I really liked this episode. It did a nice job of incorporating everyone into Aaron’s bizarro world, including a nice cameo by Daniella Alonso (Nora). Tim Guinee (Ben), Anna Lise Phillips (Maggie) and Maria Howell (Grace) are also listed in the credits but I didn’t see them – did I miss them? I thought Tom’s (Giancarlo Esposito) Insurance commercial was hilarious! Is there anything Esposito can’t do?
This episode was wonderfully meta as Aaron and others poke fun at all the details that the show has been criticized for. Priscilla (Maureen Sebastian) scoffs that the electricity going out in that way makes zero sense from a physics standpoint. Aaron remembers Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos) as some chick in a belly shirt – something she’s been widely criticized for. Aaron calls Monroe (David Lyons) on the stupid on-the-nose civil war uniforms of the Monroe army. To which Monroe sheepishly responds, “I’m into the civil war.”
It was almost shocking to see everyone clean and having hair and make up done. It actually gives me a greater appreciation for the actors on the show – it’s brave in a world that demands beauty and perfection to show up without those crutches week in and week out.
It was interesting to watch Aaron struggle with what was real. He’s distracted by the almost sensory overload of a plugged in world, but by the second day, he’s been seduced by the things that he’s missed: cold beer, hot food, porn. I loved his response to Priscilla’s objection to the porn – “I’m a red-blooded American man.” There’s a running gag on Supernatural about porn too – which is also often criticized in a similar way. As much as it was painful to watch Aaron be disoriented by the bizzaro world, it was almost more painful to see how happy he was on the second day when he was almost ready to accept this new “reality.”
I loved him going to his two employees to help them with the code when he snarks, “Were you this incompetent when I hired you?” The code on the walls is exactly like the code on the walls from the last episode. The blank bubble is the code Aaron is using to kill the nano. Aaron sees a problem in the code that isn’t inside the blank bubble. The problem, of course, is a “memory leak.” Which is what Aaron is experiencing. As soon as he “fixes” that, Charlie shows up with her crossbow (something else that Aaron poked fun at with Priscilla) and kills the two employees, rescuing Aaron and forcing him to remember her and run from Horn (Zeljko Ivanek).
As Aaron rightly points out, it makes sense for the nanotech that is hunting him to take the persona of his biggest fear – Horn. Charlie begins explaining what’s going on – that the nano is in his head, and appropriately, it’s Rachel (Elizabeth Mitchell) who is able to convince Aaron that he can control what’s happening. Mitchell and Orth are fantastic in the scene in which Aaron convinces Rachel that he knows her. He tells her he knows that Danny makes her feel like she has a heart walking around on the outside. He also tells her that she’s not a soccer mom – in fact she’s actually a little bit scary. He also tells her that he’d never hurt her. I had to wonder if the nano wasn’t assessing everything that Aaron said in order to find the one thing that would actually convince him to fix the code. Clearly, Rachel’s death was that one thing.
I love alternate world Miles (Billy Burke) and Monroe (David Lyons). Miles is a shady drunk who has been stalking Rachel and Monroe is good friends with both, having come to town to stop Miles from stalking Rachel at her request. I loved that they were such good friends that they both pegged Aaron with the same nickname – Beardy McGee – hilarious! And of course, one of the first things Monroe remembers is that he calls Aaron Stay Puffed.
Of course, once they do remember they band together to help Aaron defeat Horn. They suggest he has to find a way to wake up – what wakes you up out of a dream. Monroe says that snakes always wake him up and Miles tells him he wasn’t asked. I thought the choice of snake was interesting though as that could be either an Adam/Eve reference to the fall from the Garden of Eden and Monroe’s yearning for his perfect Republic or it could be an Indiana Jones reference. At any rate, Aaron says that falling wakes him up, so they decide to throw him off a building.
Once they get to Pittman Digital, Monroe remarks that the blackout must really suck for him. Aaron responds that “Yeah. I lost some stuff.” The implication is that even though he lost material things he still has friends – who he considers to be family – in the real present.
The scene on the roof with Priscilla resonated a bit too heavily for me with the Supernatural episode “What Is and What Should Never Be.” In that episode, Dean is drugged by a Djinn into thinking he is living an almost perfect existence. Slowly bits of his real reality bleed through, however, and he determines he has to die in order to return to reality from the dream world. His family and even his girlfriend from the dream reality all try to convince him not to kill himself, that he can be happy, he can have kids and grow old. Ultimately, Dean’s response is that however much he might want to stay, it isn’t real. This is almost verbatim what happens on the roof with Priscilla.
However, that isn’t where Revolution ends. I was getting dizzy every time Aaron woke up again. I’ve made it no secret that I really like Aaron and it was so satisfying seeing him stand up to Horn, conquer his fear, and seemingly win the day. Having him then hold Peter off at knife point was icing on the cake. I have to admit that I was wondering how they were going to deal with the power being back on on the show, and it wasn’t until Rachel was killed that I realized he’d been played again. I loved that Aaron introduced Priscilla as his ex-wife-slash-long story and his basically running into Rachel’s arms. I’ll be interested to see how that plays out in the actual reunion.
Very much like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, the only constant Aaron has is that he wants to go home. Did he find his courage, his heart, and his brains in this episode? Now, home to him is his adopted family. Priscilla is worried about what the nano will do now. Aaron speculates nothing, but that hardly seems realistic. I’m also wondering if we will see Peter (Daniel Henney) again – will he continue to cause trouble or be able to communicate with the nano. Chances are good that if that information gets out, the Patriots are going to take an interest in Peter.
What did you think of the episode? Did you enjoy the alternate reality? What do you think the nano will do next? Did I miss any cameos? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
