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The rebels and the Georgia Federation army—represented by President Foster's spy, Captain Dixon—have successfully taken three of Monroe's forts in Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana. Monroe's solution for his own tactical ineptitude is to kill Miles. He lures Miles to their hometown by threatening to kill everyone who lives there, including Miles's childhood sweetheart, Emma. Monroe was also in love with Emma, and she tries to play on his feelings so he won't massacre the whole town.
It doesn't work, but Miles, followed by Nora, Jim, and Charlie, does show up in time to save the townspeople from the burning courthouse where Monroe locked them. But when Monroe holds Emma hostage, Dixon tries to kill Monroe, and accidentally shoots Emma as well. Monroe cries forever, Miles kills Dixon, and everyone is sad. Except for Charlie, who has no feelings because she's constructed entirely of keratin and insolence.
While crossing through the Plains Nation, Aaron and Rachel run into Aaron's wife, Priscilla, whom he abandoned less than a year after the blackout because he didn't feel like he could protect her from all the rampaging hordes of rapists and thieves in the aftermath of the world's end. A bounty hunter is trying to take Priscilla back to the Monroe Republic, where she'll be executed for murder, but Aaron bludgeons the bounty hunger and frees Priscilla so she can go back to her family in Texas. So that was all very meaningful.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously on Revolution: Miles and Monroe used to be BFFs, but then Monroe went crazy and Miles tried and failed to kill him, twice. Aaron abandoned his wife after the blackout, and then he and Rachel went in search of the Tower. And Miles used to bang the president of Georgia, probably, because Miles has had sex with and/or betrayed everyone still living on the continent of North America.
Miles and Jim get drunk amid flashbacks to the last time they slaughtered a bunch of people, which was quite recently, in a battle against Monroe's forces. The battle appears to have been waged on top of an enormous landfill, because everyone keeps clambering over piles of rubble and garbage to stab militia soldiers in the face. A Georgia captain comes into the tent and sums up the casualties: nine rebels, thirteen Georgians, and no survivors from the militia company. The captain leaves and Jim exposits that Captain Dixon is President Foster's spy in their camp. Miles points out that she gave them an army, so they should expect her to want intel. Jim tells Mr. Gloomy Guts to lighten up, because they won. Miles mopes over those twenty-two casualties, and will not be ungloomed.
Jim and Miles go outside to find Charlie, her glorious hair unbound in the wind, because that's still the most practical look for hand-to-hand fighting, scavenging guns from the dead militia soldiers.
Philadelphia. Monroe has the Liberty Bell in his quarters, apparently, just for that extra soupçon of irony. He is not pleased by the report of the rebels and Georgians overtaking his forts at Carbondale (Illinois), Marion (Ohio), and Evansville (Indiana). Jeremy's the one giving the report, and he takes a drink and calls the losses "a few little setbacks." The appropriate slur for Georgians now, you'll be happy to know, is "Peach-Eaters." Noted, Jeremy. Monroe's real beef is that it's Miles who's beating his forces. He wants Miles dead, immediately. Jeremy and his comically enormous ears remind Monroe that Miles is a hard man to find, but Monroe has A Plan.
The Mississippi River. Rachel and Aaron pay their way across the western border of the Monroe Republic with diamonds. The man who accepts payment welcomes them to the Plains Nation.
Monroe and Jeremy travel by helicopter; on the ground, people stare up at it in wonder and/or horror. The helicopter lands and Monroe surveys the assembled peasants. He tells Jeremy to round the people up. Jeremy observes what a nice town it is, and says, "Welcome home." I'm sure everyone here in Small Town Wherever will be thrilled to see their psychotic, murderous native son back to visit.
Rachel and Aaron have made it to La Grange, Missouri. She's flipping through Jane's diary, trying to make sense of what she refers to as "Da Vinci on meth." Aaron offers to help, since he used to be kind of a genius -- with two doctorates from MIT, he reminds her -- but Rachel just sends him off for supplies, because Rachel is a selfish asshole.
Aaron wanders through the marketplace and suddenly recognizes his wife. She disappears into the crowd, and he rushes around yelling for her, but Priscilla's nowhere to be found. Maybe this is another hallucination?
Charlie's lair of guns. She tells Miles they've gained three dozen enemy rifles, and he congratulates her on her murderin' skills. He's suddenly concerned about her emotional stability, but since Charlie is a robot made of teeth and petulance, the only thing she wants to discuss is whatever terrible thing Miles did to Rachel that everyone keeps obliquely referring to. Well, that's fair. I would also like to know what that story is. But before Miles can once again squint his eyes and clench his jaw and toss his shaggy Chrissie Hynde haircut and just say it was so awful and no one should ever get close to me, Captain Dixon interrupts and says they've captured a militia messenger who was looking for Miles.
Miles asks the kid for the message: General Monroe wants to meet Miles in their hometown by dawn, and as an enticement, Monroe will kill everyone in town -- including someone named Emma -- if Miles doesn't show up alone. I'm kind of surprised Monroe hasn't threatened this earlier.
Flashback. Teenage Emma is upset that Teenage Miles enlisted in the Marines without telling her. He assures her he won't get killed, and they kiss.
Small Town Wherever. Grown-up Emma wants to talk to Monroe, who goes into his own flashback of jealously: himself, across the room, watching that tender scene between Emma and Miles. She approaches the gazebo he's commandeered and says they've missed him in Small Town Wherever. Uh... are they not aware he's a genocidal dictator? I guess not, since Monroe says the soldiers herding all the townspeople into the courthouse are just doing it for their protection from terrorists. Emma asks for the truth, playing the we're-old-friends card. Monroe says their past friendship doesn't give her to the right to talk to him like that, and behind them, militia soldiers start beating the hell out of a man who wouldn't obey their orders. Monroe tells his soldiers to take Emma away.
Jeremy and Monroe mosey around Small Town discussing Miles and how they're going to kill him when he shows up. Jeremy would prefer if Monroe went back "home" to Philadelphia, but Monroe just grits, "This is my home." Which he's going to destroy.
Army camp. Charlie finds Dixon beating the shit out of the militia messenger while Nora and Jim watch. Miles sneaked out not long ago, they say, and they want answers from this poor bastard.
Monroe goes to visit the graves of his parents and sister. There's a fresh bouquet to one of the headstones. He wanders around deserted Small Town, coming to his family's former home (maybe?). Flashback. Emma tugs a blanket over Miles, who is passed out on the couch. In the kitchen, Baby Monroe touches Emma's hand and they stare meaningfully each other.
Charlie, Nora, Jim, and Dixon are following Miles's trail to Small Town. Charlie bitches about Dixon's presence to Nora, then says she's really only doing this to make sure Miles kills Monroe this time. We get it, Charlie, you're a feelingsless murder-bot now.
La Grange. Rachel tries to convince Aaron to give up his fruitless search for Priscilla. He insists he didn't imagine seeing her, then thinks he sees her again and runs toward her. She's inside a bar, with a disreputable-looking scruffy blond guy. Aaron says her name, and Priscilla is not even a tiny bit thrilled to see him. On account of how he abandoned her in the wilderness, you know? She introduces Steve, the scruffy guy, as her husband. Rachel butts in, just so Aaron won't be without a disreputable-looking blonde of his own, and Aaron pleads with Priscilla to talk with him. She rejects him, and Rachel drags him away while he has a microbe of dignity left. Aaron gives her a longing look before he leaves, and she stares pleadingly at him -- because Steve has a gun pointed at Aaron.
Rachel tries to console Aaron, telling him Priscilla might be better off without him, but he's certain that something was wrong, based on how Priscilla was acting. He won't leave her again. Rachel's all, but this is really interfering with my plans!
Miles arrives in Small Town and makes a stealthy approach. Inside the courthouse, Emma tells Monroe that the man his men beat has died. She tries to reason with him, says the people he's rounded up are his teachers, his neighbors, but he refuses to release them. Emma asks if this is about Miles, and appeals to the feelings Monroe had for her once. She says she loved him, too. Flashback to the kitchen. Baby Monroe kisses Emma. In the present, he asks why she's just telling him that now. She thinks there's still part of him that's kind and decent, and begs him to let the townspeople go.
Miles kills a sentry on the roof, but he isn't quite silent enough, because someone else sees him and opens fire. Inside, Jeremy comes into the room where Monroe and Emma are and signals. Monroe asks Emma if she's the one who put flowers on his family's graves. She says yes, she did. Monroe tells Emma that she's kind and sees the best in people, even him. He wants to be the man she used to know, he says and kisses her. "But he's dead," he finishes. He tells his men to lock all the townspeople in the basement and burn the building down.
La Grange. Aaron, in the street, hears Priscilla grunt when Steve throws her in the back of a wagon. Aaron decides to have a conversation, even though Steve is like four feet away. He notices Aaron and says Priscilla is a fugitive. Aaron's like, okay, fine, in that case I'll let you get on your way. He turns away while Priscilla cries, but then he rushes back and tackles Steve. They punch each other, with Aaron getting the worst of it, until Priscilla manages to knock Steve unconscious with an iron pipe.
Small Town. The building is burning, with all the people in the basement terrified and screaming. As you would be. Miles shoots several more militia soldiers as he tries to get close to the burning courthouse, and takes a bullet in the leg on his way. He makes it up the steps and runs inside. Monroe, watching, tells Jeremy and the others to make sure Miles doesn't leave the building.
Inside, Miles hears the people screaming and pounding on the locked basement door. He shoots the lock off and hustles the people out, but everything stops when he sees Emma. Limping, he escorts the townspeople away from the flames, but they find the front entrance completely engulfed. And Monroe's men are firing on them through the windows. Emma asks Miles what they're going to do. Well, they're going to be unconscious from smoke inhalation pretty soon.
Reinforcements arrive: Jim and Nora shoot a couple of the soldiers who are covering one of the exits, so Miles tells Emma to lead everyone to the woods behind the high school. He joins Jim and Nora, then moves across the square to where Charlie is taking potshots at Jeremy and his men.
Monroe yells for Miles to come out, because he has a gun to Emma's head. Monroe babbles madly about how it's like old times, having their little trio back together. The rebel soldier with Charlie hisses to Miles to take the shot at Monroe, but he can't, for fear of hitting Emma. Charlie monotones that she'll do it, because they came to kill Monroe, and who cares if someone's beloved childhood girlfriend gets her brains splattered everywhere? I think I might hate Murder Robot Charlie more than I hated Cries All the Time Charlie, and that's saying something. Miles snaps that he'll kill anyone who takes the shot.
Monroe yells that if Miles doesn't come out, he'll kill Emma, and Miles replies that he doesn't care. Charlie raises her rifle, but Miles slaps his hand out at her in the international gesture for I WAS LYING, YOU JACKASS. Emma pleads that she doesn't want to die, and Monroe starts counting to five. She says she wants to see "him" again, and Monroe says if she wants to see Miles, she should get him to come out. No, Emma. Says. Her son. Monroe's son.
Flashback. Emma and Monroe have sex in the kitchen, both of them looking absolutely miserable.
In the present, Emma repeats, "your son," and Monroe lowers his gun. She explains that her parents wouldn't let her tell anyone that she was pregnant while he and Miles were in basic training. Monroe demands to know where the son is, but just then Emma's shot in the chest. By Dixon. Miles turns around and shoots him dead.
The bullet went through Emma's and into Monroe's abdomen. Screaming, he gets up and starts firing toward where Miles and Charlie are. Militia soldiers drag Monroe away from Emma's body while the gunfight rages around them. They shove a struggling, furious Monroe into a helicopter and Miles comes out of hiding to cradle Emma in his arms.
Miles looks down at Emma, who's wrapped in a blanket, dead. Charlie tells Nora she totally would've shot Emma if Dixon hadn't, that's how much she wants to kill Monroe. Nora doesn't believe her. Jim asks Miles about Emma. Miles grits that he used to be engaged to her, and says if this is how Monroe wants to fight, Miles will bring the fight to him.
In the helicopter, Jeremy tells Monroe he needs a doctor. Monroe just wants to stare out the window and cry and vow everlasting bloody revenge on Miles (because, of course, Monroe has no idea who shot Emma).
Aaron asks Priscilla if Steve was a bounty hunter. She says the Monroe Republic wants her for murder: she stabbed a militia sergeant, defending someone else. Aaron dabs at the blood on her head and apologizes for leaving her. She doesn't really want to hear it, since the people he left her with, the ones he thought would protect her, all died. He asks her to come with him and Rachel, but Priscilla says she has a family to get back to -- she has an eleven-year-old daughter now, who's waiting with the rest of her family in Texas. But she loves him, she says and kisses him. She tells him not to worry about her anymore. That will give him more time to complain of his various rashes! She leaves.
Georgia. Foster and a man in a suit discuss the intel they've gotten from a new informant -- he's given them the names of senior Monroe officers, and it's better information than they've gotten in the past three years. Suit Guy thinks it's a setup, but Foster is sending "him" to help Miles. Suit Guy can't believe she'd send another asset to Miles, since he killed Dixon, but Foster just says, "Obviously Dixon couldn't handle him." She nods to a lackey, who opens the door...to reveal Tom Neville, sleekly sinister in a three-piece suit and striped shirt. "Tom. I hope you're ready to get back into action," the president says, and Neville gives the tiniest, scariest smile of all time.
time: Do you think Miles really wants to work with Neville? This ought to be interesting.