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Since Miles, the rebels, and the Georgians have been waging war so successfully against Monroe, Pennsylvania's second favorite crazypants psychopath (fifteen years into a powerless apocalypse is still too early to forgive Pat Monahan) goes where so many genocidal dictators have gone before him: to chemical weapons. He tasks Timothy Busfield with making him some recreational anthrax.
Monroe's adventures in anthrax making obviously upset Miles and his new partner-in-rebellion, Neville, so they sail on up the Ohio River and kidnap Timothy Busfield. As an insurance policy, they also grab Timothy's wife and daughter, to hold them as hostages to ensure that Timothy will make anthrax for them rather than Monroe.
Charlie, Jason, and Nora suddenly have moral compasses or something, because they get all pissy about the whole we-might-kill-your-family-unless-you-make-us-a-deadly-weapon gambit. They lead a mini rebellion against their respective father figure, actual father, and estranged ex-boyfriend and free Timothy and his family so they can gallop off to Texas and never make Bacillus anthracis again. Miles is totally okay with this after awhile, and he and Nora bang. Neville's not so happy.
Rachel and Aaron, still shlepping westward, didn't pack appropriately and now they're starving. They steal food from some Kansans, then kill the man who's going to kill them for the stealing. Rachel's injured by a booby trap, and after she and Aaron argue about how he should totally leave her to die and keep on walking to Colorado, Rachel kills the other two guys who came after them for the theft, and then tells Aaron that he has some sort of special destiny with the Tower. I bet whatever it is will be explained in a way that's consistent with everything that's happened so far and follows all the rules of logic.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously on Revolution: Miles, Charlie and Nora went down to Georgia and started a war against Monroe. Rachel and Aaron are trying to get to the Tower so they can flibbityflop the quarketergibbit and turn the power back on. And the entire family Neville fled the Monroe Republic, but not together.
Nora and Miles set up some bombs in a facility where Timothy Busfield (oh, hi, Danny!) is doing mysterious things with vials of colored water. Miles whacks Timothy Busfield on the head and shoves him down the garbage chute so Charlie and Jason can smuggle him out before the building blows up.
Flash back to two days earlier. Miles chastises a Monroe soldier named Pete for letting Jason capture him. Pete would really like it if Miles didn't kill him, but since Pete also isn't prepared to spill whatever Monroe secrets he's carrying, Miles, in a particularly murdery mood today, offers him a bag over his head for the firing squad. Pete grimly refuses the bag and is executed.
Miles goes off to drink his feelings and relive Emma's murder. He is such a peach to be around these days. A minion interrupts his gloomy introspection with news of reinforcements from Georgia -- specifically, Neville-shaped reinforcements. Miles wants to shoot Neville (this will be a recurring theme!), but he holds off when Neville hands over a letter from President Foster commissioning him in the Georgia military. This makes them partners, Neville smarms. Miles flatly states his intent to kill Neville, but Neville was expecting this, and banters with Miles about how since Georgia is giving him manpower and guns, he needs to play nicely. Or "you can go back to being the General of my nuts," he snaps. Aw, I kind of missed Neville.
Neville informs Miles that Monroe is weaponizing anthrax and the scientist in charge is Timothy Busfield, whose name for these purposes is Dr. Ethan Camp. Charlie and Nora can't believe Miles is willing to work with Neville, and they both really want to shoot him. Jason, amusingly, is about three feet behind them, but he seems to have no problem with everyone discussing murdering his dad. Miles says the plan is to go get Ethan and deliver him to Georgia. Nora and Charlie worry that this mean Foster will be able to make anthrax, but Miles is all, STFU, this is not a democracy, get off the boat if you don't want to participate. Neville greets them as they disembark from the boat when they arrive, but he doesn't seem as delighted to see Jason. They board a steamboat to go to get Dr. Camp in Parkersburg, West Virginia.
Plains Nation. Rachel wants to trade a bracelet for food since she and Aaron haven't eaten for days, but the man at the Thompson Tribal Lands says there's no food to spare. Rachel eyes some meat grilling, but the guy cooking it is also holding a gigantic knife, so she and Aaron shamble off while looking at everyone around them and just seeing giant hams with legs.
Steamboat. Neville père suggests a truce. Neville fils is not interested, and guesses that his father has switched sides just to have power again. Uh... yeah. And also to stay alive. Come on, Jason, catch up. This is how the game is played. Neville snaps that he and Julia had to flee the Monroe Republic in the night because of stupid ungrateful Jason, and Julia almost died making the trip. JD Pardo, weakly trying not to wet himself while Giancarlo Esposito growls in his face, is really out of his depth here.
Philadelphia. Monroe gets medical attention for the gunshot wound to his abdomen (ooh, I hope it festers and he turns into Henry VIII and just sits around gnawing on a rabbit leg and yelling at the minion of the week to bring him more teenage wives) while Randall tries to counsel moderation, since Monroe's tactics of, you know, burning their homes and murdering everyone have been radicalizing more of the rebels. Monroe's not interested, and when Randall tries to protest, he basically calls him the help and says he'll rip his throat out if Randall mouths off again. Randall sulks. I have all the bombs, dude, he seethes to himself. And now I will board my magical flying carpet and ride off to Colorado to my precious silo o' bombs.
Nighttime raid on Parkersburg. Neville stays behind on the boat while Miles, Charlie, Nora and Jason attack Dr. Camp's facility. When they return with Ethan's unconscious body in tow, he smirks about how easy it all was. Yeah, that did go awfully smoothly for this crew.
Plains Nation. The Thompson tribal elder accuses Rachel and Aaron of stealing food. They hand over the strip of jerky they took, but the penalty appears to be death. Before the elder can shoot them, Rachel shoots him instead, takes the elder's gun, and tells Aaron they need to run. Kansan scouts follow them, and before long Rachel gets caught in a booby trap that results in a nastily broken tibia. That's going to leave a mark.
Steamboat. Neville remarks on how nice it is to work with grown-ups again, since Monroe's been recruiting incompetent young idiots lately. Miles just wants to get drunk, but Ethan is waking up, so they go tell him he's a Georgia prisoner now. Ethan protests that Monroe has his family under guard and they'll kill his wife and daughter when they realize he's gone. Miles has an excellent answer for that: Neville freed Mrs. Camp and daughter Camp while Miles and the others were kidnapping Ethan.
Ethan wants to see his family, but the tactics are pretty much the same here: after he builds weapons for Georgia, they'll let him see his wife and kid. Man, it does not pay to be too smart after the apocalypse, does it? Charlie, watching from the doorway, seethes to Miles, "You knew about this the whole time." Well... yeah. Miles is in charge. Miles should know the plan. Shut up, Charlie.
Nora has had enough of Miles's Monroesque tactics and tells him she's transferring to another unit since this one is super pro-kidnapping now. She's totally okay with murder but kidnapping and hostage holding, well, that's just a bridge too far. She glums about how she thought Miles had changed when he came to ask for her help rescuing Danny, but apparently she was wrong.
Aaron carries Rachel to an abandoned truck and puts her in the back. He sets the bone in her leg (OWWWW) and splints it, even though that looked like a hideous compound fracture. She tells him to take Jane's journal and go before the Thompson people catch up and kill them both, but he refuses to leave her. He says she wouldn't leave him, and I think we all know that's a lie, because the Mathesons are all self-serving monsters. Rachel confirms that it is, and asks why he'd rather die with her than be alone, when he abandoned his wife so easily. Aaron reasons quietly that Rachel's just being mean to try and drive him away and that it won't work. She sobs and pleads with him to go.
Charlie brings Ethan water and tries to explain that she's not like the other kidnappy people. He tells her about his daughter, Bonnie, who's eleven, and pleads with her, but she just gags him again when a siren starts up.
The siren signals another boat approaching -- it's flying the Monroe flag. Miles joins Nora on deck and says it's hopefully just a routine inspection. Belowdecks, Neville hides Ethan, Charlie and himself in what looks like the unused boiler compartment. Wouldn't it make sense for Miles and Nora to hide also, since he's the general in charge of the rebellion and she escaped from a prison chain gang not so long ago?
The Monroe inspectors board. One of them is from Mad Men, I think. I don't know. These days I only get to watch shows that are as dumb as a box of hair. Below, Neville points a gun at Ethan, telling Charlie that if Georgia can't have him, no one can. Charlie points her own gun at Neville. The inspectors come below and Neville warns Charlie to be quiet because he knows she's the kind of idiot who would totally blow their cover just to piss him off. The inspector finds the overturned canteen Charlie had brought to Ethan, but then leaves without finding the three hiding people.
But they do find a cartridge for a shotgun. Ammunition, of course, is illegal for civilians, so the captain hands over some diamonds as a bribe, and the guy from Mad Men is happy to leave. Well, that was... not very tense at all, really.
Neville, Charlie and Ethan come out of hiding. Neville calls Charlie a bitch for holding a gun on him and punches her, but Miles intervenes and threatens to kill Neville if he touches Charlie again.
Kansas. The two Thompson searchers pass the truck where Rachel and Aaron are hiding and hear a noise inside. But before they can open the doors, Rachel fires through them. She runs out of bullets, though, and they climb inside. Aaron, who was hiding... somewhere, jumps on one of the searchers from behind, stabbing him in the leg. But Aaron is still completely terrible at fighting, among the dozens of other survival skills he lacks, and the other searcher is choking him to death until injured Rachel crawls over, knocks out and/or kills the guy Aaron stabbed in the leg, takes his shotgun and shoots the one choking Aaron.
Steamboat. Charlie wants to have a heart-to-heart with Miles about Neville, but Miles now prefers having Neville where he can keep an eye on him, rather than working for Monroe. She's also unhappy about the whole now-we-blackmail-people-into-making-anthrax part, and compares it to Monroe holding Rachel and forcing her to work for him. Miles agrees it's pretty much the same thing, but he says he tried not to be part of all this bullshit -- he was doing pretty well at not being part of it in Chicago when she came and found him, remember? Charlie screams about how she's willing to do anything to win the war... except kidnapping and blackmail? Murder is more acceptable than this? Those are some fucking weird moral lines you're drawing there, kid. Miles roars back that Monroe will actually do anything and everything to win.
Miles pours out all his pain and rage over Emma, telling Charlie he doesn't have any choice but to fight on Monroe's terms. Except that anthrax won't hurt Monroe, probably. It'll hurt a lot of innocent people. You know what would hurt Monroe? That bomb you gave Foster last month. Charlie asks Miles to let the Camps go, and when he refuses and turns back to his sweet bottle o' oblivion, she locks him in the stateroom, which appears to have an Ikea dresser in it. Now, I call foul on that thing lasting fifteen years on a boat. My last one barely survived moving to Brooklyn.
Jason Neville grabs his father and knocks him out with chloroform -- sure! We have chloroform! -- and the two knuckleheads go off to fuck everything up. Along with Nora, they hold the crew at gunpoint and ask the captain where Mrs. Camp and Bonnie are. Why would he know that?
Ah. There they are, on another boat, just like Miles said. The captain and first mate of the Good Ship Hostage spot the steamboat, seemingly dead in the water, and go over to check it out. They come alongside, tie up and board, just so that Charlie and Jason can now point guns at them. The rebels-against-the-rebels bring Ethan onto the Good Ship Hostage and untie Bonnie and the missus.
On the steamboat, Neville wakes up. They didn't think to tie him up or anything because they learned absolutely nothing from the last time he broke out of rebel captivity. Nope, just locked him in another stateroom, so Neville MacGyvers himself some lockpicks while Miles bashes stuff against the door in his room. Sums up their disparate approaches to leadership, doesn't it?
Nora tells Ethan they're taking him to Dunbar, where her friends can help him disappear. But the stupid young'uns' luck has just run out, as Neville has escaped. He takes control of the ship again. Miles, amusingly, is still stuck belowdecks with his thumb up his ass until he notices that his room has a hatch in the ceiling.
Neville points his gun at Jason and rants quietly about how his own flesh and blood has turned against him. Jason grits that he hates his father, so Neville socks him a good one in the jaw and then goes to deal with Charlie, pointing his gun at her head and calling her "the most irritable pain in the ass I have ever known." I think you meant "irritating" there, Tom, but you're under a lot of stress. Miles has escaped by now, and knocks Neville down for threatening Charlie. We get it, Miles, you only like Charlie, but not when she's talking.
Neville tells the captain to shoot everyone, but before he can, the Monroe troops on the riverbank, led by the guy from Mad Men, open fire on the boats. Gunfire. Lots of gunfire. Charlie manages to untie the Good Ship Hostage and sail away with Miles, Nora, Jason and the Camps, leaving Neville behind on the steamboat. Ethan hugs his family and Charlie thanks Miles for... not executing them all? Sure, I guess. He's all, no, thank you, as if Charlie's taught him some deep, important lesson about continuing to have a soul and being a complete pansy during a time of war.
Two days later, Neville catches up. Once again, he would really, really like to shoot Miles. When he bursts in, Charlie and Jason hold their guns on him while he and Miles banter about how Miles has ensured that Camp and his family have disappeared, so neither Monroe nor Foster can use him to make WMDs. Neville says he's taking his ball and all the Georgia troops and going home, in that case, but Miles points out that he's kind of, you know, winning, so Foster is probably going to let him stay in charge rather than get rid of a successful general just to save Neville's ego.
Miles's lair. Time for more forgetfulness juice! Nora seems to have reconsidered leaving, because she's not wearing any pants. She stands in front of Miles and has completely rethought her earlier Miles-is-a-genocidal-bastard stance (or at least she cares more about getting laid than about her precious principles) because she takes her shirt off and climbs on top of him. I hope they locked that door, given that Charlie's not very good at taking hints.
Aaron and Rachel sit by a campfire. She still wants him to leave her and go because what's important is that he, specifically, gets to the Tower. She hands over Jane's journal, which has an article about Aaron clipped to page 74. Aaron, scared, asks what he has to do with all this. Wasn't he something of a minor tech-world celebrity, being on the cover of Wired and all that? Why wouldn't a fellow nerd be interested in him?
The Tower (probably?). Grace types away while Mr. Austin, Randall's creepy enforcer, reads that same ancient copy of Maxim. God, those pages must be sticky. She presses a key and the elevator doors open, which was what she'd been working on all this time. Austin asks if she can get down to level twelve yet, and handcuffs Grace to her chair while he goes to take a look. She protests that Randall wouldn't want him down there, but Randall and his magic carpet are in Philadelphia, so there's very little he can do. Austin gets in the elevator and waves bye-bye.
Grace grabs a piece of wire and picks her handcuffs, as all advanced computer geniuses are taught to do. I'm pretty sure there's a graduate-level seminar on it at CalTech. The elevator stops descending at seven and on a security monitor, Austin asks Grace why it stopped. The monitor fritzes out and Grace can hear Austin screaming. Then the elevator starts coming back up. The door opens, and whatever Grace sees scares the hell out of her.
time: Aaron freaks out some more about why he was in Jane's book. Charlie and Jason do it, and she might get killed by a pile of falling bricks. Although I don't think we've been nearly good enough to deserve that kind of gift.