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Three years before the blackout, Rachel was pregnant with Danny, but he had a heart defect that probably would have killed him. At the same time, Ben was working on finding a clean, cheap energy source with his colleagues Grace and Brad, but instead they found a way to cancel out all electricity. This makes their contact at the Department of Defense, Mr. Flynn-or-is-his-name-Randall, very happy, and in exchange for the invention he gets Rachel into an experimental medical trial that (apparently) saves Danny's life.
But now Monroe is using Danny's life as a lever to get Rachel to tell him what she knows about Ben's electricity-killing invention. He also tracks down Brad and Brad's daughter, and continues being just like the worst host ever by threatening to torture everyone to death if they don't make him Zeus.
Out in the wilderness, Charlie and Miles and Co. stumble upon a rat's nest of orphans, whose leader, Peter, has been kidnapped by the militia. Charlie gets the bright idea to try and rescue Peter from the militia's soldier-making ship, which Miles points out is basically suicide. Charlie never met a lost cause she didn't want to bundle up and hold close to her heart, so she hurls herself into the breach and gets a nice fresh Monroe brand on her wrist for her trouble.
While Charlie, Nora, and Miles are trying to save Peter, Aaron stays behind with the kids and his pendant accidentally turns on the lighthouse they're hiding in. Which reveals the existence of some remaining power to Miles, who is super freaked out, and Charlie, who's just distracted by the giant shiny thing.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously: The lights went out in New York. It was scary. Actually, on the show, Miles's old buddy Jeremy showed up and blew his cover as the former co-leader of the militia. Our gang located Danny, but couldn't rescue him from Neville's train, so they headed for Philadelphia where he's being held with Rachel, who told Monroe about the pendants. Grace Beaumont also had a pendant, but we haven't seen her since some unseen force broke into her house.
Remember those brands all of Monroe's guys have? Well, now some of his guys are trying to give Charlie her own M brand. She does not appear particularly happy about it. So of course we flash back to two days earlier, because the time on this show isn't warped enough already.
A militia wagon train is coming through the forest, and Miles, Nora, Charlie and Aaron watch it jealously. There's a prisoner on a wagon who looks like Jamie Bell and Michael Phelps's extremely unlikely love child. He turns his head ands spots Charlie among the foliage. She reaches down to unstrap her knife, but Miles stops her.
The fab four walk and talk, and Miles tells Charlie it would have been too risky to save that kid, that they can't save everyone and saving Danny is the mission. Ahead of them, there's a body lying in the road. It's a child. Charlie runs up and crouches to the boy and says he's still breathing and of course the kid sits up and runs off, because it's a trap and Charlie's a dimwit. A bunch of wild-eyed Lord of the Flies types come out of the bushes with spears and ask our heroes where they took "him." Charlie wants to know who "him" is and Miles looks only a little perturbed that an eight-year-old is pointing a pitchfork at him.
The ragamuffin gang is looking for someone named Peter. Their leader tells the other kids to check the newcomers' arms for brands, which of course they don't have (yet). Charlie gives a description of the Phelps-Bell kid from the wagon train and tells the leader, named Michael, that they saw Peter being carried away. Miles just wants to know where everyone's parents are, because surely in a post-apocalyptic wasteland parents still have the good booze. Michael says they don't have parents and then whistles, which draws his whole squadron of armed-and-grubby anklebiters out of hiding. Aaron looks distinctly worried about the integrity of his Achilles tendons.
The grown-ups survey the child army's accommodations. They live in the bones of a wrecked building and it's not pretty. Aaron asks Nora what the kids did with their parents and says kids skeeve him out. Nora recalls that Aaron was the village teacher back in Ben Matheson Country, and Aaron points out that there isn't a lot of call for software engineers in a world without electricity. Also, I know a fair few teachers who are skeeved out by kids. Seventh graders are truly awful representatives of humanity.
Michael tells another kid that he's in charge while Michael's gone, but Miles and Charlie have no interest in running off into the woods with wee Michael until they get some answers about the parents and their hidden whiskey caches. Michael says a long time ago, the militia came, so the parents hid all the kids in the basement and said they'd be right back. The kids heard screaming. He gestures to a tattered American flag and says they think it had something to do with the flag -- that the militia didn't like the colors. He says eventually he and Peter came up and found all their parents dead. Ever since, Peter has been their leader and protector and Michael wants to get him back.
Michael tells a smaller kid to put together all their weapons (which seem to consist exclusively of pointy things), and Charlie says they can't go up against the militia and then, of course, volunteers her services. And thus the ballad of noble, heroic Charlie Matheson begins... in her own head. Aaron isn't sure this is a great idea and I agree with him. Michael asks why she'd want to help and she says it's because the militia took her brother, too. Notice how she hasn't been particularly successful in repatriating one person from Monroe's forces, but now she wants to go for two. Miles looks like he's reconsidering recreational heroin.
Aaron pulls Charlie aside for a word and tries to talk some sense into her. She has all the clear-eyed conviction of a babbling zealot and Aaron tries to get Miles on his side, but Miles has gone round the bend, too. He declares that they'll save Peter. As the fab four head out, Charlie tells Michael to stay put and stay out of trouble. Let's hope he's better at following instructions than she is (spoiler alert: he is not).
Philadelphia. Danny and Rachel are having lunch -- well, Rachel is. Danny is lounging in his chair sulking about how they're in a cage. Rachel's like, we're not starving and we have proper linens. This is the life, kid. Danny says they have to leave and she shushes him. A militia soldier comes in and says Monroe wants to talk to Rachel.
Monroe's office. Monroe hasn't been able to locate even one of the pendants (liar!). He says most of the houses Rachel sent his men to, where she said people with pendants lived, were empty. She does not point out that he's held her prisoner for like fourteen years, and is kind of behind on sending and receiving her Christmas letters, but just says maybe she's a bit out of the loop. Monroe says they did manage to find one person, Dr. Bradley Jaffee. She asks if Brad's there. They've had him for three weeks -- so much longer than she thinks they've known about the pendants, right? Rachel asks Monroe to stop what he's doing and he says he will... as soon as Brad gives her his pendant. Rachel says she'll talk to him and Neville gives her a chilling smile, saying that her cooperation is so appreciated.
Flashback to when Rachel was pregnant (probably with Danny?), three years before the blackout. She's getting out of the car and heading into the house. A man, Mr. Flynn (played by Colm Feore, the second spookiest man on TV [Zeljko Ivanek is the first]), standing in a very bright control room full of video monitors and gadgets and just an obscene number of electric lights asks Ben Matheson, via telephone, what he's got. From the other side of a window, Ben says what they have is a mistake. He and his partners were trying to invent a device that would generate clean, cheap electric power, but they failed and what they created actually does the opposite -- it inhibits electricity. Behind Ben are Brad and Grace, his partners, and he asks them to demonstrate. (And I wish someone had made, like, the tiniest effort to show that the adult characters have aged over fifteen years. They all look exactly the same, except for how Miles glowers more. Look, Zak Orth was in Wet Hot American Summer eleven years ago. Now he's Aaron. Compare that to last week.)
All around Flynn, the lights and TVs and gadgets go dark and silent. Some of you in New Jersey and SoPo might recognize the phenomenon. Then Grace turns the power back on. Ben punches some numbers into a keypad and opens the door of the chamber Flynn was in. Flynn asks if this result can be replicated and on how large a scale. Just then, Rachel comes in and Ben introduces Flynn as the assistant secretary of the Department of Defense. Flynn tells Rachel he's recommending the DOD offer Ben a full contract. Rachel wants a word with Ben.
Apparently Ben didn't tell her quite what he was working on and of course she's upset. He tells Rachel a government contract isn't the worst thing, but she asks him if he doesn't see the potential uses of Ben's invention for warfare (aha! I was hoping this show would turn into Outbreak! When does Dustin Hoffman show up and fix everything?). He, um, does recognize those uses. But he really wants that sweet, sweet government pork.
Present. Miles points out how many wagon treads are on the road, all going the same direction. Aaron asks Nora what's going on with Miles, because normally Miles is standoffish and self-preservationist, but now he wants to rescue a stranger. Nora points out that those kids' parents were killed when Miles was the HBIC of the Monroe Militia. Ah, so he has a conscience and it's guilty.
Miles stops and draws his sword, then head into the trees and drags Michael out, because Michael, like every other kid on this damn show, is shit at taking directions. Miles observes dryly, "It's irritating when a dumb kid tells you what to do, isn't it?" Charlie does not appear pleased by the irony. She tells Michael to stick nearby, and he whistles again, calling up three of his buddies, two little and one Jerry O'Connell-in-Stand by Me-sized, which Aaron thinks is just great: "Like a pack of hairless Ewoks." Don't be so quick to call other people rotund and essentially useless there, Beardo.
The wagon carrying Peter and a girl pull up to the shore of what looks like a sizable lake. Other kids are getting militia uniforms, so this must be the militia intake depot. There's a large ship out in the middle of the lake. I wonder what the Monroe Militia advertisements have replaced "Be All That You Can Be" with -- "See the Country by Raping and Pillaging"?
Nora offers the little girl some water and while Aaron is distracted, Vern grabs the pendant from his bag on the ground. Aaron demands it back and Vern tries to evade him, but trips over his own fat, clumsy feet. So you'd think that Aaron would feel some solidarity with the poor hormone-addled fool. Miles notices the skirmish and asks what the pendant is. Aaron says it's just his necklace and Miles observes that he seems nervous, because he's sweating. Aaron is kind of always nervous and sweating, though. He's like Jerry that way. Nora distracts Miles from sweaty Aaron by calling him over to look at something.
Shores of Lake Militiaville. The gang passes a lighthouse and sees the ship on the lake. Charlie asks what it is and Miles says it's a militia soldier factory. Kids go in, branded soldier-bots come out. Miles says it's impossible to rescue someone from that ship.
Rachel's flashback. Gigantically pregnant, she's headed for the car. She falls to her knees in pain, squealing for help. At the doctor's office, she and Ben see fetus Danny on the sonogram and the doctor says he's missing a blood vessel in the heart, so his lungs and other organs aren't getting enough blood. They can induce labor and operate on the fetus, but he'll probably be too weak to survive. Or Rachel can continue her pregnancy and he might not live through labor.
Rachel's in a prison cell, her face looking bruised, reflecting. Some men drag Brad in, all beat up, and chuck him in a cell near her. She coughs and he calls out. He thought she was dead. She asks if he hid his pendant and lies that some of the guards are with the rebels, so if he tells her where the pendant is, they can go get it before Monroe does. Brad thinks it's too risky, but Rachel pushes. But Brad has figured out Rachel is the one who told Monroe about the pendants and he's not talking.
Miles is shooting down Charlie's truly excellent idea of going into the ship to get Peter out. (Although I don't think we've actually seen any girl militia members so far, just Nora dressed up as one. Maybe the ladies are all deployed to different parts of Monroe-topia?) He says what happens on the boat, what happens to those kids -- including Peter and Danny -- is all Miles's own fault. Charlie tries on her world-weary, cynical face, saying that with their luck, there's no way they can get Danny back, so they might as well try to save a kid who's a little closer to hand -- Peter. And then he caves to her latest idiot plan? Miles, I cannot believe you are going along with another of her idiotic plans. He says to get Peter back, they'll need a master key. "And that's going to hurt," he says.
Charlie is sitting to a path in the woods, with a little fire going just to make sure no one can miss her, when a militia wagon carrying two soldiers stops. The younger soldier jumps out and asks Charlie what she's up to. He doesn't believe her story that her family is off hunting. She grabs her bag and makes a very brief, halfhearted attempt to run. The soldier chases her and punches her out, as Miles and Nora watch from the brush.
Philadelphia. Rachel's out of her cell and back in her nice room, no bruises on her face. A soldier brings in Brad, who is rather upset to see her plush surroundings. She says she's also a prisoner here, and tells Brad Monroe's men will kill him. He says betraying everyone would be worse than dying. Rachel recaps how she didn't tell Monroe anything until he showed up with Danny and, for her, what Monroe will do to Danny is worse than dying. Brad's like, this is about the whole damn world, lady, not just your boy. Neville comes in and says it's easy to be self-righteous when no one's holding a gun to your kid's head, but he has a fix for that, because another soldier brings in Brad's daughter.
Neville villains about how easy it was for them to find Brad's daughter, Eve, after Rachel told them about Brad's involvement in the project, and while Brad and Eve fight against their guards, everyone cries and yells and gets dragged back to their dank little prison cells. Ugh. Electricity is so awesome, you guys.
On the soldier-factory ship, Lieutenant Slotnick introduces himself to the rows of recruits. He tells them that this will be the best thing that ever happens to them, and monologues about how Monroe is strong and moral and so, so dreamy. Charlie does not look impressed and is trying to catch Peter's eye so they can formulate a quick telepathic escape route. Slotnick calls a kid to the front and tells him he can speak. The kid wants to go home. Slotnick tells him he's free to go, really, but as the kid starts to climb the stairs to outside, Slotnick viciously beats the stuffing out of the poor thing.
Other soldiers lead the recruits to their quarters. Charlie notes which barrack Peter goes into, then picks a fight with the giant kid in line behind her, which gets her knocked out for the second time today and draws Slotnick's attention. Ah, so that's why Charlie has no impulse control and poor decision-making skills: zillions of concussions.
Miles watches the ship broodily from the shore. In the lighthouse, Aaron and Vern sit antagonistically side by side while Michael sharpens his knife. Nora tells Michael and the little girl that Charlie's tough and she's sure to bring Peter back. The little girl asks why they should believe a grown-up and Nora says she's one of the good ones. Little girl hasn't met any good grown-ups.
Charlie's in the infirmary, being assessed by a doctor, who's going to sedate her. He leans over to inject her and she knocks the needle out of his hand, then injects the full shot into his neck. She grabs his key and is just heading out the door when she runs directly into Slotnick. "I had a feeling you were trouble," he says, proving he's a better judge of character than most of Charlie's family.
Miles is getting antsy and says Charlie is two hours late, so they need to go get her.
And we're back where we started, with Charlie strapped to a table and about to get her wrist branded. Ah, there it goes. Yikes. Probably smells awful.
A soldier is patrolling on deck when Miles climbs up the outside railing and flips him over it and into the water. Nora follows him. Below decks, Charlie is in her cell, cradling her burned wrist. Aaron is back at the lighthouse and notices there are only three kids there. He asks where Michael is and the others say he went to get Peter. Sooner or later they're going to have to put a bell on that kid.
On the ship, another sentry notices the first one's body, which landed on a lifeboat. He runs over and starts ringing a huge bell and gets off a few notes before Michael shoots him in the back with an arrow. But that was enough to send up the alarm. Miles and Nora head down into the ship, and although the quarters are tight, there is plenty of room for some Miles Matheson Showy Swordfighting. He defeats two opponents and starts hollering for Charlie. She yells back. He finds her and sees the raw burn mark on her wrist. They bust into Peter's cell and she tells him Michael sent her.
Back at the lighthouse, Aaron and the kids hear voices. The kids hide and he blows out the candle. A couple of soldiers come in with torches. The two smaller kids hide themselves in, like, a trunk and under the stairs, while Vern tells Aaron to come with him. Surely he's good at urban camouflage for the husky gentleman.
Ship. Miles, Nora, Charlie and Peter come running out, but of course Slotnick has Michael, with a knife to his throat. The other militia members draw their swords. Slotnick tells Miles to drop his weapons, which he does (well, the visible ones).
Lighthouse. There's an electrical hum and Aaron starts muttering, "No, no, not now." He pulls out the pendant, which has switched on like it did at Grace's house and starts fumbling with it to try and turn it off. Vern says, awed, "It's like a firefly," and the lights and a generator across the room switch on. Vern is so confused. And then the lighthouse's great huge light comes on. On the ship, Miles is like, THE FUCK?
Miles isn't bewildered for too long, just a commercial break. He takes advantage of the light blinding Slotnick to grab Michael. Just then, the pendant goes out and with it, the beacon. Miles and Nora fight with the soldiers and Charlie's the one who gets to impale Slotnick. Once they've won, Charlie, Miles, Nora, Michael and Peter all stand around and stare at each other, as if these five guys are the only soldiers on the boat.
Those two soldiers are still exploring the lighthouse, trying to figure out what the hell just happened. They come downstairs, passing little girl under the stairs and the box where the little boy is hiding. Aaron pops out of the shadows and clobbers one, then dispatches the other one. The kids come out of their hiding places, so impressed with a grown-up they can trust and please, I am gagging.
Philadelphia. Monroe tells Rachel he's sent riders to Brad's house and as soon as they have the pendant, Brad and Eve can go. He says Rachel never did tell him how the lights went off in the first place. She asks what difference it makes, as long as she can turn them back on. I think it might be a useful thing to keep in your back pocket, no?
Flashback. Pregnant Rachel runs into Flynn, who has heard about Danny's heart problem. Ah, nothing pregnant ladies like more than dudes poking their noses into their uteri. He says he's sure she's done all the research on what she can do, even a trial at Columbia that's specifically focused on Danny's problem. Rachel gasps that it's full. Flynn offers to get her in. He says he just wants to help her out -- "at work, and at home. I just want us to be friends." Ah, the old you-scratch-my-back-I'll-fix-your-fatally-ill-fetus gambit. So clichéd.
Shores of Lake Prisonship. All the little soldier boys and girls are fleeing happily. Peter climbs out of a rowboat and the little kids swarm him, even Vern, who looks like he's still sad he can't sit on Peter's lap anymore. The little girl hugs Nora. Miles asks Aaron what the hell happened. Aaron plays dumb, but Miles is all, DUDE WHAT THE FUCK I SAW LIGHTS OMG I MISSED LIGHTS SO MUCH. Aaron holds up the pendant and says, "It can sometimes bring the power back on and bring machines to life," about as casually as you'd say, "This is Nutella. It is delicious."
Miles asks where the pendant came from and Aaron says Ben gave it to him. Miles can't believe he's had that the whole time and hasn't said anything about it. Miles wants to smash it. Aaron says it's basically the most important thing in the whole world, which is exactly why Miles doesn't want Monroe getting his hands on it. Miles threatens to beat Aaron unconscious and then smash the pendant, but Aaron has a spine now, because he has defended small children and run a con on Drexel! Today he is a man! Mazel, Aaron!
Charlie interrupts (OF COURSE SHE DOES) and asks what's up with the lighthouse. If she had a newspaper she would smack both their noses with it. Aaron says he thinks Monroe's men came for Ben because of the pendant. He tells them about Grace.
Grace, of course, is in a prison cell somewhere, being held by Randall. She tells him to let her go, and he's all, it's too dangerous. So maybe he's hiding her from Monroe? "I just want us to be friends," he says. Ack! Randall is Flynn! And he's the only adult on this show who's visibly older fifteen years later!
week: Someone is holding Nora's sister hostage in exchange for a pendant. Major Strausser shows up, Aaron misplaces his Macguffin, and Charlie makes her crumpleface.
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