Before we look at tonight’s episode, have a little bit of fun and call Tom Neville’s insurance agency. No, really – remember a couple of weeks ago, when the nano was inside Aaron’s head, showing him his sort-of past life and we saw a commercial for Neville’s business? You can call the number they posted – 612-353-8113 – and hear the agency’s answering machine message.
Tonight, our main characters’ motivations are called into question. Empire, atonement, salvation, power – and maybe, to salvage some kind of future – all factor into the reasons that Miles & Monroe and company fight on.
Following their discoveries about the Patriots’ training camp, Gene believes that the townspeople will agree to fight against the Patriots if they learn the truth. Miles reluctantly agrees to go with him into town to try to gather some help; they go first to Marian’s bar, where they discover that Marian, once involved with Gene, is now engaged to Truman. She doesn’t believe their story about what the Patriots are up to – she says that Truman told them that Gene’s house was filled with explosives and that he had a journal discussing how he wanted to kill them all. But they tell her about the young cadet’s eyelid tattoos and how she killed her father – she starts to believe that maybe there could be something to their story.
After Miles and Gene leave, Bass and Charlie find a group of men from Duncan Page’s New Vegas camp. They’ve come looking to join Monroe, after the Patriots killed Duncan and set out to “wipe out the war tribes.” With a larger group of fighters, Monroe makes the decision to hit the training camp, not sparing even the cadets. Doyle has Neville and Jason captured – Truman told Doyle that Neville was plotting to kill Doyle. Jason gave Doyle information about his father, under the influence of the eye tattoo, and Doyle starts to strangle Neville – while Tom is breaking through his restraints – and when the fighting outside starts, Tom is able to break free and kill Doyle with Doyle’s own belt. Tom and Jason escape; Monroe comes to the tent they were in and finds Doyle’s journal – written in Arabic. The leader of Duncan’s men says he knows of one of the fighters who may be able to translate.
Back at Marian’s bar, Miles tells Gene that he’s sure Marian will give them up. “People will always do the stupid, selfish thing. Ten times out of ten,” he tells Gene. Gene replies, “So why are you here? If everyone’s a selfish idiot, why are you fighting for them?” “I’m fighting to keep your girls alive.” “I’m talking about something bigger. Don’t you want to make things better?” Gene responds. Miles, who tends to see the selfish in others because he recognizes it in himself, answers, “Newsflash- it’s the apocalypse. Things are only getting worse.” Gene: “What makes you so sure, sunshine? No, I’m serious.” Miles has had a journey of guilt and attempts at atonement, which resulted in his split from Monroe, and he says to this, “Because I’ve been down this road before. I set out to make things better. Bass and I both did. And it all went to hell. Blood and war. And you want to know why? Because people will always do the stupid, selfish thing. Me most of all. I was trying to make up for that. That’s it.” Gene, easily the most idealistic of the group, has had problems with Miles’ involvement all along. Remember, he’s known Miles for years, since before the blackout, and has never been a big fan. “So you’re not fighting for anything. You’re just fighting back – against your own demons? No wonder you keep losing.” Will Miles continue this path? I don’t know if Miles’ cynical view is part front – not wanting anyone else to know that he would like to be a better man, but not knowing how to get there; or if he considers himself unredeemable and the world unsaveable.
But when Marian tries to give them a chance to escape, she and Truman learn about the attack on the camp – and she believes the Patriots are the innocents here. She gives them up to Truman, Gene is shot, but Miles and Gene make it out and back to their camp, where they learn that Monroe has engineered this attack.
More motivation discussions – between Charlie and Rachel. Rachel asks why Charlie went with Monroe on the attack at the camp. Charlie says she didn’t go for Monroe, she went for herself; she believes that none of them will live long enough for anything to make a difference, so you might as well stand up for yourself. Rachel, no stranger herself to guilt, says that she and Miles have made Charlie into a weapon, into a soldier. But Charlie is only 22, and Rachel believes she can still have a future. Charlie’s not accepting this – she says, “You’re the scariest person I know, and now you’re preaching sharing and caring? What are you fighting for?” Rachel, fearing for her child’s soul, says, “I’m fighting for you. So you won’t be me.”
Monroe’s motives don’t seem to be in question – he is seemingly single-minded in attempting to put the Monroe Republic back together. But is it for his own ego, for a legacy for his son, or does he believe that he has the best road to restoring some kind of order? He, too, seems to have come a long way from the nearly mad man he was at the end of Season 1.
When Miles learns about the attack, he finds Monroe, and punches him. “Is there a problem?” Monroe asks. “Who told you to hit that camp?” Miles questions. “I saw an opportunity, I took it.” Monroe repeats to him what Miles said earlier to Gene – that people do the stupid, selfish thing. “You can sit there with your bitchy frowning face, judging me, or you can get on board and we can take it them and do some real damage.” As they argue, the fighter brings back a translation of one of Doyle’s journal pages – the Patriots were planning to take the cadets to Austin to take down Texas government and kill their president.
Revolution will be off next week, and will return April 2.
