Revolution 1.17: "The Longest Day"

“What makes you think that I’m in it to help people? I want power so Monroe’s enemies can wipe him off the map. I want to kill the man who killed my son. And that’s it.”
-Rachel

At first my reaction to this episode was too much focus on shipping, too little focus on the overall mythology and story. Then the final scene happened, and I was just plain confused. Does the Monroe Republic have light speed travel? Does Nora have an evil twin? The world may never know. This particular episode took place in an especially condensed time frame, so not a whole lot really happened. Aaron and Rachel cleared one big obstacle towards making it to the Tower, and we got some character development for Rachel. We also saw one big attack on a Rebel base and the aftermath of that attack. Oh and Monroe goes even more crazy. That last bit wasn’t really a surprise at all. The rest of the episode is taken up with romantic and pseudo-romantic drama. Now I don’t go all nerd rage-y just because a genre show decides to add in a little romance. In fact, I like a little romance in my genre shows. It has to be done well, though, and the romance in “Revolution?” Definitely not done well.

Anyway, since I really didn’t love this episode, let’s just get on with it. The episode starts the morning after the last episode ended. Miles and Nora are post-coital, and Nora is being all awkward, saying that sleeping together was a mistake. At first, Miles is just going to accept that his life sucks, but then he questions Nora a little more about why she’s running. Apparently she’s afraid of getting emotionally attached, because she figures that with the way the war is going, one of them is probably going to have to watch the other die at some point. Miles and Nora don’t really have time to work this out, though, because while on a water run, Charlie and Jason spot an incoming drone strike from the Monroe Militia. In the aftermath, both Nora and Charlie are pinned under rubble, although Charlie is in a completely different building that is kind of far away. Miles knows where Nora was, so he’s able to rescue her pretty quickly. Miraculously, she suffered no serious injury, so the march off to look for Charlie and Jason. Neville joins them, and Miles can respect that since Jason is his son and all.

Out in the Plains Nation, Rachel and Aaron are still dealing with Rachel’s compound leg fracture. Aaron is bound and determined to take her with him to the Tower, even though Rachel keeps saying he should leave her. At first I thought he might have a thing for Rachel, but now I’m starting to think that he just really, really doesn’t want to repeat the mistake he made with his ex-wife. When Aaron tries to pick Rachel up and carry her even though it causes her extreme pain, Rachel realizes just how determined Aaron is. She decides that they need to use a vial of nannites that she just happened to be carrying to heal her leg. In order to program the nannites, they go to this really old school computer store where Aaron has to do some programming on an old Apple. The kind they had in my elementary school in the early 1990s. Maybe even older than that. Quite curious that there would still be some clattering around in the post-apocalypse.

Anyway, the nannites do their job, but a guy with a gun sees this and threatens Rachel and Aaron. The guy with the gun forcibly takes Aaron and Rachel back to his house, where his son has a serious leg infection following an accident. He wants Aaron and Rachel to heal his son like they healed Rachel’s leg fracture. Rachel, thinking quickly, says that they can help the son if they’re allowed to go get some more equipment from the computer store. At the store, Aaron is very surprised when Rachel knocks the guy with the gun out and says she has no intention of helping the kid with the leg infection. Aaron somehow thought Rachel would be willing to have him cut the cartridge of nannites out of her leg to use on the kid. Rachel makes it very clear that she’s really only in this to get back at Monroe for killing Danny. She could care less about helping people. I’m thinking this isn’t actually 100% true, but she’s hurting right now, so I guess I can give her a pass.

Speaking of Rachel, the flashbacks in this episode show us some of what happened after Rachel left her family to save them from the Monroe Militia. Rachel finds Miles, and while Miles was really hoping that Ben would appear in response to his ultimatum, Rachel assures Miles that since she was project lead, she can help him with anything he needs regarding the power going out. There’s some allusion to the fact that Miles and Rachel had a “fling” back in the day that is a constant source of regret for Rachel. Miles still wants to know where Ben is, and they end up traveling to the family home. Ben, Charlie, and Danny are all long gone, though, and Rachel says that she purposely does not know where they went. Miles is really, really unhappy about this, especially since Rachel is now saying she’s not going to help him with the power, either.

Before we finally get back to the main plot, we’ve got to take a quick trip up to Philadelphia, where Baker (played by the always awesome Mark Pellegrino) tells him that the attack on the rebels is going swimmingly, and he should join some of his men at the bar across the street for a celebration. As they go outside, shots are fired, and Monroe and Baker barely escape with their lives. Monroe, becoming increasingly paranoid, asks Baker if he had anything to do with the shooting. Baker assures Monroe that he did not, and further, he reminds Monroe that he is pretty much the only friend Monroe has left. He has alienated or killed everyone else. Monroe doesn’t so much care about that, though, and he has some of his men kill Baker. Ned Stark would be disappointed to see that Monroe didn’t even have the decency to do the job himself.

Back at the rebel camp, Jason is pretty easy to find, although he’s injured. Charlie is underneath some rubble in the watchtower, and it turns out that Jason ran because he figured Charlie was probably dead. A battle with the Militia heats up, and Neville carries Jason away while Miles and Nora continue to look for Charlie. Jason wants to know why Neville is trying to save him, and Neville explains that while he’s done many bad things, even he has a line he won’t cross, and that line happens to be leaving his only son to die alone. Charlie manages to free herself from the rubble, but Miles and Nora don’t notice in the middle of the battle. Nora goes to the watchtower to look for Charlie, and Charlie appears elsewhere and helps Miles with the battle. Nora, however, is nowhere to be found once the battle is over. Back in Atlanta, a recovering Jason and Charlie make out while Miles demands that President Foster helps him find Nora. She refuses. It turns out that Nora has been captured, and she’s about to be interrogated by none other than Monroe. I really don’t understand how she could have gotten from the battlefield to Philadelphia or some Militia camp in between the two that quickly, but there you go.