Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Revolution Season One, Episode Two: Chained Heat

This episode opens one week after the blackout, with Charlie and her parents preparing to leave the city. Grace is very little that she doesn't really understand what's going on. Charlie is told that her job is to never let go of Danny's hand by Rachel her mother. As they walk, the streets are deserted. It then shifts to fifteen years after the blackout, where Maggie, Aaron and Charlie are standing at a crossroads, when they hear the sounds of fighting and realise that Miles is not there.  Miles is fighting with someone from Monroe's militia and before Miles can kill him, Charlie shows up and begs him not to because she sees it as murder.  Miles tells Charlie that she being a pain in the ass, and then he and Aaron lock up the bounty hunter on a train, before continuing their journey.

When they arrive at Pontiac Illinois, they witness a man being beaten up by the militia. When Charlies asks what the man did, Maggie replies, "it's the militia, it could be anything: spoke up, looked at them sideways, who knows."  This causes Charlie to hurry to catch up to Miles to find out what that they are doing in Illinois, when Danny is with a group of dangerous people.  Miles says that he has to talk to someone. Charlie points out that Danny, who hasn't been more than five miles away from home his whole life, is out there alone, but Miles responds that if they want to see him again, that they are going to have to go up against Monroe and a thousand of his man.  He says that he cannot do it alone and turns to leave, but Charlie stops him again to ask where he is going.  Finally in frustration Miles says, "this little place called shut up and stay here."   Miles walks into a bar and says he is looking for Nora Clayton, and he is interrupted by the bounty hunter that Charlie had him tie up earlier, as the bar clears out.  Miles suggests that they both go their separate ways but the bounty hunter is not inclined to let go and so Miles says, "give it your best shot, let's see what happens." The bounty hunter gestures and Charlie and Maggie are brought in by knife point.

Miles claims not to know them and says that he's trying to have sex with the British chick.  When they make a move to kill Charlie and Maggie, Miles gives up and allows himself to be handcuffed.  Charlie engages in a staring competition with the bounty hunter.  Miles is being escorted out, when he begins a fight. The bounty hunter makes a run for it after Miles has disarmed and wounded a few militia men but Miles catches him and uses his chains to strangle him.  We learn that Nora, the woman they went there to find, was arrested for stealing militia gold, before Miles breaks his neck, as Charlie watches with doe eyes

Danny is riding on a hay covered wagon being led by Captain Tom Neville. Neville stops when he believes he hears a gunshot.  Neville knocks on a cabin door and when it's answered, he does his pleasing nice guy routine and talks about the deer which is hanging in the front yard.  Neville asks about the buckshot and points out the Baltimore Act. It apparently is illegal for citizens who are not militia to own a gun.  The man throws the gun on the ground and Neville orders his troops to search the house.  When the man pulls out another gun, Neville shoots him. Inside the house, a soldier finds an American flag and so Neville orders the house burned down.

Monroe walks in as a captive is being tortured for information at the rebel base and stops the torture and apologises.  Monroe wants to know where the rebels are and promises that if the captive gives up the information that he can return to his family.  He suggests that there is a lot of violence and that people have the right to be safe.  The captive responds that people are scared of Monroe but that he isn't. Monroe smiles and picks up the knife and stabs the man in the stomach.  So much for the nice guy routine.

Over a camp fire, Maggie is tending to Mile's wounds, when Aaron finds an iphone, but Maggie quickly dismisses it and says it's nothing. Miles tells Charlie, "the next time I tell you I want to kill somebody, let me kill them." Miles puts on his jacket and tells them that he will meet them in two weeks, because he has to go and get Nora.  When Charlie asks who Nora is, Miles responds, "she's really good at blowing stuff up and we cannot get Danny back without her." Charlie is not impressed and moves to follow him, but Maggie grabs her arm and detains her.

In the morning, Maggie wakes up and realizes that her pack is missing. It seems that Charlie stuffed the pack into her bedroll, to make it appear as though she was sleeping there.  Aaron finds a note which says that Charlie has gone after Miles and Maggie screams her name repeatedly. I don't know about you, but Charlie is getting a little spunky for my liking.

Charlie is walking through the woods when she hears a sound she cannot identify. This causes her to quicken her pace.  When she stumbles down a hill, it seems that she hurt herself.  Nate has been following her this whole time and makes an appearance.  When Nate tries to help her, Charlie pulls out handcuffs, and handcuffs him to a metal pole, before standing up quickly. Charlie asks why he is following her and Nate admits to being militia and to following Miles to bring him back alive. Charlie is not impressed and points out that Nate used her to flush Miles out, before walking away. When Nate asks if she is going to leave him there, Charlie replies if you're such a crack soldier, you at he can find you way out.

Back at camp, Aaron is suggesting that going after Charlie is crazy.  Maggie pulls out the iphone and says that she keeps it because inside it are the only pictures of her kids.  Maggies says that there's no way of knowing who they will and will not see again anymore. I like that they are including little details like this.  Today many people really don't print pictures anymore, and tend to store them on devices.

The militia has stopped to deal with the wounded soldier.  Neville tells him that he has two choices: die quick or die painful. Neville holds up a vile of poison and tells him that if he drinks it, he won't feel a thing.  Neville tells the soldier that where he is going, he will be warm, rested and fed.  He tells him that he will be with his family and bask in the most beautiful light.  It seems that Neville does have a heart after all.


Charlie continues to walk through the forest and when she comes across an old football,  we get a flashback to her bouncing a basketball. A man steps on her ball when it rolls away, and her mother calls her. The man threatens to smash in Charlie's face and demands food. Her memory is interrupted by Miles, who wants to know why she is there.  She demands the right to come because Charlie believes that Danny was kidnapped because of her. Charlie says that she and Danny never spent anytime apart until the day he was kidnapped because she was pouting like a child.  Charlie wonders if she had been there, if she would have been able to keep Danny safe and her father alive. Charlie says that she has to help.

Back at the camp, Maggie is holding onto the iphone staring at it.  Aaron shows Maggie what Ben gave him before he died and tells her that Ben wanted him to give it to a woman named Grace.  We get a flash of Grace, who is working on the computer.  Aaaron asks, "what if we could get the power back up? What if we could go home again? What if you could see your kids again?"  They start to walk and Maggie asks if they take this to Grace how does this work and Aaron replies, "I don't know, he just said something about the power. The black out doesn't make any sense and we should be able to fix this."   He goes onto say that if this man made then maybe they can fix it.

The militia men have a service for the dead soldier and Neville leads them in prayer.  When he notices Danny looking at him with contempt, Neville tells him that if he has something to say, to spit it out and show some conviction.  "You don't like that I killed that trigger back there, even though he owned guns and a rebel flag, even though he shot one of my boys. Well I will tell you what I think. The Monroe militia is the one thing between us and total anarchy. It's just a finger in the damn, but it's the only order we got left, Nevile says." Danny replies, "You want to know what I think? I think that you tell yourself that. I think the truth is that you like to kill. You're a murderer and a psychopath." Monroe cuts Danny off by grabbing his neck and says, "I appreciate the honesty."  Truth be told, it's no wonder that this is the best scene up to this point.  Neville has great intensity which makes every scene with Charlie so very flat by comparison.

Charlie and Miles are walking when they hear a sound and stop.  People are being forced to push a military helicopter through the forest.  Miles believes that this is a sign that Monroe thinks he can get the power going.  Charlies asks what the prisoners did and Miles says, "most of them probably didn't pay their taxes."  One of the people on the gang is Nora.  When a prisoner falls to the ground, Nora begs him to get up, but when he doesn't, he is shot by the militia.  Miles points out, "I may be good with a sword, but I can do jack shit against a weapon like that."

The chain gang has stopped for the night and Charlie looks on. When the militia member goes off to investigate the sound he heard, Miles slips in and frees Nora, who at first doesn't want to go. When the militia man returns, he sees that Nora is gone and demands that everyone wake up.  Away from the gang, Nora says that she didn't need to be saved by Miles and that she got arrested on purpose because she is working a job. Apparently, she is there to steal the rifle.  It seems that her plan was to sneak up, slit the wardens throat and take the gun. Nora reminds Miles that he promised to stay away from her. Charlie tells Nora that the militia took her brother and that Miles promised to get him back.  Nora believes that there is more going on and Miles says that they need her help and she owes him. Nora agrees to go but says that she is not leaving without the gun. With the introduction of Nora, we now have two women of colour on Revolution.

Nora constructs some sort of home made gun and Miles points out that it is only good from about a foot away.  Charlie agrees to do use it because she can pass as an innocent girl lost in the woods. Nora says that she likes it and Charlie.  Miles immediately nixes the plan, saying that Charlie cannot do it because she will choke. He believe that because Charlie was not comfortable with him killing the bounty hunter that there is no way she can just walk up and shoot someone in the face. Charlie says that it is not about the rifle or Miles or Nora; it's about the 30 innocent people who are working as slaves.  Charlie asks what is wrong with them that neither of them have talked or thought about the people.

The slaves start to drag the helicopter, when Charlie walks out of the woods declaring that she got lost hunting. We get another flashback to Charlie as a child being held captive by a man, as the present day Charlie walks toward the warden.  We see her father come out and pull a weapon as the man hides behind Charlie using her as a shield. The man starts to walk away with the food and Ben threatens to shoot him and orders him to put down the food, but he keeps walking, sure in the knowledge that Ben will not shoot. The man does not get far, bcause Rachel shoots him in the back.  When the warden asks Charlie where she is from, Charlie shoots him in the chest and Nora and Miles attack the other wardens with swords.

With the captives freed, Miles approaches Charlie to tell her that she did good.  Charlie replies, "I killed two men today. Maybe that's not a big deal for you, maybe it's another Monday but we shouldn't have to do this.  Things should be..."  Miles tells her that she is very unusual.

Nora has taken off her shirt and is pouring alcohol into her wound, when Miles notices that she has an American flag tattooed on her back.  Miles surmises that Nora has no intention of selling the rifle, but plans to give it away to the resistance. Miles is not pleased that she joined the rebels, but Nora says the rebels are patriots who are trying to bring back the United States.

Grace is typing on her computer when she hears a knock on her door. She opens it to find a man and then slams it shut. She rushes back to her computer and sends the message, "Randall is here" as he storms up the stairs.

Rachel is hard at work, when Monroe pops in to see her.  It seems that Charlie's mom is alive after all. He tells her that Ben is dead and Rachel calls him a liar, and then accuses him of killing Ben.  Monroe then tells Rachel that he has Danny and she lifts her arm to stab him with a pen, but Monroe blocks her and tells her that if she wants to see Danny again that she is going to talk about Ben, about what's happening and the power.

I think that Revolution is starting to get very interested. I was surprised to see Rachel and desperately want to know how she ended up with Monroe and why her family thinks she died. What is the secret with power and what do these flashdrives have to do with getting it turned back on? Who is Randall and does he work for Monroe?  I love the way that the meta is continuing to grow, but I don't like Charlie though she is supposedly the moral center of the show.