“Nothing will prepare you when one of your favorites pays with their life!”

We were warned. We were promised death in tonight’s new Revolution episode, “Austin City Limits”, and sure enough, there would be blood. The showrunners have offed major characters before, but they believe it’s time for another sacrifice to be made to the Nielsen gods so that their creation might be granted a stay of execution until at least the season finale. Best-case scenario: the sacrifice works and ratings uptick enough to convince NBC not to move the show to a Saturday night death slot for its next four episodes.

So how did our cast fare this week? Follow along, as we narrow down the list of potential victims outlined in my last entry about the show:

Grandpa Gene, called in sick on account of gunshot: Still healing from the bullet he took last time, thanks to his unhelpful ex-fiancee. Nowhere in sight this week, so he gets to live.

Rachel Matheson, Willoughby war medic: Stays around Willoughby to care for her dad as well as the other wounded from last episode’s free-for-all and other random flare-ups between the Patriots and the ragtag soldiers Our Heroes inherited from the late Duncan Page. For once she’s not on the front lines killing someone who threatened her family. It’s a nice change of pace for her, except for all the stitching and staunching. But it gives her a different sense of purpose and keeps her alive another week.

Tom Neville, world’s worst family man: While his son Jason burns for revenge against the Patriots for turning him into their deadly sock puppet, Tom’s idea of fatherly advice is telling him to man up and get back to work. Jason is sick and tired of manning up and getting back to work. What does he ever get out of it, anyway? He’s an unwilling goon. He’s a frequent hostage. He’s a love interest so terrible that Charlie enemy-zoned him. He’s a sidekick so ineffective, Batman rejected his Robin application. And Batman will take any street urchin as Robin.

Remember back in Season 1 when Jason would switch sides every other episode? That happens again, leaving Tom behind in Willoughby on time-out. Any episode without Tom is docked a letter grade on principle, but we take comfort in the knowledge that this and his awesomeness together double-guarantee his safety.

Mr. and Mrs. Pittman, nanobot proxies: Last episode ended with nanobot fireflies swirling around and inside Priscilla while Aaron snored the night away. Priscilla’s weirdness quotient keeps climbing as she fries her hand in the campfire and watches it heal, hears slaver wagons creaking along from blocks away, forgets to agonize over her missing family members, stares into space instead of sleeping, and never blinks. An eventually skeptical Aaron confronts her and demands some exposition.

Priscilla’s secret: it’s her body, but her consciousness is living merrily in an imaginary nanobot dreamworld. Aaron rejected this nanobot proposal, but she didn’t. While she’s out to lunch, the nanobots are “borrowing” her body to explore the wonderful world of human sensory input. Thanks to Priscilla, they now know what it’s like for a natural-born organism to see, hear, feel, taste, touch, and spend marital quality time with Aaron. His own body is conflicted by this icky news: his feet don’t run, but his eyes are clearly creeped out on the inside, as were mine.

Even worse, the nanobots insist the charade must continue with Aaron’s full cooperation. Or Else. When they reach Willoughby and rejoin the cast after a month’s worth of walking, he keeps his mouth shut and therefore avoids the Grim Reaper again. We’ve seen before that nanobot electrocution is a nasty way to go.

Miles and Bass, manly men on a manly mission: As uncovered last week, the Patriots’ next big plot is the assassination of General Carver (once again, Beware the Batman‘s Anthony Ruivivar), leader of Texas, during a speech he’s scheduled to give down in Austin. With Carver dead and Texas destabilized, the Patriots move one step closer to American supremacy. With Jason joining their ranks in handcuffs — because no one’s forgotten his revolving treacheries in season one — Miles, Bass, Connor, and Charlie saddle up and race toward the bustling metropolis of Austin to save the day.

Using what little Patriot intel he has, Jason leads them to 19 Arnell Street (not real), where a happy gun-shop saleslady directs them to a fishy upstairs apartment. Useful clues include an official Patriots lighter, burnt paper scraps with the name “Blanchard” written on them in Arabic, booby traps that Jason helps them defuse, and a known cadet trainer (Gonzalo Menendez) who comes home while they’re searching. While Jason offers to interrogate the easily captured trainer while Miles and Bass pay a visit to former Texas leader Frank Blanchard (M. C. Gainey, from Lost and Justified), now spending his retirement in a brothel where, from the Department of Things We Can Never Unhear, we learn his safeword is “walnut”.

Rather than rage at their intrusion, Blanchard listens to their tall tale, which he accepts because he’d already suspected the Patriots were heading his way, even though he’s no longer in charge. Bass is relieved for once to have someone believe them about anything, but Miles refuses to celebrate their good fortune because he knows it never lasts on this show. While Bass harangues him about how Rachel’s negativity has rubbed off on him, Blanchard fails to suspect that his assassin might already be inside the brothel. Behind closed doors one of his, er, ladies of the evening turns out to be an activated Patriot cadet who stabs him and then eliminates herself. Austin authorities arrive just in time to try pinning the blame on them Matheson boys, but Bass shoots an oil lamp that sets off a mighty distracting explosion that covers their speedy exit.

Jason Neville: hero or liability? Jason proves himself an excellent torturer, has new intel for everyone when they rendezvous, and earns freedom from handcuffs. Next day Our Heroes show up at the Texas State Capitol in downtown Austin, where the pep rally goes on because General Carver refuses to bow to the Patriot threat. In fact, he’s ordered triple security. The average TV/movie boss would settle for merely doubling it, but not Carver. He’s pulling out all the stops and sparing no expense. Throughout the following scenes I never spotted more than the one security guy (a returning Barry Tubb), but maybe that’s because they’re triple secret security.

While everyone searches the crowd for the assassin and Carver gives out commendations to a new class of Texas Rangers, Jason’s hero days are cut short when the happy gun-shop saleslady shows up, reveals herself as a Patriot, and reads off the cadet activation code 4-2-4-7-4 stitched inside his lower lip. Jason’s brain reboots and he accepts his reassignment as backup assassin, retreating to a nearby abandoned storefront that triple secret security failed to seal off.

Dillon, the cadet who lived: Imagine the surprise on Bass’ face when he looks onstage and sees one of the Texas Ranger recruits is young Dillon (John Omohundro, a.k.a. Danny from Bravest Warriors), the Patriot cadet he wanted to murder on principle two episodes ago but no one would let him. For once in his life, Bass can look everyone else in the eye and do a smug little I-told-you-so dance.

Milliseconds before an activated Dillon can pull the trigger, Miles shoots him first from the middle of the crowd. This isn’t the first time Miles has had Dillon in his sights. Unlike last time, the option of mercy is off the table.

Charlie Matheson, victor at a price: Spots Jason entering the empty building, trusts her suspicions, and follows him. His mind-wiped subterfuge lasts all of five seconds before Charlie’s on to him. They fight and fight and fight, without intercession from triple secret security.

Charlie is nearly overpowered. Jason won’t, can’t let up. No help is coming because no one knows where they are. As they keep knocking each other around the room, she scrambles for his sniper rifle, aims, and tries one last time to break through the haze, counter the programming, and save the guy she dated once.

Doesn’t work. Charlie fires. Bullseye in the chest. And with that, J.D. Pardo bids Revolution farewell and Jason Neville takes his final breath.

(Assuming the nanobots don’t bring Jason back, anyway.)

Charlie cries for her first time in months, but the most daunting task is yet to come. Who gets to be the one to tell Tom Neville, certified rageaholic, that his son is dead?

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”
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“