Episode Title: “The Patriot Act”
Writers: Anne Coffell Saunders and Matt Pitts
Director: Omar Madha
Previously on “Revolution:”
Episode 2.06 ” Dead Man Walking”
The introduction of “Revolution’s” newest baddie, Dr. Calvin Horn (played by TV’s go-to guy for nasty villains, Zeljko Ivanek) looked promising. But this show doesn’t have a strong record when it comes to competent antagonists and sadly, Horn may be the latest case.
After arriving in Willoughby at the end of last week’s episode, Horn quickly gets to the point during a meeting with Rachel (Elizabeth Mitchell). He reminds her that they once knew each other, when both worked with the late Randall Flagg Flynn at the DOD. Horn had the Patriots issue the “Wanted” poster for Rachel as he’s pretty certain she knows what’s up with the nanotech that caused two Patriot soldiers to burst into flame.
Rachel plays dumb with Horn, but tells the gang they need to get Aaron (Zak Orth) out of town, ASAP. He refuses to leave without Cynthia (Jessie Collins), for fear of what the Patriots will do to her in order to get to him. Meanwhile, Grandpa Gene (Stephen Collins) hears the whole thing from another room. He tells the gang he’s overheard many of their conversations and offers to help smuggle the pair out of town on one of his medicine runs.
The plan is to get Aaron to Monroe (David Lyons), who’s recovered from the high dose of Barbiturates Rachel gave him to make him appear dead at his execution. Why did Rachel keep him alive after railing on for so long about how she wants him dead? Because the gang needs him and Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos) asked her to. Anything to thaw the ice between these two…
While the gang tries to figure out what to do with Aaron and Cynthia, Gene is having flashbacks to his early days with the Patriot movement. In the beginning, he traded his medical expertise with a Patriot named Shaw in exchange for priceless vaccines and medications for the town. But as Shaw’s tactics became more and more extreme, Gene began to question his involvement in the movement.
In the present, Horn threatens to hurt Rachel if Gene doesn’t spill the beans on how Aaron rose from the dead and who’s controlling the nanites. When he won’t talk, Horn reminds Gene that he’s the reason the Patriots are there. But it’s when Horn starts threatening to kill the townspeople that Gene finally tells him the truth about Aaron controlling the nanites.
The Patriots start hunting for Aaron and since according to Miles (Billy Burke), “charging through the wall, Kool-Aid style won’t work (though it would have been fun to see them try) it’s time for the gang to go to Plan B, which involves crawling through the sewer.
While Dr. Horn doesn’t consider the possibility that Aaron will simply set any Patriots on fire who attempt to capture them, or that Gene might be tipping off his daughter about what’s going on, he is smart enough to realize the sewer is the only viable escape route. The Patriots catch up with the pair, but when they move in on Cynthia, Aaron pulls his party trick and toasts ‘em. Oh and Monroe shows up with a machete, taking out a few soldiers on his own.
Aside from the introduction of Dr. Horn, the episode also plays on a few characters’ emotions, with Rachel breaking down in tears when she realizes what Gene is doing. Of course, Gene isn’t really a heartless Patriot sympathizer, he’s just caught in a tight spot which he didn’t bother to tell the gang about when he admitted to “turning a blind eye for too long” to what the Patriots have been doing.
Meanwhile, Neville (Giancarlo Esposito), Jason (J.D. Pardo) and Allenford (Nicole Ari Parker) find themselves in a jam when they’re fired upon in an open field. Jason saves the day by deftly killing the Patriot soldiers while still in handcuffs. This leads Allenford to believe there’s still hope for her own son, a victim of the same brainwashing Jason suffered. But instead of letting her go after him, Neville drugs and cuffs her, demanding she give up the location of her high ranking Patriot husband. If Allenford is now against the Patriots, wouldn’t she do this willingly?
After showing some improvement with last week’s episode, “Revolution” is set back by presumably intelligent characters’ making dumb choices for the sake of moving the plot along. To it’s credit, “The Patriot Act’ is at least light on pointless bickering and it moves along at a nice clip. And even Monroe is starting to come around to be a likable character, in his own deranged, machete-wielding kind of way.
