I was initially thinking of writing into this week’s review a letter to the men I lovingly refer to now as “my two REVO Davids”…That would be David Lyons (Sebastian Monroe) and Executive Producer and writer David Rambo…In said letter I would gush about how wonderful they both are, how they brought to life a character that I didn’t fall in love with right away, but over time and more profoundly. But since I know there is still a distinct possibility that I may be fashioning a poppet and affixing a picture of Eric Kripke to it before making it look like a deranged pin cushion, or (more likely) suing him for intentional infliction of emotional distress, I decided instead of doing a cute little blurb letter I would spread the love all over my review…because again, Eric still has approximately 43 minutes of air time in which he can crush my soul.
When I was in high school, I had to go over a classmate’s house to work on, if memory serves, a science project one day. It may have been an English project…but that’s not important right now. While we were working she brought up what a disappointment high school was. She had expected it to be like Grease–with singing and dancing in the halls, the T-Birds and the Pink Ladies. I didn’t. I thought high school would be like a John Hughes movie…and it actually was a lot like that…
Sure, the Brat pack went through even fake high school about ten years before I did but the feelings were the same. I was scrolling through my tumblr timeline and I saw current high school age tumblrers blogging about and creating gifs for the same movies. These movies have held up…and sure certain things are different now–clothing styles, texting and tumblr posting instead of note passing for a couple examples, but the feelings are the same, the situations similar because we all have something that links us–the human experience. As a writer, or an actor or any artist trying to tell a story, that is what I would want to accomplish…to tell those stories that withstand the test of time–and I’m not talking about technology (because who hasn’t watched Alien and thought “Wow, the future sure looks vintage”), it’s about humanity. It’s about celebrating the human spirit with all of its endless possibilities for achievement, redemption and love, even in the face of defeat, obsession and hatred. In one word: hope. The possibility that we can all be more than what we are today, and that we can choose to not allow our past to define us. These stories are our legacy. Maybe 100 years from now, someone will look back at these stories and feel closer to us, understand us and learn more about themselves in the process…
I don’t watch a lot of television–well, not first run anyway. I joke that I’m so commitment phobic I can’t even commit to a tv show…but I’m only half joking…So when I do find a show worth watching, I tend to get a little obsessive about it. For years I have watched Supernatural. I wanted to get a little more writing for various shows under my belt instead of writing on just a “fan” basis, so I wanted to branch out this year. Revolution, being Kripke’s new baby, seemed like a good fit. I didn’t plan on obsessing about it. I didn’t plan on it taking precedence over Supernatural. I didn’t plan on falling in love with characters in ways more deeply than I did with Supernatural. But I have. As some fans are wont to do, I can harshly critique an episode when I am unhappy with it, but that is because I know that the story and the characters deserve so much more. This week’s episode of Revolution reminded me of why I get so upset about some of the story lines or the direction of some of the characters. This week’s episode was a truly amazing hour of television.
That’s not to say that I don’t see the questions regarding the story line itself. Sure, I would like to know how Dan and Company managed to stay levels and levels underground for fifteen years. How do they grow food down there? How do they get new textiles for clothing? Is Level 12 a sustainability farm? IS LEVEL 12 THE GENESIS CAVE???? And where do they go to the bathroom or take showers? And I still want to know why the world didn’t just revert back to gaslight, anyway? Or solar power, or nuclear…coal??? I mean we had electricity on a wide scale basis for less than 100 years, so why did everything fall apart so fast? But Kripke and the writers aren’t scientists, they are storytellers, observers of the human condition…So I can look past these questions, suspend disbelief, if the storytelling of the characters’ trials and tribulations is compelling enough…
“Children of Men” was written by David Rambo and Jim Barnes, and this episode truly got to the heart of many issues. A couple scenes seemed a little over dialogue wise, namely the scenes with Dan and his group, but I truly loved the dialogue in the Rachel and Bass scenes. David and Elizabeth were so amazing–I could really feel how conflicted both of them were. We could see Bass’s pain as he tried to come to terms with how much of a mess everything had become. We saw pieces of it in past episodes, like with Emma in “Home”, or with his final talk with Jeremy in “The Longest Day”, that Bass has been struggling over who he is now,what has happened to who he was and the Republic he and Miles created. For Rachel, I can’t wait to find out more about her backstory with Bass, as she seemed to actually be angry with him on a few levels–not only because he MURDERED her son, but because HE murdered her son. As in how could he have let this happen? She also seemed torn in finding out about Bass’s son. The fact that Bass told her about his son, that he shared that with her and allowed her to see that much of a potential weakness in him, is huge. I wonder if any of his officers even knew about his son. I wonder if anyone except Bass and whoever Emma told knows about him. I hope someone does know, because I do hope that Bass finds him. Meanwhile, this knowledge in the wrong hands, could be used as a way to manipulate or hurt Bass. We know he has built a fortress around himself, trying to insulate himself from being hurt due to some serious abandonment issues. Bass opening up like this is such a wonderful step in the right direction–a step in the direction of trying to learn to rely and trust others…which Rachel did seem to acknowledge by stopping Charlie from going after him.
I think Bass’s search and eventual discovery of his son would be a great story line, akin to the Angel and Connor storyline (Angel) when Connor got back from the Hell dimension…well, with any luck Kripke and Company will do better than the way that crazy relationship went…I have to admit, I was not happy with the last two seasons of Angel…
Picking up right where we left off in “Clue”, Rachel has wandered into Monroe’s tent with the grenade and pulled the pin. Franklin and Monroe’s guards spring quickly into action and the grenade is tossed out of harm’s way just in time. Captured now by Monroe, Rachel is brought to the doors of the Tower. Randall has failed to open them, but for some reason, Rachel’s access is granted and Monroe, Randall, Rachel and a few of Monroe’s men go into the tower. Randall shows the satellite screens, but in order to actually have power, they will have to go to Level 12. They take the elevators down, but can only go to Level 11. Upon exiting the elevators, they are greeted by coil gun wielding Ohers intent on killing them all. Monroe and Rachel wind up in a bunker of sorts and are forced to help each other…Meanwhile Miles, Charlie, Nora, Jason and Neville arrive at the tower and find Aaron. With Rachel inside the Tower with Monroe, Miles knows they have to get inside. Luckily, Aaron has that journal and the access codes.
As Scully would say, my theory has evolved…I wanted to believe (notice the continued X-Files imagery?) that NBC would have cleaned up their act regarding promos, but apparently they still need a public flogging. They have given quite a bit away regarding the season finale next Monday, and that, along with the events of “Children of Men” , have forced me to reevaluate my theory over who lives and who dies in Monday’s episode.
I was not surprised regarding Neville’s ploy to cause doubt within the militia to try to insight mutiny. Obviously he is going to try to save his own skin. If anything, Neville has shown a real gift for that. I think the thing that gets me is that these boys are so scared they will believe someone who sounds as snakelike as Neville does talking about going against Monroe. In the promo, I was not surprised to see how fast he changes his tune about things…I don’t want to give it away, so I won’t go any further than that. Jason seems to have inherited that same sense of self preservation–but I think he would be willing, right now at least, to do the noble thing to protect Charlie. I don’t think he’d sell her down the river to save himself.
I did like how Neville was the voice of the audience in that scene where he questions Miles about Rachel. Because Miles is very fixated on Rachel, and I liked that we had that moment where we saw Nora (well, two moments, because there was one in “The Longest Day” as well) show some question and even some jealousy possibly, over Rachel. I feel this could be a good triangle, but this is where one of the places in which my theory evolved–because I feel maybe NBC did give us too much and Nora does die. We know that someone in the original group dies…Jason could potentially die trying to save Charlie…but he wasn’t really initially part of the group….This pretty much leaves Nora or Aaron…
I thought Aaron would go, but now I am thinking not…not with the Harry Potter-esque scene with Grace. Grace says that Aaron is “kind of a big deal around [there]”. Aaron’s reaction, and just his whole placement, gave me a very unlikely hero Harry Potter feeling about where Aaron stands in this. We probably find out that his technology is what saved the whole process and why Grace was able to make the pendants in the first place…or some such…My idea that Aaron could die was predicated on the fact that the power CAN’T come back on or the premise for the show is ruined. This is where I have to clap my hands and make an expression of not unlike Paul Giamatti’s at the end of “The Illusionist” over the ingenuity of the writers…
When the power goes off, and by power, I mean us, in real life–have you ever been told to unplug everything so there isn’t a huge power surge when the lights come back on? That if you leave things “on” and plugged in when the circuits are live again it could short out everything? I have. I generally don’t bother to unplug or even put things in the “off” position, but I have been told that is a possibility. I think that’s what Grace is talking about here. Think about it. No juice in any outlets for 15 years. how many of those have been chewed on by rats or other vermin? how many open wires are there? Think now all of a sudden juice going back into all those lines…Raging inferno possibilities and a massive short that could take out everything rendering the power incapable of being turned on ever again…See if that happens, they would NEED Aaron to stay alive because of the hope that he may be able to help start some form of new power…or harness what they may be able to find. So if that is where this is going, writers, I salute you…
We saw some flashbacks of Rachel that would help us to understand why she sympathizes with Bass in that she can relate to him. She is responsible for this blackout. We see her pain over this, and we also see that as early as 4 months in there are so many dead that people are just leaving the corpses in the streets to rot. We see that she feels a greater responsibility than Ben seems to, and in fact we see more sides to their relationship. If they have the secret room with the computer, if they have that kind of power, it seems like they could have done something for the people who needed refrigeration for insulin and other medicines. I understand that people would have been up in arms and robbed them most likely for it, but it seems like these kind of things aren’t thought of at all by Rachel or Ben. We need people like Aaron to think about it. Rachel talks about giving people a fighting chance as far as weapons–even when they are talking to the others on Level 11. Aaron is the one who talks about needed medicines, clean water and reason…
So how much goodness is in Ben and Rachel is still up for debate. Rachel sees things in the sense of the strong, Aaron is more the shepherd of the weak. This reminds me of the original Poseidon adventure and the difference between the minister played by Gene Hackman and the priest. Hackman’s character asked what the priest thought of his sermon–the priest told him that he only spoke to the strong. Someone needs to speak for the weak as well.
But I did like the character of Rachel very much in the episode. Bass kept his promise to Rachel and saved Charlie. Rachel returned the favor and didn’t let Charlie go after Bass. I wonder if Rachel sees this as an even exchange so she can go back to abject hatred, or if they will work together again in the future. Most of this season I haven’t liked Rachel, but this episode I found her both sympathetic and strong. I was proud of the writers for writing a strong woman well…So many times it seems I am disappointed with strong women seeming flat or bitchy, but this was a perfect mix. It gave me hope that I could possibly love the Rachel character at some point down the line.
Because Rachel gets them into the Tower, we meet the creepy Tower people. There was a lot of information to get out, so it probably makes sense that their conversation, and the fact that they really haven’t communicated with anyone else in 15 years besides each other, seems a bit flat. They don’t really seem like good people. We haven’t seen too much of them yet, and really only in a hostile manner…so maybe as we get more of them we will understand them a little better. They have those crazy blood spatter coil guns–which are kind of more gross than cool…Michael Ausiello asked an interesting question in his blog posts regarding whether the earlier time of night (Revolution moves to 8pm on Wednesdays) will change the blood spatter fight scenes…I do wonder that, too…
Miles didn’t really have too much to do in this episode–or at least not much worth noting. He aggravated his current girlfriend by showing preoccupation with his dead brother’s wife. Nora doesn’t seem to know about the fling, but she has to know something is up with that. We know that there was an affair…and we guess that Miles is actually Charlie’s father…But I imagine Miles will be a bigger presence in this second part of the season finale. The more we learn about Miles and Ben, it seems that maybe Miles was envious of the things Ben had and Ben’s life the way that Bass is envious of the things Miles had and Miles’ life. Interesting to note, we know that Ben got to the point where he didn’t want anything to do with Miles…and that Miles did pretty much the same thing to Bass. I wonder if maybe healing the relationship between Miles and Bass can help Miles work through any unfinished business he has with his older brother…
All in all, an episode that was a perfect balance between action and internal process. We learned so much about the characters, and still got to see a lot of action. I love when we see shows like that. All too often one suffers for the other, and it is a difficult balance when you are limited to the 43 minute format, but sometimes we see something where both things are able to come together nicely. My hope is that we see a lot more of that! The season finale airs on Monday and then we have the summer to speculate! I couldn’t hit on everything, as my review was already getting Tolstoy long, but let me know what you thought of the episode, and what you hope to see next Monday.
Screencaps from grande-caps tumblr.
Nicole,
I have to say that this is the best yet of your reviews and I think you are right on with your observations. I think the show is starting to find its footing and that’s why this episode in particular was so outstanding. I’m eager for the season finale, and now I have hope that Monroe survives (crosses fingers).
I’m a little reticent about the Tower people, but I am curious enough to see where it’s going. And Neville needs to be the big bad. Giancarlo was made to be a villain. He’s so fantastic!
But by far the best scene of the episode was the Monroe/Rachel scene. They bring out the best in each other, I believe. There is an intensity and focus to their scenes that seems real and authentic; emotions that have been hit and miss for much of the season with the other lead characters. I want more of Rachel/Bass and even Miles. There’s a history there that needs to be explored and unpacked.
Again, great review!
Until Monday!
Linda
thanks Linda! I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s episode! I think that for season two I’m hoping for more consistent storytelling. I feel like they kept trying with the younger actors–and understandably because you want to keep the younger fans interested–but when you have such a font of talent in the more mature ages, you need to take advantage of that strength. I feel we can really see where the story is strongest and that rewatching the season in a more solid chunk will show that off. I am excited to see what O’Bannon and Edlund bring to the table! So happy that Edlund will be writing next season–he will be another writer who can bring more depth to the characters. I see sonnets to Edlund again in my future…