Revolution is back from its December hiatus with tonight’s new episode, “The Three Amigos” — a tale of father/son bonding, grandfather/granddaughter quality time, husband/wife faith put to the test, not one but two wagonjackings, and Aaron running away yet again because it’s what he does best.

How did our cast fare this week? Follow along:

Charlie and Grandpa Gene: Despite Gene’s frequent backstabbing toward anyone who’s not a blood relative, the family rescues him anyway from the clutches of the ironically named Patriots…mostly because they need him to treat Miles’ nastily infected sword-fighting hand. Gene happily agrees, though his course of treatment includes archaic use of a pile of leeches. When the cast splits up, he and granddaughter Charlie stay behind in Willoughby to maintain a protagonist presence. They spend time together by knocking over a mysterious wagon shipment. Gene is a little unsettled when Charlie ruthlessly slays one of the Patriots aboard. The net result of their wagonjacking: several crates of oranges, an odd thing to be delivered to a remote Texas town.

Sebastian “Bass” Monroe: The former tyrant-turned-sidekick grows tired of his subplot being sidelined in favor of everyone else’s angst and the welfare of the good people of Willoughby, Texas. He demands Miles tell him where his long-lost son is now now now now NOW. Miles relents and takes him on a road trip all the way to Mexico, which apparently hasn’t done too badly for itself after the blackout. American refugees head south across the border every day, hoping that some rich Mexican employer will hire them as unskilled labor to toil in their fields or machine shops or fast-food joints or whatever. The episode doesn’t dive deeply enough to show us wage comparisons or racial tensions between native Mexican workers and American interlopers. Mostly it’s a moment of heavy-handed sci-fi role reversal that wishes it were as cool as The Twilight Zone.

Our traveling heroes — Bass, Miles, and Rachel — cross the border legally and easily, because the laws and procedures of Future Mexico are obviously superior to any present political situations living or dead, and because the show thinks it’s all subtle and edgy. The trio finagle themselves three plum labor slots and leave the border station by wagon with a few other, more sincere workers. Once they’re far enough in-country, Bass turns wagonjacker and boots out everyone who’s not a cast member. Bass the great liberator shouts as he shoos them away, “Go enjoy the Mexican dream!”

Unfortunately, upon Our Heroes’ arrival in a quaint Mexican small town made entirely of old Western drama facades, whose unrevealed name is probably Spanish for “studio backlot”, they learn the aunt and uncle to whom Miles had entrusted Sebastian Junior’s upbringing (named Gary and Susan Bennett, brother and sister-in-law to the late Emma, who died last April) both died eight years ago, leaving Baby Boy Bennett to be raised by whoever was available. Bass is not happy.

A chance encounter later at a typical seedy bar brings Bass face-to-face with his son, twentysomething Connor Bennett (Mat Vairo, from a couple of episodes of ABC Family’s Switched at Birth). “Whoever was available” raised Connor ably enough in the ways of Mexican gangs that Connor now proudly commands thirty of his own men as a part of Cartel Nunez, a token sign that not everything about Future Mexico is enviable. Connor is stunned to learn his real father is not dead, as his mom’s lies would have him believe, and that Dad is the Sebastian Monroe. He’s not exactly ready to hug him and break out the board games, though. He’s also not thrilled to piece together the real reason Miles exiled him: to keep him away from his father the famous tyrant, albeit now deposed.

Bass isn’t ready to give up on their relationship. At first there’s a question as to what he could possibly expect from this first meeting, especially since his son is now an adult who’s long past the formative years where a dad’s presence would’ve been useful and constructive. Such a lost opportunity. If only Connor was more recently born in secret, this storyline could’ve worked magically with Bass as a fish-out-of-water dad trying to raise a baby with zero experience or parenting skills. What wackiness we could’ve witnessed. (Apropos of nothing, a wasted joke: Q: If Monroe did have a baby, what would it sleep in? A: A Bassinet!)

Bass’ vision of his family reunion is much more grandiose. He believes in his bloodline and thinks Connor is capable of so much more than running a paltry drug ring or whatever it is Cartel Nunez does for evil. He imagines Connor leading not a gang, but an entire republic. Not long after their big awkward “Connor, I am your father!” intro, Bass wastes no time in proposing they team up and conquer everything, more than a little reminiscent of another famous power-monger who once offered, “Join me, and together, we can rule the galaxy as father and son!”

To Bass’ dismay, Connor bears no resemblance to Luke Skywalker. He shares more in common with the identically named Connor from TV’s Angel — also raised by a surrogate parent, also hates his real dad, also grows up into a jerk. Connor’s men take Bass captive before anyone can lose a hand.

Miles and Rachel Matheson: A few seconds after Miles recovers from his debilitating infection, he finally agrees to take Monroe to Connor. He asks Rachel to tag along so that the episode title will make sense, and supposedly to help keep these two rapscallions out of trouble, which is a laughable excuse considering her chronic volatility problem. Rachel’s resurfacing affection for Miles is probably the only reason she agrees, but she clarifies for all involved that she resents helping Bass with his own parenting troubles after Bass himself was responsible for the death of her son Danny. Cosmic irony is indeed a harsh prankster. As if that situation weren’t repugnant enough, after Bass is captured she can’t believe she’ll now also have to help rescue this murderer because they need his assistance in saving Willoughby from the Patriots. Truth be known, they’re desperate for good help.

The Neville Family: Tom, Jason, Julia, Julia’s new husband Victor Doyle (Christopher Cousins), commander/Neville co-conspirator Roger Allenford (David Aaron Baker), and several Patriot extras finally reach the end of the 578-mile trip from Savannah to the White House. Together Tom and Julia plot to assassinate the Chief of Staff, named Bill something, so that Julia’s husband can be promoted to Chief of Staff and promote Tom, and then they can plan more devious things that will eventually bring them the evil happy ending they believe their family has earned.

Tom tries subtle assassination via undetectable poison at first. When that fails, he accosts Bill at night and dumps the poison down his throat. The plan succeeds even with subtlety omitted, but Tom begins to wonder if Julia’s evil loyalties truly remain aligned with his own, or if she’s decided to become even more evil while continuing to use him only for his evil. Meanwhile, Jason opens a packet of secret Patriot mail and sees something alarming but unrevealed.

Aaron Pittman: Rattled by the death of his girlfriend Cynthia, Aaron remains haunted by the mysterious message imparted to him by those temperamental nanobots. Moved by angry curiosity instead of cowardice for once, he abandons his friends yet again and journeys to the fictional town of Spring City, OK, per the nanobots’ prophecy. It’s another deserted city set that reminds me of Persons Unknown and is probably a sister city to La Backlota de la Studioso.

Abandoned, that is, except by one person: Aaron’s old hacker friend Grace, last seen in Colorado Springs before the twin nuking of Atlanta and Philadelphia. Grace has a shotgun and shares his surprise.

The Patriots: Receive most of their orange shipment, inject them with experimental evil drugs, and begin handing them out free to the citizens of Willoughby as a PR gesture and a goodwill token symbolic of the luxuries to be had in the days ahead under Patriot rule.

To be continued!

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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”
11/20/2013: “Everyone Says I Love You“