Revolution – Recap: Rat Race via Rickey.org Recap video and review of Revolution – Season 1 Episode 18 – Clue:
Last week, I claimed that Revolution thrives when it breaks down its larger stories into easily-digestible f...
Revolution – Recap: Rat Race via Rickey.org Recap video and review of Revolution – Season 1 Episode 18 – Clue:
Last week, I claimed that Revolution thrives when it breaks down its larger stories into easily-digestible fragments, creating smaller, objective-based missions for our protagonists to accomplish. In essence, it makes for a story that flows much better than the disjointed narratives of more cluttered episodes. “Clue” adopts this streamlined approach, yet I don’t think it’s nearly as successful as last week’s “The Longest Day,” which rooted its action-oriented premise in strong character development. Here, we get a character-oriented premise that doesn’t really rise to the task. We get action, and a sizable amount of intrigue, yet it all feels rather hollow, this close to the end of the season. The three-way race to the Tower should be far more exciting than it proves to be, and it should also offer a far greater number of character moments than we ultimately get, as three separate parties all converge on the same climactic meeting place. Yet that doesn’t come to pass. The race is more or less resolved within the first half of the episode, with Monroe (David Lyons) and his militia getting there first, while Aaron (Zak Orth) and Rachel (Elizabeth Mitchell) are now faced with attempting to infiltrate the base. Meanwhile, Miles (Billy Burke) and the others are stuck at an Air Force Base hundreds of miles away, their helicopter having been sabotaged during a refuelling stop. This leads to an arc in which Miles attempts to suss out the identity of the saboteur, and it all leads to a storyline that should be far more engaging than it is, yet because it comes so late in the episode, it never gets time to really develop into something more compelling than it is. It’s a microcosm for the episode itself, as there are a lot of good ideas in the episode, yet none of them are realized to their full potential.
Credit: Brownie Harris/NBC
So Nora (Daniella Alonso) has been captured by Monroe, and he proceeds to have his men torture her over the course of 21 days, in order to get her to reveal intel about the location of Miles, Rachel Matheson, and other valuable targets. She’s repeatedly struck by the guards, dunked head-first into a tank of water, deprived of sleep, and shot up with drugs by Sanborn (Leland Orser), the scientist who’d helped Ben and Rachel develop the blackout technology, and who was last seen betraying Miles and Rachel to the Republic. Nora eventually breaks under torture, and reveals everything to Monroe, including Rachel’s destination: The Tower. However, Monroe isn’t done with Nora just yet, so Sanborn, having turned over a new leaf, decides to rescue Nora by shooting her full of another dose of drugs, in order to make her appear dead. He then smuggles her out of the camp with the other corpses, and returns her to Miles. And it’s just as well that he got out while he had the chance, since Monroe is not in a good mood (though when is he ever?). He’s fed up with Randall (Colm Feore), whom he no longer feels he needs, and is moments away from killing him when Randall claims that the Tower is where the real power is. Power that would make Monroe’s drones look like paper planes. And so Monroe commands Randall to take him to Colorado to see this “Tower.”
Credit: Brownie Harris/NBC
Meanwhile, Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos) and Jason (J.D. Pardo) are basking in the afterglow of their new relationship, though Jason repeatedly states his concern for Charlie’s safety. Though Charlie thinks his concern is sweet, she’s also vaguely suspicious of it, as she sees Jason speaking to a mysterious stranger on the streets of Atlanta — and looking pretty upset about the conversation. Things aren’t going much better for Miles either: though Sanborn has returned Nora, he quickly learns
