Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Revolution Season 1 Episode 5 "Soul Train" Review


The search for Danny appeared to be coming to a close with Charlie and the gang close on Neville's track, however first they have to deal with Maggie's death. I was worried the show would drag out this scene however they did a good job of Miles setting Charlie straight about just how close they were to finding Danny and how you cannot afford to sit and mourn. At the time it just seemed like another moment where Miles was nagging on Charlie for being emotional that would not go anywhere, however as the episode went on we learned that was not the case.

I will break down the episode by character story:

The main focus of this episode however was Gus, oh I mean Neville. 2 episodes ago when he was barely in it I felt it suffered, Esposito steals any scene he is in and he owned every scene again this week(although I could have done without the image of him shirtless). I particularly like how the show uses flashbacks to enhance the story, and they used it expertly with Neville. It was nice to see him go from being a passive, shy, and someone who opposed violence to being shrewd Captain we all know. The transformation was well done in my opinion and his first reason to kill was similar to Charlie's, and Charlie's mom, family. His family was threatened by his obnoxious neighbor so he resorted to force and in that moment he realized what he needed to do for the safety of his family. It was a powerful moment that I thought the show did very well.

Also in Neville's story Danny came through, I especially liked him essentially telling Neville to screw off and quit it with the mind games. This kid really annoyed me in the first episode but slowly his character is growing on me.

Charlie, Miles, and Nora set out to get Danny into the town and do so undetected for the most part. While Charlie has been a weak point for me it was nice to see her fool Neville the first time. However he going after Neville instead of seeking out Miles was just stupid. I know she is an emotional character but still you would think by now she would have learned to listen to Miles. Miles conveniently comes through and saves her in his typical Han Solo/80s action star badassery. However her mistake of being noticed cost them in the long run.

Nora on the other hand was by far the weakest part of this episode. She sought out a resistance guy and reasons that killing Danny is a good idea. Yes, she reasons that the person she signed on to save was worth killing so a few officers would die. Somehow she forgot that Miles, the former second in command, left and the militia did fine but these no named officers will effect Monroe's army! That made no sense at all, I was thankful she was stabbed however she did end up changing her mind which essentially made her whole plot worthless and just an excuse to stab her.

The train scene was well done, I bet Gus went in there and said "They had a train scene in breaking bad this season, put it in!" Okay that probably did not occur, but still the scene was well done with some good reveals.

I am happy the show shifted from the prison jumping thing and now will advance the whole Rachel/Monroe plot more. I also thought it was nice how Charlie realized the full consequences of her actions and seemed determined not to pout, cry, or carry on but instead to continue the search. It showed that perhaps she is advancing as a character and actually listening to Miles.

The scenes with Rachel/Monroe were more of the same until the end, however she will finally started to reveal something about the necklaces. Also the reveal of Jason as his son made sense and was obvious throughout the episode, but now I actually care about the character of Jason after originally disdaining him.

Overall I felt the episode did a good job of keeping me(and hopefully others) hooked with questions to consider going forward and it delivered a strong narrative. While there was some dead time with Nora and in another way Aaron did nothing, it delivered probably the strongest episode of the season.

Overall I would give it an 8/10


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