Revolution Ramble On…Episode 1.20 – “The Dark Tower”

I was a bundle of nerves the week before the finale.  I even found the perfect black dress I would live in if the episode included the loss of my man.  My apprehension for how everything would pan out also impacted my preparation for the audition I had on Wednesday for a local equity theater…After the episode aired, I essentially spent the next two days when I wasn’t at work preparing my monologue and scenes from one of the plays I was auditioning for.  After the audition on Wednesday, I had to focus on getting all my stuff at work set for my vacation to Maine…about all I have been able to do this weekend besides shopping and eating is doing crosswords and watching 24.  But no more excuses…

As I intimated, I was very worried about just what was going to happen in the finale for Revolution.  So many questions and possible theories were flying around my head: Where could the storyline possibly go?  Would Kripke kill off the only character whose storyline I was invested in?  Would I be spending my summer hating Kripke?  And to be completely blunt, would I be looking for another new show to become obsessed with?

 

I don’t think I’ve been this afraid about an ending of a season of television since Buffy’s seventh season finale.  I was petrified that Joss was going to end with Buffy being in a mental ward or something to that effect. Instead, I was in love with the Revolution season finale.  We got some closure on a storyline–I say some because there are still many questions, but they can now be explored in a different fashion.  We also morphed and refaceted that storyline…and we got some set up for the next season. All in all, I would say the last two episodes of the season really made up for many of my previous concerns…

 

When we came back from the hiatus, I had high hopes for the back half of Season One.    Immediately, I felt a little slighted.  Yes, Kripke did seem to clean up the “slow” feel of some of the scenes of the first half by putting in more action.  My problem was that in the process of speeding up the story, the character development suffered.  Some of the characters took on a caricature feel, the writers throwing in things to “fatten” characters that seemed artificial. The “The Dark Tower” and “Children of Men” seemed to confirm that Kripke has recommitted to the relationships of the show.  I am so happy to see him get back to his strengths.  He has such amazing talent in this show and utilizing that talent and  the chemistry these actors have with each other can make Revolution’s season two spectacular.

“The Dark Tower”, written by Paul Grellong and Eric Kripke helped us work through the Tower questions, reposition the Monroe Militia and show Randall’s end game.  More than that, however, it highlighted the relationship that has come to be an integral piece of the show: that of Miles Matheson and Sebastian Monroe.

 

My understanding was that Monroe was not meant to be a longstanding part.  Executive Producer David Rambo admitted that they were most surprised by David Lyons’s portrayal of Monroe.  I had hoped that the “course correct” Kripke had mentioned when he commentaried the pilot was reworking Monroe.  I lost hope after seeing much of this second half of the season–it seemed that Kripke kept going with his idea to vilify Monroe.  He had Monroe attempt to use nuclear warfare on Atlanta.  He had Monroe kidnap a scientist and his family so he would weaponize anthrax.  I just didn’t know if I could trust what Kripke was doing.  Much of it played out like he just wanted to get things out, maybe he was a little too focused on the destination and not the journey…which when you think about it is very strange considering he writes stories about a journey, not really a destination.  In that respect, how the season ended made me feel to an extent I was right about that.  Kripke seemed to have an idea, after he decided not to kill Monroe and focus more on the relationship, he still had to get them to this  point–this scene that is just so vivid, he could not have just fallen onto it.  I feel that after he made the decision to get to know Monroe instead of just having him as the “Big Bad” and a way for us to understand Miles better, he visualized this change over, this showdown between the two of them where Miles would admit in his own way he still cared sprang from Kripke’s head…but he wasn’t quite sure how to get there…

I’m rewatching the whole season this summer and hope to write a few pieces on it, so I hope to go a little more into this idea later this summer.  For now, I can’t express strongly enough that I am now a REVO fangirl.  I can’t wait to see what happens in season two, and where this storyline is going…I even have my theories on which current casting call is for a certain hot ex-crazicakes-dictator’s son!

 

This episode was directed by Charles Beeson, and I really enjoyed the directing.  We had a lot of close-ups on the emotional scenes and some truly great angled shots during the fight scenes.  He really made you feel right in the action!  I also cannot compliment the acting enough in this episode.  Everyone really put it all out there.  Billy, Giancarlo and David really sold so many scenes…

Picking up right where we left off, Miles and Monroe are once again pointing guns at each other…But Others in the Tower show up and they are forced to work together to try to escape…only to wind up getting flushed out of the tower through the piping… Neville shows his true colors as he takes over the Militia… Rachel and the group sneak away from the Others to get to Level 12 with disasterous results, and Aaron makes an even more alarming discovery…

 

Miles and Bass!  I loved every scene they had together in this episode!  I was in love with Liz and Dave’s work together in “Children of Men”.  In “The Dark Tower”, I was in love with Davd and Billy’s work together.  I have joked about it before, but I’m seriously beginning to think that David Lyons may actually be able to show great chemistry working with a toaster…the initial scene together, we see Bass shoot the Other trying to kill Miles…As they are facing off, more of the Others show up and Miles gives Bass an eye nod showing him he has his back…

We see that a few times–the gestures, even when they run they go in opposite directions.  These two men lived in the trenches together–they know each other completely.  We see how betrayed Bass felt by Miles when he tried to kill him.  Bass tells him he didn’t see it coming.  It really made me wonder how two men who know each other so well, couldn’t talk.  Bass thought Miles would come to him if he had a problem, but why couldn’t Miles?

 

I found the flashback very telling in this regard.  We see how important family is to Bass.   That if someone messed with his family, hurting just them wasn’t enough–that he would take out the whole family.  Excessive?  Yes, I’d say so…but why couldn’t Miles talk to Bass about it?  And more interestingly, look at the other flashback.  Bass recollects the other birthday of Miles’s with the one legged stripper named Sierra.  A fun time when they were guys drooling over some girl who could move.  But what birthday of Bass’s did Miles bring up?  One where Bass had his worst flavored cake (yes, I agree Miles, no coconut cakes for me, either), and where Bass gave one of the kids a concussion.  Through this flashback we see first off that Miles remembers things, but Bass has almost a photographic memory.  He remembers names, flavors, etc.  His past has a profound impact on him.  We also see that Bass is a passionate person who can be ruled by those passions…He doesn’t know his own strength.  He seems to have a difficult time finding that line–when he is going too far…and he is embarrassed about when he does.  He remembers this memory and he didn’t seem very proud of it. Miles, on the other hand, was laughing about it.  It almost feels as if Miles sometimes uses Bass’s lack of discretion as a source of amusement.

Bass is the little brother who sometimes does stupid foolish things…Which makes me feel that this is a pattern with Bass.  If that’s the case, why was Bass made the head of the Militia and the Republic?  Why did they name it the Monroe Republic?  Why is it the Monroe Militia?  It seemed from what we saw before that Miles didn’t trust himself.  He knew he would easily become tyrannical and that maybe Bass took the job to protect Miles…But how does this fit in?

 

I really loved that Bass said in this episode what many of us have been saying most of this season.  This was Miles’s idea and he only got into it because he was watching Miles’s back.  Bass admitted that watching’s Miles’s back was the only thing that he cared about. In that, it seems that Bass is very passionate about the people he loves.  He has no boundaries when it comes to protecting his family.  He will sell his soul to keep those he loves safe.  We see it with his actions towards Miles.  We see it with Emma.  I am fairly convinced that now that Bass is no longer General and President of the Monroe Republic.  I also have some theories on how and why he will be on the run.  I believe he will try to find his son.  I really want Bass to find his son…and sure there will most likely be a lot of angst and serious relationship repair will be needed, but I want Bass to find other things to live for and find strength in himself.  I also feel that Miles and Bass will find redemption only through each other.  They each have to come to terms with the men they have been and the men they want to be…

I was a little in love with Miles in this episode…and then I rewatched and realized I was a little in love with Billy’s acting, but realized I was still giving the stink eye to Miles a little bit…It was very apparent in this episode that Miles and Bass did NOT want to kill each other.  Bass was incredibly hurt still over what had happened.  Betrayal is, after all,  the worst sin there is.  When someone trusts you and you betray that trust, it is near impossible to regain that trust.  Miles saves Bass from the Militia, but he does use Bass as a diversion…He could have let Bass go and not clued in the Militia that Bass had gotten away…then, however, the guards wouldn’t have left the Tower entrance and he needed to get in….I would like to think that Miles would have busted Bass out anyway…we saw some real advancements here and we could really see that Miles still cares deeply for Bass.  He still sees him as his brother.  A lot more relationship building needs to be done, but I think we’ve gone a step in the right direction.

 

As for Nora, I didn’t really get the overwhelming sense before this episode that Nora and Miles loved each other.  There just wasn’t a lot of chemistry that I could see, and I always felt that Nora was an underused character.  In that sense, the build up of their relationship in this episode felt a little bit emotionally manipulative.  Miles has essentially brushed her off, putting Rachel, Charlie, Danny, even his anger at Bass over Nora all season long…now in the final hour we see actual affection and an unwillingness to leave her…Well, he did show concern in “Clue” for Nora–after she had been tortured and left for dead…but remember how he didn’t find her.  I guess though it does make a certain sense.  How often do we really know what we have until it is gone?  What I would point out is that Nora was really a character that they could lose and not hurt the storyline any.  Unfortunately all Nora has done all season is come up with a bomb when needed…or give away important information when tortured.  Nora’s death also provides for a possible future storyline where her sister tries to get revenge on Miles.  I thought Daniella did a great job in the episode.

 

We got more information regarding Rachel and Danny.  The more I hear about Danny, the less and less I think Graham Rogers was appropriate for the character.  Not that Graham wasn’t adorable–he totally is adorable.  He also isn’t a bad actor.  I just felt he was a poor casting choice.  Someone who was born so early, with his organs not formed fully and required all kinds of incubation and special operations just to stay alive as a baby would be more stunted and more sickly than just having asthma.  He had that nanite thing in him, but that miracle chip wasn’t put in until he was already a few years old.  It seems those nanites are capable of repair, but not fixing better than before.  After all, Dr. Warren’s girlfriend’s cancer wasn’t gone, it was just held at bay by the nanites…Maybe we need more clarification on what these nanites can do?  Or not…after all, Danny is dead…does it really matter now?  Maybe it still does…We will have to wait and see.

In this episode, we see how fixated and single minded Rachel really is.  She will not change her plan for Charlie.  In Rachel’s defense though, she did know the militia had gotten into the Tower and were making their way down.  She seems to have an obsessive personality much like Bass’s…which may be why she understands him.  I also noted how she said they had to stop the Militia…she didn’t say they had to stop Monroe.

Even though Rachel learns that Aaron created the operating system for the Tower, she still doesn’t seem to fully listen to what he says…she seems to only see him as a techie.  He doesn’t understand what is going on, he is just the person with the code…I really loved Aaron’s input in both this episode and in “Children of Men”.  In this episode, we find out that the way the code was left leads Aaron to believe that the Blackout may have been intended…It was subtle, but if Rachel was paying attention, really paying attention, it may have lead her to question what Randall’s end game was…If the Blackout was intentional, then most likely our government fled like rats leaving a sinking ship…Randall, as a member of the D.O.D. may know something about this…Sadly, this happens often with intelligent people…sometimes, they are so sure of their own intelligence they assume that no one can pull one over on them…they then underestimate those others.  Rachel plays right into what Randall wanted…

 

To my understanding, ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistics Missiles) are nuclear warheads…so the East Coast is being burned down…It looks like unless there is some safety we don’t know about in which to deactivate them, the Monroe Republic and the Georgia Federation may be decimated.  I wonder if this US Colony that is going presumably back to Washington, D.C. after the fallout clears will will try to pin this on Bass.  I imagine he will be running for his life.  What will Neville do with the couple hundred soldiers he has?  Will he become like Randall Flagg in The Stand?  I imagine that any government willing to nuke their own people to get “order” back is not a good guy…and why did they just hang out in Guantanamo Bay for fifteen years?  Why did they decide to destroy the country?

So many questions!!!

 

I should bring up Giancarlo is great at being truly maniacally evil…Neville definitely seems like a better politician than Bass was.  He will “inspire” but be more manipulative…and where does this leave Jason?  Clearly Neville couldn’t care less about Charlie or Rachel.  Will Jason go against his father again?  I am thinking that Julia seems to really love city life and creature comforts.  Most likely she is in Atlanta…which means that if the ICBMs are heading toward Philadelphia and Atlanta, it is very likely that she will be incinerated with the rest of Atlanta.  Jason may be compelled to stay with his only remaining parent…

 

I loved how we got to see that Bass did get away from the militia.  We see him in the field at the end…and we see the crazy lightning storms. Now that the nanites have been deactivated, they are no longer absorbing electricity.  Since they absorbed all kinds of electricity, there hadn’t been any electrical storms on the planet in fifteen years…but all that electricity was released into the atmosphere.  So even if the nukes don’t set the world on fire, our extreme weather might…

Stay tuned for other posts this summer as I pontificate on my new obsession!  Let me know what you thought of the episode and what your theories are for season two!

Screencaps from grandecaps.tumblr.com