Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Revolution: Season 1 Episode 12 - Ghosts


Welcome back to the Revolution!  Decent episode again last night, with some slight answers to some of the show's initial mysteries.  Emotionally, the crew was still dealing with the fallout from the shocking twist last week.  But, it only propelled them forward in what needs to be done next.  Let's dive in.




  • We started off with Danny's funeral, where we are clearly shown that Charlie is in no mood for her mother's affections.  We follow this plot throughout the episode.  Rachel is over protective of brooding Charlie (that sentence would work better if Charlie was a guy right?).  Charlie is being rebellious and trying to prove she doesn't need her mother.  Eventually, there is a blowup where Charlie lashes out saying Rachel was never there when she needed to be.  My memory is a little hazy (was sleepy when watching) but there's a chance she blamed Rachel for Danny's death.  Anyway, by the end of the episode Rachel apologized for never being there, being a lousy mother, etc...  And we got a nice hug by the campfire and a release of grief that they've both been dealing with.
  • Of course, while all of these emotions were at play, they were also dealing with Randall trying to seek Rachel out.  Sure, we were led to believe that they wanted the 2 pendants that they were pinging to serve as a GPS and locate our heroes, but Randall really wants Rachel's brains.  He's "putting the band back together" as he called it.   Randall has also basically promised Monroe the world.  He was doing his research and trying to figure out who to give backing to.  And it certainly was not "Affleck" in California.  (Are we supposed to believe that a Hollywood actor has taken over the California territory in this apocalyptic future?  Probably just a coincidence!)  Surely, Randall has ulterior motives to why he chose Monroe.
  • We learn that Randall has no interest in turning the power back on.  In fact, we learn it was his order that turned the power off.  And it seems like it was an intentional government operation.  They uploaded a virus at "The Tower".  Rachel says that it wasn't originally supposed to be used as a weapon, which we discussed last week.  (It probably started as some medical advancement, like whatever that thing was in Danny that Rachel removed)  I guess we're supposed to make some connection between the loss of Randall's son in Afghanistan to his motivation for resetting the world's game board.  I'm sure there's more to tell there. 
  • Long story short on the "Rachel Kidnapping".  They did initially catch her, but Charlie found a way to get her back.  All she needed was a high tech machine gun and great aim UNTIL all that was left was Randall.  Then she turned into a Stormtrooper and couldn't hit a thing. 
  • We also saw that the pendants were essentially USB drives.  The information they stored, besides GPS information is unknown.  But Rachel disabled them by putting them in water.  We also learned that the reason they mysteriously activated a couple times was because Randall was pinging them to keep an eye on everyone.   I guess the question here is, if we got these answers 6 years later would be have been disappointed?   Eric Kripke thinks so.  He said that he's all about giving answers as soon as possible because the expectations become insurmountable if you try to make them last for a whole series (and he admits...he's not that smart).   Obviously, he was giving a nod to LOST and the incredible task they had ahead of them when they tried to answer questions.  And of course, personally, I think they did a knockout job.  (sidebar over)
  • Rachel asked Aaron to help her turn the power back on.  And for that they're going to need to get to THE TOWER.  (Which, I believe, is where Grace is right now)  
  • Miles and Norah had their own little mission going on.  Miles, for starters, feels like a failure and doesn't want to be within 100 yards of Charlie.  He rescued Danny but also got him killed (sorta.  There was no stopping Danny for what he did).  But, he feels that everyone around him dies.   He also thinks that if they're going to want to kill Monroe they're going to need help from Ex-Militia officers.  So, they went to find John Hudson (at least, I think that was his name).  John has been in hiding working as a librarian in some random town.  He got married and lied about his name to the woman.  He was NOT happy to see Miles and Norah.  Apparently, they had a mission to take down Monroe before, and Miles screwed it up.  Not sure exactly when that happened.  If it was early on after the blackout or more recently.  In any case, some rat within the rebels tipped off the militia that Miles was heading to find Hudson.  So, they brought some drama with them.  Long story short, there was an all out sword fight, Hudson was exposed to his wife, the guy playing the militia officer that's been in pretty much every show tried to kill his wife but got killed by Hudson instead.  The wife got scared off, so Hudson is now reluctantly recruited into the cause.   And that my friends, is REVOLUTION! 
Not sure I could cram any more into those 7 bullets if I tried.  Looks like next week we'll be shedding more light on the blackout as Rachel promises to tell everything (again).  So, now that Walking Dead is over, these are the only recaps I have going on this blog.  But, be sure to check our weekly discussion posts.  While we will be discussing various shows, my main obsession these days is Game of Thrones.  So, we'll be getting into various discussions about the show there.  If it gets really heated, then I'll consider posting a separate discussion thread for Game of Thrones only.   Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I'll see you next week!    

11 comments:

AUStarwars said...

Wheres the obvious Star Wars ref of "Echo Base" being the rebel stronghold?!

Mike V. said...

Oh duh...lol I did think about that when I was watching! Thanks for pointing that out!

Mike V. said...

Ratings dropped again for Revolution. The following too. I may be eating crow on this one. lol

http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/04/02/the-voice-ratings-dip-just-a-little/

mj said...

Umm - i think an actor ran the 'state' of Ca so why not Pres Affleck of Ca?

It was water and some acids and chemicals that melted the thumb drives.

Did i miss something? Felt them turning on device in Afghanistan was meant to do something there, but not necessarily world wide

Mike V. said...

Well, I thought that with Schwartzy...but I thought surely they wouldn't have jokingly added that Ben or Casey Affleck is the President of California!! lol I'm guessing there is just a character named Affleck! lol That is assuming that one day the show might confront this Affleck character when the expand the world outside of just the Monroe Republic.

Ahh...forgot about the acids. I'll admit, I was half asleep during parts of the episode. monday nights are the worst for me these days! lol

Wait...they were in Afghanistan when they turned on the device? Guess I need to rewatch some parts. lol

Mike V. said...

I think the Tower is the source of the blackout which is definitely in the US. Maybe they were TARGETING Afghanistan and I missed that part.

Leslie said...

I think the target was Afghanistan, but maybe something went wrong since Rachel and her husband thought he was using it before all the testing was done. Definitely some revenge on Randall’s part since he was holding his son’s dog tags as he gave the order to deploy on Kabul. We mentioned last year that Randall is the bad guy in Stephen King’s, The Stand, and last night in the library, that is the book that Jim Hudson was handing the guy when Miles and Nora first showed up…or Conan the Librarian as Miles called him. lol Loved Aaron’s reaction when he realized the pendants were flash drives!

Mike V. said...

Yeah, that definitely must've been some of the parts where I was nodding off. My bad! Thanks for the clarifications MJ and Leslie! Makes a lot more sense that they were targeting Afghanistan which would explain the earlier flashback. lol

mj said...

I thought the same about Aaron - mr google exec himself.

Anonymous said...

Rachel being the loving mother seems a lot out of character.

The lack of ability of the trained Monroe force is becoming increasingly funny. It's like you never expect them to win, even with 10 to 1 odds and better firearms.

I like the new guy Jim Hudson, sure shocked his wife.

Richard

Mike V. said...

Hmm....didn't feel the loving mother was out of character for Rachel. I think she did love her children, but felt forced to abandon them for whatever reasons. So, the fact that she's trying to make up for lost time doesn't surprise me. Plus Elizabeth Mitchell can act the hell out of any script!

Yes the Monroe Militia definitely have the aim of Storm Troopers (a joke I used for Charlie trying to shoot Randall as well. lol)

Yeah, Jim Hudson will be a nice addition!