Revolution Season One: No Quarter

Back with the review for Revolution's third episode!

This episode begins with Miles, Charlie and Nora making there way to a rebel camp so that Nora can hand over the high powered snipe rifle she got last episode. Miles still can't believe that Nora is a Rebel now because he maintains his belief that the Militia cannot be stopped, with Nora snapping back that she "Fought for us!". Miles then has a flashback eight weeks after The Blackout and he and Monroe have been stuck at their military base at Parris Island, South Carolina all this time. Miles however has just about enough waiting around for orders, especially since most soldiers have already deserted, and decides to leave so he can find his brother. After a small argument Monroe decides to accompany him, saying that they are family as well.

Just why is Miles so sure the Rebels can't win..???

After the Flashback the groups makes it to the Rebel camp at an abandoned diner and are greeted by the leader of this group; Nicholas (Derek Webster) who agrees to let them in the camp. However the scene inside is not very good; the Rebels recently lost 12 members to the Militia and the rest are badly wounded. Charlie tries to help but the boy she is treating dies from his wounds and Nora insists that they stay and help until the people here are fit enough to travel. Miles however disagrees; he says that this is an example of how the Rebels can't win and, with one of the Rebels captured, thinks they should go before their position is revealed. Sure enough he is right and the captured rebel gives the location of the camp to Militia Commander Jeremy Baker (Mark Pellegrino) under torture of Russian Roulette.

Don't be so nervous, its only a little game

Meanwhile back with Tom and Danny, Danny is being threatened by a friend of one of the soldiers who was killed when he was first captured and is then beaten with a heavy sack at night. Danny however manages to get his own back when he fakes an asthma attack and almost chokes the soldier to death. Aaron and Maggie however manage to find Grace's house but are shocked to discover that the place is a mess with signs that it has been broken in to. Maggie wants to leave right away but Aaron, hopeful when he finds wreckage of Grace's computer, saying they should risk staying and figure out what Grace was up to, especially since it looked like she had power.

Ok Watson lets look for clues

Meanwhile back at the Rebel camp Miles believes that Nora must be with Nicholas if she is with the Rebels but Nora quickly debunks that theory by saying that Nicholas is a Catholic priest. Shortly after that however the Rebels are finally ready to travel but just when Nicholas is telling everyone where to meet up shots are fired from outside by Jeremy Baker and his men.

Bet they wished they had machine guns instead of muskets so they didn't have to reload after each shot 

Since they cannot go out through the doors Miles decides their best bet is to dig a tunnel through one of the walls while one of the rebels buys them time buy picking off as many Militia as possible with the high powered sniper rifle. While Miles is digging the tunnel Charlie asks Nora why she is with the Rebels as she answers buy saying that while she was pregnant she was attacked buy drunken Militia and lost the baby. We then have another Flashback six months have The Blackout and Miles and Monroe are walking down an empty road and have come across another pair of corpses, Miles can't believe how the world could fall apart so quickly.



The first couple of years after The Blackout must have been the hardest

Back in the present the tunnel has caved in and the sniper has ran out of bullets so the Militia storm the diner. Charlie insists they go out and fight but Miles thinks it is pointless against the Militia, Charlie then insults her father by saying he was always a coward to the Militia, to which Miles threatens her never to say that again. However when an explosions sounds off at the entrance they decide to fight a stream of Militia and after a quick fight Miles manages to capture Baker and tie him up in the back room. All is not well however when Baker reveals that Miles was Commanding General of the Monroe Militia and a founding father of the Republic, second only to Monroe himself!



Time to play a little game Jeremy

Meanwhile at Grace's house Aaron is frustrated that he cannot figure out what Grace was doing or the mystery of the pendant. Back with Charlie's group Miles decides to cut a deal with Baker; if he surrenders himself then he would let everyone else go, Baker agrees and Nicholas is glad to get rid of Miles after he found out who he was. In the morning Miles is being led by Baker and his men in which Baker confesses that Monroe hasn't been the same since Miles left and he is obsessed with turning the power back on. At that moment though Charlie and Nora ambush them by blowing up the bridge they where on and they manage to rescue Miles and escape. Miles wonders why Charlie did it and that she would not understand about his past, Charlie merely says that since he saved the Rebels there must still be a part of him that gives a crap. In the last Flashback Miles and Monroe find the murderers of the previous couple they came across and Miles then shoots them both. He then tells a shocked Monroe that someone has to do something, they then both rescue Baker.

I am the judge, jury and executioner now motherf***er!

The episode ends back with Aaron and Maggie and Aaron admits that even though he was bullied as a child he knew his life would get better because he was smart on computers and life did get way better. He was a millionaire who worked for Google and had a wife who didn't care about that......but then The Blackout happened and he is weak in this new world. At that moment the pendant activates and Aaron hears music from Grace's CD player and is glad to finally hear music after fifteen years, Maggie franticly grabs her phone and is also able to see a picture of her children again. However the pedant powers down after only a few seconds, Maggie asks how it could have happened but Aaron does not know.

If I was in Aaron's place I'd be wishing for some Metallica

Now this series really is something else, three episodes in and each one has been great and have kept me on the edge of my seat.

 

This episode focuses more on the Rebels and we get to see that being one is not all it is cracked up to be. I didn't expect them to be as strong as the Militia and even though you got to admire their determination they are a bit of a mess. This shows just how powerful the Militia truly is and how hard the fight is going to be for our heroes to get Danny back. The plot with the Rebels stuck in the diner was by far the strongest factor in this episode and I enjoyed watching it immensely. The part with the sniper was great and the little fight with the Militia storming the diner had some excellent close combat swordplay as usual. 

 

Reading a nice book with the sun on your shoulder; what more can you ask for

The biggest reveal this week was that Miles was co - founder of the Monroe Republic and again when I saw this I wasn't too surprised because I thought he must have some connection with the Militia but it is pretty awesome just how important he was. I guess in future episodes we will find out why Miles decided to leave the Militia but we now got the reason why he thinks the Rebels can't win; because he trained the Militia. Also the Flashbacks today where way better than last episodes because it was with Miles and Monroe and we see that it was Miles who pushed them into making the Republic in the first place.

 

You can say this was how the Republic began

We also get some great interaction between Aaron and Maggie as well and we find out more about Aaron's past. Aaron is one of my favourite characters in Revolution because he is the one who most people can relate to when watching the show. That is because I doubt most of the world are going to be like Miles and Tom if the power went out and be fine with how the new world is (even excel in it), no we will be more like Aaron and that, just like him, we would  be lost without power. Plus the scene with him and Maggie and how happy they looked for with power for a few seconds was really well acted; they looked so happy, desperate, relived and sad in this brief moment.

 

You can't just go blowing up the bridges, you got no one to fix them anymore!

However a let down for this episode was the plot with Tom and Danny, I just really felt like it didn't need to be in there at all. I know it shows that Danny can also take care of himself and is not that weak but was there really any need for it? We didn't have any scenes with Rachael and Monroe so if their storyline could spare not being in an episode then surely theirs could have been as well.

 

This guy was a damn good shot in this episode

Another thing that bothers me was, and it may just be nit - picking, was remember when I said in previous episodes that Charlie can be naïve and selfish, well she can also be very insulting. It really annoyed me how she could insult her dead father about being a coward and not fighting, maybe it was supposed to make her seem strong willed but it reminded me of Rachael and that's a bad thing. Ben wasn't a fighter like Miles plus he had Charlie and Danny to care for so of course he was never going to risk going up against the Militia and it kept her alive for fifteen years. Its a small thing but Charlie's character does get annoying like this sometimes, trying to be all high and mighty when she doesn't have a right to be or understand everything.

 

End of the world; lets play some baseball!

Overall while this episode wasn't as strong as the first two it is still really great and proves that Revolution has such an amazing start to it's series. The diner and Flashback plots where the highlights of this episode and I am glad we get some insight in to the origins of the Republic and we saw what the Rebels where like. It also makes the mystery of the pendant and The Blackout more intriguing and I just really want to know more about them. Also really liked the two Stephen King references in this, see if you can spot them. 

 

SCORE: 8/10

 

The great screenshots of the episodes where provided by the great site Screencapped. You can look for yourself from the link below;

 

 





http://screencapped.net/