I am vengeance! I am the night! I haven’t had a bath in weeks!
How did our cast fare this week? Follow along:
Neville and Son: Roger Allenford begrudgingly returns Neville’s favor: in exchange for the chance to silence his rebellious wife Janice forever, Roger books passage for Tom and Jason on a train to Washington, D.C. In a related story, Revolution now has working trains in it. We saw steam-powered vehicles in Atlanta in season 1, but this is our first sign of any existing infrastructure solid enough to support railroad service. In a moment of massive coincidence, Tom runs into an old acquaintance: Julia Neville! Tom had assumed his wife was killed when Atlanta burned. As fate would have it, by that time she had already fled with a “Theresa” to Sandersville, 117 miles southeast of Atlanta, well beyond the blast radius and its fallout, as far as we can tell.
After adjourning to an empty cabin for a, uh, conjugal visit, Julia has bad news and good news. The bad: she thought Tom was dead, so she married another guy (Christopher Cousins — Skyler’s old boss Ted from Breaking Bad, and recurring scalawag Cain Rogan from One Life to Live). The good: she still loves Tom and she has a conniving plan that will let them achieve their sinister dreams together, as long as they continue playacting their current roles for the time being. They later add Jason to the reunion, but he doesn’t receive the pleasure of a motherly hug because they’re out in the open, though he’s just sharp enough to pick up on their mutual ruse and play along. So the Nevilles are a family again!
Backstabbing Grandpa Gene: No sign of Stephen Collins in this episode. Presumably still held captive by the Patriots.
Our man Miles: This week’s flashback is six years before the blackout, at a time when an extra-long-haired Rachel was cheating on Ben with his brother Miles. A cleancut, reluctant Miles does the right thing and dumps her, despite her tearful protests and offer to divorce Ben just for him. In the present, Miles lets his sword-hand infection fester while they’re busy looking for Aaron and Cynthia. Even a note of concern from Monroe is useless against Miles. His condition finally gets the better of him just before a major gunfight and drops him to his knees. Feeling weak and pessimistic, Miles comes thiiiis close to telling Rachel he still loves her, but he’s interrupted by grand finale.
Rachel and Charlie: After they escape Patriots HQ, Rachel really wants to go back for her dad because he’s family and she feels guilty about nearly murdering him last week. Everyone else agrees this is foolish and the missing Aaron is much more important for a change. In a brief downtime chat, Rachel and Charlie finally say “I love you” to each other for the first time this season, possibly the first instance ever in a non-flashback.
Killer Bass: Miles, Rachel, and Charlie escape Patriots HQ and are accosted by several Patriots in the dark. Just as they’re surrounded and things look grim, a dark figure emerges from the night and metes vengeance upon them. Once the bodies hit the ground, Monroe approaches his allies and whispers hoarsely with a straight face, “I’m Batman.” (Actual line from the episode. One of the funniest moments of the ever-improving season.)
After abandoning Aaron and Cynthia last week, Monroe clearly isn’t sticking around for altruistic reasons. He still wants to know where his secret son is, but Miles refuses to divulge anything mid-storyline, so Monroe refuses to leave. He and Charlie later share a gunfight against a couple dozen Patriots in the remains of Willoughby High School, where Charlie’s newfound ranger-level tracking skills have led Our Heroes.
“Manimal Cub”: Mysterious graffiti on the high school walls. This has to mean something awesome.
Aaron Pyroman: Last week’s final outburst didn’t resemble any previous nanobot outbursts. When Aaron screamed at Cynthia’s stabbing, the nanobots knocked out every living organism within a wide radius, including guard dogs, passing birds, Aaron, and Cynthia if she was still conscious at the moment. While one team of nanobots healed Cynthia’s wound, another team possessed Aaron’s body, used it to pick up, then sleepwalked the pair into the remains of Willoughby High School. Their waking disorientation is interrupted when Aaron meets a small boy who says he’s from Spring City, Oklahoma (Aaron Sussman — Ben Affleck’s son from Argo). Funny thing about the nameless boy: he refers to himself as “we”.
Also, Cynthia can’t see or hear him. Behold the curious avatar of the nanobot AI collective! And for Aaron’s eyes only. Kid Nanobot is in the form of Aaron’s third-grade friend Kevin Donegan, fellow Legend of Zelda enthusiast. As Kid Nanobot puts it, “We know your thinks.” If he becomes popular with Revolution fans, this will be the first T-shirt slogan at convention tables. Well, either that or “I’m Batman.”
As Aaron sometimes does whenever something fantastical happens in his favor, he screams at them to go away. It scares him to have quadrillions of tiny subjects carrying out his whims, especially the subconscious ones. Rather than learn to harness their power and become like unto a demigod or at least a costumeless super-hero, Aaron instead does what he always does in the face of anything ever, and decides they should run away from it. Despite Cynthia’s later assurance that they should and can face such challenges together as a team — like any strong, loving couple — it takes all of three seconds for them to get captured once again by Dr. Horn, visibly shaking and needing his tumor magically neutralized now now NOW. He wants Aaron to make with the faith-healing by the count of three or else he shoots Cynthia. Aaron’s reply is basically, “I can’t! I don’t know how it works!”
Dr. Horn counts. Dr. Horn shoots. Dr. Horn kills Cynthia.
Then imaginary Kid Nanobot pops in. An anguished Aaron rescinds his previous order and growls a new one: “Kill them. Kill them all.”
Dr. Horn and every Patriot in the building are engulfed in individual flames. A pinned-in Miles and Rachel are narrowly saved. Charlie and Monroe were holding their own in combat, but refuse to complain about a surprise tactical advantage. Aaron then orders Kid Nanobot to resurrect Cynthia, just as was done for him earlier in the season.
Kid Nanobot pauses, flummoxed. They prefers a black-and-white world where 0 = 0 and 1 = 1. They’re not enamored of these weird habits Aaron has of changing his mind, being overwhelmed by emotional overreactions, and not always meaning what he says or saying what he means. “Kill them, “Don’t kill them”, “Kill them really hard“, “Go away”, “Why didn’t you come back” — Kid Nanobot is no fan of flip-flopping.
They revert to the previous standing order: “Go away.” Kid Nanobot vanishes, leaving Aaron alone and shattered with his loved one, permanently deceased.
Cynthia Hostage: Her last words to Aaron, a split-second before the count of three, are “I love you.” Awwwwww.
Dr. Horn: Can safely say his final-stage tumor is no longer an issue.
To be continued. But not next week, because of the Black Days holiday. Until next time, then!
* * * * *
If you missed all of last season and would rather read about Revolution than spend hours playing TV catchup, the MCC recap of the season 1 finale has links to MCC recaps of all first-season episodes, in all their uneven glory. MCC recaps for the current season of Revolution are listed below as handy reference for whatever reason. Thanks for reading!
9/25/2013: “Born in the U.S.A.”
10/2/2013: “There Will Be Blood”
10/9/2013: “Love Story”
10/16/2013: “Patriot Games”
10/23/2013: “One Riot, One Ranger”
10/30/2013: “Dead Man Walking”
11/6/2013: “The Patriot Act”
11/13/2013: “Come Blow Your Horn“
Midlife Crisis Crossover! 
I very much look forward to each weekly installment; although, this year it’s facing stiff competition from “Black List” (which you do have to check out) for #1. The one thing I would wonder about is whether Monroe really does love no-one besides his missing son. The scene from the second-last episode, in which he regained consciousness in the company of, among others, Miles, was a real tell. Go back and review it. See if you saw what I did.
LikeLike