Quick programming note for those MCC readers who follow along with NBC’s Revolution: as previously suspected, the show will be taking three consecutive Wednesdays off so NBC can regale us with an unsightly lineup of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit reruns they think Nielsen commoners would rather watch instead. (The following paragraphs assume you’ve already seen the April 2nd episode, “Austin City Limits”. The MCC episode recap link is at the bottom of this entry; beware the spoilers between here and there.)

For those of us who wouldn’t notice if the last Law & Order survivors were escorted off the NBC premises forever, this means no Revolution on April 2nd, no Revolution on April 9th (i.e., tonight), no Revolution on April 16th, and no Revolution on April 23rd. I would recommend some other Wednesday evening shows that would help us all pass the time if I knew what else was on, but I didn’t bother to check. I spent my Wednesday night watching two of the Rifftrax Total Riff-Off specials that aired April 1st on NatGeo. They’re available on Xfinity on Demand, or they’re available from the Rifftrax official site in exchanged for hard-earned money. If you like the idea of three of the guys from Mystery Science Theater 3000 applying their skills to nature specials, your wish is now granted. Episode two, in which a British naturalist tracks down an elusive quote-unquote “death bat”, had me in tears.

In the meantime, as of tonight NBC.com promises Revolution will return on Wednesday, April 30th, with “National Race”, the first of the four final episodes of season two. I’m expecting the plot to be grieving, furious father Tom Neville and shell-shocked, self-defending killer Charlie Matheson yelling and pointing guns at each other for one solid hour. If Tom recovers in five minutes flat and the other fifty-five minutes are just the nanobots using Priscilla to learn about cooking and sports, I’ll be visibly upset.

Until then, let’s agree to pretend the show isn’t on hiatus because of the dangerously low ratings. Let’s pretend it’s because the network has agreed to this extended moment of silence in honor of the late Jason Neville (JD Pardo, pictured above), who was the Patriots’ latest victim in last week’s episode. We’ll mourn his passing by gathering around a hobo’s fire, having a cookout using only foods that would be available during a fifteen-year blackout, and remembering the greatest moments in Jason’s life:

* That time he and Charlie had their meet-cute
* That time he turned on Charlie and tried to kill her
* That time he saved Charlie’s life and decided not to kill her for a while
* That other time he changed his mind and and tried to kill Charlie again
* …and his wishy-washy self kept vacillating from Good to Evil and back again
* That time Tom yelled at him for not being heartless enough
* Those two times Jason got to hug his mom, before they were separated by the Neville family monthly kidnapping
* Those times Jason was taken hostage and his dad had to murder his captors because of fatherly love or possibly fatherly possessiveness or maybe because it was just murder-o’-clock and Jason’s captors happened to be wrong-place/wrong-time
* That time Monroe’s son Connor was introduced, which could have created a theoretical love triangle if Connor, Jason, and Charlie had ever shared more than one scene together.
* Those episodes that had no Jason in them and only his Tumblr fans noticed
* That time Jason was brainwashed into the killer his dad wanted him to be
* Those times where Jason’s super-soldier brainwashing still didn’t prevent him from a severe beatdown
* His farewell appearance, in which he was allowed a serene, nicely framed moment before the opening credits, was given the chance to explore his inner turmoil to a greater depth than any prior episode to date, and was granted the generous parting gift of more than five lines of dialogue for a change.
* That strange moment two minutes ago where I multiplied his lip-tattoo numbers together: 4*2*4*7*4=896. And if you go one random step further, 8+9+6=23, which happens to be JD Pardo’s current age. COINCIDENCE? Well, yes, but let’s go tell everyone else this is significant anyway.

R.I.P. Jason Neville. If you’re watching your family from heaven, you might wanna close your eyes for a few minutes when your dad finds Charlie.

Until next time, then: see you April 30th!

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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”
1/8/2014: “The Three Amigos”
1/15/2014: “Mis Dos Padres”
1/22/2014: “Captain Trips”
1/29/2014: “Happy Endings”
2/26/2014: “Fear and Loathing”
3/5/2014: “Dreamcatcher”
3/12/2014: “Exposition Boulevard”
3/19/2014: “Why We Fight”
4/2/2014: “Austin City Limits“