Revolution - 1x16 "Love Boat" - Overview & Speculation

Hello Revolutionaries!

 This week on Revolution former foes Tom Neville and Miles (& Gang) converge on behalf of Tom's and Mile's new association with the Georgia Federation, but if any of us thought this would go without a hitch, we would be wrong!

 We learn straight away that Monroe is planing on weaponizing anthrax by forcing Dr. Ethan Camp make it for him. So naturally, having the luxury of steamboats, does Neville, Miles, Charlie, Jason, Nora, and Georgia Federation Captain: Richard Lucas cross the Parkensberg boarder, slit the throats of some of the Monroe Boarder patrol, and extract Dr. Camp for the Georgia Federation to possibly make some anthrax of their own.

 In the meantime we catch up with Rachel and Aaron who move deeper into The Plains Nation. They come across a tribe of people, as they desperately try buy some food, but the one man whom we see them ask point blank tells them no, -explaining that food is scares and any food he gives to someone else is food his children will not have.

 The rest of Rachel and Aaron's story only gets better. The man who refused them food tracks them down and forces them to acknowledge that they stole from him, holding them at gunpoint. Aaron confesses and the man reveals that breaking this law in this part of The Plains Nation is punished by death and demands they get down on their knees in preparation of their immediate execution! But Rachel wips out a gun and shoots the man dead, as she and Aaron run for their lives!

 At night the try to quietly move around in the dark, only for Rachel to accidentally slip down a side of a ravine, where she serious hurts her lower leg, but no matter how angry she gets and how much she pushes Aaron to leave her behind and make his way to The Tower, he refuses, as he attempts to treat her wounds. 

Eventually Rachel is resting inside of a rundown old service vehicle when a Plains Nation man is about to open the door, but Rachel shoots at him, but they are still able to enter and almost kill Rachel, as her gun runs out of amo. Aaron, coming from outside, hurtles himself on top of one of the man, but like last time, he quickly gets physically beaten, but Rachel saves the day by getting a hold of his gun and is able to kill him! Again Rachel expresses that Aaron has to leave that he has to go to the tower. He still refuses as she hands him Jane Warren's journal and tells him to turn to page 74. There an article on Aaron Pittman is pasted to the page! Aaron is stunned and wonders why in the heck is apart of the her notebook at all!

The rest of the story with Miles, Tom, Charlie, Nora, Jason, and Dr. Camp play out with Tom attempting to compliment Miles calling him a professional, but Dr. Camp wakes up. They inform him he is liberated by The Georgia Federation, but Dr, Camp fears for his family, which he explains Monroe Republic has hostage, but Tom informs them that they (The Georgia Federation) have safely moved their family and are on another boat...

Nora also tells Miles that she was wrong about him, She thought he had changed, but now she sees that she was wrong and is going to transfer to another rebel camp. The next day The Monroe Republic with a boat of their own comes to perform a routine inspection. Tom tells Charlie and Ethan to hide in a certain compartment on the lower deck. Tom holds a gun to Dr. Camp's head to keep him quite and Charlie holds one to Tom's to make sure he doesn't betray them all. A Monroe officer finds something else illegal and Captain Lucas pays him off and then the boat is "clear".

Tom gets mad at Charlie for holding a gun to his head and smacks her hard. Miles turns around and does the same to Tom and warns him never to never touch his niece again or he'll snap his neck! Charlie later attempts to make Miles reconsider what he is doing to Dr. Camp, asking Miles to let him go, but Miles denies her efforts explaining this is war! The two argue about what war is, but Miles gets extremely emotional, as he exasperates his fears that Monroe won't stop at anything (being reminded of Emma) and that Monroe is coming for him, personally!!

Charlie then locks Miles in a room below deck and Jason causes his father to pass out and puts him in another room. Charlie and Jason force Captain Lucas to rondevu with Dr. Camp's family. Then men operating a smaller boat with Dr. Camp's family pull along side there's deciding they should check it out. Charlie holds them at gunpoint, as Dr. Camp reunites with his family. Nora tells the doctor to take the small boat 20 Miles up the coast --that she has friends there that will help them, but Tom escapes, holds a gun to Jason's head, and their plans are thwarted.  Tom injures Jason then proceeds to attack Charlie, but Miles had escaped too and punches Tom.

Tom falls on the ground and then orders the Georgia Federation officers to shoot them all, but before they could, the Monroe Republic starts to shoot at them all from off shore and we learn the leading officer from before knew Miles was on board, but was scared to go face to face with him.

The shootout continues resulting in Miles, Jason, Nora, Charlie, Dr. Camp and Family escaping in the smaller boat, leaving Tom and The Georgia Federation behind!! Dr. Camp is able to escape with his family. Charlie and Miles say thank you to each other.

Sometime later, Tom bursts through the doors of the rebel camp Miles currently resides. Much like one of the opening scenes, Tom again threatens Miles with leaving with The Georgia Federation Soldiers and resources, but Miles turns the tables by making him realize that President doesn't care about Neville's pride, but the fact that Miles has been winning...

Later Miles returns to his quarters where he finds Nora half dressed. Nora clearly has changed her mind about him, siting Miles as not a bad person, as she gets intimate with him...

In the final scene however, we catch up to Grace and a guard.  Grace says she has the elevator up, as he wants to go down to "Level 12". Grace warns him that Randall wouldn't want him down there...We watch the elevator count to it's way 'down' to 12, but it stops on "Level 7" and we hear the guard make a horrible scream! When the elevator comes back up to the top where Grace is sitting, trying to break free of her handcuffs, the audience sees nothing but blood smeared on the door as it opens...We're left with a panicked Grace turned frozen with a look of sheer horror!!!!


One thing I thought was really interesting was how these themes and references from "The Plagued Dogs" has been used. Before in previous overviews articles I had mentioned the possible connection to Maggie's death to something death related happening to Nora before the end of the season --being foreshadowed and strung together from her "Kashmir" hallucination sequence (Note: Texas was mentioned "twice" in the episode), but I was not expecting a parallel between Maggie and Aaron (he was left behind to try and help Maggie's wound, while Miles and Nora had to go after the guy with the crazy dogs, whom abducted Charlie)and Rachel and Aaron. I still think that Rachel will make it, but it's interesting that history is repeating in some ways. Additionally "rabid dogs" was mentioned in the episode (by Miles referring to Monroe), which leads me to want to talk about "Level 7"...

 When I first watched the final scene I was again reminded of Aliens, Jurassic Park, Lost (smoke monster) and/or Colverfield (as I also thought of these things during the episode Randall locked down the former hospital that Rachel and Charlie were hiding in and is it any coincidence that just like they were in a useless hospital, was Rachel in this episode in a useless ambulance vehicle?!) and I had initially hoped for some kind of super mutant alien monster or a dinosaur! I think to some capacity, I might be right, but it's probably something smaller scaled like over-sized mutant rabid dogs. (There were also Harry Potter references early on. Specifically in episode 5 "Soul Train" -the manuscript version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows appears in Hutch's store, which the first novel HP ATSS and film feature the 3 headed dog "Argos" guarding the places leading to the stone) So what or who needs protected on Level 7 or rather level 12???

One idea that came to mind is that it could be a fringe scientist working on a project. I think it could go either way if it's somebody we know or not, but think it would be cooler to somehow relate to someone we know or have at least been mentioned about like Monroe's son! I also think it would be fun if dopplegangers or clones could be used in the series. I keep hoping we might see Graham Rogers again, but I'm probably going to have hold my breath on that one.

 As for Miles and Neville, I wished we could have seen them a little more happy to be working together, but that might be something we'll build to down the line, but I did enjoy how Charlie and Jason dealt with their unethical male parental figures and pushed to do the right thing by Dr. Camp and his family. It was also hysterical how Charlie kept putting a gun to Neville's head every time he threatens someone else with a gun (the hiding in the boat scene was GREAT) and how Miles followed through about his threat to Tom about not touching Charlie, clobbering Tom on the head and leaving him behind, only to have Tom storm in to the camp some time later and try to threaten Miles about taking all of Georgia's troops and resources away, only for Miles to point out that President Foster doesn't care about their personal matters, but moreover that Mile's is winning battles!!!

During the episode I was also reminded of Rachel during a flashback of another earlier episode. It was shortly after the blackout and she and Ben were on their way out of town, but stopped by the lab first. A desperately hungry man came threatening them. Rachel pulled out a gun and shot him dead! There seems to be some karma going on her here! The writers have really done a nice job stringing some of these things together!


References:
The Love Boat is 1970's-1980's sitcom about romantic situations on a cruise liner. This episode isn't exactly that, but almost like mockery of it, as this one shot about Dr. Camp being thrown in the middle of war aboard these dingy steamboats, which for him results in a happy ending, along with Jason and Charlie teaming up against almost everyone else, was in it's own right comical. And for Miles, we see the death of Emma and the rejection of Nora followed by an immediate repeal from Nora, surely playing on Mile's heart strings.

 The Bad Robot Factor:
 Last week's episode featured a major riff from Alias' "The Truth Takes Time", but the Alias references (which also appears in various other Revolution episodes) continues on this week as well. First there is Aaron being revealed on Jane Warren's page 74. Alias is generally about a CIA agent named Sydney Bristow, starting out working on the wrong side, only to turn around become a double agent and begin to take down the enemy she originally didn't know she was working for, Arvin Sloane who's apart of the "Alliance of 12". -But Arvin Sloane's real pursuits were centered around a 15th century prophet and inventor Milo Rambaldi. As Alias unfolds we learn that Milo Rambaldi's prophecies and inventions relied on the technology and the people during the show's current time period, especially Sydney Bristow, her sister, and her mother.

 The show's mythology also included a never ending supply of Rambaldi and Rambaldi followers association with the number "47" including pages of instructions and prophecies featured in what would be Rambaldi's manuscript or manifesto. Page 47 revealed "The Chosen One" depicting the image of Sydney Bristow. Aaron's [page] number 74 is a mirror to number 47.

The Prophecy of Page 47:
"This woman here depicted will possess unseen marks, signs that she will be the one to bring forth my works: bind them with fury, a burning anger. Unless prevented, at vulgar cost, this women will render the greatest power unto utter desolation. This woman, without pretense, will have had her effect, never having seen the beauty of my sky behind Mt. Subasio. Perhaps a single glance would have quelled her fire."


 Note: Charlie is very Sydney-like in some ways. They both wear their hearts on their sleeve, have high expectations of others to do the right thing, and can be naive and impulsive. There is a feeling that Charlie plays a prophetic-like role, as she strives for goodness and may have some abilities. Thinking about this in terms of the current situation in Revolution, I have to wonder, as in Alias they (Sydney and Vaughn) tried to make Sydney's mother appear as "The Chosen One" by having Sydney go to Mt. Subasio to prove the prophecy false, If then Rachel going to the Tower would somehow be a bad thing and/or  that it really has to be Aaron to make some kind of final choice, --making him "the chosen one" in this case...

Another Alias reference is on the boat. The room in which Charlie locks Miles into has a round window and two handles on the door that altogether look like this:< O > . That is also the symbol of Milo Rambaldi relating to dual forces and balance, but is also referred to as "The Eye of Rambaldi" representing his "magnificent order". But this boat reference and scene is also slightly similar, (but also in a lot of ways opposite), especially given that Charlie is involved, to a scene on LOST in the episode "Through the Looking Glass pt2." where Charlie Pace died in the underwater Dharma station.


 Note: Charlie Pace may represent "spiritual progress" in the LOST universe(s), as Desmond may have seen many of the ways he died in previous time lines, leading the shows current incarnation to not die the same way, -a senseless death, but one with a special purpose: to save the family he wished he could of had with Claire and Aaron

 Additionally the smaller boat carrying Dr. Camp's kids whom are hiding inside is also reminiscent to LOST's Pala Ferry used by the Others, first to kidnap Walt ("Exodus pt 2") and when Ben lets Micheal reunite with Walt and they leave the Island with the Ferry. ("Live Together, Die Alone pt 2").

 And Note: The Alliance of 12 was mentioned above, as strangely Randall's subterranean building has 12 floors/levels. Some speculation: The fact that they chose to use mirrored 47 with Aaron's 74 reminding Alias fans of page 47 is curious for me, as I still keep wondering about the truth behind what Miles had said a few episodes ago in relation to seeing Rachel's dead body. Doppelgangers are something frequently used in Bad Robot works. In both Alias and Fringe there is technology that can shapeshift people into other people (and in Fringe into animal people and dinosaurs) I wonder if the show will use doppelgangers, although it's also possible (also like on Alias) that some kind of drug-experiment was used tactically on Miles to make him believe he saw Rachel's body. But Levels 7 and 12 are interesting too, as whatever ripped the guard apart may also point to Fringe science.

Names: Richard and Ethan are names of Others associated with Benjamin Linus on LOST. Richard Alpert was put on a slave ship (The Black Rock) from the Canary Island's in the 1800's. Ethan Rom was also  like Ethan Camp: a doctor, but seemingly a medical one, rather than a bio-chemical one, as Ethan was monitoring Claire through her pregnancy. Additionally Ethan was the only other "Other" doctor, besides Juliet on the Island.

Note: Richard Alpert and Ethan Rom both worked for "Mittelos Bio Science" and recruited Juliet Burke. ("Not In Portland")