Just when you’ve given up on something… Revolution’s become exciting again! There are still too many disjointed story lines going on, but they seem to be coming together. However, this may not be enough to save this show from cancellation. Characters, with the exception of Monroe, haven’t really had a lot of forward development; Charlie, supposedly the main character, in particular, has been underused and unsympathetic; and the two most interesting plot lines – the Patriots’ motives and history, and the nanotech, had been all but dropped. While some of that may be back in tonight’s episode, it might be too late to resurrect viewer interest in the show. And the early time slot certainly hasn’t helped – this is an adult-oriented show, with the extreme amount of blood and violence, in a family show time period – big mistake by NBC.
Monroe a Dad? Whoulda Thunk?
Tonight’s episode: Monroe, having found his son Connor living in Mexico, is now a prisoner of Connor’s employer and father-stand-in, Nunez. Connor suggests that they sell Monroe to the highest bidder; Miles is also captured when he tries to free Monroe. But Bass worries about what will happen to Connor if he escapes, and refuses to leave. Miles says, “I can’t believe the first selfless act you’ve ever done in your life screws me up, too.” After whipping Monroe at Nunez’ direction, Connor slips a key to Rachel when she comes looking for the two men, but he’s seen – and ends up fighting with Monroe and leaving with them. Rachel’s deadly with a cooking pot! Monroe tells Connor that he intends to take back everything he’s lost – “I can do whatever the hell I want. That’s the way it’s always been.”
What Are the Patriots Planning?
Tom and Julia plot – Tom more than Julia, I suspect – does she really want Tom back? Or, as Tom suspects, is she happier with the man in power than with the man in uniform? Jason finds documents that show that the Patriots are planning to not only expand their “re-education camp” program, but to wipe out whole groups of people, and is brought in for questioning when the office of Julia’s “husband” is ransacked. The Patriots’ motives and plans are starting to come out – and next week’s teaser, about a typhus epidemic in Texas that may or may not have been started by the Patriots, looks to continue that line.
The Nature of God
But of course, the most exciting plot line we saw tonight was the revelations about the nanotech! At the end of the last episode, Aaron walked to Spring City, OK, after the nano “boy” said this was where he was from – and when he got there, he was very surprised to see Grace. In today’s episode, Grace wasn’t the biggest surprise in Spring City – shortly before Aaron arrived, she said, another person walked in, then collapsed from heat stroke – Aaron’s wife, Priscilla! The last time we saw Priscilla, she was a captive, and Aaron killed the man who was holding her, but she told him that she had a husband, and left. Now, Priscilla is afraid she is going crazy, and her husband, unable to take her mental state, has left her. But Aaron assures her that she’s not going crazy – he, too, is seeing people who aren’t there, and watching impossible things happen.
Grace reveals that the nanotech carries the code Aaron wrote. “It’s because the nanos told you to come, didn’t they?” she says. She says she was always afraid that one day they would wake up. “What’s the brain, besides a cloud of neurons all talking to each other? Get enough of them together…” “And you cross into consciousness,” Aaron responds, beginning to understand. “There’s more nanites than neurons in the brain,” Grace continues. Priscilla asks, “Why us?” “It was my thesis, but Priscilla helped,” he adds. “Like anybody, it just wants to know who its parents are.” Grace says, “This thing is everywhere. Apparently it’s got a mind of its own. How is that any different than God?”
Can Revolution be pulled out of the hole it’s dug? A good first step would be moving it to a later time slot… a better second step would be to quickly pull the disjointed story lines together and get this train moving again!
