Revolution 1.13: "The Song Remains the Same"

"Give power to everyone? To Georgia? California? Texas? Oh, God, Texas! What do you think they're gonna do with it?"
-Miles

I feel like, with “The Song Remains the Same,” we’re finally out of the transition phase, and the next plot arc of “Revolution” is moving forward full speed ahead. Neville is out of the good graces of Monroe, seemingly for good, Rachel’s got a new mission, and from the looks of the teaser for the next episode, the rest of the gang will soon be on their way to Georgia. This episode mostly focused on Neville, which was a welcome change, since Giancarlo Esposito is always fantastic. He got to show quite a range of emotions in this episode as Monroe sends him on a mission that is one last chance to show his loyalty. He also proves that he is most definitely still a badass. To top all that off, we even get some more detail about what exactly caused the power to go out. The explanation was a little silly, but it wasn’t as silly as the glowy island pool of specialness in “Lost,” so I’ll take it.

This episode begins in Philadelphia, when Neville gets called into a meeting with Monroe and Randall. Neville clearly resents that Randall has been moving in on his role as Monroe’s right hand man. I don’t think Monroe’s worth it, personally. He’s an unstable guy with a lot of firepower. I’d stay far, far away. Anyway, Monroe has a mission for Neville. He needs to take some diamonds south and exchange them for something important. Monroe (and Randall, even though it isn’t really his place) makes it clear that this is Neville’s last chance. If he doesn’t succeed in this mission, he’s done. Neville’s wife, Julia, is really pissed off about this turn of events. I think she’s just fed up with the Monroe neuroses in general. She’s not happy that she has to pretend her son is dead (to cover up for Jason’s desertion), and she’s not happy that her husband is leaving on yet another Monroe wild goose chase.

We next head to (presumably) Maryland, where Miles and Jim are training up the rest of the rebels in the art of badass swordfighting. Charlie especially seems to be getting the hang of it. The practice session is short lived, though, because Jim’s spies have bad news. There’s a convoy headed down I-95. Nevermind that I-95 doesn’t go directly to Annapolis. As a resident of Annapolis who is originally from the Philadelphia metro area, I have made that drive many times, and actually, I usually prefer to drive up the Eastern Shore instead. Guess the Bay Bridge probably isn’t in any shape to drive over post-apocalypse, though. The rebels send out a strike team to intercept the convoy.

The convoy in question is being headed up by Neville, of course. There’s a very “Lost”-like scene where an explosion goes off and sends Neville’s Hummer flying. He emerges from the wreckage, understandably quite dazed, just to be surrounded by Charlie, Miles, and a bunch of rebels. In a very Ana Lucia-like move, Charlie knocks Neville out and drags him back to the rebel camp. Things become more complicated when Jason shows up at the camp too. He’s been with the rebels, and his team gets back to headquarters just in time to hear the news about Neville. Miles makes it abundantly clear that Jason is not getting anywhere near his father. Charlie delivers another pendant to Rachel, who is really out of sorts as she prepares the acid to destroy it.

It turns out that Jason isn’t really the one the rebels need to worry about when it comes to Neville. It’s Rachel. Rachel really, really wants to kill Neville to get revenge for all the hardship he has caused her family. It’s kind of understandable, really. He killed her husband, and he started the series of events (with Danny’s kidnapping) that eventually led to the death of her son. Charlie finds her in front of the door to Neville’s cell, about to break in and kill him. Rachel wants to kill Neville before Neville has a chance to escape, but Charlie manages to stop her. Charlie tries to convince Rachel that Neville won’t be able to hurt anyone anymore. Oh how wrong she would be.

It’s Jason who is able to crack the case, so to speak, for the rebels. He goes into the cell to talk to Neville, and Neville starts talking about how this is his last chance with Monroe, and Jason’s mother is going to be in danger if the mission doesn’t succeed. Jason starts unlocking Neville’s shackles, and he tells Neville that he wants to help, and he needs to know what the plan is. Neville mentions a cement factory in Philadelphia just as Jason opens the cell door to reveal Miles and a posse of rebels. So Jason is on the side of the rebels after all. It would probably be best if the rebels could have intercepted the transaction Neville was originally going to make, but Randall has already done that. Monroe sent him to clean up Neville’s mess. So the rebels head up to Philadelphia to try and intercept the weapons there at the cement factory. Once all the heavy hitters have left rebel HQ, Neville is able to escape from his cell (through a helpfully left behind nail and a crazy murder spree) and make his own way back to Philadelphia. Smooth move, rebels. When he gets to Philadelphia, Neville heads right for home and tells his wife that they need to get out of town pronto.

At the cement factory, there’s a bit of a militia/rebel skirmish. The rebels win the battle, but not without taking a few casualties and letting Randall escape. A search of the facility uncovers that the militia bought nukes with those diamonds Neville had been transporting. Rachel realizes that this has all gone too far, and she needs to put a stop to the militia once and for all in the only way she knows how. The reason the power is out is because billions of electricity eating nanobots were released into the atmosphere. These bots are controlled by some sort of tower, and Rachel needs to go to the tower and figure out what went wrong on the day that the power went out. Aaron is going to go with her. Rachel knows the mission is dangerous and doesn’t really expect to return. She and Charlie have a heart to heart about the whole thing, where at least Rachel was honest about why she was leaving this time. Rachel’s separation from Miles seems even more difficult and implies that they once had a romantic relationship. Which is really just skeevy.