Another great episode of Revolution this week! I am really loving how the storyline has matured this season! Our characters have become quite textured. The storyline has me really itching to find out where it is all going. I wasn’t sure whether I was going to like Connor or not, but I really am liking him a lot so far. Sure it helps that Mat Vairo is very easy on the eyes (I really like the scruff). I also loved the Miles and Bass banter and it is always great to see them fight together. We had the added, cute “proud dad” Bass moment, too! “He’s pretty good, huh?” “Shut up and focus!”
I am happy to report that the great Bass lines for the episode continued even without David Rambo having writing credits! This episode was written by Rockne O’Bannon (who I have loved since Farscape) and Ben Edlund (since I have loved since, well, obvious much?) Michael Offer directed this intense hour of altercation and revelation!
Aaron, fresh arrived in Spring City not only finds out that Grace is living there, but also that somehow his pre-blackout wife has also ended up in Spring City. Miles and Rachel make a plan to rescue Bass from Connor and his boss, Sr. Nunez (Joaquim de Almeida), Charlie and Gene try to uncover what the Patriots have up their sleeve with the strange compound they are constructing and Jason makes a very scary discovery about the origins of the soldier reprogramming and what Julia’s husband, Doyle, has planned for its future…
If it wasn’t for the promo, I never would have guessed that Priscilla was coming back. I felt like her story ended last season when Aaron found out that she had remarried and had kids with her new husband. Priscilla is in a totally different situation now. After she started seeing the fireflies, she thought that she was going crazy. Her husband left her and took the children. Maybe Cynthia was a better person than Priscilla’s husband was, maybe Aaron just hid what was going on better than Priscilla could. Cynthia was at a point where she was afraid of Aaron after finding out what he could do. Whichever way it was, the final outcome is that Priscilla and Aaron now are both in Spring City—apparently lured there by the nanites. As Grace said, the nanites seem to want to know about their parents. Aaron’s operating system was used in creating the nanites and we now know that Priscilla helped with Aaron’s creation. The nanites have learned how to network and have become sentient. Grace mentioned that they are now essentially god-like in this world. They are everywhere like a big brain overseeing everything. We also know that there is a third person that helped in the process—Aaron and Priscilla’s friend Peter. Grace wondered why he wasn’t brought to Spring City. I wonder this, too. I imagine he will show up sooner or later. He might be dead (that didn’t stop the nanites from bringing Aaron back though). He could have control over a schism of the nanites. Maybe he is a bad seed that has some nefarious plan for them all. I am curious to see where that storyline is going—although I will admit that Aaron’s storyline is far from my favorite part of the series…
Every week Julia gets more and more on my nerves. Calling her Lady MacBeth is too good for her. I never really saw Lady MacBeth as evil. Even though she taunted her husband and pushed him into action, she really loved MacBeth and she thought that he really wanted to become king. I never had the impression that she much cared about the idea of becoming queen or having power and prestige herself, but that her actions were more a response to MacBeth’s griping about wanting power and wanting promotions. Of course I did play Lady MacBeth in college in an acting class and you really cannot play a believable bad guy if you see your character as two dimensional and just evil. You really need to be able to rationalize your character’s actions—so there could be some of that going on for my part, but still, she seems more Hedda Gabbler to me. Julia wants the power, prestige and convenience for herself. The more and more I see Julia, the less and less I think Neville can trust her. I also wonder if what Jason said when he was still under the “reprogramming” about Julia and how she was cheating on Tom was in fact accurate. During the scene with the three of them, I couldn’t help but wonder how can a nice guy like Jason come from two very sketchy people like Julia and Tom? I’m starting to really like Jason and hope that he gets a bigger storyline. Meanwhile, I am starting to think that the best thing Tom can do is get as far away from Julia as he can. I don’t trust her to protect anyone other than herself. Although maybe in truth they deserve each other…
At the end of the episode Jason was taken in for questioning regarding Doyle’s tent being broken into. We don’t know the full extent of what Jason has seen, but we do know that the Patriots are not only opening more reprogramming centers, but also are going to start taking people out. We have already started seeing this with the “quarantine” camp being constructed outside of Willoughby. Truman said that they are opening a quarantine because of the cases of Typhus. How much you want to bet those oranges were injected with Typhus? Since the oranges were so widely distributed, there will be a crazy amount of people infected. The Patriots have begun culling the herd…
Last episode we met Connor, who, like a good apprentice to the Emperor, brought Bass in to meet the Cartel boss, Nunez. The decision was to sell him to the highest bidder. Miles won’t leave Bass to the Cartel and with all his regular bravado, Miles broke into the compound. I really loved the timing on the conversation with Bass and Connor. Bass explained to Connor that he has known dozens of men like Nunez. He will turn on Connor as soon as Connor messes up. Just as Connor said he wouldn’t mess up, he was hit over the head by Miles. Bass won’t leave Connor because he knew this kind of failure would mean the end for Connor. Miles was then captured trying to leave.
That was great too! The Miles and Monroe banter. I don’t agree with what Miles said about this being Bass’s first selfless act, but it was a funny line. Bass appeared a little lost when Miles said that as well. Miles doesn’t seem to understand that it isn’t the power really that Bass wants, but the acceptance and the love of people he loves. We even saw it when Bass asked what he really had to give to his son but himself. I think Bass has a low opinion of himself and really only sees people caring for him if he can give them something. I feel like this may be his motivation as far as telling his son that they can take back the Republic. During the conversation with Connor at the end of the episode, Bass’s tone appeared less interested in actually having the power and more interested in having something that would make him useful to his son.
I really am enjoying (and fanning over) the Monroes. Bass I have been fangirling over for a while, but Connor is my new Monroe obsession. I think Mat Vairo is doing a great job of showing similar gestures and attitude to those of David. I also loved how we saw his shift this episode to being on the side of Nunez, someone who has been like a father to him for years, to Bass, who not even knowing him was willing to do anything for him. I loved that little lesson in how important blood should be. Miles was aggravated (and maybe a little jealous) with Bass in that Bass would lay his life down for his son (Oh, shut up. You’ve been his dad for five minutes now all of a sudden you’re Cliff Huxtable?) We can see that goodness in Connor, too. He took a chance getting the key to Rachel, and saw the true nature of Nunez. I’m excited to see how Connor develops as a character. Will being around Bass make him a better person? Will it make Bass a better person? How about the others? What effect will Connor’s presence have on Miles’ and Bass’ friendship? Can we get Charlie in the storyline somewhere?
I am loving all the acoustic (and Spanish) versions of classic rock songs! Among the ones heard in the episode this weeks were “Born to be Wild” and “Black Betty”! Let me know what you thought of the episode and your thoughts on where this is all going!
Screencaps from grandecaps.tumblr.comgrandecaps.tumblr.com
Disclaimer: I have been reading Divergent, so the slips into present tense when going over the episode are because of that…
