REVOLUTION Recap: Who Done It?

REVOLUTION 1. 18 Clue

Monroe 

Nora, who is captive of the Militia, is brought a gauzy white dress and forced to wear it to meet Monroe. He’s prepared a candlelit dinner for the two of them (yeah, that’s not weird at all!). He of course then gets all creepy seductive with her as he attempts to get info on Miles. Nora tries to attack him with a wine bottle but he quickly subdues her. Over the next 3 weeks, she is subjected to various forms of torture but holds out even after they give her multiple doses of a truth serum-like drug. Finally, drugged and weak, she tells them that Miles and Neville are somewhere in Atlanta and that Rachel is in Colorado at the Tower.

Monroe confronts Randall about the Tower and Randall assures him that he has the situation under control. Monroe commands his men to kill him, but Randall tells him that the Tower can do more than just turn on the power – it’s full of the highest tech weapons that the government had at the time of the blackout. Monroe decides not to kill Randall just yet and readies some choppers to head to Colorado.

Sanborn, Monroe’s interrogator goes into Nora’s cell one last time to administer a lethal dose of the truth drug, or so he says. He then smuggles her “body” out and into an Atlanta hospital using a car powered by a pendant.

The Militia sets up camp in Colorado, right outside the Tower, which is actually a deep underground bunker. Randall tries to access the facility but his hand print is rejected. Monroe gets a bit hot under the collar while he struggles. Meanwhile, on a security camera, a group of people watch from inside the facility.

Miles and Charlie

Charlie and Jason aren’t trying to keep their relationship a secret anymore. Jason suggests that Charlie should head for Texas where she will be safer. Touched that he cares, they share a kiss in the street until Jason breaks it off to go after a guy  that he recognizes who is watching them.

Nora wakes up with Miles at her bedside and apologizes to him for telling Monroe. Miles interrogates Sanborn, suggesting that he might be a spy for Monroe. He willingly tells Miles that Monroe is headed to the Tower to meet Rachel and that he can get him there as well. Neville, Miles, Jason, Charlie and Sanborn ready a helicopter for the trip. Nora insists on coming along as well as she feels responsible for telling Monroe.

They stop at an airfield for fuel and Sanborn wanders away from the group, telling Nora (who is having flashbacks from the drugs) to stay quiet. Minutes later, Charlie sees blood dripping out from under a storage unit and goes to investigate solo (seriously?! This is as dumb as the guy who saw the blood on his boat tarp after a 24 hour manhunt for the Boston bombers and then looked under the tarp!). She finds the pilot, dead, with his throat slit in an x pattern – a mark of the Plains Nation. They next find out that their helicopter has been sabotaged.

Charlie and Miles go looking for the responsible parties and instead Miles finds another of his team drowning in his own blood, an x carved across his neck as well. The group reconvenes and Miles suggests that it wasn’t done by a local – one of them is to blame and Nora is missing.

Miles makes everyone disarm, even Charlie. They all start blaming each other. Miles leaves them in a hanger and goes looking for Nora. He finds her unconscious but alive. She’s still having issues from the drugs in her system and can’t remember what happened. Miles bandages her cut wrist and takes her back to the rest. Sanborn tells them that the drugs he used on her could cause paranoia and psychotic behavior. Miles refuses to believe that she could have killed the men, but she interrupts him and says that she thinks that they might be correct.

She tells them that she strangled a guy while in captivity and doesn’t remember doing it. She wonders if she could have killed the two men as well. Miles tells her that he trusts her, but she tells him that Monroe broke her and he shouldn’t. Miles notices Jason fingering something in his pocket. He demands it and Jason pulls out a bloody pocket knife, swearing it isn’t his and was planted on him.

He asks for Charlie’s support, but she isn’t sure – he lied to her in Atlanta when he ran off to talk to the guy in the street. He tells them that the man was Militia, and offered him anything he wanted if he’d kill Miles. He wanted Charlie’s safety, but he refused to kill Miles. Miles doesn’t take this news well and Jason is forced to run away.

Miles goes hunting him but before he finds him, Sanborn (who has seemed pretty guilty throughout) approaches him and tells him that Jason is innocent – the knife used to kill the two men is stamped as made in Annapolis – the city where his old pal Jim was quite recently. As it always happens on TV, Hudson is right behind Miles and shoots Sanborn. Miles and Hudson have a “bad guy explains his rationale” moment as they circle each other. The Militia kidnapped his wife, so he’s been working for them to save her. He gets the best of Miles and is giving him a good beating when he is shot from behind.

Miles looks up at Jason, who makes eye contact, puts the safety on the gun, puts it down at Miles’ feet, and walks away.

Later, Miles and Nora talk while Nora tries to fix the chopper (conveniently, she’s a mechanic and he can fly a helicopter). While Nora and Miles seem to have only strengthened their relationship, Charlie and Jason seem to be on the rocks now that he’s seen that she doesn’t trust him (although he admits that she shouldn’t based on their past!)

Aaron and Rachel

Rachel and Aaron arrive at the Tower after Monroe and Rachel hatches a plan – she’s going to kill Monroe, which will cause a disturbance, allowing Aaron into the facility using codes from the notebook. Aaron of course hates this idea, but realizes that he’s not going to stop Rachel when she’s hell bent on revenge.

Rachel kills a soldier and steals his uniform, then enters Monroe’s tent at night with a grenade. His guards pull their guns on her and she pulls out the pin of the grenade.

***

My Thoughts:

This half of the season has really been intense and it seems like we see more death and destruction each week. While it’s still entertaining, it would be nice to have a few more moments of levity, not to mention more characters who won’t kill at the drop of a hat to advance their goals, whether noble or narcissistic.

Rachel is a fascinating character. I’ve been a fan of Elizabeth Mitchell since her first day on LOST and she has a real talent for playing conflicted characters with uncertain motives. Probably because I want her to have redeeming “goodness”, Rachel never fails to surprise me with her conviction, general bad-assery, and capacity for violence. While Miles seems to be coming back from the brink and trying to remake and redeem himself, albeit not without some challenges, it seems like Rachel is hellbent on revenge at any costs, even if it means leaving Charlie alone.

With two episodes to go in the season, I’m very curious to see where it all goes. If they get the power back, what happens next season? More war with Monroe, but now with modern conveniences on both sides, or will they fail to turn the power back on and things will go in a totally different direction?

Will they kill Rachel, after killing Ben and Danny already this season? My gut says no, but I totally didn’t see Danny’s death coming, either.

Watch new episodes of REVOLUTION on Mondays at 10 pm/9 central on NBC.