Revolution - Episode 2.02 - There Will be Blood - Advance Review

     After the season two premiere’s shocking changes to the show, Revolution returns with its second episode of the second season with a much lighter (and honestly boring) tone. The season premiere, while not amazing, provided an adequate supply of action and good writing. This episode falls a bit in both respects. The action (while still excellently executed by Emmy Award Winning Stunt Coordinator Jeff Wolfe) felt a little too sparse for my tastes and the writing was just "eh". Maybe that means I’m just a little too addicted to violent TV, oh well.

   At the end of the last episode we were introduced to Alby Grant—I mean Titus Andover. Different name, but he’s still just as creepy as the former Big Love character (both character’s portrayed by the masterful Matt Ross). Titus’ motive? Still not 100% clear. He immediately locks up Miles and the sheriff (also from Big Love) in cages. The atmosphere reminds me of the incredibly weird Imagine Dragons music video for Radioactive. Miles spends a lot of time in these cages sitting and waiting for what awaits him behind a door. While not sitting in his cage, Miles is subjected to a form of torture so gruesome it is hardly appropriate for Network TV. He has to talk with Titus. Trust me, Titus is a freak.

     Charlie is also facing a similarly unknowingly motivated kidnapping. After following Monroe around last episode, Charlie almost got her revenge, but was cut short when a group of men kidnapped Monroe. Charlie follows the group, but evidently is not as much a ninja as she would like to think she is. She awakes to find herself tied up inside a waterless pool. In the slightly altered words of American classic “Gone with the Wind”, “What shall she do?” Make sure you “give a damn” and tune in on Wednesday to find out!

     My personal favorite part of this episode was (and almost always is) former Captain Neville’s story line. Now captain of absolutely nothing, Neville is considering suicide and grieving the loss of his wife. After getting some sense knocked into him by his son, Neville is back to his conniving and manipulative ways. In many ways, his character reminds me of Michael Emerson’s Benjamin Linus from Lost. He is, well, was, the leader of the bad guys, but has some positive qualities. He is only ever interested in himself and is willing to do whatever it takes to win. In this episode, however, Neville takes a line from a different playbook, that of recently ended Burn Notice. “If you wanna make a friend, solve a problem for them. No problem to solve? Create one" It’s always fun to see just how far his manipulation can go.

     Equally interesting were Aaron’s scenes in this episode. In the last episode, we were introduced to his new girlfriend, Cynthia. She seems like a likeable character, but I’m not sure how well she will take the news of Aaron’s involvement in the blackout or how Miles’ name isn’t really Stu (Really? Of all names he chooses Stu?). Hopefully, she doesn’t turn out the way Aaron’s last love interest did… Boring as hell. Aaron’s most exciting parts have without a doubt been in the last episode. After being caught by surprise and seemingly killed, Aaron rose from the dead and it’s all because of the oddly overly fluorescent fireflies. We, of course, know these fireflies are actually nanites. As we learned last season, they can do a little more than turn the power off.

     Overall, this episode is just plain slow. It’s not overly bad, but there’s not enough going on to keep one’s interest for very long. Let’s hope episode three gets a little more action.

Rating: 7.3/10

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