Revolution - Recap: Rat Race
Recap video and review of Revolution - Season 1 Episode 18 - Clue:
Last week, I claimed that Revolution thrives when it breaks down its larger stories into easily-digestible fragments, creating smaller, objective-based missions for our protagonists to accomplish. In essence, it makes for a story that flows much better than the disjointed narratives of more cluttered episodes. "Clue" adopts this streamlined approach, yet I don't think it's nearly as successful as last week's "The Longest Day," which rooted its action-oriented premise in strong character development. Here, we get a character-oriented premise that doesn't really rise to the task. We get action, and a sizable amount of intrigue, yet it all feels rather hollow, this close to the end of the season. The three-way race to the Tower should be far more exciting than it proves to be, and it should also offer a far greater number of character moments than we ultimately get, as three separate parties all converge on the same climactic meeting place. Yet that doesn't come to pass. The race is more or less resolved within the first half of the episode, with Monroe (David Lyons) and his militia getting there first, while Aaron (Zak Orth) and Rachel (Elizabeth Mitchell) are now faced with attempting to infiltrate the base. Meanwhile, Miles (Billy Burke) and the others are stuck at an Air Force Base hundreds of miles away, their helicopter having been sabotaged during a refuelling stop. This leads to an arc in which Miles attempts to suss out the identity of the saboteur, and it all leads to a storyline that should be far more engaging than it is, yet because it comes so late in the episode, it never gets time to really develop into something more compelling than it is. It's a microcosm for the episode itself, as there are a lot of good ideas in the episode, yet none of them are realized to their full potential.
Credit: Brownie Harris/NBC
So Nora (Daniella Alonso) has been captured by Monroe, and he proceeds to have his men torture her over the course of 21 days, in order to get her to reveal intel about the location of Miles, Rachel Matheson, and other valuable targets. She's repeatedly struck by the guards, dunked head-first into a tank of water, deprived of sleep, and shot up with drugs by Sanborn (Leland Orser), the scientist who'd helped Ben and Rachel develop the blackout technology, and who was last seen betraying Miles and Rachel to the Republic. Nora eventually breaks under torture, and reveals everything to Monroe, including Rachel's destination: The Tower. However, Monroe isn't done with Nora just yet, so Sanborn, having turned over a new leaf, decides to rescue Nora by shooting her full of another dose of drugs, in order to make her appear dead. He then smuggles her out of the camp with the other corpses, and returns her to Miles. And it's just as well that he got out while he had the chance, since Monroe is not in a good mood (though when is he ever?). He's fed up with Randall (Colm Feore), whom he no longer feels he needs, and is moments away from killing him when Randall claims that the Tower is where the real power is. Power that would make Monroe's drones look like paper planes. And so Monroe commands Randall to take him to Colorado to see this "Tower."
Credit: Brownie Harris/NBC
Meanwhile, Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos) and Jason (J.D. Pardo) are basking in the afterglow of their new relationship, though Jason repeatedly states his concern for Charlie's safety. Though Charlie thinks his concern is sweet, she's also vaguely suspicious of it, as she sees Jason speaking to a mysterious stranger on the streets of Atlanta -- and looking pretty upset about the conversation. Things aren't going much better for Miles either: though Sanborn has returned Nora, he quickly learns that Nora has told Monroe everything. Sanborn explains what Monroe is planning, and though no one trusts him, they can't take the chance that he isn't telling the truth. And so Miles puts a team together, including Charlie, Jason, Sanborn, Tom (Giancarlo Esposito) and Jim Hudson (Malik Yoba), who's still miffed that Miles dragged him into all of this, effectively ruining the quiet life he'd made for himself and for his wife, Sophie. Nora insists on joining the team at the last minute, even though she hasn't fully recovered from the powerful drugs, since she believes that this is all her fault for breaking under torture. The team, including an unnamed pilot and engineer, sets off for the journey, making it halfway before fueling requirements necessitate a quick stop at an Air Force Base. However, things quickly turn sour once the pilot and engineer turn up murdered, and the engine of the helicopter is sabotaged. There's a traitor in their midst.
Credit: NBC
The episode does a good job of keeping multiple potential moles in play, as we're initially meant to suspect Sanborn, yet suspicion ultimately drifts to Tom, Jason, and even Nora, which creates some fitting tension among the group. When a bloody knife is found in Jason's pocket, he swears it was planted on him, yet Charlie is distrustful, citing the conversation he had with the stranger in Atlanta. Jason reveals that the stranger was with the Monroe Militia -- a soldier making him an offer, kill Miles and he can have anything he wants. Jason says he only wanted Charlie's safety, yet even though the Militia was willing to provide him this, he still turned them down. Yet Miles still doesn't believe him, and so Jason runs, with Miles and Tom giving chase. Miles gets separated during the chase, and it's then that the true traitor is revealed: Jim Hudson, who's been working with the Monroe Militia in exchange for the life of his wife, whom they have in their captivity. Jim isn't exactly wrong for hating Miles, as Miles has done nothing but ruin his life on multiple occasions, and he isn't exactly out of line for doing everything in his power to save his wife, yet he's portrayed far less sympathetically than one might expect. I would have appreciated more of a shades of grey approach, acknowledging that while Jim is wrong for betraying his "friends," his allies at least understand why he did it. Miles hints at this when he says, "You should have just told me. We could have saved Sophie," but this is easily undercut when Jim responds, "Like you saved Nora?" Nora spends much of the episode tripping out on the torture drugs, and it's not a fate Jim wants for Sophie, and so he and Miles engage in hand-to-hand combat.
Credit: NBC
It's not all that surprising to discover that Miles isn't nearly as effective without his trusty sword, as Jim just manhandles the guy. Miles fails to put up much of a fight, leaving it to Jason to save the day, as the youngster puts three bullets in Jim's back before he can kill Miles. Having proved his loyalty, Jason tosses the gun down and leaves Miles to pick himself back up. Charlie tries to apologize for having doubted Jason, and while he doesn't exactly blame her for being distrustful, given how many times she's been burned before, their relationship has cooled off considerably. But at least things are a bit warmer between Miles and Nora, who thanks her ex-lover for his implicit trust. Nora has fixed the helicopter, leaving it to Miles to dust off his rusty piloting skills to get the remaining team to the Tower before Monroe kills Rachel. While this story was effective for what it was trying to accomplish, showing that this ragtag team still has a few trust issues to work out, it wasn't nearly as compelling as it could have been. I also feel that the race against time could have been more of a factor than it was -- these people are trying to beat Monroe to the Tower, yet there isn't that big a sense of urgency there. Granted, they have to figure out the traitor situation before they can go anywhere, but the investigation doesn't feel urgent itself, beyond the instinct to just start pointing fingers. It isn't until Miles starts rifling through everyone's bags that it feels like we're really getting anywhere, and by that point, there's roughly 12 minutes left in the episode. Of course, in the grand scheme of things, it's not like this is going to sink the show. But for an episode this close to the finale, I feel like this story could have been so much more.
Credit: NBC
However, with that said, Rachel's story continues to deliver, even though it really doesn't amount to much this week. Rachel and Aaron make it to the Tower only to discover that Monroe is already there. He and his men have set up camp outside the complex while Monroe forces Flynn to grant him access. Unfortunately, Flynn's verification is rejected, and though it isn't explained just why, we see that a mysterious group of people are monitoring Flynn and Monroe from the Tower's control room. Who are these people? Presumably, they're the same people who infiltrated the Tower and killed Grace's guard -- but did they kill Grace as well? We don't get the answer to any of these questions just yet, as Rachel decides that the only way to get Aaron into the Tower is to provide a distraction. And what better distraction than killing Monroe? Aaron tries to talk her out of the suicide mission, but Rachel is past the point of caring. She wants her revenge for Danny, and she also rationalizes that Aaron has no other way of reaching the Tower door without getting shot. And so Rachel decides to Rambo up, jumping one of Monroe's militiamen, strangling him, and donning his uniform. She then waltzes right into Monroe's tent with a grenade in hand. Though Monroe and his men have her surrounded, Rachel has no qualms about releasing the grenade pin. Time's a-wastin', and if somebody doesn't act fast, Monroe's entire camp could go boom before the night is through. But that will have to wait until next week.
Credit: NBC
"Clue" isn't a bad episode, by any means. It simply didn't live up to its full potential, and in some ways, that's more disappointing than an episode that just outright sucks. There were tons of great ideas here, from the saboteur plot, to Rachel's last-ditch gambit, and even the viscerally-filmed torture sequence at the start, yet very few of those ideas were given room to grow into something more. The show is capable of exploring the depths of these characters' stories, their personal journeys and emotions. However, "Clue" only scratched the surface. Hopefully, the final two episodes dig deeper.