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Ten seconds after we left off in November, and Monroe wants his no-longer-precious-boyfriend Miles—and all Miles's friends and family—dead. He sends his helicopters to gun them down, and after they hide out in an abandoned diner, the Monroe squadron o' death moves on to reducing all the rebel camps to smoking piles of ash and blood. While Aaron just wants to go home now that they've achieved their autumn-long objective of finding Danny, Rachel says no one will have any homes left now that Monroe can rain down death from above.
So Miles and Rachel go find Rachel's old buddy John, who has a magic pendant, and who likes to hide out in his basement, enjoying the benefits of electricity and building weapons of mass murder. But while John is initially all chummy, he eventually tells Rachel that he sold her out to Randall—who used to be the assistant defense secretary and, we think, was responsible for the blackout—who's on his way. Miles and Rachel break free, overpower John, and run away with all his fun explodey toys.
At the rebels' HQ in Annapolis, Commander Ramsey and his ragtag group, along with Nora, Charlie, Danny, and a very reluctant Aaron, prepare to make their last stand. They're about to get massacred when Miles and Rachel show up with the heavy firepower, but after Danny takes out the helicopter that had the power amplifier, the remaining one shoots him while it falls to the ground. So long, Danny. So glad we spent ten episodes looking for your dumb ass.
All is not well in the ranks of the Monroe Militia. Jason Neville has discovered that maybe he doesn't like murdering innocent people, so when he spots Charlie at the Annapolis base, he fights with his father, getting pretty well bloodied and also disowned in the process, and when warns Charlie about the impending air strike. Tom Neville, for his part, tells Monroe that his son is dead. I'm sure this will make him so much more pleasant to be around. And just wait until that terrifying pointy wife of his finds out.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously on Revolution: The lights went out. Fifteen years later, Neville killed Ben Matheson and kidnapped his son, Danny, so Ben's daughter, Charlie, went to Chicago to find her uncle Miles and go searching for Danny. The trail lead to Philadelphia, where Miles's old buddy Monroe was running the militia that controls a huge chunk of the former United States and holding Danny and Charlie's mother hostage, because she knows how to turn the power back on. So now the Mathesons are free and reunited, but Monroe also has power.
We pick up right where we left off, with a Monroe helicopter about to gun down Nora, Aaron, and all four Mathesons. The people on the ground finally start running, with the helicopter in pursuit. They hide in a diner, which the helicopter then blows up with missiles. Like, really blows it up. Well. It will be nice not to listen to Charlie's whining any longer. But I'll miss Miles.
Ah, hell. Of course we're not that lucky. They survived without even a scratch by hiding in the walk-in freezer. Miles musters the troops and they move out.
Back in Philadelphia, Monroe is staring dourly out the window, the way he spends all his evenings now that video games and Internet porn are no more. Neville comes in and tells him the men didn't find the Mathesons' remains, which Monroe knows means they're all still alive. Monroe blames Neville for letting Miles and the others get away, but after he apologizes, Monroe says they don't matter, because now he has power. Monroe says they're sending their choppers to wipe every rebel camp off the face of the earth, and then they'll take over the rest of the continent. Ooh, genius has turned to madness. Monroe has one last order--if Neville finds Miles alive, he's to kill him. So the love that spoke its name repeatedly is over, then.
Charlie and Nora, wearing militia uniforms, are driving a cart. They come to a gate and tell the man guarding it that their cargo is just corpses from the morgue. But the guard wants to inspect the cargo, since they're looking for some fugitives. Charlie holds up her wrist, now scarred with a Monroe brand, and says she's just doing her job, but the guard won't be dissuaded. Charlie pries open a coffin--one of the ones that isn't holding a live person, like Aaron, who's quietly freaking out over in his own Ryan Reynolds movie--and shows him the bloody corpse inside.
Outside the city limits, Danny gets out of his coffin and embraces his mother. Aaron and Miles get out of theirs as well, and Nora rushes over to kiss Miles, who makes eye contact with Rachel while he's doing so. Awk-wards. Now that they're out of danger, Aaron wants some answers from Rachel, like why she isn't just a nice housewife, like he thought she was, and an explanation of the pendant that almost got everyone killed. She promises she will explain, but right now they need to hide from the helicopter bearing down on them. Nora guesses it's heading to the rebel camp in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Said rebel camp. They hear the helicopter and almost before they realize what's going on, they're all gunned down. Even the American flag hanging on the wall is riddled with bullets, in case you've forgotten who the good guys are.
The gang finds the massacred rebels. Nora grieves, holding one dead person's hand, and Charlie says she's never seen anything like this. Miles says this is what war used to look like, before the blackout. Nora says she needs to go to the rebels' headquarters in Annapolis, and Charlie and Danny immediately say they're going, too. Aaron wants to go home, dammit, but Rachel tells him there's no home to go to; Monroe will find them eventually, and they can't even leave the Monroe Republic, because he's going to conquer everything. She says she has to stop Monroe because she's the one who gave him the firepower. Miles asks how they can hope to fight back with muskets and crossbows, but Rachel says she can get the rebels heavy-duty weapons, and the power to run them.
Rachel wants to find a friend nearby who can help, and Miles says he's going with her, to keep her safe. She snarks at him that now he's the one who's going to make sure nothing bad happens to her, and he's all, let's argue about this some other time, like quarter to never. Rachel tells Danny and Charlie she's proud of them, and Danny says, "Just come back this time, okay?" She promises she will.
Flashback to one year before the blackout. Rachel and Ben are in the hospital with baby Danny (remember he had a congenital heart defect and that was the reason Rachel agreed to work with the power people), who's going in for surgery. She frets to Ben about this experimental procedure, but Ben says this is their only option, since nothing else has worked.
Miles and Rachel and their horse-drawn wagon roll away from Charlie, Danny, Nora, and Aaron, who still looks super, super pissed. But at least you're not trying to teach evolution to a bunch of grubby six-year-olds, eh, Aaron?
Jason Neville watches another rebel base burn. He mutters that it was a slaughter, and Neville says it was a decisive action. Jason says they murdered families, and Neville replies that they shouldn't have hid behind women and children. This seems to be Jason's breaking point with the militia. Neville goes over to the one survivor, and starts interrogating him about where the other rebels are.
Annapolis. Nora and the other three walk into the parking lot of a mini mall, and when a man pops up from behind a car, aiming a rifle at them, Aaron says look, I think we found the rebels.
Inside, it's our old friend rebel leader Nicholas, who introduces Commander Ramsey. They're surrounded by wounded and dying people, and Ramsey says the resistance is over now that Monroe is exterminating all the rebel bases. Charlie, of course, can't keep her damn mouth shut, and says they can help. Actually, Nora corrects her, Miles can.
Miles and Rachel's lonely road of secrets. He asks if they're going to talk about what they're not talking about, and she says there's nothing to talk about. Oh, but there is: Miles saw a dead body--Rachel's. He says he wouldn't have left the militia if he'd known she was alive. He asks if Monroe hurt her, and she just makes a sad face and doesn't answer. Miles tells her everything that happened was his fault, and he's sorry. And he leans in like he's going to kiss her, maybe, and she looks like she wants to, maybe, but then Rachel asks him to step back.
Jason spots Charlie through binoculars, then hands them to his father, who is delighted. Neville claps Jason on the shoulder jubilantly and says they need to call in the air strike, but Jason, who grew a conscience in the four months he was off the air, is concerned about civilian casualties. Neville says Charlie has made Jason soft, and says they're at war with the rebels. Jason says he didn't sign on to butcher people, and Neville grits that he doesn't get to choose what orders he follows. Jason's all, nope, I'm done, so Neville punches him in the mouth and tells him he's a shameful disappointment.
Jason and Neville tumble around, punching and kicking each other viciously. Neville finally knocks his son down and tells him not to come home. Oh, good luck explaining that to Lady MacNeville back home in Philly. Jason just lies there and tries to bleed unobtrusively.
Rachel and Miles come to a house. She knocks, and a man she greets as John answers the door. And he's Leland Orser, so when I say he looks like a nervous ferret, know that it's (probably) an acting choice and not just his resting state. John gushes about how happy he is to see Rachel, and she asks if he's spoke to anyone--she asks about Grace, and John says it's like everyone vanished. She tells him that Monroe has an amplifier, and that she built it, and now she needs John's help to fix her big fuckup.
In his basement, John switches on fluorescent lights and reveals his arsenal. Miles doesn't fall to his knees in worshipful glee, but it's close.
Jason catches up to Charlie in the woods, because for a supposedly awesome tracker she's not very aware of her surroundings. She pulls her knife, but he tells her his real name, and confesses who his father is, and tells her about the air strike. But it's when he tells her he has nowhere to go that the must-keep-the-baby-bird-with-the-broken-wing section of Charlie's cortex lights up. All the same, she thanks Jason for the warning and says he can't come with her. He's like...that did not end as I'd imagined it.
Miles picks up an object and John tells him to be careful when playing with the sonic cannon, which emits a high-pitched audio frequency that can knock people unconscious. Miles can't believe John just sits in his basement and makes weapons, but John deadpans, yeah, it's kind of his hobby now that his rec basketball league folded. Miles goes over to drool on a rocket launcher and John tells Rachel he knows why Grace isn't answering. He says, "Randall got to her," and he also got to John. So he shoots Rachel and Miles with the sonic cannon--but he does so while covering only one of his own ears (the cannon's in his other hand). So why doesn't he pass out, too?
Ah, Randall. Old buddy. Grace is trying to repair the elevators in Randall's lair, under the watchful eye of Mr. Austin, a pudgy man reading a two-decade-old copy of Maxim. Randall asks how her work is going, then says he has to go run an errand, so he's leaving Grace with Austin. He tells her to get the elevators working so he can get down to level twelve (uh...he never thought to try the stairs? Or fast-rope down the elevator shaft?). Grace asks what will happen if she can't, and Randall just stares at her. Austin smirks at his magazine o' boobies.
Charlie is telling Ramsey and the others about the air strike coming in twelve hours. They won't be able to evacuate all the wounded, so Ramsey's idea is one last stand. Nicholas is uncertain about going up against helicopters with their meager weapons, and Nora swears Miles and Rachel will show up in time with the artillery. Ramsey asks for volunteers to be the first line of defense. Charlie and Nora are the first to put their hands in the air. Danny eventually does, too.
Rachel wakes up in John's basement. She and Miles are tied to chairs, and she pleads with John to let her go. He says Randall is coming, and Rachel moans about her damn stupid kids, playing for time while Miles works to get their hands untied. John says he doesn't have a choice, because Randall got into the Tower--this must be the place with the level twelve and no fire stairs. That or it's an abandoned record store. John says if he doesn't help Randall, something bad will happen, but just then Miles gets untied, smacks John unconscious, and unties Rachel so they can pillage the weapons cache. Look, John, something bad happened anyway!
Neville reports the Charlie sighting to Monroe. He assumes Miles is there, too. Monroe tells the other lackey in the room to order the air strike, and then asks Neville why he's all mopey. Neville tells him that Jason is dead.
The rebels' last stand. Charlie watches Danny fortifying a wall with sandbags, and flashes back to Danny having an asthma attack as a child, which she manages to talk him out of. Back in the present, Danny asks how she is, and she says she's terrified. He has full faith that Miles and their mother will save them, but Charlie isn't so sure. She tells Danny to promise to go inside when the choppers come. He says he won't hide, but Charlie says he owes her, after she walked a thousand miles to find him and almost got raped and murdered like seven separate times, and this is the only thing she'll ever ask him to do to repay that. Danny says it's not her job to look out for him. He needs to make a suicidal last stand for his father, and for Maggie, and for himself.
And then the helicopters show up. The rebels take their positions behind bits of rubble, armed only with the guns they already had. Ramsey tells them to hold their fire until they see the whites of those helicopters' eyes. At last he gives the order and they open fire. They...don't do so well. Since they have rifles and the helicopters have missiles. But Nora manages to take out one of the gunners, mainly because he wasn't too diligent about holding on and fell out of the chopper when she winged him. The two helicopters circle around and return.
The rebels are running out of ammo when the cavalry arrives--it's Miles, Rachel, and their horsies, plus all the bazookas they could cram into the wagon. They pass out the big toys, power up a rocket launcher with a pendant, and Rachel points out one of the two helicopters, guessing that the amplifier must be on it. Miles stares meaningfully at Nora, then vaults over a barrier, takes aim--and before he can fire, the other helicopter just about kills him.
While Charlie and Rachel are trying to revive Miles, Danny lunges for the rocket launcher. He hides behind a car, literally reads the instructions on the weapon that say "push and hold," and shoots down one of the helicopters. And he chose right, because the other one starts losing altitude as its power source fails, but as it's dropping, the machine guns are still spraying bullets and half a dozen hit Danny right in the gut.
As the helicopter falls out of the sky, Danny wobbles on his feet, then falls. A thousand miles, dude. Your sister walked a thousand miles and you couldn't stay alive for two damn days. Rachel and Charlie run to Danny, sobbing, and Charlie presses her jacket to his half a million stomach wounds, but the boy with the dodgy lungs and the Bieber hair is gone. Hmm. I wonder what would happen to Justin Bieber in a world without power? He'd probably still be wearing that gas mask.
Charlie and Rachel sit together silently. Finally, Rachel asks her daughter what she was thinking, letting her children fight. "I had you back," she whispers. She cries about how this boy for whom she literally sacrificed the world is gone, and Charlie flatly says there's nothing she could have done, because Danny made up his mind. So they have to finish what he started--going after Monroe.
Philadelphia. Monroe's minion tells him he has a visitor--one who drove here. In a Chevy. Miles comes out and asks Randall how he can help him. Randall introduces John, who's a little worse for wear after Miles slammed his face into a brick wall, and says no, he's here to see how they can help Monroe [take over the world, Pinky. *maniacal laugh*].
Rachel cries over her son's corpse some more. And given that he's basically this show's Sophia, I expect him to pop up and eat her face. But he doesn't, not even when Rachel flicks out a knife, peels back his bloody shirt, and--ew--cuts out a small, blinking pellet-like object (even though that's some pretty fake-looking "skin" she's cutting into) from Danny's torso. Good god, Rachel. What fuckery is this?
Coming up this spring: Rachel tells Aaron why the lights went out, and that she can turn the power back on if they can get to the Tower.
Charlie and Rachel sit together silently. Finally, Rachel asks her daughter what she was thinking, letting her children fight. "I had you back," she whispers. She cries about how this boy for whom she literally sacrificed the world is gone, and Charlie flatly says there's nothing she could have done, because Danny made up his mind. So they have to finish what he started--going after Monroe.
Philadelphia. Monroe's minion tells him he has a visitor--one who drove here. In a Chevy. Miles comes out and asks Randall how he can help him. Randall introduces John, who's a little worse for wear after Miles slammed his face into a brick wall, and says no, he's here to see how they can help Monroe [take over the world, Pinky. *maniacal laugh*].
Rachel cries over her son's corpse some more. And given that he's basically this show's Sophia, I expect him to pop up and eat her face. But he doesn't, not even when Rachel flicks out a knife, peels back his bloody shirt, and--ew--cuts out a small, blinking pellet-like object (even though that's some pretty fake-looking "skin" she's cutting into) from Danny's torso. Good god, Rachel. What fuckery is this?
Coming up this spring: Rachel tells Aaron why the lights went out, and that she can turn the power back on if they can get to the Tower.