Revolution 2.12 "Captain Trips" Review: It's In You

    Revolution “Captain Trips” was written by Paul Grellong and Jim Barnes and directed by Steve Boyum. All three should now be familiar to regular viewers. The title of the episode is a reference to Stephen King’s novel The Stand. While there are a lot of parallels between the novel and the show, this is the most obvious as in the novel, “Captain Trips” is the nickname for a weaponized virus the army has developed. In the novel, the virus is released accidently, leading to a pandemic that decimates civilization and leads to an increasingly violent martial law. Patient zero and his family even escape to Texas.

    We see two of our groups come back together as Miles (Billy Burke), Monroe (David Lyons), Rachel (Elizabeth Mitchell), and Connor (Mat Vairo) arrive back in Texas to discover Gene (Stephen Collins) and Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos) in the quarantine camp. We don’t see a lot of Aaron (Zac Orth) and Priscilla (Maureen Sebastian) in the episode, and once again Grace (Maria Howell) has disappeared. The nanotech appears to Aaron in the form mostly likely to convince him to do what it wants – Cynthia (Jessica Collins). The nanotech convinces Aaron that he’s in danger, and Aaron sets out for Lubbock, Texas. Priscilla is determined not to do what the nanotech tells her to, but when she attempts to leave Aaron, they drop a tree almost on top of her. It looks like most of the group is about to be re-united in Texas. I wonder if the nanotech has tasked Grace with gathering the others they mentioned in the last episode.

    Rachel figures out that the typhus isn’t naturally occurring and that they are targeting specific people – those with unwanted conditions, such as epilepsy, alcoholism or even bi-polar. It was only a matter of time before Gene became a target. I suspect that we are very close to the end of Collins run on the show. He delivers a fantastic performance as he tries to be a hero to the town and in his family’s eyes and as he prepared to be reunited with his wife. I thought the in scene between Gene, Charlie, and Rachel, Spiridakos and Collins stole it. Spiridakos delivers a finely restrained performance in keeping with the life that Charlie has lead and all the losses she’s already endured.

    I have to admit that Truman (Steven Culp) had me convinced he was trying to save the town. Culp is really providing layers to this character. Miles comment to Truman after injecting him that “This is fresh squeezed typhus,” seemed an obvious allusion to the oranges they were injecting. However, it hardly seems possible that they could have so narrowly targeted those they wanted to infect with the oranges – but maybe that’s just a plotting problem. I suspect they are “purifying” the town in preparation of turning it into one of the indoctrination camps – as they alluded to in a previous episode. I wonder if we may yet see Jason (JD Pardo), as well as, Julia and Tom end up in Texas too.

    It was interesting to watch Monroe convince Connor to help them. Monroe recognizes the love that Miles has for Rachel and the lengths to which Miles will go for her. I have to wonder if this is a weakness he’s been exploiting for a long time – perhaps for some time while he held Rachel prisoner. Monroe also stresses to Connor that they need Miles to take back the Republic. Considering that Miles helped found it in the first place, this seems reasonable, but just how exactly Monroe is going to convince Miles to help him build the Republic that Miles so recently destroyed remains to be seen. I suspect that it will likely be under cover of defeating the Patriots. If (when) Gene dies, that should provide the impetus that Rachel needs to want to join forces to defeat them – and she will no doubt drag Miles into her own need for revenge.

    This episode features one of the increasingly rare flashbacks to before the blackout, focusing on Julia (Kim Raver) and Tom (Giancarlo Esposito) two years after the blackout. The flashback provides some great insights into their relationship.

    The flashbacks show Tom and Julia discovering what they’ve got in them when Jason’s life is on the line. Great acting by both Raver and Esposito in this episode as they make those discoveries. We see Tom having to psych himself up to even approach the camp of the two men and his inept attempt to try to force them at knife point to share their food.

 He’s beaten, but when Julia suggests they go back and work together, they manage to combine their talents – sexual for Julia and violence for Tom – to get what they want – with the excuse that it’s all for their son. Julia tells Tom that they need to use the fact that they are smarter to defeat their enemies, but it appears their talents really lie elsewhere. The looks on Raver and Esposito’s faces after he kills the two men and she emerges covered in blood spatter told the story. The episode deals with what everyone has within them - what they are willing to do, but also literally with the Typhus in Gene and the nonotech as well.

    In the present, they attempt to use these same talents as they have successfully in the past, but the episode ends with them being captured and separated. It appears that the Patriots are smarter than their former allies and more ruthless. We finally get some real insight into Julia as we see that she really does love her son more than anything and Raver does a fantastic job showing Julia’s disgust at having to let Doyle (Christopher Cousins) touch her and have sex with her. The tight close-ups on her face – and both Tom and Julia’s faces in the final scene were nice pieces of direction. The scenes on the park bench were also wonderfully shot. And I’d be re-miss in not including a shout out to the VFX team (Wes Aylor, Rageev Dassani, et al) for the special effects in this episode. The shots of the dilapidated White House have been terrific, but I was very much struck by the great effect of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting pool were wonderful. The show makes these images work because they showcase them and then pan to the action – which really gives them impact.

With VFX - and right, without.

This behind the scenes shot shows where Raver was really sitting before the VFX magic.

    This episode got a lot of the storylines moving and left us with a bit of a cliff hanger. I have to admit that I do grow somewhat weary of the cliff hangers given how often we seem to have them. I will credit the show with killing characters off with regularity, so while I don’t really see Connor, Julia, or Tom in imminent peril for their lives, we could easily lose Truman or Gene in the next episode. What did you think of the episode? Did the flashbacks change the way you felt about Julia? Will you be sad to see Gene die? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!