Thursday, October 17, 2013

Revolution: Season 2 Episode 4 - Patriot Games


Welcome back to the Revolution!  The show is still on a war path of improvement with another solid entry this week.  Of course, they went a little further in getting their "weird" on this week too which is a good thing.  We learned a little bit more about the Patriots, but their full intentions remain unclear.  Let's dive in and discuss!

Recap
Monroe/Charlie
Charlie is back in Texas and enroute to Miles and her mother to save them from the evil clutches of the empire/Patriots.  She stopped in a bar where it appeared she got ruffied and was about to be assaulted 5 ways from Sunday by a bunch of drunks.  No fear, apparently Charlie is NOT as good at being untrackable as she thought.  Monroe came in and kicked some serious butt with his swords blazing.  

After waking up a day later, Charlie was reluctantly convinced to let Monroe come with her.  The Patriots are going to be a big fight.  Monroe and Miles are one excellent fighting team when fighting on the same side.  Charlie did try one more attempt to kill Monroe, but that's par for the course of an episode.  In the end, Monroe didn't leave Charlie an option.  By the end of the episode we see they're 10 miles from their destination.   

Rachel
Rachel woke up days later from her arrow wound and was fully functional by that night.  (Guess they're living on the island now?)  She was informed of the Patriot takeover and went immediately into conspiracy mode.  She knew this is the moment they were waiting for since Randall nuked the country and blew his brains out.  Miles told her to take it easy while he investigated things over the wall.   Naturally, she did not stick to this plan.

Instead, she broke right into the commander's (Ed Truman?) office and start looking through documents.   The key thing highlighted in this documentation was "Willoughby Trainyard", which we see a little later with Miles.  She gets caught by the commander at this point who starts to consider Rachel a potential threat.



Rachel and Dad have an all out fight about her being too determined to get in trouble with blinders on for everything else in her life.  He kept asking why it had to be her.  And of course, she takes the blame for most of what's happening so she thinks it HAS to be her.  

In the end, we have Rachel filling in her childhood friend Ken on the Patriots and how they nuked Philly and Atlanta.     If anything, she must have learned in this episode to trust NO ONE!  Guess what?  Ken was a Patriot too!  For 7 years (let's talk about the timing later) he has been in on the plan to make a better country.  The Patriots are everywhere and want every town in the USA.  Apparently, they don't want Rachel hurt, but Ken doesn't want to take any chances.  He dug a grave and was going to kill her.  But Rachel is resourceful!  She squeezed her hand through her cuff and was able to get the advantage on her childhood friend.  And she put good used to that freshly dug grave as well.  RIP Ken.  

Tom
Tom was on his mission to rise through the ranks and also find out what happened to his son this week.  It didn't take him long to find a weakness in his commanding officer and exploit it.  He looked to be a heroin addict getting high in some sleazy brothel.  Tom paid for some time with his officer to set the record straight.  He wants a better detail, a promotion and the location of his son.  He was offered 2 of the 3 but the man refused to admit he knew where his son was (and he may have been telling the truth).  In the end, Tom injected him with 2 doses of heroin and he apparently OD'd.  The next day he just assumed the officer's job and Secretary Allen agreed to let him have it (not admitting to knowing that the guy was dead).   

Probably a little far fetched that it would be that easy for Tom to work his way into a promotion with the lack of trust there.  But, whatever!  It's not the first time he's done it!     

Miles/Aaron

The Patriots were claiming that Titus's men were still outside of the town so it was best to keep everyone within the walls.  Miles wanted to check this out for himself.  He actually stumbled into Titus himself who escaped the clutches of the Patriots.  We learned that they are all being kept in a train but still unclear why at this point.  Miles and Titus have one last fight ending with Titus's demise and story arc.  RIP Titus.  

Meanwhile, Aaron started having episodes where he'd collapse and have visions of Miles in his current location.  The Fireflies were also present in these scenes.  

Miles went to the train yard and found that the Patriots were keeping all of Titus's disciples locked up in a train.  But, they'd take a couple out each day and kill them only to bring them to town and keep the fear of the people alive.  Yikes! 

Naturally, Miles got caught by a guard and killed him.  But, 2 more guards found their way to him.  This is when Aaron had yet another episode leading to many fireflies showing up at the scene.  Outlines formed around the 2 guards and they burst into flames.  WHAAAAT!??    

Miles then escaped and caught up with Rachel on both of their ventures.  Miles decided it's time to form a resistance to their current occupation.

Discussion Points
  • Rachel also snagged a letter in that crazy unknown language and showed it to Miles.  I'm guessing somehow this will be decoded at some point in the season.  
  • Not sure if you've noticed yet, but every episode this season has been the title of a movie.  This was not the case last year.
  • Speaking of movies our pop culture reference this week was Ken and Rachel watching Spaceballs over 1000 times as kids (when Ken's father died).  I think we all did. Ludicrous speed...GO!
  • So, we learned that the Patriots are all over the US.  (supposedly)   And we know that Rachel is definitely someone they're interested in since they didn't want Ken to hurt her.  I'm sure we'll be learning soon what they want.  I would assume it's for her knowledge and technical skills. But what do I know? 
  • Did anyone notice in the brothel that they had a record player playing music and I thought they had working power in the lighting too.  Continuity error?  Or did I miss how record players can play records without electricity?  I think we were to assume all batteries were wiped out of power too, right?   Do they still have a pendant or something?   Very confused at that scene. 
  • And of course there's the Fireflies.  What on earth is happening to Aaron?  Obviously he has some shared relationship with the Fireflies (which may just be morphed nannites or maybe the nannites are creating this relationship between Aaron and the Fireflies).    How he could make things spontaneously combust?  No clue.  But, I wouldn't be surprised if it's tied to the zillions of dead rats either.   We shall see! 
I'm sure there's more to discuss but we'll get to it in the comments!  Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I'll see you next week! 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. Great recap and good catch on the brothel/heroin den. I thought the same thing but considered the lights to be fuel oil lamps of some type, not sure but the record player didn't have a winder on the side I could see and the speaker sure seemed electric. Maybe it was put in to show us that electricity can exist in this environment?

2.Miles--when he told Rachel to take it easy,etc I was thinking shades of last season going back again to Opposite World--which got to be such a joke and distracted from the show. HOpe this doesn't come back again and am concerned, will be watching for when Charlie(LUKE--lol) comes back into the fray with Miles.

3. Aaron--with the fireflies--as I've said before I think something is up beyond the nannites but could of course be wrong. He's obviously able to see through/using the fireflies and even make those 2 guys catch fire. His eyes were moving all around like he's mentally or somehow connected to the fireflies. Obviously this has something to do with his resurrection too. Given he's atheist and a scientist of type this may really torque his mind--lol!!! The questions I have are, is this only related to Miles' adventures and can he gain control of it.
4. I thought we were supposed to learn what the Patriots were up to this ep. I seem disappointed with that. But, if you believe what they said, they are rolling across the country "saving" cities. Which was one of my questions from last week's comments. Not sure yet why they are wanting to keep them within the cities walls. Lots I could speculate on with this.
5. Something seems to not fit re Rachel and possibly Neville. That is, obviously there are communications between the patriots leaders and so the head TX patriot would know that Rachel is wanted and for likely why. Maybe they are wanting to see if she knows something that can help them??? Maybe Rachel is bait?? The Patriots likely know about Miles's history too since he was a big time leader. With Neville it just seems like they are wanting to see what he's up to and likely holding his son as insurance.
6. The Patriots using Titus's men to keep the citizens in place is pretty cold. But requires some reason behind it. Again makes me think there's something else going on other than just holding the people in a pen. They could hold them by direct force. Maybe it's as simple as they want the people to just accept them as "good guys" to avoid an insurrection but instead want cooperation. If you look at the surface the patriots have made life better for most people. There is a reason Ken became one--maybe he was lied to, but he seemed to be on the inside some with the letter she found.

Richard

Mike V. said...

Thanks Richard!

1. I have no idea. I'll have to rewatch that scene. But I didn't see a windup either. At first I thought it was a flashback but didn't know where it fit into Tom's timeline. The lamps definitely could have been oil.

2. Yeah..who knows where they'll go. But they all seemed to be aligned with the fact that action must be taken. So, maybe they won't be working against each other's wishes too much.

3. I'm sure he was subconsciously concerned for Miles which helped him track him down. So, he might eventually be able to control it to help his friends. Whatever is going on it's definitely crazy! lol

4 Yeah..I agree, we need to learn more what's going on beyond the walls. There's a reason they want to keep people trapped in there. And I'm sure it's more than just keeping Rachel in there for whatever they want her for.

5. Good point with Tom and why they're giving him some leeway. Doesn't all add up though I agree. I'm sure it'll all come together eventually. I was surprised that Truman seemed to not know Rachel as well considering she is wanted. But, he didn't necessarily say he didn't know her. He just wasn't sure if she'd be a problem. Ken seemed to indicate that they know who she is since they didn't want her hurt. We'll see.

6. They have suggested that they need "more men"...maybe that was true. Maybe they're trying to increase the numbers for their cause without really revealing what their true cause is.


One thing I forgot to bring up and said I would was the TIMING. He said 7 years...but he also said this has been going on longer than Rachel would think. Would that suggest that they were behind the initial blackout? Or is this something that was developed as a result of the blackout? Still tough to figure out. I would think the former...but we'll see!

Anonymous said...

The blackout was about 15 years ago. It was an accident or a misjudgement/risk. To some extent that's why I keep doing a "reality check" in that the Patriots seem to be making things better for most people like with the kids and Halloween. It's a crazy thought--BUT, what if the Patriots really are good guys for most people?? Wouldn't that be a plot line twist--LOL!! I don't really think that will happen, but it has crossed my mind.

But, we have to have an insurrection ofcourse--lol.

I really do hope that the plotline is not simplistic, ie Miles guys all good, Patriot guys all bad. Of course Miles has Rachel and I don't know if you could call her "good". OK, now that I've thought about it, a Miles, Monroe, Charlie, Rachel, Neville team is definitely not all good, so the plot line is not simplistic--LOL.

When you first watched Star Wars, did you know Annakin was really the pivotal good guy? And that the series was really about him? I sure didn't and have wondered what it would have been like knowing about Annakin and starting with the first chapter vs half way through back in the 70s.

Richard

Anonymous said...

I hope the audience size hasn't gone the way of our comments quantity for Revolution

Richard

Mike V. said...

Richard, the audience has been pretty stable since it returned but it returned low. lol The only good news to all of this is that it is still on NBC which is regularly getting slaughtered by the competition. Even The Walking Dead's talk show Talking Dead is higher rated than anything on NBC's schedule, maybe outside The Voice. lol