Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Revolution: Season 2 Episode 18 - Austin City Limits


Hello and welcome back to the revolution!  We've arrived at Austin, Texas (and since they film in Austin, the setting is legit!) and seem to be amping up for a grand showdown for the season, possibly series, finale.  I'm not sure if it was Facebook, Twitter or TV ads but I certainly caught the teaser that we'd be losing someone in this episode.  And for a quick second, I started to suspect that the person I thought was untouchable might go down.  But, alas, I knew better!  Anyway, let's dive into some of the talking points of this episode.

Discussion Points
  • Mr. Friendly is straight!  That's right, good ol' Tom Friendly showed up as "Blanchard," the previous governor or General of the Texas Rangers or something.  He didn't last too long, because the Willoughby kids were all brainwashed and stuff and one was dressed up as a prostitute!  Loved Miles' line "I wasn't looking at her face!"  Good times.    
  • Anyway, to slow stuff down, Jason was our guide in Austin because he wanted to take it to the Patriots for what they did to him with the reeducation.  He's convinced his mother is dead and Tom Neville was not happy about his new career choice.   Of course, his former/new allies weren't exactly thrilled to have him back either.  But, he had enough intel and gumption that they decided to keep him on an incentive plan.  One bad move, and he's dead.  
  • Lots of hijinx going on in Austin and of course a brief hint of a love triangle with Connor, Charlie and Jason.  They uncovered that the ultimate plan was to take out the current General (we met him earlier this season) with the Willoughby Kids.  So Miles, Monroe, Charlie, Jason and Connor were all on the lookout during some big speech by the General.  Of course, there were lots of hidden Patriot commanders around and one spotted Jason.  They read the code and he went into "Backup Killer Mode".  Charlie caught on that something was messed up and she followed him.  Once she spotted the sniper weapon, Jason tried to strangle the life out of Charlie.  They did it just long enough to make him me think, "hmm maybe Charlie isn't going to last much longer.  Maybe this really is the end of the series and all bets are off." But noooo she got out of it with a nice knife to Jason's knee!  The fight raged on. 
  • Meanwhile outside both Miles and Monroe spotted the Willoughby Kid that Rachel made them let go a couple episodes back.  He was on stage with the general disguised as a Texas Ranger.  The fight raged on with Charlie and Jason with Charlie ending up with the sniper rifle.  She begged Jason to snap out of it but he kept coming, so she shot him out of self defense.  The gunshot was heard outside and everyone was panicking.  Willoughby Kid went into motion but Monroe took him out saving the day.   But we were left with Charlie mourning over the body of her past fling.  RIP Jason Neville.  Tom is NOT going to be too thrilled about this turn of events! 
  • And of course, Aaron and crazy Priscilla got closer to Willoughby.  But, Aaron started sensing something was off with his ex-wife.  She wasn't sleeping and didn't care about her family.  It turns out that ever since the nano took over their minds, only Aaron woke up.  The nano want to experience human emotions and feelings (yep, including those intimate feelings.  They enjoyed getting intimate with their dad apparently.  ewwww!).  Anyway, Priscilla is having a happy time with her kids in her mind while the nano control her body.  Interesting.  Even more interesting, Aaron seemingly has to pretend he's okay with this as he arrived with her to Willoughby and came into the Rebel Camp to meet up with Rachel.   
  • This nano thing is getting out of hand!  But, it clearly is the larger arc of the show.  Very similar to the Matrix and all other AI gone bad movies/literature.  Man creates machine.  Machines get smarter than man and become a threat.  Man needs to conquer the machines.  Maybe there's more to it but that seems to the trajectory right now! 
And that's really all I have this week.  Maybe I was supposed to feel torn up about the loss of Jason Neville.  But, he wasn't really the most exciting character.  At this point he was the most expendable unless it was going to be one of the Patriots or Rachel's dad.  Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I'll see you next week!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually a pretty good ep. I really liked the Priscilla reveal and since they compared it to something we have already seen, made it more acceptable. I like the nano tech story arc.

ON the other hand, when Jason went into the building with the bag and of course Charlie followed, I knew it was game over for Jason--way too predictable at that point to me anyway. This is when TV looses all credibility, I mean Charlie killing Jason was hilarious even with the knife in the leg but I can still attack stuff--LOL. Great comic relief which when they tried to make it dramatic was even more funny. Yea, Tom won't like it, but there's no way Charlie's in any real danger. The way the promos made it sound, it was like a major character"one that we loved" was going to die--lol. Now if they had said "one that we hate", I might have suspected a Charlie offing--LOL. Sorry, that was maybe a little mean.

Yea, I liked the Blanchard stuff and since he's still alive, I can see him doing more. The new uptight Prez will hopefully be grateful to the Monroe help.

I can see Rachel taking down the veil of niceness sometime soon. Maybe, just maybe Charlie getting shot will bring out the "homicidal tendencies"--lol, She's already working on back stabbing Monroe with his men.

Was I the only one that thought Miles had that lost puppy look on his face every now and then when trying to figure things out.

When will we know if this show is renewed?

Richard

Mike V. said...

Yeah the nano tech story arc is a good time. They're being pretty sparing with it at this point, but I'm sure that's intentional since the immediate threat is the Patriots.

I guess you've come around on your hopes that Charlie can be killed off! lol Yeah, I don't think Tom OR Charlie would be in any real danger in that conflict. If Rachel will work with Monroe after he indirectly killed her son, I'm sure they'll be fine. lol I didn't see any of the promos saying "one that we loved"...I just got the impression that a series regular would die. lol I still say Charlie has been a lot better this season. She was downright painful last year.

Blanchard is still alive? I think I might have missed that.

Yeah, I missed commenting on Rachel working her way into the minds of Monroe's men. I'm sure there is more coming there too.

Might have been just you, but I wasn't paying that close attention to Miles' expressions! lol

I have no idea about when we'll find out about renewal. But, at this point, they probably don't have enough time to work in a "series" finale angle to the end. Unless they go with the "Fringe" strategy and approach every finale as something that could sorta work as a series finale. lol

Anonymous said...

I will have to admit when I saw Charlie run into the building after Jason that I was hoping she'd get knocked off, but I recalled what you said and unfortunately I think you're right--LOL I actually fast fowarded through a lot of that as it was just painful to watch--lol. I keep hoping for a Charlie gets knocked off moment, but unfortunately recognize that some show runner somewhere likes her. But, now that I dvr the show, I can and usually do FF through her scenes to avoid the pain--lol. Since she doesn't have that many scenes or really say that much important, it really hasn't impacted my understanding of the show in a negative way--LOL. Jason getting knocked off of course opens the door for Monroe's son and Charlie. I wonder if that makes Monroe's son an even bigger target now--lol.

Blanchard's being looked after by Dr. what's his name(I didn't get it).

With Jason dead, Tom will be different. He really loved his family and did anything for them. Tom could go off the deep end or declare total war against the patriots by joining Monroe, who knows. A lot will depend on if he believes his wife is alive or not. His character adds a lot to the story for me. But, I also really liked the leader of the GA group and they killed her off of the show.

Something's being set up with Rachel's character particularly with Charlie commenting on how her Mom's dangerous and yet Rachel thinks of herself as the "enforcer of good now".

Richard

Mike V. said...

Don't have time to comment more right now, but I just saw the show is off for a couple weeks again.

It comes back 4/23 and runs straight through to the 5/14 finale. Makes sense following the traditional Network TV scheduling, but definitely can be frustrating for serialized shows.

More an issue for me, I probably won't be able to recap the 4/30 episode as it will be the day after my daughter is scheduled to be born. lol But, we'll see what happens.

mj said...

Off again til 4/23? Yikes.

If Blanchard is Mr Friendly then I thought he was dead.

I also thought Charlie - I don't think of her as unkillable as her death would be an excellent catalyst to get Rachael in battle mode again.

Loved Monroe making fun of Miles for being Rachaels b****h as we (or I) had that complaint not too long ago

Not surprised by Priscilla at all. But why is Aaron cooperating? Gues they can kill the real Priscilla.

Mike V. said...

Blanchard is Mr. Friendly and I thought he was dead too.

I think Aaron knows that if he doesn't cooperate the Nano can make his life and lives of his friends a living hell. They pretty much control the entire world! So, for now he needs to cooperate. And there's no way to communicate anything to anyone without the nano finding out.

As for Charlie, I still argue that she is the MAIN character of this show. So yes, her death would be a catalyst for Rachel, but I just don't see it happening. Granted, there are probably only 3 episodes left in the series...so it depends on if they are aware of that before the end. lol