Revolution - 1x17 "The Longest Day" - Overview & Speculation

Hello Revolutionaries! Straight off the bat I have to say that this week's episode is the kind of Revolution I like to see!

This week's episode starts out right off the heels of the last episode. Nora continues to be temperamental, as she suddenly rejects Miles again expressing fear of loss as her primary reason, while Tom Neville continues to brown beat and get into the face of his son, basically threatening Jason that he is not going away any time soon!

But all of that, as always, is short lived, as Charlie had watched Jason emotionally deal with his father from afar and goes to comfort him, but in a short instant Charlie hears noise and discovers Monroe has launched an air strike! She runs to the top of a brick building to ring the warning Bell.

The following scenes show the other characters in the midst of chaos. Rumble and debree is everywhere when Miles comes to. After screaming for Charlie he finds Nora and together they find Tom with a wounded Jason. After a few minutes of questioning, Jason admits he left Charlie behind in the rubble, not knowing if she was alive or not. Miles a bit upset yells at him about this, but Jason who clearly is in a lot of pain and possibly feels guilty for his actions begs to take his own life and asks for a gun. Tom denies Jason the opportunity and offers to get Jason out of the war zone. Miles wishes Tom luck and he and Nora continue to look for Charlie.

In the mean time back in Philadelphia, Jeremy talks Monroe to step outside his office for once to get a drink. Monroe agrees, but the minute they're outside they have their own air strike and attack to worry about, as Jeremy and Monroe barley escape back to Monroe's office alive. 

Back at his office again, a cool as cucumber Monroe pours Jeremy and himself a drink there, as Jeremy starts to muse over their near death experience, but again, as Monroe always does, he turns the events on Jeremy, siting that all must be conspiracy, --that Jeremy intentionally wanted him killed! -Jeremy tries to laugh at the idea suggesting it was most likely Georgia, but Monroe's men turn towards Jeremy in an attack formation. Jeremy, truly fearless, tells Monroe a long over due truth, that Monroe may conquer the continent, but in the end his paranoia will leave him all alone and he wouldn't wish that on his greatest enemy. Monroe suddenly, going from over emotional to apathetic, steps out of his office and shuts the door. We hear a single shot ring out.

Elsewhere in The Plains Nation Aaron and Rachel are able to find an old computer store or computer repair store, as Aaron looking over notations strips apart various computer components, while Rachel sits in pain with her leg on the floor. Quickly we learn that Aaron is constructing a device that will activate the flashing pill-shape device Rachel took from Danny's body. She explains that this is first generation nano-tech and it helped keep Danny alive by literally healing his lung tissue, but she warns sometimes the process of using it can have adverse affects.

Aaron is able to activate the nano tech and he proceeds to put it in her wounded area. At first the pain of the technology seems unimaginable. The audience isn't so sure if it's going to work or make everything worse, but after a bunch of horrific screaming, it begins to heal, until the wound becomes nonexistent! Unfortunitely for them a man was watching. He aims his riffle at them and demands to know how they did that!

The next thing we know he has sort of taken them captive and brought them to his house. There his wife asking if they are healers, shows them their son lying injured on the couch. Rachel talk the boy, as he explains he took a tumble of a horse, as he was trying to impress a girl, but resulted in breaking his ribs. Rachel says they need to go back to the shop and they would be glad to help. 

At the shop Aaron thinks that they are going to help the boy by removing the nano tech from Rachel's leg and reactivate for the boy, but Rachel says she will do no such thing and just getting their things so they can move onto the Tower. Aaron completely disappointed in her behavior makes the best point of all. What's the point of having technology, if we don't use it to save people's lives?! -Rachel explains that's not why she want's to turn the power back on, but so she can have her revenge against Monroe!

At Philadelphia, back in his office, Monroe learns the the attack was on behalf of the Georgia Federation. It appears he killed Jeremy unnecessarily...

 Back with Miles and Nora still in the middle of an attack Nora expresses her concern that Charlie might be dead, and like she expressed in the opening scene, that she doesn't want to loose him too. But Miles tells her that he's not going to do to Charlie what he did to her mother. "Her mother?", Nora considers, as this sparks a gutsy move to run out into the open and lead the Monroe ground soldiers away from the location they hadn't been able to search. 

Tom had been protecting Jason, but also gets shot in shoulder, but tells Jason not to worry. He's going to get Jason out. Charlie had finally found away out of the rumple that she had been caught under. She sees Nora run and is able to run the opposite direction to find Miles. The two embrace.

Sometime later in yet another hospital like place, Jason wakes up with Charlie at his side. Jason tells Charlie he's sorry for leaving her behind. Forgivingly Charlie tells him it was not his fault and two experience their first kiss, as Tom watches from outside the room, with a look that is hard to read.

The final scene however, we learn that Nora was captured by the Monroe Republic and is brought to a room where there Monroe himself waits for her. "Nice to see you again, Nora.", he says as they drag Nora in!!!!!

For me this was one of the best episodes since episode 1x13. We finally move away from the story of the week to gear up to the here and now in terms of moving forward for the end of season 1's story. I felt that the episode was well executed and that each actor had scenes written that gave them moments to shine!

To start I will get into this story with Tom. It was nice to see him remove a few good shades of darkness for the sake of his son and to see a less demonstrative side willing to take a bullet for him, but this leads me to the actions of Jason, which although I think are understandable, I can't help to think his plea to die goes deeper than his injuries and maybe even leaving Charlie behind. It's true on so many occasions that Jason has protected Charlie and I was glad she didn't stick it to him like she had before, but given the way Jason has been introduced in the serious (a spy and a traitor) and as a viewer trusting most of Charlie's instincts (such as her rejections of Jason), I can't help to think he's responsible for this attack or something else coming.

Rachel's story is also highlighted. It becomes clearer to the audience, like so many of the older characters, that they all struggle for control. It's easy to understand why Rachel feels the way she does, but the truth is her whole experience as an adult has done nothing but harden her, as she seeks revenge, but I was glad that at least Charlie's good intentions rubbed off, as he continues to step up and remind Rachel, while also telling the audience, that Rachel's goals are ultimately selfish and won't solve anything, as she became the thing she claims to hate! We also learn more exclusively that Rachel and Miles had a past, a fling, and that Rachel seems to imply that it was a bad fling at that, but like Miles, I could easily see her playing down their true emotions and feelings for the sake of survival and for the pain that they seem to cause each other.

And briefly taking a segway, the nano-tech was pretty cool! I had speculated that it could physically change matter acting as a type of God Particle. In this case we see it physically heal a wound!! -But I have to wonder if it can also "heal" people emotionally and/or make people feel intensely more broken, as the Monroe Republic in general and people in that area post blackout always struck me as more monstrous than other people we have seen? It's also again an interesting contrast, thinking back to Maggie, the kind doctor who bled to death, while the currently malicious Rachel can heel her leg and be on her way! 

This leads me then to Nora. As I have mentioned in other overviews, I feel strongly that her story is gearing up to some ill-fated end. Her character in the last few episodes has gone from somber and in the background to character who's temperament seems flippant and/or suddenly unstable, as she climbs back into the forefront. Much like that alligator metaphor ("Kashmir"), we don't really understand why she is behaving this way, but perhaps even more than Jason, should we also be worried about her conduct and loyalties?? At the end if the episode she is taken to Monroe, who acknowledges a previous relationship or connection. We never really knew when Miles and Nora met, only that at some point prior to the series she had joined the rebels and had been captured to do slave work, dragging the helicopter across the forest (which by the way is curious considering Monroe had no power). I don't believe we were ever told if she was with Miles and/or apart of the Monroe Republic during the time Miles was, but it's evident now that Nora might be left in a compromising position, let alone if she had already made some kind of deal with Monroe...

And lastly, I was sad to see Jeremy go, as Mark Pellegrino is welcome addition to any cast. I had hoped because they chose to film the scene without the audience actually seeing it, that somehow Jeremy survived, playing to the idea that no one really knows what happens behind close doors (and somebody as paranoid as Monroe should have been there to watch), but I doubt I'm that lucky! All of these throw away Monroe militia characters are pointing out the dismantle of the Monroe Republic one way or another. And I even though I don't expect Monroe to die, I could see his militia falling apart, but I would surely love the twist if Jeremy and other Militia members have turned on Monroe and took this missed-opportunity to kill him to try and at least disarm his paranoia!

So what did you guys think? Any conspiracy theories out there about Jeremy, The Georgia Federation, Jason, Tom, Nora, or the Tower?!! Sound off in the comments below!

References:

The Longest Day is a 1959 novel by Cornelius Ryan telling the story of D-Day during WWII and the Invasion of Normandy. The novel is based on interviews from various British, Canadian, French, and German officers and civilians, but is written in more novel-like style making it more about the lives of people, than a bland series of interviews.

The novel was adapted into film in 1969 staring John Wayne and includes iconic co-stars Henry Fonda & Sean Connery. The movie was also filmed in black and white, is filmed in a style of "docudrama", and is one of the most expensive black and white films made until 1993, as military consultants and many French film locations were used in trying to make the historic events more authentic.

In terms of Revolution there's the obvious connection to violent acts of war, but at this point D-Day being such an incredible invasion and freeing France of German occupation, I can only assume it's foreshadowing the events of the finale in relation to the tower and the Monroe Republic.

Bad Robot Factor:

Many of the scenes through out the episode relating to air strike attacks, especially the scenes involving Miles & gang, are VERY reminiscent to the opening post crash scenes during "The Pilot" of LOST. In similar fashion people are disorientated and put into precarious life threatening situations.

Note: Much like the black and white film, The Longest Day, LOST's budget for their TV Pilot which no doubt was due to those opening crash scenes, was the most expensive Pilot for TV ever made prior to 2004. Both also related to the ocean and beach scenes.

There are really no other direct parallels to Bad Robot works, but Rachel's pursuit of revenge over love/compassion is again similar to the actions and ultimate beliefs of Irina Derevko on Alias.

"Only the paranoid survive." is a pretty memorable line from Person of Interest's Harold Finch, as season 2 highlighted what precautions Finch was willing to take to protect the machine and just how much that dedication could alienate him from making real connections. Monroe continues to be a source of similar speculation, but to much a darker point. Other characters on Revolution also show falls to darkness from deep betrayals and enabling their ability to trust.

This paranoia of Monroe's could also then be supporter of The Every Man For Himself philosophy, which we see that Monroe isn't or hasn't been a the only characters out for themselves, as Rachel was also featured with similar ideas, as Aaron was trying to set straight in this episode. In LOST a similar debate is set up, as the following speech from character Jack Shephard is one of the strongest, if not the strongest philosophical ideal presented:

"Leave him alone! It's been 6 days and we're all still waiting. Waiting for someone to come. But what if they don'y? We have to stop waiting. We need to start figuring things out. A women died this just going for a swim and he tried to save her, and you're about to crucify him? We can't do this. Every man for himself is not going to work, It's time to start organizing  We need to figure out how we're going to survive here. Now, I found water, up in the valley. I'll take a group in at first light. If you don't want to go, then find another way to contribute. Last week most of us were strangers. But we're all here now. And God knows for how long we're going to be here. Bit if we can't live together, we're going to die alone."

And the only time we have seen nano-tech was on Fringe during it's fourth season, as William Bell was using it to trigger Olivia to be his all encompassing energy absorbing device, paving way to make his brave new world!