Things have been greatly heating up this season on Revolution! have to be honest with you—since Revolution was not included in NBC’s early renewal round, I worry that Revolution will not be back for a season three. If Revolution is not renewed, or as some would call it, cancelled, I will be inconsolable for quite some time. NBC seems to be looking for shows that will shock people—get them hyped up and maybe Revolution hasn’t done enough of that. This is too bad considering the show has really come together this season. I am sure that the additions of Ben Edlund and Rockne O’Bannon have had something to do with that…But even more than that, I think that Eric Kripke is starting to understand that although we all love to try new things and work new angles, we can’t work those new angles at the risk of losing sight of that in which we excel. In that capacity, I think that Kripke’s move this season to expanding on the the basic “brother” story of Miles and Monroe has been a great benefit Every scene with Billy Burke and David Lyons, regardless of whether they are chumming it up at odds with each other, or what have you, just sizzle and sing—the head nods, the banter, even the phraseology, or lack thereof. We know these men understand each other profoundly. I loved in “Austin City Limits” when Miles said “Maybe you don’t know me as well as you thought you did”, Bass replied “or maybe I know you better than you know yourself”. I can’t help but wonder if Miles and Monroe had been fighting together since the beginning more people would be watching. Maybe if that was the case the show would have just incited more rage from Kripke’s Supernatural fanbase, who may have just seen the Miles and Monroe relationship as “just like” his Sam and Dean relationship.

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There are some aspects of this season that I worry about—like my growing dislike for Rachel and what appears to be blatant sabotage attempts by Rachel in her quest to be more “moral”. I’m not quite liking how it is looking more and more like Miles is going to have to choose between Rachel and Bass…

“Why We Fight”, written by Rockne O’Bannon and directed by Fred Toye was an interesting and alarming episode. The idea of why any of our heroes are fighting, or anyone at all is fighting, is center in this episode. Charlie calls Rachel to task for her recent change in perspective, Miles is shown to be fighting his own psychological demons. Neville shows himself to be fighting for the obscure ideal he keeps in relation to his wife instead of fighting for the reality of his son. We are left to wonder what Bass is fighting for—is it the idea of a new Republic he can rule like the others seem to think? Is it for believed to be dead Duncan? Is it for a better future for Connor? Or is it something else that Bass keeps locked away and we only see in his pensive gaze for a moment on the stair? There is the basic idea out that that we fight because we have to—some things are more important than we are—but who understands that actually? Who of this crew really seems to understand that as being the reason to continue the fight?

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And that is the other thing that the episode touches on—the idea that how can you expect other people to do the right thing if you weren’t/aren’t strong enough to do it yourself? We see that idea in most everything that Miles and Bass say, especially how they both point out that people will always do the stupid selfish thing. Gene decides to go into town—a town that has given all their children to the Patriots—to find people to help them. Bass says very pointedly to Gene “when you were working for creepy Uncle Sam—you knew the truth—did you do the right thing?” I think that this element with Gene and Rachel—where now, after doing so much to make things as bad as they are now, are acting righteous and frankly, seems short sighted. In my opinion, it doesn’t come off well. They seem more of a burden than the keepers of sanity—those souls that can look at a situation and say “how do I survive this and not lose myself? not lose my soul?” Maybe I’m just looking for the Peeta among them.

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Maybe I was hoping that it would be Jason. The problem was that Jason, aside from just becoming a device to further the plot as it related to Neville, now only appears to be about revenge. He wants to take down the Patriots, not in an effort to stop them from doing what they did to others, not because they are enslaving the American people even as they don’t understand that it is happening to them, but because he wants payback for what was done to himself. I was hoping that maybe Rachel or Gene could be those bastions of strength battling for the souls of all—but they aren’t. Their hatred of Monroe comes across as wanting to see Monroe fail more than they want to free Willoughby or other Americans from what fate the Patriots have planned for them.

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I don’t think Charlie can be that person either. She is willing to keep Monroe around now, seemingly because she has taken on the idea that he is a useful pit bull to keep around, not because she doesn’t believe in revenge. Charlie has taken on a Machiavellian approach to getting things done. As much as I tweet and tumblr the “Charloe” notion, I don’t think that Charlie and Monroe would be good together. They are too much alike—Both of them need another to offset them that will make each see the value in themselves and in goodness. Both of them need significant others with the Peeta ideals. Interesting to note that maybe Charlie thought Connor could be that person—although Miles indicates that they “knew” that Monroe and Connor planned to take back the Republic, Charlie’s reaction presents a different story. She has a very childish reaction talking about Connor and Monroe having matching thrones and how cute they would be. I was a bit taken aback later when Charlie essentially scoffs on Monroe’s brutalness killing injured soldiers when she had been very brutally gutting people as she walked into a room just moments before. As mentioned, I think Charlie and Bass are very similar, despite Bass calling Charlie “Mini Miles”.

I know a lot of people who absolutely love Giancarlo Esposito. I haven’t seen him in anything else—his acting is great, and I’m sure I’m supposed to hate Neville. I do. He is just slithery. He will say and do anything, and give anyone up, to save his own skin. We see this here.

Questions this episode brought up:

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This switch that Monroe has, where he goes from manageable to crazy psycho killer at the flip of it?—is this the fault of poor character development, or just trying to speed up the plot? Because it didn’t quite make sense when we think of all the times this season he has not only come in handy, but saved people?

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Is Duncan really dead?

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Marion and Gene? Really?

That end Priscilla thing? What?

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And on to “Austin City Limits”! Written by Paul Grellong and Jim Barnes, “Austin City Limits” picks up where “Why We Fight” left off. Neville finds Jason and wants him to get back on task regarding finding and killing Monroe. Jason is very preoccupied with the horrors that he went through because of the Patriots. He has decided finally to stand up to his father. Arriving at Miles and Monroe’s camp, he uses holding Connor hostage as a way to get in to talk to them. That doesn’t go over very well, but what does get Miles and Monroe to listen is the intel he has from Truman’s office. Aaron and Priscilla continue on their way back to Willoughby, but Aaron is becoming convinced that Priscilla is not who he thinks she is…

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One of the popular themes going on is about making decisions—the good and that bad of them. Jason is definitely the product of his father’s upbringing—which from what we have seen seems like it was cold and demanding. Jason constantly was trying to get the approval of Tom. Finding out that when he was put in the special Patriot Boot Camp, he succumbed to the training and excelled in it fairly fast really did not surprise me. He would have transferred the need for approval to his captor/trainers. Here, Jason first had to stand up to his father, then to the trainer from the Patriot camp. That it was cut short and he was taken over by that random number programing thing was painful. This was not a heroic death. I wanted him to at least be given the opportunity to go down on his own terms, like Danny did. Here, Jason instead found himself victim of his programing and then had to be put down like a rabid dog by Charlie. In death, then, Jason continues to be a plot point. We know that Neville will come face to face with Charlie next episode. I doubt that will go well. With Jason dead, I’m fairly confident that there is no redemption for Neville—that he will sink deeper and deeper into evil. Charlie was so destroyed by having to kill Jason, we know that she loved him. It also seemed pretty clear in the scenes that even with what Jason had done she would choose him over Connor. I imagine Connor saw that, too. Will this end Charlie and Connor’s relationship? How will Charlie process Jason’s death going forward? I also just want to take a moment to express that the final scene was very well done. I cried for Charlie. Tracy and J.D. were great. It was also very similar in feeling and action to the final moments of “All Hell Breaks Loose: Part 1” on Supernatural.

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Rachel aggravated me triumphantly in this episode. Trying to incite a mutiny in Duncan’s warriors, telling Miles to watch Monroe…And the person that she begged Miles not to kill a couple episodes ago? In this episode he was the cadet who pretended to be a Texas Ranger to get in close enough to kill General Carver. That makes me chuckle—the whole Kripke killing off Carver, thing…ahem…Miles still winds up having to shoot the boy. This makes the “choices” thing very interesting. Bass wanted to kill him, Miles let him go, then he told the Patriots where they were hiding and was not only in on the assassination attempt on General Carver but was the one that tried to pull the trigger. So Monroe’s ways are brutal, but it appears they keep getting kicked in the teeth if they do anything less than!

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One great scene was the walnuts scene! Another example though that just when Miles and Bass think that something is going their way—they have someone in Texas who believes them and they will get him to talk to who he can to get Texas in arms against the Patriots—and he gets killed. What is more, it looks like they are the ones that did it!

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Well, Kripke has done it—he has brought demons to Revolution in the form of little tiny computers. Priscilla’s actions become more and more out of place and Aaron has to ask about them. We find out that the nanites have taken control of Priscilla. When Aaron was put under by the nanites, they put Priscilla under as well. Unlike Aaron, however, who refused to accept the 2014 life they created for him, Priscilla did accept it, and was still locked in it. In the meantime, the nanites were using her body to learn about what it was like to be human. This seemed pretty odd to me. Their copies of human beings seemed pretty good before, now they seem to be losing touch with it. Maybe the difference is before they were imitating what they saw, whereas now they are trying to learn? I question though if they are being honest. In the beginning of the episode, Jason is convinced that Julia is dead and that the Patriots will never return her to Neville. He is convinced that Neville is allowing himself to be lead by this false hope he has. I wonder if the nanites are doing the same with Aaron. Is Priscilla really dead and they are attempting to recreate her? That would make more sense as to why they are not doing a good job with imitating her. If she was, wouldn’t have access to her memories so they would have the wherewithal to create a copy in tone and attitude? I wonder if the nanites, or at least a group of nanites, are attempting to keep Aaron close for some reason and so are feeding this story to Aaron to keep him on the hook.

Let me know what you thought of the episode and where you think the season will end up!

Screencaps from grandecaps.tumblr.com

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