REVOLUTION Recap: The Battle of Willoughby

REVOLUTION 2.03: Love Story

Interesting episode title, could have just as easily used last week’s “there will be blood”. In this case, we have the Aaron-Cynthia love story, the complicated Rachel-Miles relationship and the really twisted Titus-Jessica story. This being Revolution, you can bet there wasn’t much of a happy ending for any of the above couples…

***

Miles/Rachel/Aaron

We find out that the woman in bed is Andover’s wife – she has kidney disease and so they are basically performing crude dialysis by giving her total blood transfusions every few days (which probably would have killed her by now but whatever). Rachel and her father arrive just in time before they have bled Miles dry. They rescue a townswoman and  take Andover’s wife as a hostage.

Andover’s entire army comes to Willoughby and Miles and Andover have a standoff over the fence. Andover demands to see his wife and one of his men (the one who used the Eye of Providence seal) pulls him aside and we find out that the “US Government” is paying Andover to scare everyone in Willoughby.

Andover’s wife begs Rachel not to send her back to him as he won’t let her just die and has been torturing her and killing people to keep her alive. Rachel pleads with Miles on her behalf, but he doesn’t see any other option. They show Andover that she is alive but refuse to give her back unless he guarantees safe passage for the entire town. Miles, always the tragic hero, volunteers to go with Andover as a prisoner to protect everyone else.

All of this negotiation is for naught, though, as Andover’s wife commits suicide when Rachel steps out of the room, so their major bargaining chip is gone. Rachel tells Miles and he tells her to pretend that everything is alright and continues to work to evacuate the townsfolk.

Aaron realizes that something is more wrong than the obvious and sends Cynthia away on the first evacuation wagon. A spy from Andover’s group manages to sneak into the town and into Rachel’s father’s house and sees that Andover’s wife is dead. He reports back to the crew outside the gates.

Miles tries to convince Rachel to get on the last wagon, but of course she won’t leave him. The wagon leaves the town gates and is immediately attacked. The bandits stream into the town as the remaining townspeople hide and Miles, Rachel and her father fight for their lives. In the melee, Rachel is shot by an arrow in the chest. Just when things are looking really desperate, despite Miles’ excellent one-handed swordsmanship, the remaining attackers are mowed down by machine gun fire and dozens of clean, uniformed “US Soldiers” arrive to secure the town.

Neville/Jason

Neville comes back to the tent from his meeting with the Secretary with two American flag patches – they’re officially working for the patriots. Later in the day, a man jumps them in their tent and takes them captive. The man was one of the patriots and they’ve been brought in for questioning. The commanding officer informs them that he knows exactly who they really are.

Neville tells him that he knows who dropped the bomb that killed his wife – it was Monroe and he is determined to get revenge. He’s quite convincing, actually tearing up. His act doesn’t fool the commanding officer, but the Secretary sees potential uses for his “unique skills”. They also have a “special plan” for Jason.

Charlie

Charlie and the bounty hunter walk together and get ambushed by Monroe, who knocks the guy out. Monroe shows Charlie two “Wanted” posters – one for him, and one for Rachel.

Monroe and Charlie confront the bounty hunter about the warrants but he doesn’t have much info and Monroe knocks him out when Charlie won’t let him kill him. Monroe assumes Miles is with Rachel and he wants to go with Charlie to warn them. Shockingly, Charlie is not down with the idea of the two traveling like buddies, so she tells him off and leaves.

My Thoughts:

The “US Government’s” endgame really took a jump forward this episode. It seems like an organization would be hard pressed to do something more diabolical than nuking two innocent cities, but paying bandits to rape and kill so you can take over a town you want is certainly right up there. Why Willoughby? It seems like it’s more than just Rachel that they want and unclear if they even know that they’ve found her.

Judging by next week’s previews, Rachel definitely survives, although by “modern” medicine alone or nanobots is unclear at this point.

It looks we saw the first step of Monroe’s path towards redemption. As much as Charlie hates the idea, I think she’s going to have a hard time shaking him now that he’s convinced that he needs to help protect what is left of her family.

Overall, an intriguing episode.

Memorable Quotes:

I’m not Harry Potter. I’m an agnostic Jew from Minnesota – Aaron

Sooner or later they were going to come for us. Granted, now it’s sooner… – Miles

Watch Revolution on Wednesdays at 8/7c on NBC!