Revolution - Episode 2.19 - '$#!& Happens' Review & Highlights

I’ve gotten into a habit of thinking of this show as a fun mid-week diversion – high-action plot, snappy dialogue, and a little sci-fi mixed in. Man, I wasn’t prepared for the emotional punch of this episode – especially since I’ve never thought of Jason as being much more than pretty wallpaper, and never really liked Neville. But the scene of Neville discovering that his son was dead was rough. And this was compounded by the thought that Jason was probably right when he said a few weeks back that Julia was likely dead by now too.

Both Giancarlo Esposito (Neville) and Tracey Spiridakos (Charlie) delivered gut-wrenching performances as Neville slowly teased out the details of his son’s status. There was excellent writing and direction with this too. There were probably a million ways this news could have been delivered, but this slow, torturous revelation, combined with some earlier flashbacks of Charlie remembering some tender moments with Jason, effectively drove in the punch.

And then there was Miles. We went deep and dark with him this week – literally and figuratively – as he got himself trapped in a basement, bleeding to death and remembering a drunken hallucination of his dead brother who was confronting him with his demons.

This episode was an emotional powerhouse. It was named “$#!& Happens,” taking its name from a bumper sticker on what looks like might be part of a car; and happens, it does. Miles hits this piece of debris while fleeing from a group of Texas Rangers, and this action starts his really bad day.

We follow Miles as fights off the Texas rangers, getting stabbed in the process, and then heading off to search for cover and first-aid among a wreck from before the blackout. He sees a first-aid kit, heads toward it, and falls through the ceiling of a structure underneath, only to have find himself blocked in and to discover that the first-aid kit only contains a single band aid – hardly enough to treat his wound that is oozing blood.

As Miles get progressively worse, and contemplates ending his life, his story parallels some bad days of other characters. The scenes of the multiple stories are nicely woven together, with occasional flashbacks, such as the one with Charlie and Jason, and Miles’ own painful memories. For Miles, this takes the form of an experiment the nanites were performing on him about six months earlier. They took for the form of his brother Ben, who confronts Miles on sleeping with his wife, and tells Miles that he will only get them killed. 

And now for the rest. I groaned when I saw the show was really going to go there – Rachel and Monroe with a past sexual history. I was hoping they wouldn’t. Rachel already had sketchy morality with her role in cheating on her husband with his brother and the still-unclear reasons around her desertion of her family. To find out she cheated on not only Ben with Miles, but on both with Miles’ best-friend/mortal-enemy, Monroe, puts her into unredeemable territory.

And this doesn’t look good for Monroe either. He’ll no doubt be judged less harshly than Rachel because women are always judged more harshly, but Monroe has a tendency of pursuing Miles’ girlfriends – first Emma and now Rachel. He has some seriously messed up issues with Miles.

I guess the show was making a point about how deeply damaged these characters are. We’ve been seeing an admirable moral stance Rachel has been taking lately, in being the voice in advocating for setting limits. And we’ve seen more of the brotherhood between Monroe and Miles lately than the animosity. It’s tempting to forget the ugly history and start putting the characters on a pedestal. This reminded us that these two, like Miles and Charlie, are also deeply flawed.

High Points – For me, the standout scene is when Neville learns of Jason’s death and pulls the trigger. A very close contender is a drunken Miles in his flashback – being taunted by Ben and hallucinating a murdered Rachel and Charlie.

Low Points – This would be Monroe kissing Rachel. I needed a shower after that one.

Hottest Action – This episode was more of an emotional journey than action episode, but Miles fighting off the Texas rangers – and expertly hitting them all took the spot of hottest action this episode.

Best Quotes

Miles (after he gets stabbed): “I’m having a bad day.”
Miles (after wall falls overhead, shutting him in): “Yeah, very bad day.”

Priscilla/Nanites: “Next I think I’d like to know what pizza tastes like.”

Priscilla/Nanites (listening to Starship’s “We Built This City”): “I’m starting to think this is the finest song ever written.”

Neville: “I got news for you kid. There is an anchor around that boy’s neck, and it is you. He had promise before you turned his head. Before he chose you over his own blood. You are the worst thing that ever happened to him.”

Monroe: “You are a hypocritical bitch and you are grinding him into the dirt. You look at girlfriend from Hell in the dictionary. There is a full-page glossy of you. With all your wining, your nagging about doing the right thing. The good thing. You … Where the hell do you get off with this holier than thou crap? Cause lady, I know you. You’re no Mother Teresa. You’re a screwdriver-wielding psychopath.”

Rachel: “Cause I know you pretty well too, Bass. You insecure child. Miles is a good man. His only problem is you. You’re like poison. You’re like this devil on his back, and he knows it. And he hates you for it. And why? Why? Because you can’t bear to be alone. You won’t be happy until you drag him down into the mud. You’re that pathetic.”

Charlie: “I don’t think I deserve it, but somehow I’m getting a second chance. I get to wake up and see tomorrow, and I guess I want to. So now I need to figure out what kind of tomorrow I want to see. And I’ll tell you one thing, whatever it looks like, I want Miles to be there.”

Priscilla/Nanites: “But you don’t get to make demands. It’s the other way around. Now if you bring this up again, I’ll have to kill Priscilla. Maybe the rest of your friends. I will take that pizza though.”

Ben/Nanites: “Why don’t you just go home, screw my wife, and sleep it off?”

Ben/Nanites: “You’re my brother. Did you even have the decency to tell me? You’re going to fail them, like you always do. Because we both know who you really are. Savage. You’re an animal, and people suffer around you because of it. And sooner or later, they will die. And it will be your fault.” [Miles sees image of dead Charlie and Rachel and smashes mirror.] “They’re not even your family. They’re mine. Do me a favor. Leave them. Abandon them. Like you did Monroe. Before you really hurt them. They’ll be better off, we both know it.”