Revolution - Review: From Ashes
Recap video and review of Revolution - Season 1 Episode 15 - Home:
Revolution strikes a delicate balance with "Home", drifting between telling more personal, character-driven stories, and moving along the larger story arcs of the season. This is a "little picture" episode, contrasted with the "big picture" episodes that have come before it. Yet it's a double-edged sword: the show risks feeling inert if it spends too much time on these isolated character backstories/developments, while also threatening to become shallow if it doesn't explore these issues. Thankfully, "Home" manages to be as effective representation of what the show can be when it unites its frenetic, action-packed pace with quieter, more character-centric moments. This provides what turns out to be one of the more focused, lean episodes in the show's run, as we split our time between two storylines (well, three, if you count the Miles storyline as separate from the Monroe arc). This decision gives each story room to breathe, as we learn more about the characters at the center of the war, Miles (Billy Burke) and Monroe (David Lyons), while also offering a glimpse into how the hardship of post-Blackout life has changed Aaron (Zak Orth) in the intervening years since abandoning his wife, Priscilla (Maureen Sebastian). It's an altogether strong episode for the show, that maintains narrative momentum without sacrificing character, in the bargain.
Credit: NBC
Monroe comes up with a plan to force Miles, now a general under the employ of the Georgia Federation, to surrender. Monroe sends a messenger to relay the threat: either Miles turns himself in, or Monroe will burn down their hometown, killing everyone in it -- including Emma (Annie Wersching), the woman they both loved in their youth. Miles has no choice, and lights off alone to face whatever Monroe has waiting for him. Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos) and Nora (Daniella Clayton) discover the plan and chase after Miles, under the escort of a Federation soldier sent by President Foster to keep watch over Miles. Charlie is still sore with Miles over keeping the secret of whatever terrible thing he did to her mother to himself, yet that plot takes a backseat this week. It's all about Miles Matheson and Sebastian "Bass" Monroe here.
As Monroe's men occupy his idyllic hometown under the guise of protecting the townspeople from a potential terrorist threat, Monroe is reunited with Anna, a sweet-natured woman whose presence inaugurates a subtle change in Monroe's personality, as he's visibly shaken at the prospect of meeting her again. Through flashbacks, we learn that Anna was once Miles' girlfriend in the time before he and Bass were to begin basic training. Miles clearly loves Anna, yet he eventually passes out on the couch, at which point Anna retires to the kitchen where Bass tenderly takes her by the hand. I suppose it was already an ongoing affair, but there's enough ambiguity in the moment to suggest that this was a spur of the moment action between the two, as Anna and Bass kiss, and escalate to making love on the kitchen counter (I've never seen deader eyes in a sex scene, though I would imagine it's to communicate the regret they both feel at betraying Miles? It's hard to tell for sure). After Monroe's men murder one of the townspeople by savagely beating him to death, it becomes apparent to Anna that Monroe is no longer the good man she once knew. With everyone in town imprisoned in a nearby building, Anna meets with Monroe to plead with him. She insists that there's good in him still. Anna declares that she loved him once, and knows that he can be a good man again. Monroe, showing rare vulnerability, tells Anna that she makes him want to be that good man she insists he is. He gives her one last, deep kiss before lowering the boom: he can no longer be the good man she wishes he would be, since that part of him is dead.
This all builds to the climax, in which Miles comes to the rescue of the townspeople, trapped in a building set ablaze. Monroe orders Captain Jeremy Baker (Mark Pellegrino) to make sure no one escapes the building, and it's an order Baker passes down to his men, who intend to shoot any escapees on-sight. Thus, Miles has to cut his way through the throng of soldiers, armed with a riot shield to help him muscle his way to the burning building. It's a taut, intense sequence that only builds in intensity once Miles actually gets into the building, as he now has to think of a way out that won't result in every person in town getting shot dead or burned alive. It seems hopeless for Miles, which makes his reunion with Anna all the more bittersweet, as Anna tells Miles that it's good to see him again, through a mixture of barely-restrained tears and sad smiles. But since Miles is a principal character, this isn't where his story ends. Charlie and Nora arrive and shoot the guards in front of the back exit, clearing the path for Miles and the townsfolk to escape. It's a free-for-all out in the town square, another wall-to-wall action setpiece from the genre series that does them better than just about any show on network TV. But it's brief, and results in Anna being taken hostage by Monroe. He holds a gun to her head and orders Miles to surrender by the count of five. Foster's man wants to take the shot, as does Charlie, but Miles states that he'll have no qualms shooting anyone who dares to try it, since it's an impossible shot that's almost certain to hit Anna instead of Monroe.
Credit: NBC
Anna pleads with Monroe to let her go, shouting that she doesn't want to die, that she wants to see "him" again. Monroe asks Anna what she's talking about, and she drops a bombshell on him: Monroe has a son. Anna's parents refused to allow her to tell Monroe about the child, resulting in the boy's paternity being kept secret all these years. Monroe is utterly thrown by the revelation, and demands to know where his son is. However, he only learns that his son is not in this town, he's been sent away somewhere. This is the only information he gets because, tragically, Anna dies before she can say more -- Foster's man takes the shot, and the bullet hits Anna in the heart. Monroe, having the one key to the location of his son (and, likely, the love of his life) stolen from him, loses his mind and starts firing in Miles' general direction. Miles is every bit as grief-stricken, yet he's cold as ice about it.
True to his word, he nonchalantly points his semi-automatic at Foster's man, and pumps him full of lead. Monroe is whisked away to a chopper by his soldiers while Miles, looking weather-beaten by years of hard-living, kneels mournfully over the body of the woman to whom he was once engaged. As the chopper carries him away, the tears in Monroe's eyes tell the story. After having Miles disavow him as family, Monroe suddenly had hope again for a family of his own -- and with the woman he loved. But all that has been snatched away from him, from a combination of his own villainy and the erratic actions of a random, gloryhound soldier. Monroe will undoubtedly be even more committed to the warpath, although it's going to be a bit more difficult to execute the job, now that Miles is being assigned Captain Tom Neville (Giancarlo Esposito) as his newest right-hand man. But at least the two will be united in their hatred for Monroe, as the personal nature of this conflict is what makes it so eminently compelling. And the acting is pretty terrific, to boot. David Lyons truly delivers, portraying Bass as a man who wants to be better, but can't manage it, given the nature of his circumstances. It's a tragic characterization brought into starker relief by the fact that, unless we're told otherwise, he only has himself to blame. Bass made these choices, and his choices have increasingly led him to darker outcomes than he might have thought possible.
Credit: Brownie Harris/NBC
As for the episode's other character-centric arc, Aaron and Rachel (Elizabeth Mitchell) travel to the Plains Nation, a journey that takes them through a crowded marketplace in which Aaron spots the wife he abandoned, Priscilla. Granted, he did it for her own good, believing that his inability to protect her would lead to her death. Of course, Aaron isn't really any better off for having made that choice, though Priscilla appears to be: when he tracks her to a bar, she coldly receives him, introducing him as a "friend" to her new husband, a guy named Steve. Aaron is devastated at the cold reception he's getting from his former wife, and though he tries to get her to come outside and speak with him, she finds as diplomatic a way as she can to tell him to leave, simply telling him to take care of himself. Aaron is heartbroken, but he can't shake the feeling that something is wrong with Priscilla, and he intends to get to the bottom of it. Ultimately, his intuition proves correct, as Steve isn't her husband after all -- he's a bounty hunter sent in to capture her. The entire conversation in the bar was an act, with Steve holding Priscilla at gunpoint underneath the bar counter.
Aaron finally makes up for his failure to rescue Priscilla the first time by tackling Steve and wrestling him to the ground. But things don't exactly go well for Aaron, as Steve gives him a beating, and seems intent on killing him until Priscilla saves Aaron by cracking Steve in the head with a lead pipe. What follows is a tender moment in which Aaron asks for Priscilla's forgiveness for the choices he made, and for abandoning her, as Priscilla reveals that every member of the party Aaron left her with is now dead. Priscilla lovingly accepts Aaron's apology, and insists that it's all in the past. She goes on to reveal that the reason she was being hunted as a fugitive is because she killed a Monroe Militiaman who tried to hurt her daughter -- in the years since Aaron left her, Priscilla met someone and started a family, all of whom are now waiting for her in Texas. It's a wonderful bit of acting from Zak Orth to see Aaron's heart break in realtime. He allows acceptance of this to wash over him, as Priscilla gives him a last kiss and tells Aaron that she loves him and always will. It's a beautiful, if understated, moment that helps Aaron feel more fully-realized as a character, beyond the comic relief he provides, or the punching bag role he often inhabits.
Credit: Brownie Harris/NBC
"Home" is one of the best episodes of the season, allowing the "big picture" to recede into the background for a bit while character and motivation is fleshed out, deepening our investment in the story and the people within it.