Hello Revolutionaries! This week I decided to change the format a little into more of a recap-review, rather than create two massive sections.
A little bit later following that scene, Miles tells the remaining rebels in that area that he is going to help them. He's going to start by rounding up former Militia members so that they can have real chance at defeating Monroe. The rebels seem less than enthused, especially since Miles tone, which continues through out the episode, comes with dark shades of mockery, but non the less they go along with them, as they all make there way to another camp.
Charlie continues to pull away from Rachel's efforts to try to get closer to her. Charlie decides she's going to go on the first raid and Miles and Nora are going 20 miles away away to Culpeper to find a man named Jim Hudson. In the meantime Aaron had set the pendants down in a former lab part of the base camp (It was a hospital). They turn on!
We learn in another scene between Randall and Monroe that Randall can "ping" them and ultimately can locate and track them. Additionally we see the Monroe Militia using fake reward offers, finds a way to locate Miles and learn of his werabouts and agenda.
This sets the stage for the remaining story.
Randall sets out with a Hum V to find Rachel, while a higher ranking Militia member sets out with a kill squad to find Miles and Jim Hudson.
The episode continues on with Charlie coming back from the raid and lying to Rachel about being hurt, which leads to a confrontation in the bathroom. Rachel slaps Charlie across the face hard, but Charlie takes it an walks away. Rachel is devastated by her own reaction.
This sets up a debate for us fans to chew over perhaps for the long haul, as in this case Jim Hudson's wife, despite that she was heroically saved by her husband, and even though he tried to explain that just because he lied about his name doesn't mean that his feelings towards her and the life they had weren't true, chooses to walk away from him anyways.
Rachel, Charlie, and Aaron spend most of the rest of the episode together, as Rachel learns from Aaron the pendants were turned on, realizes that they can be tracked, and decided she needs to destroy them, even though Randall is on his way. Aaron & Charlie are about to escape with the rebels, when they realizse Rachel is still inside, but unfortunately Rachel destroying the pendents and revealing the hidden flash drives takes too long. Randall has the building surrounded and starts to invade, announcing to Rachel that he is coming for her! The hunt for them in the former hospital starts to feel like Jurassic Park or Alien.
Additionally I have to think using the hospital as base camp for this episode is super ironic, since last week's featured a flashback of young Danny in one (his sickness experimental procedures), but also the simple fact that hospitals might really have been something we needed...But also this episode juxtaposed the situation with Rachel loosing her son, as this episode exploits to us in flashbacks that events leading to the black out revolve around the death of Randall's son Edward, who was killed in Afghanistan and the weapon, a virus (Pendants "flash disc?"), that Ben and Rachel had to work in record time to produce.
Randall is able to briefly capture Rachel. Their brief conversation, before Charlie is able to help her mother escape, is under the assumption that Randall want to go to The Tower to turn the lights back on, when in fact he reveals he wants to go there for some other reason, as he argues that everyone having electricity, is worse than the few...
The final scenes have Rachel and Charlie come together and embrace, Charlie is finally able to apologize and explain herself, while Miles watches back a distances and decides not to intervene in this moment.
For me the episode wasn't as good as last weeks, but it did come with a few debates that might be important as we move forward. I still think there's a good chance that Miles is Charlie's father and that between Rachel pulling away from him in the last episode and not being able to save Danny after all, he feels more than obligated to kill Monroe and defeat the Militia. I enjoyed that Charlie and Miles were able to mirror each other in the episode too, kind of like how they did in the first few episodes of the series.
As for Jim Hudson's story, it was just ok, but I had to laugh again at how buildings and occupations were used in contrast, as a Library is a place full of stories, stories with both truths and lies that give way to everything humans are, our experiences and the knowledge gained from them.. I was disappointed in the kind of women Sophie was. There was also truth to the idea that Miles is the cause that is now ruining Jim's new life, but ultimately I'm inclined to think that Sophie really wasn't the right women for him and that idea might be the bigger theme as we move towards the end of the season. This idea might not just relate to Miles, Nora, and Rachel either, but I keep thinking about Aaron's wife, Priscilla and what kind of women she was, verses what kind of women she might have become??
It was also interesting to still not see Julia Neville. I can't imagine what her reaction was, assuming Tom told her what he told Monroe, but I was curious to see Neville wine about not going on any of the missions and to have Monroe reveal that he doesn't trust Randall. I highly enjoyed the scene between Randall and Monroe as well, as again I can sense that Randall is a bigger villain, or at least a bigger threat to almost everyone. I can only assume if he told Rachel the truth, that he wants to destroy the tower, but why he would need Rachel's help to help him do that?. The only thing that I could think of is if the tower is protected by something, but what? A magnetic field, a Faraday's cage? But how?
Reading into the episode title, clearly Revolution generally has themes about the past (or past actions) coming back to haunt you, as we are building a story in flashbacks leading to the aftermath and/or current story of the power going out. One idea, which I touched on briefly above, was this idea that Miles has been this wrecking ball in many people's lives. So one thing Revolution proposes is if Miles is always going to be a wrecking ball to someone else, as Jim Hudson had to work hard at rebuilding his life, after Miles didn't follow through with killing Monroe the first time. This could be further touched on if Miles is Charlie's father, because again, he seems to be the one who made a deal with Rachel to leave Ben and the kids behind, and because then he would bare some responsibility in betraying his biological brother.
The title also comes into play with parallel and interrelated stories of Randall and Rachel loosing their sons and the technology created and used because of their sons. There's first the idea (stemming fro the episode before) that Danny's whole existence relied on experimental procedures and/or technology and then the idea that Ben's and Rachel's work was meant to be a weapon of warfare. Additionally "a virus" is also brought up in relation to the tech and blackout and this ties back to the analogy of Miles and his pursuits being like a kind of virus, which all goes with similar themes or concepts in literary references already presented like "The Stand" or "The Plague Dogs".
The spiritual aspect of ghosts was taken out of the picture in this episode. Charlie ends up saying something like, "I had fought so hard to get Danny back, and now I never will." -It's curious statement when considering she had warned him not be outside, and because of her experience in "Kashmir" with seeing Ben at home, and because she has been there to console people in times of death, none so rememberable as Maggie's. The audience was able to experience her visions in death of going "home" and happily being reunited with her children ("Plague Dogs"). It's strange that Charlie has not really asked herself bigger spiritual questions, or that none of the good-sided characters have expressed their spiritual beliefs.
Another facet is using a Library and former Hospital as interior scenes. In both cases the idea of life and death is highlighted in the hopes of our dreams, experiences, and memories surviving, but also that technology was not just a destroyer, it could be a savior and extend life too, but this all contrasted with the pros and cons of the pendants, which Rachel destroys. Plus Charlie gets injured and lies about it.
I was expecting things from "Kashmir" to play a bigger role in this episode. Especially since for Miles, Aaron, and Nora their hallucinations in the subway gave us insight into their fears, and fears usually derive from past experiences. In that sense, I felt the episode title really didn't have the impact it could of had, but instead presents itself as a stepping stone to those things. The whole possible love triangle with Nora and Rachel with the idea of the best women for Miles is something I feel the rest of the season is going to explore.
When reading spoilers about a character who was to die in 1x10 ("The Stand"), I had immediately jumped to Nora, because her hallucination sequence was symbolic in being a big "unknown". The alligator biting her leg under water in the dark could be something she's denying and feels guilty about (a betrayal? Miles, her sister Mia?) and/or it could just be fated-universe foreshadowing in that something is going to come and get her out of the blue. (Her father?) We might be going to Georgia too (if Bass is still sticking to his plan), and the alligator is something one might associate with that part of the region. In any case I still fear for Nora's life, but the death of her might basically eliminate a choice for Miles. (Fate). But because I like Nora so much, I'm hopeful that whatever might happen could just be crippling, as opposed to fatal.
What do you guys think? Did you enjoy the episode? Have any interesting theories? Sound off in the comments below!!
References:
Star Wars: the mentioning of the rebels at the "echo base camp" is an allusion to "The Empire Strikes
Back". Star Wars: Return of Jedi was also referenced in The Pilot with cover art on Charlie's lunch box.
"The Stand" and "The Dark Tower" continue to be referenced with Randall and the pursuit of The Tower. Additionally in the Library, we pass a whole Stephen King section, where Miles comments about a plot being "the end of the world."
Henry Bemis - Jim Hudson's alias is also the name of a protagonist of a Twilight Zone character featured in the episode, "Time Enough at Last". Here's a bit of info about it on behalf of Wikipedia:
"Time Enough at Last" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It was adapted from a short story by Lyn Venable (Marilyn Venable), which had been published in the January 1953 edition of the science fiction magazine If: Worlds of Science Fiction. "Time Enough at Last" became one of the most famous episodes of the original Twilight Zone, and has been frequently parodied since. It is "the story of a man who seeks salvation in the rubble of a ruined world" and tells of Henry Bemis (pron.: /ˈbiːmɪs/), played by Burgess Meredith, who loves books, yet is surrounded by those who would prevent him from reading them. The episode follows Bemis through the post apocalyptic world, touching on such social issues as anti-intellectualism, the dangers of reliance upon technology, and the difference between aloneness (solitude) and loneliness."
I feel pretty strongly that this episode also sets up debates about if the world is better place with minimal technology or not and a debate of being alone verses being lonely.
The Bad Robot Factor:
This weeks episode didn't really have much that directly ties into something specific in terms of
Henry Bemis, Jim Hudson's alias, is not only a character from The Twilight Zone, but is very similar name (almost like his names combined) to Lost's Benjamin Linus, who first posed with alias of Henry Gale. Benjamin Linus alais' are also characters from other famous works ("The Wizard of Oz", "On the Road")
This episode of Revolution also mentioned a virus in association with the blackout. It's not been made clear if this is a bacterial virus, or a computer virus, but given Revolution's more science fiction leaning as of late, I would go with the computer virus. A computer virus and/or computer warfare is something that fans of Person of Interest are exploring this season, as Thursday's episode is titled, "Trojan Horse". Both shows also feature Government conspiracies.
Trivia: J.J. Abrams and his friend and former collaborator Matt Reeves (Felicity, Cloverfirld) are both big fans of the Twilight Zone. Until about six months ago, Reeves was set to direct the up and coming Twilight Zone movie, but has decided to pass on it an work on other projects. It's a little curious that this episode of The Twilight Zone in particular was referenced in Revolution, not only because it had an impact on film and television making it iconic, but that it featured such strong themes about loneliness verses being alone, when we consider Miles may have a predicament, but also because it goes along with themes in Felicity's Twilight Zone-esqu episode, "Help for the Lovelorn"!!
