With almost no place to go Miles pays a visit to possibly the last friend in the Monroe Republic he has, Magor "Kip" Kipling, as the gang arrives in Philadelphia. Nora does her best to entice Kip to open the door trying to pass for a prostitute. Kip takes the bate and is pretty put off to see Miles who forces himself in the apartment.
After a short conversation about where Miles loyalties lie and Miles acknowledging that something has changed for him, does Miles set out to find Danny leaving Aaron, Nora, and Charlie in the company of Kip, where they try and get some rest.
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Meanwhile Captain Neville awakens Monroe and explains that Miles is here. We soon learn that Neville had figured Miles would go to Kip being so close to the subway and all. Neville captures Charlie, Nora, and Aaron, who boasts about his correct hunch that they might be with Kipling, but Charlie becoming more and more fearless turns the table on him by making him recognize that Miles isn't with them, making him appear not so smart as he had claimed. Neville has the other officers escort them out of Kipling's apartment, but not before giving Charlie an injection in the neck, most likely a sedative, before she is separated from Nora and Aaron and taken elsewhere._595_SpoilerTV+Watermark+Large.jpg)
Charlie, a little drowsey, finds herself locked in a dark room when she begins to yell for her friends, but she is not alone! Rachel calls out to her by name from where she sits in the corner and proceeds to approach her. She tells Charlie she would know her anywhere, while Charlie reacts rather stunned and apprehensive. Rachel, very emotionally, tries to reach out to explain herself, but Charlie recoils and tells her that she has to stop, because the only thing that matters right now is getting to Danny.
Later Neville had returned to his house. He proceeds to poor himself a drink while talking to Julia, only to turn around to find Miles in a position to slit Julia's throat. Miles makes an obvious exchange Charlie and Danny for Julia's life. Tom and Julia exchange a bit of banter, as Julia insists that Tom doesn't listen to or make the deal with Miles, but Tom explains he has no choice.
Tom goes to get Nora and Aaron and brings them back to Miles. Miles asks about Charlie and Danny and Neville says he could get to them, because they had been moved, Monroe's orders. Miles threaten's Julia some more and asks where. Neville caves in again and says a power plant. Miles tells Tom to go into another room, he put's Julia with him and they shut the door and block it with furniture and set out towards the power plant.
Charlie and Rachel are taken by Strausser are reunited with Danny, but before the three of them can have much of a moment, Monroe threaten's Rachel to continue to build the amplifier She refuses until Monroe asks her to chose which child she wants killed, as Strausser aims his gun at them. Charlie intervenes walks right up to Starusser and faces his gun and says choose me. -Rachel says no and offers to do what was asked. Rachel is taken into a room to work on the amplifier while Danny and Charlie are placed in yet another room somewhere in the power plant.
Miles, Nora, and Aaron arrive at the plant. Nora gives Aaron a few pipe bombs and tells him to use it, should something goes wrong. He asks how will he know. Nora tells him that he just will. They find their way into the power plant.
Danny and Charlie plan an escape by unscrewing a grid leading to a shaft, but not before attacking a guard sent to check on them. Monroe leaves Starusser alone with Rachel, who is provoked with brute force and sexual advances...
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Nora goes off to find the others while Miles walks the halls alone. He comes face to face with Monroe. Bass desperately tries to sway Miles to come back, promising to let his family live, but really also emphasizing that he is Miles' family. Miles holds his ground and denounces Monroe flat out and says, "You're not my family, not anymore." It seems to take Bass a few moments to really process the rejection, but once he does he says fine. He attempts to murder Miles himself, but quickly also sends his militia soldiers after him. Miles opens the door and finds Rachel just finish the murdering of Stausser, who had been down on the floor and stabbed in the chest! Rachel a bit mad to see him, slaps him across the face before they take off and meet up with Nora who had just found Charlie and Danny.
The five-some make outside, but have to wait a minute for Aaron to light the pipe bombs, as he couldn't get the matches to light at first. Finally after the bombs go off, they are all able to escape the power plant, but interestingly Rachel and Aaron acknowledge knowing each other. They run out in an open field thinking they had made a clean getaway, but start to hear a strange noise..."M" Monroe Republic-logo helicopters quickly move over the sky's above with guns a blazing!
My Quick Review:
Our fall finale is nothing but fantastic! Danny is freed, the remaining Mathesons are reunited, Miles is strong enough to turn Monroe down, Rachel murders the dreaded Strausser, Jeremy makes a random appearance, Charlie is becoming Joan of Arc, and Monroe gets a tactical advantage, as Rachel actually did complete the amplifier, which Monroe can now use some pre-blackout technology to continue his vengeful pursuits and sinister conquests!!!
Some things to consider are also what the flashbacks might tell us. We can see the "M" logo comes from Bass and Miles' childhood, possibly insinuating that the "M" brotherhood related to both of their surnames, but what the childhood flashback doesn't reveal is why Miles would be out playing with Monroe, instead of playing with Ben? Thinking about this second reference to Harry Potter (the first appears in "Soul Train"), makes me think about some of the older characters like Serverus Snape, Sirius Black, and Tom Riddle (Voldemort) and how so many of those character's had some big problems with acceptance from their families. I think that Bass leans towards Tom Riddle a bit and that might be able to assume that Bass's faith in goodness might have been shattered at a very young age and possibly he was in some way abused or neglected by his father, especially since the theme of the bullied becoming bullies has been one of the strongest in the season so far. As for Miles and Ben, it seemed like they were on good terms during the night of the black out, so it doesn't seem like their was friction between them, although Ben does come off as an easy going man. But one thing that might also be said is that Miles might have been like Charlie in some ways, he had compassion, compassion he is finding his way back to.
I also found it interesting that Aaron and Rachel also know each other personally. It will be interesting to see if Aaron coming upon Ben after leaving Priscilla is an act of fate, or if Aaron intentionally set out to find him? -If there are things Aaron knows that he hasn't come clean about? That also makes me think about Flynn and Grace. How is Grace going to get the pendant now? I could see a plot where the gang has to set out to collect them all, possibly to protect them. I'm also hopeful that Priscilla is still alive and might have an interesting back story of her own. I would certainly like being introduced to more groups of people located in other places and see how those situations would reconfigure into what has already been established.
Revolution is on it's way from being a good show to great one. It has interesting sci-fi mythology, interesting philosophical and social concepts, characters you can fall in love with, and with themes of war, revenge, redemption, and some spiritual under tones in exploring what family might be in any circumstance humanity might face.
As of now I find myself really liking Charlie, Aaron, Miles, Tom, and Rachel, with a lot of interest in Bass, Flynn, and am looking forward to getting more from Jason, Danny, Grace, Priscilla, and Jeremy. How about you, guys? Who's become your favorite characters? What have been your favorite scenes? -And what do you hope to get more of? Sound away in the comments below!
References:
Harry Potter: A fantasy series of novels by J. K. Rowling about the adventures of a boy wizard and his friends, overcoming the darkness of the evil Voldemort. In a flashback Bass Monroe was found sitting at a grave sights of his little sisters, who killed by a drunk driver on their way to see one of the Harry Potter films. Harry Potter is also referenced in "Soul Train" as a manuscript version of one of the novels appears in Hutch's hands when Nora enters his store. Harry Potter surely shares some themes about family, expectations, prophetic elements, immortality, revenge, loosing one's self, determination, and love. Notably Harry Potter has also been called the 'Modern day Wizard of Oz', another reference we frequently see. Aaron was referred to as 'The Wizard of Google' and may suggest that he may be 'the man behind the curtain' with more answers than he let's on. Additionally considering SOUL train's episode title we may take many members of the Monroe Militia to be Death Eaters and Voldemort like in the sense that that they divide and conquer to play God and prove their infallible efforts to the world. For Monroe it's like he's willing to sell (or split) his soul just to be one of the last men standing in the world. (inferiority complex - survival of the fittest)
Rudyard Kipling: We're introduced to Miles' friend Magor Kipling. The character may be a reference to a famous writer Rudyard Kipling who wrote "Captains Courageous"
From Wiki:
-Captains Courageous is an 1897 novel, by Rudyard Kipling, that follows the adventures of fifteen-year-old Harvey Cheyne Jr., the spoiled son of a railroad tycoon, after he is saved from drowning by a fishing boat in the north Atlantic. The novel originally appeared as a serialization in McClure's, beginning with the November 1896 edition.
The book's title comes from the ballad "Mary Ambree", which starts, "When captains courageous, whom death could not daunt". Kipling had previously used the same title for an article on businessmen as the new adventurers, published in The Times of 23 November 1892.
Led Zeppelin: And just when we thought the Led Zeppelin. references would have perhaps toned down, after last weeks trippy and insightful "Kashmir", we find a 3rd Revolution episode title being also a title of a Led Zeppelin song and is the fourth song directly referenced ("No Quarter", "Kashmir", "Since I have been loving you", and "Nobody's Fault, but Mine"), although I found "Kashmir" had allusions to "Stairway to Heaven". "Nobody's Fault But Mine" is actually a cover or rather a variation of a famous blues Gospel song by Blind Willie Johnson and is about a man looking for redemption of his misgivings. Obviously this relates to Miles.
The Bad Robot Factor:
This weeks Revolution only had a few mild instances of things we might have seen before in other Bad Robot works.
Syringes given dramatically in either the neck or chest is something that often makes a few appearances. (Alias, Lost, Fringe)
The scene with Charlie reunited with Rachel is similar to Sydney reuniting with Irina. Both scenes are about daughters seeing their mothers alive after believing they were dead, but Charlie and Rachel are both victims and prisoners in this case, despite that Rachel has proven to be a very capable character, where in Alias Sydney is tied up and point blank learns that her mother is a terrorist known as "The Man". In some ways Charlie seems tougher than Sydney in this instance, but I imagine much like Alias that Charlie and Rachel will struggle because of their disconnect and Charlie's abandonment issues. I also think however that Charlie plays a role where she is going to change the world just by other's being around here, as she gives them the strength to be able to change and to do the right thing. Sydney couldn't change her mother in Alias. Irina chose her pursuits of Rambaldi and immortality over her daughter and she died as a result. I feel certain that Rachel really isn't bad in the same way Irina was, that she does care about her children, and in the end Rachel will choose her children over her other conquests.Bad Robot always finds ways to create business logos that either tie directly into the shows mythology or alludes to it. The "M" logo when you turn it a quarter on it's side looks like a creative way to show a circuit breaker. In the episode we see them on the front's of the helicopters and it is a very similar idea seen in LOST where Dharma Initiative Logos appear on Jeeps and Volkswagon buses. -The "M then is also remincent of Volkswagen's actual logos, as an "M" is like an upside down "W" and visa versa.
Like all good Bad Robot works, we often have episodes that create game changers and this is no exception. Helicopters on LOST where also a bit of unexpected thing to see, which really changed the situation for the characters during Lost's fourth season.
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