Revolution: Born in the USA Recap

Revolution: Born in the USA (2×01)

Synopsis: After the nukes take out basically the Eastern coast at the end of season one the gang joins the rest of the survivors and flee to Texas where they try to make new lives for themselves. Of course nothing really goes according to plan, everyone’s pretty angsty, Charlie’s taken off again, and we got these shady fools coming up from Cuba claiming to be the United States government. Also: resurrection by magic fireflies is a thing, apparently.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

So, I think it’s pretty obvious that I have a mixed relationship with Revolution. I want to like it. I want to like it so bad. But you’ll notice that while I covered the show last spring I stopped before the final three episodes. That’s how much I stopped caring about this show. It has it’s moments and it has potential but then they just turn around and do stupid ass shit. I didn’t hold out a lot of hope for this series coming into it’s second year but I was super surprised by the fact that, yeah, maybe this could be a decent season. Maybe.

I mean, they’ve set it in Texas so that was really all they needed to do in order to draw me back in. I love Texas.

If you don’t remember what happened at the end of last season, everyone high tailed it to “the Tower” in Colorado where Charlie’s mom turned on the power and the crazy old guy launched nuclear bombs on all the new capitals of all the regions of the country. Philadelphia – which was the head of the Monroe Republic – and Atlanta – the head of the Georgia Federation – were decimated. Tons of people died and the armies that remained were left to fend for themselves. It seems like the vast majority of people fled to Texas though I feel like both the Texas and California Republic capitals were also targeted. But whatever.

Season Two picks up a some number of months after the bombs fall. Most of the episode is dedicated to explaining where the charactesr we knew last season have gone in the time since we’ve been apart.

With no where else to go, Rachel and the others went home to her father who is a doctor taking refuge in Texas after which they mostly split up and went their own separate ways. Racher, her father, Miles, Aaron, and his new girlfriend are all living together in his home. The old man’s not too thrilled with Miles being around because he thinks he’s bad for his daughter. Rachel is trying to get over the fact that she’s inadvertently caused all this which really isn’t working and Charlie taking off her on her own didn’t really help. But MIles has been putting a lot of work into protecting their little town from raiders and such that have popped up in full force particularly now that the world has once again fallen into chaos. He’s actually starting to seem like good old classic Miles again to some extent which is good because we need that Miles back.

Other characters aren’t doing so well. Neville is a shadow of a man looking for a purpose while Jason basically takes care of him. Eventually, though, insulting him seems to be the way to get him out of his funk. Granted, his wife is now dead and he was really dedicated to his wife so that was pretty sad to watch. I suppose if she saw what Charlie was out doing on her own she probably wouldn’t be too happy about that either. Charlie took off on everyone which isn’t surprising. I just… really hate her character. I don’t know what they want to do with her and they don’t seem to know what they want to do with her. But right now she’s off trying not to do anything too stupid on her own as Miles said. Which apparently means carrying around diamonds, seducing dudes, and possibly trying to kill Monroe?

Who, yes, is still alive. And who, no, did not go back to try and salvage his forces and actually, you know, lead. Instead he’s fighting for money and shit. Which, I mean, okay. Fine. Whatever. I actually like Monroe to an extent and I think there is a lot to be done with his character and Miles’ character at some point down the line. I always felt like they tried to burn those bridges way too soon and spent a lot of the first season just sort of proving that these two can’t just kill each other.

Though, other people have no problems trying to kill each other. It looks like the big bad guys in this season are going to be two-fold. You’ve got the raiders who have been coming after communities in Texas despite the best efforts of the Ranger and local sheriffs. And then the American government is also rolling back into the picture. Crazy dude with the nukes last season said he was a ‘patriot’ and he did what he did for an American government in exile in Cuba. Whether or not it’s actually the president who fled to Cuba remains a mystery but according to his shady representatives on their bitching tall ship, he’s determined to return to Washington, DC and reunite the United States… with the help of her citizens! Yeah. Okay. Something shady is happening there. They didn’t really evolve that plot line much. But the raiders on the other hand got a whole lot more interesting when you meet their dandy little leader offering sweet tea and such.

So, that should be interesting.

All in all, this was a low key episode and I think it did a pretty good job of reintroducing the characters. I really liked that Aaron has a nice little life for himself now. It did, however, get cut short there for a bit. The raiders coming after the community were a nice touch because I think that really ought to be a more prevalent plot point in a show like this and I guess now it will be. And I was a bit upset when they killed Aaron because, c’mon. It’s Google Guy! He was so upset about his fourth grade student getting polio and stuff. Why go after him? Luckily, though, he doesn’t die because apparently the magic fireflies are healing everyone now and bringing people back from the dead. Too bad that didn’t work for Danny.

I guess I’m game for the rest of the season. I’m interesting to see what Neville and Jason are going to do about these returning Americans and I’m interested in what’s going to happen to Miles and the sheriff now that the raiders have them. I’m sort of expecting that we’re going to see Charlie at some point going to find Monroe (who was kidnapped by people randomly) and I assume Rachel and Aaron are going to do science or some shit to figure out the firefly thing.

As long as I get to see more Texas and Texas keeps being awesome, I’m in.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzLELWguCZ8]