Fear and loathing – in Las Vegas (thank you, Hunter S. Thompson). Or, in this case, in New Vegas. Battles abound in this episode – including an epic one that gives us a cliffhanger to the next episode!
Three weeks ago, when we last saw our intrepid adventurers, Bass, Connor and Charlie were attempting to buy mercenaries from Bass’s former associate, Duncan Page, and they tried to steal a batch of diamonds to pay for them. They were caught, and Bass and Charlie are forced to fight each other to the death; Charlie is grabbed and set to work as a prostitute. Nothing ends the way the perpetrators think it will, of course. Bass insists that Connor must be the one to live, and to do that, the son will have to kill the father. Bass tells Connor that “I have clawed, killed my way to the front of the pack, and when I got there, it didn’t mean anything. Because I was alone. What was the point?” He wants Connor to find a girl – not Charlie – and have kids. And take back the Republic.
There’s no way Charlie is going to allow any one to treat her like that – this girl has come a long way from the Wisconsin teenager surviving in the cul de sac. She kills the man who comes to rape her, escapes, saves Duncan Page from the fight promoter Gould’s goon, rescues Bass and Connor just as Connor is about to strike the coup de grace, and they all escape.
In Willoughby, Neville has convinced Miles and Rachel that he’s there to help them fight the Patriots. They see Doyle, Julia’s new “husband,” helping to unload barrels. Jason tells Tom that it looks like they’re building a “re-education camp”, and the barrels are empty – cadets are put into the barrels as punishment, sometimes for 18 or 19 hours at a time. Miles, not knowing who Doyle is, makes a plan to grab him and question him, but Neville has somehow gotten the word to Doyle. Miles realizes at the last minute that Neville is not really working with him, and puts a gun to his head. Jason pulls a gun on Miles; Rachel threatens Jason and Tom, who says, “Now this is getting silly.” Tom comes clean, and tells them that he is there only to kill Monroe so he can save Julia – if they turn Monroe over to him, he’ll come back and help them “paint the town red with Patriot blood.” Miles, however, tells him that Monroe is now working with them, which Neville has a hard time believing.
But the best story line tonight brought us back to the nanotech. Aaron and Priscilla are still be held prisoner by their former friend Peter. Aaron sees Cynthia in front of him, telling that “We’re dying. Help us.” Priscilla sees her father saying the same thing. They figure that there must be a problem with the computer code, and if they leave it alone, the code will eventually lose power and die out. Peter says that they must fix it – but Aaron says there aren’t a lot of computers around the last time he looked. Peter says they have to have faith, that’s why they’re there. “It’s a machine, it’s not God,” Aaron says. “It’s better than God,” answers Peter. “The nano, it’s alive. It answers our prayers. It heals. This is a new age. This is a new god.” Priscilla says she won’t help, it’s too powerful, and she wants it to die. But Peter threatens them, and Aaron agrees to help. When he does, a computer in the room mysteriously turns on and code starts scrolling down the monitor.
The three of them cover the walls writing out pieces of code, until Aaron says he’s found the problem and can fix it. He knocks Peter out when Peter comes to try and help; Priscilla realizes he’s actually entering a virus into the code – and Aaron wakes up in his pre-event apartment, in bed next to Priscilla, with his alarm clock blaring. He quickly realizes that there must be something wrong – and we’ll see what happens next week!
This episode is a good example of what’s wrong – and what is definitely right – with Revolution. The Miles/Monroe/Neville story line is bogged down. At this point, I couldn’t care less about the Patriots. I don’t know why they’re there, and frankly, I think we’re never going to find out. We have a big, fascinating mystery here, and the writers seem to have no interest in moving us any further toward understanding it! The season is about 2/3 over – will we be any closer to an understanding or resolution? NO! We’ll be stuck in Willoughby, watching Miles and Rachel try to figure out their relationship.
BUT – and I say this as a huge positive – we’re heading into “Lost” territory with the nanotech, FINALLY. What is this rogue technology capable of? How has it screwed with the world? Will the world be changed forever? This storyline has moved in very interesting directions in the past several episodes, and I would be happy to trade Willoughby for Aaron’s world. Read Aaron’s Journal – it details the most interesting part of this show at this point!
