Revolution - 1x14 "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" - Overview & Speculation

Hello Revolutionaries!!!

This weeks episode did provide some interesting tadbits to our nanites mythology and told a story of another man who's life was ruined again thanks again to Miles.

Our opening scene begins in Monroe's office, as Neville's former aid informs Monroe that Tom and Julia have fled Philadelphia and further explained that their son was alive and apart of the rebels. David Lyons continues his great performances, as again we see a brief sentimental Monroe becomes wishy-washy, then calm and pleasant, right before he turns around and shoots the guy!

We then go to the latest rebel base camp where a young boy rebel severely injured rides into the camp. He has a message tucked away in his upper shirt pocket. Miles takes it out and reads it and learns the nuclear bomb is in Atlanta, Georgia --located in another territory, The Georgia Federation. Miles tells Charlie she has to come with him, and they set out along with Nora to make there way to Georgia.

For a brief moment we catch up with Aaron and Rachel, whom are looking for Dr. Jane Warren. A little later in the episode they come into perimeter of her house, but not without a confrontation from two militia members, who push Aaron down and attempt to rape Rachel. To an amazing surprise the men don't get very far, as a line of burning grass sizzles it's way to under their feet. They begin to burn and deteriorate!  We are immediately introduced to Jane, holding some kind of energy generated laser taser device. After asking Rachel who Aaron is they make their way towards Jane's house.

I quickly just want to mention that the device reminds me both of Randall's light-stick, which was generated by a pendant, but also it reminds me of a phaser on Star Trek and something recently seen on Once Upon A Time, but I will chat more about it in "The Bad Robot" factor section at the end of the article.

Miles, Nora, and Charlie cross the boarder into the Georgia Federation. (There's even a sign!) Charlie is a little excited, as she has never left the Monroe Republic and Miles points out that it's rather different. Over the course of the episode we do see just how different it is. They have transportation as many buses and cars run on steam engines, the people dress well (They have formality) and seem well fed, President Foster even refers to the Monroe Republic as "third world" and that she has ships.

Miles knows that they need to fit in and the best way may be to look like a Georgia Federation soldier. They come to a house where the plan is for Charlie to pull a Nora ("Nobody's Fault But Mine") by going to the door, being a little seductive, and then (in this case) slicing the guys throat to invade his house and see if they can find spare uniforms. You could almost see that Charlie was hesitant, but she knocked on the door. Lucky for her, no one answered  We quickly pan to the next scene inside the house where 3 Georgia Federation Militia members lay dead. Miles comments that he thinks The Monroe Republic did it and he has a confirmation when he finds a knife...

This begins our introductory to our soldier story of the week: a young man named Alec. From flashbacks (One 9 years before the black out and the other 7 years before the black out) we learn that Miles had taken Alec under his wing and didn't just train him. Miles had given Alec a knife that originally was carved from his grandfather, as it was passed down from his grandfather to his grandfather's son, and from his grandfather's son to his grandson --from war to war as good luck charm. Unfortunately two years later, Alec returns from a mission that he thought went well, but apparently went all wrong. Alec didn't kill a general he though he had. Alec had begged Miles to give him more time to correct his mistake, but Miles tells him that "the job" is more important and now he might have started a war, a war the Monroe Republic can not win, against Texas. Seemingly Alec's punishment was to go and fight in Texas, but for Alec, the bigger kicker is when he finally returned to the Monroe Republic only to find that Miles had left...

This is then all contrasted by the current story, as Miles, Nora, and Charlie span out down town Atlanta with flash lights, using them to find the location of the bomb. Miles is able to find it in alley way, but is greeted by Alec. The two briefly talk, as Miles tries to explain his change of heart, but Alec refuses to believe it and the two begin to sword fight. Eventually Miles breaks Alec's blade and his own sword is tossed to the side. They continue to fight with hand to hand combat. Alec gets close to choking Miles to death, but Charlie intervenes, as an arrow flies into Alec's upper chest/shoulder region. He lets go of Miles and quickly grabs the bomb and runs! Charlie goes after him and Miles follows. They run through the town, until Miles spots him, but when Miles goes around the corner, Alec has a random Georgia Federation soldier tightly held close and at gun point. Miles says, 'Do you think I care about some cop?', But Alec kills him and responds, "The thing is, I didn't kill him. YOU DID!". Alec runs away, and Miles is framed for killing the soldier and is taken somewhere else downtown.  At this moment a Monroe helicopter flies overhead and sprinkles little warning tickets that a bomb is going to go off on behalf of the Monroe Republic! Additionally Charlie runs into Alec, only for Alec to learn that Charlie isn't just another orphan protege`, but that she is his niece, but Alec warns her that Miles cares about no one and that she should ask Miles about what he did to her mother, Rachel. He then takes off.

We are then introduced to the President of the Georgia Federation, President Kelly Foster. It becomes clear pretty quick that President Foster and Miles are well acquainted, as he explains that he did not kill that man and that he knows who is setting off the nuke, --and if she lets him go, he will help stop it! At first President Foster is disgruntle reminding Miles that he had killed hundreds of her men and that he did "something" that personally hurt her. However, she decides to let him go.

Miles catches up to Nora and Charlie, who were trying to figure out what to do next, but now that Miles is back, the debated priority goes back to finding the bomb.

In the meantime back Jane's house we are introduced to the love of Jane's life, Beth. We learn from a few scenes that Beth had cancer and like Danny the nanite technology somehow kept the diseases in a state of stasis, seemingly curing them!

Note: Last week I had thought that the nanobots might be some kind of "god particle" with physiological effects and that in some cases may be playing to the spiritual themes and/or abilities Charlie has presented. With the prospect of healing diseases or putting diseases in state of stasis in mind, it appears I'm on the right track, but I may have to wait awhile before getting concrete evidence about Charlie and/or "negative" effects the nanites could also produce...

Jane does not want Rachel to go to the tower and turn the power back on, because the minute she does that, is the minute Beth will begin to die. Beth over hears this, not knowing that Jane knew how to turn the power back on. She then threatens to take her own life if Jane does not help Rachel. Jane gives Rachel a book and tells Rachel to be on her way and to never come back.

Eventually Miles, Nora, and Charlie search a building. Miles comes right onto Alec, who is waiting for orders to detonate the bomb. The two again have a conversation, where Miles point blank tells Alec that what he had done was wrong, but Alec doesn't want to hear this after all of this time and the two begin to fight again  while the Monroe Republic official (and eventually Monroe himself) command several times for Alec to detonate the bomb and begin the strike.

The fight goes on for while. Alec again gets close to killing Miles, but Miles is able to flip Alec over, take the knife and kill Alec!!!

A little time afterwards Miles sits with knife in hand and his head down. Charlie approaches and at the worst time possible asks Miles about what he did to Rachel. Explaining that she just needs to know the truth, but Miles seemingly slipping back into ways we had seen him earlier in the season, has become dark and cold. He tells her in so many word that everyone who gets near him dies or gets hurt. --That he hurts people. He then tells her to get the hell away from him.

The final scene however has Miles taken back to President Foster. She makes a proposition for him, explaining that Monroe's power doesn't scare her and that she wants to go to war with him. She tells Miles The Georgia Federation will attack the south boarder, but says they will only be successful in this effort if the rebels attack from within simultaneously. Miles says that the rebels would have little success on a good day. President Foster says that is why she will give him soldiers and guns!

One of the things I would like to touch on is that although I liked the episode, I think it will hold more weight down the line. What I mean is, I think this is effecting Miles harder, not just because he had to come face to face with his protege' Alec in a result that could seemingly only end in someone's death, but because of where he is and/or perhaps a connection to President Foster, and/or because he is feeling tremendous guilt about whatever he all did to Rachel via this connection to Foster and/or someone else.

These speculations are based on some spoilers. I have tried to keep my articles spoiler free out of respect for non spoiler readers, but if one would want me to better explain what I'm thinking or speculating, then ask me in the comments section, where I will mark spoiler responses with a Bold-Capitalized "SPOILER WARNING".

I'm still worried about Nora too. She has been written to be SO subdued these past few episodes since we have returned. My worries continue now more so in that we have made a connection with Georgia (alligator metaphor in "Kashmir") AND because a war with TEXAS was also mentioned in regards to Alec and the Monroe Republic in this episode's flashbacks. Just a reminder: Nora and her sister, Mia, were residing in Texas when the lights went out and that they/Nora seem to have unresolved issues in finding their/her father and fact that someone might have murdered their mother...Really given Nora's aptitude for bomb knowledge, she should have been more highlighted in this week's episode, but most likely, within the next few episodes, a big light might shine on her.

I also like President Foster so far. It's really nice being able to step into other parts of the US before the season ends as well. I'm curious to see if this "first world" territory is all it's cracked up to be, considering their Flag's possible implications. How would a this part of the country become "so" rich? How long did it take to create The Georgia Federation after the blackout? And what about boarder control?? I look forward to learning more about these territories and how and in how much time it took for them to get established.

I was kind of sad to see Aaron be so passive again,  but this might support the idea presented in "Kashmir" that Aaron's strength, whether deriving from a romantic, platonic, or physical (If Charlie would be filled to the gills with nanites) inclination may actually derive in being in Charlie's proximity!

Not seeing any of the Nevilles also makes me incredibly anxious for the next few episodes. I do like how certain characters get high lighted in certain episodes and then take a back seat for a few. It keeps us on our toes and interested in wondering what those characters are doing!

Also this episode just points out Miles continuous backlash of all the deplorable things that he's done, as Alec's story takes us even deeper and darker in Miles' misgivings than Jim Hudson's --and we can see a similar theme with Rachel, as she expresses she would never do this all again if she had the choice, despite saving Danny's life, but the difference is that Rachel has yet to let herself fall from her redemptive stance, where Miles, who probably has WAY more to make up for, keeps falling back into line..

And lastly I want to commend NBC and the writers for featuring a lesbian couple in this episode. For Bad Robot it's a first since pre-Bad Robot's "Felicity" and I think even though it wasn't perhaps obvious, as there are plenty of reasons why any two people could be living together, it was still a nice gesture providing small, but important steps towards representation of various ways of life. Thank you.






References:

The Night The Light's Went Out In Georgia - is southern Gothic song from song writer Bobby Russell writing and preformed by his former wife, Vicki Lawerence in 1972. In 1992 Reba McEntire covered the song. The song it's self tells a tragic story about brothers, their wives, cheating, and murder.

From Wiki:
"A young woman tells the story of her unnamed older brother who returns home after a two-week trip from a place called "Candletop." The brother meets his best friend, Andy Wolloe, at Webb's Bar ("Andy Wolloe said hello, and he said, 'Hi, what's doing, Wo?'"), and Andy informs the brother that his young wife (who is later described as "cheatin'") has been seeing another man in town, Seth Amos. Andy then reveals that he, too, has been sleeping with his friend's wife. 

The brother is understandably upset, which scares Andy, who leaves and walks home. The brother assumes his wife has left town, gets his gun, and heads out to the back woods to sneak up on Andy and confront him. When the brother arrives at Andy's house, he finds tracks outside ("tracks that were too small for Andy to make") and discovers that someone has already killed Andy. The brother, in a moment of panic ("he started to shake"), fires his gun in the air to summon a passing sheriff. When the sheriff approaches the scene, the brother is immediately accused of murder. A "backwoods Southern lawyer" doesn't keep the sheriff and a judge from convicting the brother in a kangaroo court ("the judge said 'guilty' in a make-believe trial / slapped the sheriff on the back with a smile"), and hang him that same night, effectively lynching him. The phrase "the night the lights went out in Georgia" refers to the idea that the "light" of justice went out that night as an innocent man was killed by the law.

 In the final verse, the singer then reveals that she was the one who killed Andy and that she had also previously killed her promiscuous sister-in-law and disposed of her body ("one body that'll never be found"), and that her brother was lynched before there was a chance to tell anyone the truth. Beyond simply the typical police corruption, the song relates that the judge is just as corrupt as the sheriff ("...the judge in the town's got bloodstains on his hands"), as well as heartless, when rendering the guilty verdict: slapped the sheriff on the back with a smile, said "Supper's waiting at home and I gotta get to it" (The 1991 music video for the Reba McEntire version suggests that the judge was also sleeping with the wife and wouldn't listen to the truth to protect himself)." 


In terms of the episode there are parallels between it and the song in relation Miles' struggles, being in Georgia, and continuing the idea that almost everyone in the series is corrupt/had to compromise former moral ethics in order to survive , along with this common fate orientated phrase, "what comes around goes around".

Additionally the reference might be foreshadowing upcoming events either with a love triangle(s)/murder plot(s) and/or if we would have taken the episode title literally and applied to Revolution, then there should have been a connection to the area of the Georgia Federation and the night of the blackout, something that was not presented in this week's episode.

Georgia Federation Flag tribute and variation to (one of the predominant) American Civil War Confederate Flag. The Georgia Federation's flag is basically "half" of the American Civil War's Confederate flag. In current times the flag does appear still a lot in southern parts of the United States and has become a symbol of southern pride. Sometime we tend to stereotype the south as being slower, easy going, and having formalities that may be considered "old fashioned". It's original meaning however argumentatively comes with both racism and ant-authority, but really there were two versions of the confederate flag, the rectangular version: The "Parade" Flag and the square version: The "Battle" Flag. In this case, it's hard to decipher what this new version of that flag means in terms of what The Georgia Federation stands for, but one can argue that much like the confederation, despite separating from the union, they did not want to completely abandon the flag (or some of the values) of the United States.



Bad Robot Factor:

Foster is a reoccurring surname in Bad Robot works:
*Mona, Simon -Fringe
 (IMO Simon Foster and his dynamic to Etta Bishop and Peter Bishop is one to think more about considering the following Bad Robot references)
*"Foster" is the12th Candidate of Jacob's list featured at the Lighthouse - LOST

*Hank Foster ia very minor character is counter intelligence agent investigating Sydney who was framed by Lauren Reed (3x22"Resurrection") -Alias
*Liela Foster - is a minor character briefly featured in season two of Felicity.




Warren is also a familiar surname featured in Fringe

 Fringe really ended up being a spiritual story about a once hubris fringe scientist, Walter Bishop, who had participated in committing many wrongs by not thinking of the unforeseen consequences that technology he helped create imposed and the actions he took in trying to save another version of his son would have on the universes.

 One of Walter's misgivings was not listening to his former lab assistant (and P.H.D. Physicist) named Carla Warren. She was accidentally killed in a fire at the lab that she and Walter worked out of. One of the first episodes of Fringe ("The No Brainer") partially dealt with Carla's mother Jessica trying to make contact with Walter, which Peter (an alternate version of Walter's son) had help averted, as he was afraid that what she would say to Walter would further devastate him after being locked away in a mental institution for so long. -But Peter was wrong, -and when Jessica finally made contact with Walter, they were both able to make a little peace about what happened to Carla. However, Carla clearly became something that would haunt Walter through out time and space, as she became a devil's advocate to Walter during the final season, where she appeared apart of Walter's hallucination sequence during the episode "Black Blotter".

The possible relationship between Jane Warren and our Warrens of Fringe may lie in that in both cases the shows are about the unforeseen consequences of technology, including the wars they can create, and, much like Walter, Rachel and Miles both seem to come with STRONG redemption arcs, as they both are trying to be better people. Rachel relates to the technology side of Walter Bishop, where Miles relates to Walter's continuous struggle to not turn back into the person he once was.



LOST, Once Upon A Time, and Taser Device:



Jane Warren's overall persona also reminded me just a little bit of character Isabel, featured very briefly on as a head Other ("the sheriff") on LOST during the episode, "Stranger in a Strangeland", where Juliet is on trail for her crimes of helping Kate and Sawyer escape and for killing one of their own, Danny Picket. Jane, like Isabel seems like a character who knows a lot/has a strong position, but may not be explored by the audience.

There is probably no direct correlation between Jane and Isabel, but it did remind me that a similar device appeared on a recant episode of Once Upon A Time: "Selfless, Brave, and True", which happens to parallel that LOST episode with August mirroring Jack by visiting Phuket.

Once Upon A Time is NOT A Bad Robot Production, but it might as well be. It's creators Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz have worked with J.J. Abrams on both LOST and Felicity. Additionally the show references other Bad Robot works (mostly LOST and Fringe), consists of many Bad Robot actors, and is written, has plots and story lines, stylization, and characters VERY reminiscent of Bad Robot's.

Once Upon A Time shares a bend with Revolution in that both have a bit of Medieval aesthetic and fantasy feel, but both shows also have touches of science fiction, Revolution more than Once, but this taser of Tamara's, and Once's more recant allusions to Star Trek and Star Wars via Owen (In Star Wars there is Owen Lars) and his father Kirk (In Star Trek there is Captain Kirk), might be something to think about as both shows head for their season's ends.

Note: Owen looks a little like Eric Kripke. "Selfless, Brave, and True" is also the first episode (to my knowledge) to reference Revolution. (There's an abandoned RV in the woods much like that featured wit Charlie and Danny in Revolution's Pilot episode) . Additionally in recant interview Mr. Kripke had described The Tower...

 MINOR SPOILER AHEAD: He had mentioned that it might not be easy to get to or get into. There could be something guarding it, -he made an parallel to a dragon. In Revolution's case it might be that dragon is a scientific equivalent for something like a Faraday's Cage, but it's a curious thing to say, when in "Selfless, Brave, and True" Tamara uses this futuristic taser-tech to absorb magic and take the life of the character called "The Dragon"!!!!

Lastly just some speculation" If I were right in that The Tower would be guarded by a Faraday's Cage and given that The Tower is a major player of the power source in relation to Revolution's electricity delema, then due to the idea that Rachel is going there thinking she will die, and because we have also featured a nuclear bomb in the past couple of episodes, might juxtaposition LOST's Swan Station site and/or "The Incident", as I do not think Rachel will die, which Juliet did (and Juliet originally didn't want to go there).