On Monday night’s episode of Miles Matheson being awesome…
We find our heroes kidnapping a Monroe scientist. Well, liberating him. He’s been held hostage by Monroe and forced to build weapons – in this case developing chemical and biological weapons and synthesizing deadly anthrax strains – while his family was being held captive. President Foster and Tom Neville – yes, that tom Neville – came up with the idea to grab him and have him work for Georgia. And by work I mean basically be forced to do stuff for them the same way they were being forced to work for Monroe.
The intelligence for this mission came from Tom who has come to the President and offered all sorts of information about Monroe and his resources, manpower, etc. in exchange for becoming an officer in her military. I’m also assuming safety for him and his wife was part of it, too. Miles, of course isn’t happy about it. He’s also not happy that Tom is there to watch him and make sure he does things in a way that will favor Georgia. I mean, the second Tom explains everything and gives him Foster’s letter Miles still tells him that he’s going to kill him.
He doesn’t, though. So we get to sit through awkward moments of Tom an Jason meeting up again. Everyone gets on a steamboat and they paddle along towards Georgia. It leave them all plenty of time to stew in their own misgivings about the mission. Charlie and Nora are both pissed that Miles is letting Tom take this poor scientist back to Georgia to hold him hostage and force him to make weapons while keeping his family away from him. Nora even says she’s going to leave Miles’s outfit and request a transfer when they get back.
It’s kind of unfair of them. Because it’s not like Miles WANTS to do this. It’s the President’s idea and Tom’s idea and he’s just the one they pegged to make it happen. Of course things don’t go too smoothly. The ship is boarded briefly by a Monroe patrol. Though they let the boat through Tom nearly kills the scientists because “If Georgia can’t have him no one can have him.” Which causes Charlie to point a gun at him, they get into a row, Tom goes after Charlie and roaring papa bear Miles steps in.
Unfortunately Charlie shortly afterwards locks Miles in a room when he refuses to show mercy and release the scientist guy and she, Nora, and Jason knock out the rest of the crew so they can force a rendezvous with the other boat holding the scientists family and they can spirit the whole lot of them away to safety – in Texas! Where they can not be used by either side.
Also, if we don’t get to see Texas in season two I am going to be pissed. I want to see how my homeboys are surviving. Hopefully a lot better than they are in the Plains Nation. Sheesh. But more on that later.
Anyway, they manage to get the scientist and his family back together. But Tom also manages to get free and he orders the crew of the other ship to basically shoot them all. Miles finally gets free himself and then steps in between Tom and everyone but before Tom’s men can gun them down Monroe men from the river banks start opening fire on all of them. Turns out the guy that boarded the boat recognized that Miles was Miles Matheson. But he didn’t stop him on the water because he wasn’t stupid enough to engage Miles Matheson in closed quarters. Smart man.
Ultimately Miles, Charlie, Nora, Jason as well as the scientist and his family manage to get one of the boats out of there. As they are driving away Miles thanks Charlie for forcing his hand and reminding him what a good man would do. A good man would not resort to Monroe’s methods and he is more than happy to let the scientist go free.
They go back to camp and Miles is actually in a very good mood. Maybe drinking a bit less. But he’s one hell of a military leader and he knows it and there seems to be some sort of spark of hope in him. Tom somehow survives and comes back to threaten to take the Georgian forces back to Georgia with him and to report him to Foster. But Miles just shrugs it off. He tells Tom he’s smarter than him, he’ll never find the scientist and his family if he goes looking, and that he is pretty much a baller. As long as he keeps winning battles Foster isn’t going to do anything to him.
Miles is starting to get a Robb Stark complex.
Meanwhile in the Plains Nation…
Elizabeth and Aaron are struggling to survive. Apparently the Plains Nation is a terribly impoverished place once you leave the towns along the Mississippi. No one will trade them for food because food is too scarce. And we know Aaron couldn’t carry much in the way of supplies. The two of them steal some of the food anyway at some point and are walking out of town with the crotchety old cowboy they stole from comes after them. He takes the food back and then prepares to execute them both because apparently death is the only sentence for anything and anyone can pass it. But Elizabeth has a gun and she shoots him.
They take off running but she tumbles off an embankment and breaks her leg. Aaron refuses to leave her even though she tries to force him to do it by saying a lot of mean stuff. And then ultimately work together to defeat the people that come after them and they continue on their way to Colorado. But, man. Let me tell you. There is a gruesome leg setting scene and Elizabeth really does say some mean stuff.
We also have it revealed to us that Aaron is actually important. He’s not just ‘Google Guy.’ Apparently something he did or made while he was a student at MIT was used in the whole scheme to turn off the power because there is a clipping of him in the book with instructions on how to turn it back on. Though no one explains to us why Aaron is important. That will come next week.
But wait. It’s not over yet…
WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN THE LAST SCENE OF THIS EPISODE!?
I’m not even kidding. It’s intense. We flash to Grace who is doing whatever it is she’s doing to try and get the power on under Monroe’s coercion. This guy who is guarding her is a total jerk and when the elevator – which is apparently rarely used or operated except by Randall – dings he decides to go down to the lower levels. He handcuffs Grace to the desk and while he’s gone she obviously tries to free herself. She watches as he goes down in the elevator and it unexpectedly stops on level seven. He asks her what’s up and then video cuts out. Then all you hear is this screaming from the elevator shaft and then the elevator STARTS COMING BACK UP. When the door opens IT’S COVERED IN BLOOD.
This show took a really weird and very drastic detour.
I don’t even know what it means. Other than maybe Randall is crazy and experimenting with shit that he shouldn’t be. I have no idea, really.
Next week doesn’t necessarily seem to answer WHAT THE HELL ATE THAT GUY. We might learn why Aaron is important. And we’ll get plenty of angst and drama when the base apparently gets attacked and Charlie and Jason get trapped under rubble and stuff. Who knows what will happen. Dun dun dunnnnnn. (Spoiler: Charlie probably won’t die.) Jason though… Actually, I doubt he will either. Jason is too crucial to both Charlie and Tom’s possible redemption stories. Charlie already got dark and hard and cold with Danny dying. Killing off Jason, too, would be redundant.
Also, anyone else think it’s Tom who betrays Miles and his people and the great Georgia Federation to get back into Monroe’s good graces?
English