Revolution 2.13 "Happy Endings" Review: Deception

    Revolution, “Happy Endings,” was written by David Rambo and Trey Callaway and directed by Ernest Dickerson. While this is Dickerson’s first episode on Revolution, he’s directed that other apocalyptic show, The Walking Dead, as well as The Wire, Dexter, and Treme – just to scratch the surface of his resume. Dickerson does a great job with the chase and fight sequences as well as capturing the intense character moments in the episode. The title is ironic as the episode has anything but a happy ending.

    As I suspected the episode does see our characters start to get closer together as we get closer to the season finale. Tom (Giancarlo Esposito) is sent to Willoughby to kill Monroe (David Lyons) by President Davis (Cotter Smith). Tom is able to negotiate for Jason (JD Pardo) to accompany him, but Davis is holding Julia (Kim Raver) as collateral.  The scene with Davis is nicely shot as he clearly cares more for Reagan’s sofa than the lives at his fingertips. I loved him eating his breakfast as he tells Tom that if he doesn’t do as instructed, Davis will have Julia’s tongue cut out and then her eyes. My big quibble with this story line is who is Davis? He looks like he might be as old as early sixties but that still means he would have been late 40s early 50s at the time of the blackout – surely too young to be the President elect? Has anybody questioned who elected this guy President?

    Esposito is, as always, fun to watch. We see him turn the charm on Davis – to no avail, though Davis has already been briefed on Tom’s powers of persuasion. We also see him relishing having the power of a Presidential order of authority and wielding it over Truman (Steven Culp) until Truman turns the tables on him. Now the big question becomes who is Tom working for? Will he reunite with Monroe (David Lyons) and Miles (Billy Burke) to overthrow the Patriots and take Julia back or will he try to kill Monroe and fulfill his orders? Tom and Jason seem to be using the ‘get revenge for Julia’s death’ story, so at least for the moment, it seems that Tom is following Davis’ orders. It will be interesting to see if he falls under Monroe’s influence again.

    As Tom and Jason enter, Monroe, Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos), and Connor (Mat Vairo) exit and head to New Vegas to get mercenaries to help defeat the Patriots. It was hilarious seeing Bret Michaels playing himself, singing Every Rose Has Its Thorn – clearly a reference to Charlie the rose between two thorns – Monroe and Connor. Also? Way to get your classic rock fix again, Kripke!

    I loved the dynamic between Connor and Charlie. Great scene when he’s trying to impress her after his confrontation with Truman, and Charlie just strings him along, toying with him. I like that they’ve made Charlie more reliable, calm, and generally bad ass, but I don’t buy her sudden nihilism – we’re all going to be dead soon anyway? Granted she’s been through a lot, but this feels more like re-writing. Charlie has always been the well of hope for us as well and there really isn’t anyone else to fill this role. The “go down swinging” and “we’ll be dead inside a year” comments felt like they could have come directly out of Dean Winchester’s mouth on Supernatural.

    Perhaps the best scene in the entire episode is when Monroe comes back to camp and finds them, having already done the deed. I loved the shot of Monroe framed between Connor and Charlie, and his outraged, “You have got to be kidding me!” Monroe is just so beyond shocked! It was a nice parallel to see both Rachel (Elizabeth Mitchell) and Charlie take the lead in their relationships.

    The final sequence was a terrific sting. I loved having the sequence twice to show us exactly how they pulled it off. I thought for sure that Charlie had simply lost the diamonds when she dropped the box instead of simply throwing it over the fence. There’s a great moment while Monroe is fighting and “losing” when he sees Gould (Timm Sharp) leave. We get a great close up of Monroe’s face as he goes from throwing the fight to the stoney resolve that let him lead the Republic another great performance by Lyons in the episode as he hits the comedy and the subtle nuances of the character equally well.

    It becomes even more appropriate that the nanotech sent Aaron (Zac Orth) and Priscilla (Maureen Sebastian) to Lubbock, Texas. We see more of the spiritual versus scientific debate as they are reunited with their friend and former colleague Peter (Daniel Henney). Peter is convinced that God is allowing him to be a faith healer, when it’s clearly the work of the nanotech as the fireflies surround Peter and the woman who regains her sight and has her scars healed. For any Supernatural fans, this is strongly reminiscent of the episode “Faith” that features a faith healer who is actually being helped by a Reaper and not God to heal people.

    Aaron has known Peter since they were kids but hadn’t seen him since the blackout. Peter refuses to believe in the nanotech because that would mean having to give up his faith in God. I loved Aaron agreeing that Peter’s newfound religious fervor was “super creepy!” Peter takes them prisoner and Priscilla cuts to the heart of the matter when she recognizes that Peter doesn’t want to give up having people worship him. Peter isn’t wrong, however, when he points out that only the three of them can actually communicate with the nanotech, making them like prophets. It’s possible that Aaron and Priscilla could do more good by embracing their ability to converse with the nanotech. Of course, it’s entirely possible that like the famous Star Trek episode, the nanotech will realize its parents aren’t as smart and powerful as it is and then want nothing to do with them.

    What was a pretty good episode up until the last few minutes, left me pretty dissatisfied. Great acting, characters and one liners can’t make up for a weak storyline. I did like that we have a theme of deception running through all the storylines. Tom is deceiving Miles, Monroe tries to deceive Gould, and Peter is deceiving both himself and his followers. But we go from having Gene (Stephen Collins), Rachel, Charlie, Connor, Jason, and Tom being detained to having Aaron, Priscilla, Charlie, Connor, and Monroe detained. Really? The writers really need to start giving us something different – there have been far too many captures and escapes. Will Duncan (Katie Aselton) - who we’d never heard of before this – be the one to rescue those trapped in New Vegas? Seems almost obvious to me – too obvious.

    What did you think of the episode? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!