“No, I mean I’m sorry I didn’t kill you the first time. You’re not the same person. You’re too far gone, I see that now. We are not family. Not anymore. I have a family. You are nothing to me.”
- Miles
We have finally reached the mid-season finale and boy does it deliver. We begin five years after the blackout during the Trenton Campaign (Which Reed Diamond’s character referenced in the last episode). Things don’t seem to be going well. For one thing bullets are becoming scares. Monroe makes a joke about being like pirates and using swords (if he only knew) but all the laughter stops when he realizes Miles is bleeding. Miles tries to get Bass to go but Bass isn’t abandoning his best friend. Back in the present in Philly, Miles leads the gang to the house of Major Kippling. Nora pulls a “I’m a hooker here for your entertainment” rouse long enough for him to open the door and Miles to push in. Once inside, Nora tends to Charlie (her head’s bleeding again) and Miles says he needs to do some recon on Danny. So he takes off while everyone else relaxes and dozes off. Their rest is interrupted by militia bursting in led by Neville. He has Aaron and Nora hauled off and Charlie drugged and thrown in a cell. And for the first time in a good decade, mother and daughter are finally reunited.
Things are all happy time and roses between Charlie and Rachel. In fact, Rachel is kind of babbling on about how she was trying to kill Monroe and escape with Danny and blubbering about how beautiful Charlie is. Charlie just stares at her mom and then finally makes her snap out of it. They’re going to work together to get Danny. As they’re trying to find a way out of the cell, Charlie reveals that her dad told her to go to Miles after he died. Rachel is a little unnerved by that and asks if her uncle hurt her at all. Before they can say much more, Strauser (the pig) comes in and drags them both off. Meanwhile, Neville gloats a bit to Aaron and Nora. He tries to knock Aaron down a few pegs but Aaron doesn’t engage. Good for him. Neville is pretty smug that his trap for Miles is going to work. Until he gets downstairs and is about to pour himself a drink, only to find Miles standing there with a sword to Julia’s throat. Miles wants a trade: Nora and Aaron for Julia.
Julia tells Neville he can’t make the trade. But Neville loves her and so he lets Aaron and Nora go. He even gives up the location of where Monroe has the kids. He and Julia get locked in a closet for their trouble. Of course, Neville threatens to kill Miles one day for all of this. Somehow, when it comes to Miles, I think Neville’s bark is worse than his bite. Meanwhile, at the power plant (where Charlie and Danny and Rachel are being kept), the Mathesons have a little family reunion. It doesn’t last long because Monroe shows up and tells Rachel she is going to finish the real amplifier. As incentive, Strauser tells Rachel she has to pick which one of the kids he’s going to kill. Charlie is trying to tell her mom that it’s not worth it. That thousands will die if Monroe gets power back. She even goes as far as offering herself up to Strauser. This is all too much for Rachel and she agrees to work on the amplifier. Charlie and Danny are sent back to the holding cell and Strauser has strict instructions from Monroe: if Rachel so much as breathes funny, Charlie and Danny are dead. Somehow, I highly doubt that killing his best friend’s niece and nephew is the best way to win back your buddy’s loyalty.
Rachel is working on the amplifier and Strauser is taunting her, begging her to mess it up. He wants to have his way with Charlie. He really is a suck bastard. Meanwhile, Baker (aka Mark Pellegrino) is questioning why Monroe wants Miles brought in alive. Monroe doesn’t really give an answer until Baker offers to kill Miles. Monroe flashes back to two years before the blackout. He’s sitting by some graves and Miles pulls up. It’s obvious Bass has been drinking (well okay he still is) and Miles figures out that Bass thinks he should be dead. He survived two tours of duty in Iraq only to come home and find his family killed by a drunk driver. When Bass bemoans that he’s alone and has nothing left, Miles says that they’re brothers and they have each other. In the present, Charlie and Danny manage to escape their cell and go in search of Rachel while outside, Aaron is trying to get the rest of the group into the power plant.
Things are starting to converge. Miles and Nora sneak into the plant while Aaron wits outside with pipe bombs, ready to detonate them for a quick exit. Charlie and Danny are making their way out of the plant and fall under gunfire. Charlie tries to make the gun she stole from one of the militia guys work but she’s having problems. They’re nearly caught when Miles comes to the rescue. He’s more than a little surprised to find out Rachel is alive. He sends the kids off with Nora as he goes in search of his sister-in-law. Rachel finishes the amplifier and plugs the pendant in. It actually works (well I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised). Strauser is trying to hit on Rachel when she smacks him with a hammer. He hits her right back and it looks like he’s about to torture her when she smacks him with the hammer again and stabs him I the chest. That’s becoming her signature. Miles walks in shortly thereafter and they share an intense moment where it really looks like they’re about to kiss. Instead, Rachel smacks him good across the face. Baker and his boys show up, forcing Miles and Rachel to run. Unfortunately they come up against Monroe and the epic showdown has begun.
Miles takes out the guard surrounding Monroe and soon it’s just the two of them. Miles flashes back to when they were kids, playing in the woods and when they came up with the symbol that would later be associated with everything Monroe Militia. Monroe tells Miles that they’re still family and that he wants Miles to come back. He’d even let Rachel and the kids live. Miles flat out refuses, saying they’re not family anymore. Monroe is at first lost for words and then resorts to trying to pummel the crap out of Miles. They wail on each other for a while before pulling out the swords (I must have missed that Miles has two) and they fight for a while like that before Baker shows up. Bass gives the order to kill Miles but they are really bad shots. He dives out a window. The rest of the gang has made it out of the plant thanks to Aaron. There’s a really funny bit where Charlie’s waiting by the hole in the wall for Miles and as he comes running through, she beams at him and he says “run you idiot”. Totally should be an internet meme. As they all think they’ve run to safety, a chopper flies into the air as Monroe looks on from above. Honestly Rachel, you should have snagged the pendant before running off. But I guess that sets up the big dilemma for the second half of the season.
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