REVOLUTION: What you’ve been missing

Are you already a fan of NBC’s much hyped new show REVOLUTION, or are have you not gotten around to checking it out yet? If you aren’t watching it, you should be!

The J.J. Abrams/Erik Kripke series has been one of the big hits of the new TV season, averaging over 8 million viewers per episode and a greater than 3 share in the vital 18-49 demo. There’s a lot to like about the show. I’ve been a fan since I saw the pilot at San Diego Comic Con and got the opportunity to interview the cast in the press room and every week I find myself getting more intrigued.

REVOLUTION is definitely a little different from many of the shows on TV right now. It’s part Western, part journey show and part mystery, with a heavy sprinkling of pop culture references and sly (and sometimes not so sly) commentaries on our current technology-obsessed society. In the style of a certain, little-watched gem of a show called [easyazon-link asin=”B0036EH3WU”]LOST[/easyazon-link] (lol), much of the story is told in flashbacks. Oh, and did I mention there are awesome visuals of the country gone to seed (literally), horses, bows and arrows, and sword fights? Indeed, REVOLUTION has a lot to offer and you know we Nice Girls love to share our favorite shows with you and get you as hooked as we are…

So, to that end, here’s what you need to know about the show to jump in at the new episode next Monday (October 29th). If you have a few hours between now and then, definitely head over to NBC.com to watch the full episodes!

Premise (in case you’ve somehow managed to miss the gazillion ads during the Olympics and since) : The show is set in the future, about 15 years from modern day. Fifteen years earlier, *something* happened that caused a blackout of epic proportions. Everything with a circuit board in it stopped working one night and never came back on again. Planes fell from the sky, cars and trains rusted where they sat, governments fell, a militia rose, a new country, the Monroe Republic, was formed, and people went back to an agrarian, mid 1800s existence.

Pilot (check out our more detailed recap here)

We meet the Matheson family in a flashback. Apparently the parents, Ben and Rachel, know why the blackout occurred and Ben downloaded something to a special USB pendent with the last seconds of power… Fifteen years after the blackout, 20-year old Charlie (Charlotte) Matheson, is living with her father Ben, brother Danny and her father’s girlfriend, Maggie (her mother Rachel has apparently died), in a farming community in an overgrown suburban cul-de-sac outside of Chicago. One day the militia, which is commanded from afar by a guy named Monroe, rides into town looking for Ben. Suspecting that they are looking for him when he sees them approach, Ben passes the USB pendent to his friend Aaron. There is a scuffle between Danny and the militia as he tries to protect his father and Ben is killed and Danny is taken by the militia. As Ben is dying, he tells Charlie to go find his brother Miles in Chicago to help her rescue Danny.

We see an older woman, Grace Bowman, sitting at a makeshift computer with a pendant similar to the one Ben had. She pushes the center of the pendant, and the computer comes to life. She sends messages back and forth to someone else…somewhere…

Charlie, Aaron, and Maggie set out on their quest on foot. Along the way to Chicago, they run into trouble with some thugs and are saved by a boy about Charlie’s age, named Nate, who continues to Chicago with them. In Chi-town, they find Miles, a former Marine Corps sergeant, at a tavern he has set up. He’s trying to fly below the radar and isn’t pleased with the visit. He tries to get them to leave, but he soon doesn’t have a lot of choice but to get involved when it becomes clear that Nate isn’t who he says he is – he’s a member of the militia, and soon Charlie, Miles and the others are fighting for their lives. They all manage to escape (Nate saves Charlie again even though he was the one that brought the militia) and eventually Charlie convinces Miles to help them. The group (with Nate following out of sight) sets out to find Danny.

1.02 Chained Heat

The group goes in search of Miles’ friend Nora, because she’s really good at blowing things up and they will need her skills to rescue Danny from the militia. After a skirmish with some militia members, they find out that she’s part of a militia work camp not far away. Miles leaves the group to go find Nora and plans on meeting up again with them in two weeks’ time. Charlie sneaks out of camp to follow him, and runs into Nate again. She tricks him and leaves him handcuffed to a post and then catches up with Miles. They manage to  rescue Nora, but she tells them that she was undercover for the Resistance, trying to steal a sniper rifle. The three of them manage to steal the gun.

Aaron tells Maggie that he has the pendant and that he’s supposed to take it to a certain woman that lives nearby. He thinks the pendant is related to the blackout.

We’re introduced to Sebastian Monroe, the head of the country and militia. Turns out he was a good friend of Miles, who was with him when the blackout occurred and he’s pretty evil.  He’s living in Philadelphia and he’s not alone – he has Rachel, Charlie and Danny’s mother  captive and he’s trying, rather unsuccessfully, to get information out of her about the blackout.

1.03 No Quarter

Miles, Charlie and Nora meet up with some of the other rebels. Large numbers of them have just been slaughtered by the militia and one of the rebels was taken captive. Miles urges them to move locations to stay ahead of the militia but the militia arrives before they can leave. Using the stolen sniper rifle, they are able to hold them off  for a while, but are eventually overwhelmed when they run out of ammo. We find out that Miles was one of the initial founders of the militia and the Republic, along with Monroe. He did it initially for altruistic reasons, to restore some order to the lawless country but eventually he left the militia and started hiding out in the tavern as a wanted man.  Miles trades himself to save the rest of them and is taken off by the militia. Nora and Charlie anticipate the militia’s route and set up an explosive ambush, allowing them to rescue him and blow out the bridge between them and the militia.

Aaron and Maggie go to see Grace Bowman about the pendant, but her place is deserted. They find the remains of an old, homemade computer. Maggie and Aaron are talking in the house when the pendant starts to glow and all the electronics in the room suddenly turn on. Within seconds, though, the light on the pendant fades and everything turns off again.

1.04 The Plague Dogs

All this time, Danny has been a prisoner of a militia unit commanded by Captain Tom Neville, a man dedicated to the mission of the militia. Neville is often cruel in fulfilling the Republic’s laws, but can be kind of paternal with Danny as well. The militia is forced to seek shelter when a tornado looms and Neville and Danny are separated from the rest of the unit. Neville is trapped by falling debris, and begs Danny to help him. Danny does, and then Neville immediately takes him captive again. Speaking of captives, we find out that Rachel Matheson left her family and turned herself over to Monroe because Miles summoned her.

Charlie, Miles, and Nora meet up with Aaron and Maggie at their designated meet point. Charlie and Miles fight about Miles’ past as they travel along until they come upon an abandoned amusement park. The man living there stabs Maggie in the leg after she kills one of his attack dogs. Miles rescues her and the group is barricaded inside an old diner by more dogs. When Miles and Nora leave to try to take out the man and the dogs and Aaron and Charlie tend to Maggie, the dog’s owner sneaks in and abducts Charlie. Miles manages to rescue her, with some help from Nate, whom he releases. Unfortunately, Maggie ends up bleeding to death from her wound. Miles takes Nate captive again.

1.05 Soul Train

The group approaches Noblesville, Indiana, where they believe that Danny is being taken, and are shocked to find that there is a working antique steam engine on the tracks, being readied for a trip. Neville and Danny are also there as the plan is to use the train to take Danny to Philadephia, a trip that would take months on foot or horseback. We learn in a flashback that Neville was a mild-mannered insurance adjuster and married father of a son before the blackout, who took out his frustrations in life by boxing in his basement. After the blackout, he apparently joined the militia to protect his family.

Nora links up with another member of the Resistance in Noblesville and forms a plan to blow up the train, whether Danny is on it or not. She puts a bomb in a log and puts it in the wood compartment of the train so it will blow up the engine when it’s thrown in the furnace. She loses her nerve when she sees Danny loaded onto the train, but the other member of the Resistance stabs her in the abdomen to keep her from retrieving the bomb. Nate has escaped and boards the train before it leaves. Charlie and Miles arrive just as the train is pulling away and manage to climb on the train from galloping horses. Miles finds the bomb and tosses it off the train while Charlie goes to rescue Danny. Charlie and Danny overpower Neville and try to escape but Charlie runs right into Nate. Neville orders Nate to bring Charlie to him so he can shoot her, but instead, Nate tosses Charlie from the train to protect her.  Miles jumps off, too, and they watch the train and Danny leave.

In Philadelphia, the train arrives and Neville disembarks into the waiting arms of his wife. We find out that Nate is actually Neville’s son Jason. Monroe threatens Danny to get Rachel to finally talk. She tells him that she and Ben were working together and to turn the power back on, he needs the pendants, all 12 of them.

So there you go, you’re all ready to join the REVOLUTION and catch the next new episode on October 29th at 10pm on NBC!