Episode Title: “Love Story”
Writer: David Rambo
Director: Helen Shaver
Previously on “Revolution:”
Episode 2.02 “There Will Be Blood”
Aaron (Zak Orth) sets the record straight in this episode of “Revolution,” letting his God-praising girlfriend know he’s just an “agnostic Jew from Minnesota, not Harry Potter.” And hunky bounty hunter, Adam (Patrick Heusinger) tells Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos) she’s “rockin some real anger issues.” Also, the lights are still out and everyone wants Monroe dead, but no one is willing to actually kill him.
Thankfully, the “Monroe versus everyone” trope has taken a back seat this season to bigger issues, like the “war clan” that shows up outside the town gates in Willoughby, Texas. Looking like a cross between a Mad Max biker gang and the Dothraki, the clan and it’s leader, Titus Andover (Matt Ross) look ready to rape and pillage if Miles (Billy Burke) doesn’t hand over Titus’ wife.
Wife, you say? Yes, it’s kind of surprising to learn that Titus, the former headmaster of an all-boys school whom we were led to believe is a pedophile in last week’s episode, has a wife he’s deeply committed to. So devoted to his wife is Titus that he’s been using the blood of his prisoners to keep her alive, as she’s suffering diabetes.
This explains the little blobs of blood his men were collecting from the prisoners and why Miles, whose blood type is a match for Titus’ wife’s, was taken to her. Titus has Miles strapped down and drained of his blood, but Rachel (Elizabeth Mitchell) and her dad show up in time to save him. Miles and Rachel free the prisoners and take Titus’ wife with them, at Miles’ insistence.
Naturally, Titus shows up with a small army and a deal is struck: Miles will hand over Titus’ wife and himself in exchange for letting the townspeople go free. Here we come across another contradiction when Rachel tends to Titus’ wife. The woman tells Rachel she doesn’t want to go back to her husband, whom she says has had her chained to a bed in order to keep her alive against her wishes. Has she told Titus she wants to die a natural death? A scene between Titus and his wife, discussing this would have been much more meaningful than another argument between Rachel, and this week, her father about leaving/staying somewhere.
Let’s not even get into the further similarities between Titus’ character and “The Walking Dead’s” Governor this presents. Whatever the nature of the relationship between Titus and his wife, it doesn’t seem to matter now as she’s committed suicide and he’s presumably killed by one of his men who has actually working for the United States government.
Back to Monroe and everyone who wants him dead. Charlie and Adam continue their angsty flirting when Monroe (David Lyons) shows up to let Charlie know the bounty hunter is also after Rachel. Charlie can’t imagine why they want her mom. Maybe because she’s kinda responsible for this whole apocalypse thing?
Adam admits he lied about needing to keep Monroe alive for the sake of his father, who he claimed the U.S. government was holding. This gives Charlie no reason not to kill Monroe, who tries to win favor by offering to help her find and protect Rachel and Miles. But instead of killing the man who killed half her family as she told Adam, Charlie just walks away. Huh?
Over in Georgia, Neville (Giancarlo Esposito) and Jason (J.D. Pardo) get found out by the government, but Secretary Allenford (Nicole Ari Parker) decides to keep Neville around after he tells her he’s certain Monroe was responsible for the bombs. As for Jason, she’s got a plan for him and Neville doesn’t object to it, whatever it is. So much for all that father/son bonding.
In Texas, Titus finds out his wife is dead, thanks to a spy and all hell breaks lose. Why Rachel can’t harness the nanobots or whatever to save her, who knows. It worked on Aaron, but that’s because he was “chosen,” according to Cynthia.
At any rate, we haven’t learned anything else about the “tiny robots in the air,” since then. Instead, we get another sword fight between Miles and Titus’ men. Just as Miles is about to be put down, a U.S. soldier arrives to save the day and calls for a medic to tend to Rachel after she was hit with a crossbow arrow. Miles looks on in astonishment as the United States flag is raised on a flagpole in the center of town.
What is the U.S. government up to? It’s another mystery layered upon a number of questions our interest in may already be going stale. These first three episodes show some improvement from last season; the story feels slightly more streamlined and we’ve learned the truth about why the lights went out.
However, this season characters continue to switch sides every few episodes, making it hard for us to invest in their “missions.” And aside form avenging the loss of loved ones and/or escaping immediate danger, we have no idea what these people ultimately want with who, where and why. And without that, we don’t have much reason to keep watching.
