes, a miracle has occurred.

Perhaps several.

Charlie’s character has become the sort of girl you would expect her to be given circumstances. Quieter, more thoughtful. Less bullish. Not soooo bratty, pouting, entitled.
It is as if a different actress were in the role. Maybe Tracy just needed time to find her stride and her inner dare-I-say heroine.

I’ve wondered if the cast and crew have rallied behind the young actress and coached her into being a Charlie we can root for. I could be wrong. She does seem strongest in scenes with her uncle Miles. I thought she handled the reunion scene with her mother and brother Danny very well.

The plot thickens. Miles and Monroe face off. Friends since boyhood they are unsure if they can fight the other effectively. Monroe really bares his soul and begs Miles to come back to the republic only to be turned down. A fight to near death with swords ensues. Miles escapes!

Rachel kills the psycho killer guy with a hammer and a spike to the chest. Don’t fool with Rachel. I’m thinking at End Game she will take out Monroe with a screwdriver or toothpick to the groin. Somehow she knows and appears to be buds with Aaron. Maybe she can toughen him up.

Aaron was a really likeable character for me until his backstory episode. Leaving his wife to face whatever bad things would come “because he couldn’t protect her”. Weak. He seems as if he simpers in every scene he is in since then. Disturbing.

Great scene with Miles holding Neville’s wife hostage and Neville absolutely spitting bullets that Miles went into his home and laid hands on his wife. Yow. The secret plan of Neville and his wife to take over the Republic would result in an even nastier regime, I’m sure. Neville’s son will have to join our rag tag crew in the Revolution to overthrow these bad folks.

Unlike some, I’ve been a fan of Nora all along. She is one tough woman but has a sense of honor that doesn’t quit. I liked her back story enormously and feel her desire to protect her sister is part of her deeply decent human ways.

In the last scene our group is reunited at last but on the run with a newly amulet powered helicopter facing them down.  We won't mention the unlikelyhood of a real helicopter pilot being at hand to hop into that puppy and go right after our heroes and heroines.  Or that the fuel in the copter is still viable. 

The show is on hiatus until March 25. This trend of putting new shows on long hiatus before they really have established their audience seems so foolish. Who will remember to watch by March?

Revolution: Soul Train

Interesting episode, dare I say.  This is because the greater focus was on Captain Tom Neville.  He is shown developing from a harried office worker to a tough man who will do anything to defend his family.

Big reveal! Not Nate is his son Jason!  That certainly explains alot.  Jason, after watching this episode, seems to be a better man than his father has become.  That is why he seems to have a soft spot for Danny.  The kid is just more humane. 

Also, Neville keeps working to toughen up Danny I suspect in part, because he really does see the softness and weakness of his own son in Danny. 

Charlie and company work to stop Danny from getting on a steam train to Philadelphia.  Critics of the show have belabored endlessly the fact that the 15 year power outage exiles should be able to use steam. Voila!  A steam train.  The man working to get the train going complains that the train should be in a museum and it is unlikely to make the trip.  Our Captain Neville tells him he can push it the remaining way to Philadelphia if need be.

We got a look at a map of the Monroe Republic:

I had feared that the little psycho had the entire nation but, though he has a large chunk he doesn't have it all.  I suppose having this train will give his empire some oompf.

Charlie of course foiled everything by accidentally running into Neville in town as they were all split up looking for Danny, then following him in a lumbering, Charlie-determined manner.  Shocker he noticed and grabbed her in an alley and stuck a blade to her neck.  Cue Miles to show up and have a chat with his old buddy Neville.

In other developments, Nora plants a bomb on the train to blow up Neville and a bunch of officers in her duties as rebel.  She works with the lone other rebel in town, a crusty old guy who has lost everything.  At the last minute she decides, after looking mooningly at Charlie, that she made a mistake and can't blow it up with Danny on it.  The old geezer wants revenge for his wife's death though, so he stabs her (causing me to briefly think, whoa, they're dispatching another character so quickly...but no just a teeny gut wound) to keep the train on the track to kablooie land.

This gives Charlie and Miles the opportunity to channel old westerns as they easily grab two saddled horses and take off after the train.  Miles leaps train car to train car to get at the log, which he easily recognizes among the hundreds on the car and in the furnace.  Reaches into the fire, grabs that exploding log out and tosses it just in time.

Charlie meanwhile spots Danny in the train car with Neville, plays peek a boo with him a couple of times before Danny decides to make his move.  With Charlie locked outside whacking at the locked door handle barehanded he fights Neville (who had beat him bloody earlier in the episode for fun though Danny's lovely snoot shows no sign of a fight, no swollen lips or broken nose).  Charlie gets the door lock off, pops in and lo, Jason aka Not Nate grabs her from behind.  It doesn't matter where he came from, nope.

Despite the odds, both Charlie and Miles manage to escape and leap from the train, then watch it go away down the tracks.

Last scene: Charlie gives a rah rah "who is coming to Philadelphia" grumbly speech and moves out, clearly now the strong one and the group leader in the minds of the shows' writers.  That's right guys, if you say this is the point at which Charlie has matured and becomes the decisive leader amongst bozos you intend her to be, then by gum we are buying it. Absolutely.  My heroine, yo. 

Revolution: No Quarter

I'll just say this episode was not as bad as the first two, though it is still highly flawed.  I'm not sure if this was because there was less focus on Charlie and more on others, or if Charlie was mostly more calm than previously.

We have Nora, Miles and Charlie attempting to help a group of wounded rebels escape a "base" in a restaurant.  They have the one sniper rifle and the large group of militia have tons of guns and ammo.  There is a standoff once the sniper rifle comes into play.

Miles suggests they tunnel out the back wall of the restaurant (criminy!) instead of trying to ease people out the windows in a back room.  Doh.

Once the sniper runs out of ammo the militia charge the restaurant which they could have done at any time rather than just letting themselves get picked off one by one to use up the sniper's ammo as their leader (Jacob from Lost) directs.

The militia leader is an old buddy of Miles and he lets everyone know that Miles is head of the Militia, that he created it, and has been Monroe's right hand man since the beginning.  Miles turns himself in to the militia in return for the militia letting the rebels go.  They agree to this for no good reason, once their leader is freed they would in fact wipe out the rebels and away they go.  But.

Next thing you know the militia leader and Miles are walking across a bridge shooting the proverbial breeze and yo, explosions go off, Charlie and Nora pop up and grab Miles in the confusion and take him posthaste to the other end of the bridge. 

Charlie, barely lifting her crossbow or aiming manages to hit bullseye! a backpack full of explosives she cannily dropped in the center of the bridge.  Eye poker!

Aaron and Maggie spend the episode hanging out in Grace's house.  Grace is gone we don't know where.  Aaron tries to put together her smashed computer in vain.  Maggie hangs out calmly.  After a short speech by Aaron talking about all that has been lost to him in the blackout, suddenly his amulet glows and power comes on for a minute or so.  A walkman on a table plays Marvin Gaye's "I heard it through the grapevine".  Maggie's iphone powers on and her kids smile out at her.   The power goes away as suddenly as it began leaving them stunned.

Daniel, the whiny pouty brother of Charlie has to deal with a nasty bully who beats him in retribution for his dead friend who Daniel killed with a crossbow in episode one.  I'm not a fan of seeing anyone tied up and beaten, especially a goofy misguided kid like Daniel.  Luckily Daniel has a bit of spark, when the guys comes around again he fakes an asthma attack and throttles the guy warning him he'll kill him if he messes with him again.

Good Charlie moments were where she seemed like a normal character when she was tending the wounded, and when she listened to Nora's story.

Bad Charlie moments when she got all peeved about Miles and his bad boy past and when she called her dead father a coward.  Also that half arsed shot she took at the backpack.  Whap.

Next week's episode merrily promotes that SOMEONE DIES!  They try to show a little bit of everyone including a tied up Charlie so you go oh nooooooes, but we all know poor Maggie is marked for death.   Keep that suspense coming, guys.

Revolution: Chained Heat

Miles and Charlie split off from Maggie and Aaron in tonight's episode. 

Charlie follows a reluctant Miles to find an old friend who can help them get Danny.  The friend is on a chain gang hauling a helicopter through the woods.  Apparently Monroe is confident the power will be restored and he plans to have tools such as this at his disposal.

Nora is a total badass woman who didn't need rescuing, so she says.  Pretty tough, I must say. 

Charlie follows Nora's lead and her moms toughie lead (shown in flashbacks), playing innocent and getting close enough to the chain gang warden to shoot him with a jury-rigged pistol.  She shoots another man with a Big Gun liberated from the bad guys.  She seems confident in taking these actions, justifying the killings with the observation that the men are holding 30 innocent people as prisoners.

She had stopped Miles from killing a bounty hunter earlier, so she has scruples of some sort that say when to kill and when to be merciful.

A flashback scene has her family accosted by a man who threatens Charlie then walks away with all their food in a wagon.  Charlie's father is unable to shoot to stop the man but Charlie's mom takes him down.

Charlie was followed in tonight's episode by "Nate" that Taylor Lautner wannabe who is really a member of the militia trying to get to Miles.  Small hint again that he saved her because he has been smitten by her edgy good looks.

Daniel gets to see more of Neville's hard justice.  Gunshots are heard as their wagon goes along.  The militia confront a man with a deer hanging from his clothesline (boy that was quick).  Because it is a crime for anyone but Monroe's militia to have firearms, Neville tries the smooth talk first to get the guy to admit he has firearms, then switches to ruthless mode when the guy tosses out his rifle but balks at letting the militia into his home.  The man is shot and his home is ordered to be burned after he also is revealed to have a United States flag in his home.  Very heavy handed sequence, I thought.  See what gun control could be, it says.  Two points to Daniel for telling Neville he is just a psychopathic murderer.

Grace, who is typing away madly on her Commodore 64 hears a knock at the door.  Bad news as we just see a pair of boots, Grace locking the door and running back upstairs to boot the computer up quick and type in Randall is here.  We fade out on the faceless man with a glowing cattle prod (I think) standing in front of her.

Aaron and Maggie were on their way to Grace's place.  Although I only heard Ben tell Aaron to keep the amulet safe before he died, Aaron says he was told to take it to Grace and the location where she could be found.

If we're lucky, Maggie and Aaron will arrive on Randall's heels and Maggie will take that prod away from him, or show him its pointy end at the least just in the nick.

Last strong woman of the night is Charlie's mom, sitting at a writing table  when slimy ol' Monroe pops in.  He tells her Ben is dead then demands to know everything she knows about Ben and his work, whilst wringing her neck, never the best posture for spilling the beans.

I thought the show was a bit edgier, more swearing and shooting (by a teen) thus earning the show the late timeslot.   All of the strong women are appealing.  Miles gained points for telling Charlie to shut up and that she was a pain.  Amen.

Revolution

Tonight is the premier of Revolution, a new science fiction show that has all of the lights and power and energy go out in some mysterious event.  The setting of the show is fifteen years later than the event. 

It looks so super earnest and cheesy. Shades of Terra Nova.  The lead actress seems so bratty.

Can't wait!

http://www.nbc.com/revolution/video/revolution---first-look/1412426/