Revolution - Season 2 Episode 4 - Recap - Patriot Games
Revolution - Season 3 Episode 4 - Recap - Patriot Games
This week on NBC's Revolution, lots of action! The scattered structure of the first few episodes of the season is solidifying into a razor-sharp, plot-dense serialized drama. Everyone's plot has some movement this episode, and the season-long thread starts to further reveal itself. With the power back out and the US government back on the mainland, the stakes are higher than ever!
Charlie is still captured. She's being assaulted by her captors when Monroe, the former Big Bad, comes to her rescue! She passes out from being drugged, then wakes up some time later, Monroe having nursed her back to health. He's managing some weepy faces, but Charlie isn't buying it. She says he just wants to use her to get to Miles, which he doesn't seem to disagree with! He wants to team up with Miles to ensure safety against these so-called Patriots. Last shot of the episode is the pair of them traveling by carriage together. So I guess they're teamed up!
Rachel awakens, arrow wound covered in a bandage. She heads outside in search of Miles or her dad to discover some creepy kids. Turns out it is Halloweentime in their little community. She walks around in a daze, and it's so strange that I assumed she'd been dreaming, until the show continued in a fashion that indicated otherwise. Anyway, the US government is in town. She runs into Miles (or "Stu", as he's taken to calling himself) who catches her up on the situation. Rachel, Miles, and Aaron are concerned about the presence of these self-styled Patriots, but Miles thinks it's best that they just keep their heads low, that if the Patriots knew about what happened during last season's finale, none of these three would be alive to worry about Patriots. Rachel breaks into their leader's office anyway. She's rascally like that. She gets caught, of course, and scolded sternly. Rachel's right to be suspicious. The Patriots kill some dudes outside the walls then parade them around as if they'd been attacked by bandits, cementing the Patriots' own protection racket. She shares her story with one of the town leaders (no I don't know his name, sshhh), but she notices a Patriot symbol on some of his papers! Oh noooooo! She tried to talk her way out of his house, then tries running, but he grabs her ankle and she cracks her skull on the stairs. Rachel is no good at avoiding injury at all! The number of times while watching this series that I've thought "Well, I guess Rachel's dead now" is staggering. Anyway she does wake up, so wrong again. Her pal admits to being a Patriot once she wakes up. He's just about ready to kill her when instead she kicks his ass, breaks her own hand to get out of her restraints, and stabs him right in the gut. Holy crap! This scene was rough to watch. Bone breaking is unpleasant.
At some point on Halloween night, Aaron starts flipping out. He has an old-fashioned sweep-the-desk-clear pass out. In his knocked-out state, he sees through one of the weird fireflies from the last few episodes (and the commercials). Weird! Miles is who he sees, but then Aaron wakes up and Miles doesn't give the weird fireflies another thought. Miles heads back out of the cages room (where he'd been imprisoned) to get in a knife fight with the bad guy from last week (Miles wins). Later, he sees one of his captors among some Patriots, who proceed to almost recapture him. But then... Aaron (who is home sleeping)... somehow lights them on fire? Probably? With the nanobots. It's... odd. To say the least!
Elsewhere, Tom Neville is back to his old ass-kicking self, breaking up fights and (to outward appearances) being an obedient soldier. He's got schemes still, though. Late that night, Tom gives a suspicious lady some diamonds, and just when we think Tom has started buying hookers, it turns out he's actually buying time with a drug-addled Patriot (specifically, his superior who hates him). Dude's even still got a needle in his arm, sheesh. Tom demands, in exchange for keeping this secret and revealing the location of Jason (Tom's son, who is vanished), a promotion. The guy doesn't know where Jason is, but agrees to the other terms. Not good enough! Tom empties the dude's other two needles into his arm and leaves. Stone cold! He's got the guy's job the next day, just as planned.
Woo! Revolution is better than ever! After a rocky first season and an uncertain start, it seems that the show is finding its footing. I enjoyed this episode quite a bit. It was probably the strongest of the season so far, with clear and varied plots. Even the storylines that don't meet up still feel as if they're a part of the same tapestry, which is important to having the feel of the show remain coherent. Check out a preview of the episode below!