This week’s episode
of Revolution, “No Quarter,”
continued with the themes we’ve already established and filled in more of the
characters’ back stories. With such a large ensemble cast and a season long
mytharc to establish, I wonder if some people are becoming impatient with the
show’s pacing. I’m finding that I’m liking the show more each week, however. My
one real issue with the show is that I’m finding it really hard to warm up to
Charlie. Viewers are supposed to identify with the earnest, yet naive,
character and see the world through her eyes, so the fact that I find her
somewhat irritating is not ideal. Mark Pellegrino on the other hand is a
fantastic addition to the cast – I’m looking forward to much more of Jeremy.
This week’s episode was written by
Monica Owusu Breen and was wonderfully structured. The story centered on Miles
and Charlie with only a little time spent on the subplot with Aaron and Maggie
and the subplot with Danny. The episode is interspersed with flashbacks of
Miles just after the blackout. We see him decide to leave the military base
eight weeks after the blackout. His major concern is that they are serving no
useful purpose waiting for orders which are never going to come, and he is
almost frantic to be re-united with his brother. This episode begins to show
how close Miles was to Ben. He tells Sebastian that he has to leave to find his
family. When Sebastian insists on going with him, he tells him it’s not his
family, but Sebastian insists that Miles is
his family. Once again, this episode examines what it means to be family. When
Charlie calls her father a coward for not fighting back, Miles is incensed and
tells her to never disrespect her father. We learn through the flashbacks that
Miles might have preferred to have chosen a different path than the one he was
forced to.
Nora picks up the theme of family when
she explains her reason for joining the Rebels: she lost a son and wants her
future child to be born in the United States, not the Republic. It’s clear that
she also wants her child to be proud of the side she’s fighting on and for too.
It’s also clear that the Rebels are a family of sorts as well. The element that
I found most interesting and compelling in this episode is that there is no
real black and white, good or bad side. In the Danny subplot, the soldier who
torments him and beats him up is doing it because Danny killed his best friend,
his brother of sorts. The soldier is going to have to tell his friend’s family
that he wasn’t able to save him.
The flashbacks also help to clarify
Miles’ motivation before we even get the big reveal that he was the co-founder
of the Monroe Republic and was, in fact, its Commanding General. Miles is
disturbed by the killing that he and Sebastian see as they try to make their
way to Chicago in the wake of the blackout. It’s clear that societal rules have
been replaced by survival of the fittest and the weak are being killed. When
Jeremy reveals who Miles is, everyone, and especially Charlie, is shocked, but
we, the audience, are sympathetic because we have just seen how disturbed Miles
was by the violence around him, and we’ve seen that something needed to be done
about that violence. I wasn’t surprised when the first person that Miles kills
to protect turns out to be Jeremy. But I am excited to see how Jeremy is going
to develop as he moved from a victim, to an admittedly somewhat cowardly
leader.
This theme of what it means to be
heroic is another one that runs throughout the episode from Charlie calling Ben
a coward to Aaron telling Maggie about being the kid who was bullied in the
schoolyard. Aaron explains to Maggie that he defeated the bullies by using his
brain and essentially beating them at life, becoming rich and successful. The
blackout took all that away from him and left him that scared kid again. It’s
what motivates Aaron to say that the most important thing in the world is to
turn the power back on. The end of the episode sees the mysterious amulet start
glowing and seemingly turn the power on briefly to allow Maggie to see her kids
on her phone again and Aaron to hear Marvin Gaye singing. Both are simple
pleasures that we all take for granted.
The episode also contains some
signature Kripke pop culture references. There is a shout out to the Shawshank Redemption as they try to
tunnel out of the restaurant as well as a shout out to the soap opera One Life to Live. Aaron compares himself
to Charlie Brown with Lucy pulling away the football. Perhaps my favorite line
in tonight’s episode was when Miles questions the priest on not being
forgiving. The priest responds by saying, “Christ forgives. I’m not Christ.”
I did find the bridge rescue to be a
little contrived and hard to swallow. It seems difficult to believe that Jeremy
would hold a reasonably high rank and be that easily outwitted by a small band
of Rebels. He had to be expecting some kind of ambush after all. I also find
that part of my issue with Charlie is other characters being so willing to let
her take charge. She may be good with a bow, but she is lacking in experience,
so it seems implausible for experienced soldiers to defer to her. I’m still
hoping the character will grow on me. While I think the mother role is an
important element to the family theme, I’d also like to see the women also fall
into the brother-in-arms dynamic as well.
What did you think of the episode?
Is Charlie your favorite character? What did you think of Mark Pellegrino’s
first episode? Are you hoping for a lot more Jeremy? Sound off in the comments
below...
