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Unlike so many others on this show, Cynthia -- now dead -- remains dead. Aaron is angry with everyone, but the Mathesons all ignore him in favor of squabbling amongst themselves. Monroe forces Miles to make good on his promise that if Monroe helped rescue Aaron, Miles would tell him where his secret hidden son, Li'l Sebastian, is.
So Miles, Monroe and Rachel shlep off to Mexico and find young Connor, now grown up and working for a vicious cartel. Connor's none too thrilled to meet his old man, especially when he learns that his mother is dead. He turns his father over to the head of the cartel, so Miles and Rachel have to do some more rescuin'.
They left Gene and Charlie in Willoughby, where Ed and U.S. government are up to more nefarious shenanigans, this time involving oranges (now with special Steinbeckian symbolism!). Aaron vents some of his rage on Gene for betraying him and Cynthia, then storms out of Willoughby and heads for Spring City, Oklahoma, which is where the nanite child Kevin said he was from. He thinks there might be answers for him there. Aaron doesn't know that there are never answers, just cliffhangers.
The Nevilles all arrive at the White House, along with Julia's new husband, Victor, and the long-suffering Allenford. Tom and Julia's grand plan now includes murdering the president's chief of staff so Victor will be promoted to that position. They don't seem to have thought much farther than that, but they're sure it'll end in them being rich and happy again. Sure, y'all. Keep telling yourselves that.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously on Revolution: Gene betrayed the Matheson gang and Dr. Horn killed Cynthia, because Aaron wouldn't ask his imaginary friend made of nanites to save her. But then he used his Carrie powers to burn Horn alive. Tom and Jason Neville discovered that Mama Julia is alive, and married to some white dude in the government. Miles keeled over from his disgustingly infected arm, which is good, because that means he doesn't have to listen to Monroe whine about his secret son, Li'l Sebastian.
Back in the Willoughby high school, where we left off, Ed and another government man find the charred remains of Dr. Horn and the other soldiers Aaron killed. Outside, a couple of soldiers are patrolling; they're shot dead with arrows. Ah, so have the writers remembered that there used to be a bullet shortage on this show?
Gene cools his heels in his candlelit prison cell, recoiling when footsteps come close. But it's Monroe, there to free him. Gene's a little freaked out that the man he executed is, er, alive, but Monroe tells him to shake it. Gene's horrified when he sees the dead soldiers on the way out, conveniently forgetting he's responsible for quite a bit worse.
Monroe and Charlie lead Gene into a barn cellar, where Rachel is keeping watch over sweaty, unconscious Miles. Gene stammeringly apologizes for, you know, betraying her to her death, and they hug. Monroe interrupts to remind them about the half-dead Matheson in the other room.
Miles's infected veins look like a hideous tribal tattoo running up the inside of his right arm at this point. Gene goes to work — slicing open the infected flesh and pouring maggots into the wound. MAGGOTS. Hold on, I need to go throw up everything. Some time later, Rachel sleeps on Miles's shoulder, seeming unperturbed by the proximity to flesh-eating vermin.
Aaron stands over Cynthia's grave and flashes back to his creepy nanite pal Kevin. Rachel finds him and he asks, not for the first time, apparently, if she knows the significance of the city the kid said he was from — Spring City, Oklahoma. Rachel thinks Aaron's in shock, but he insists he needs to investigate, because that's what Cynthia wanted him to do. Gene approaches then, and apologizes to Aaron, who'll have none of it. Gene tells Rachel that Miles has woken up.
Still half bunnies, Miles growls that he wants whiskey, because water makes him sick. Rachel beams at him hugely, and then Monroe barges in and shoos the ladies out. He demands to know where his son is, since he did what Miles asked and saved Aaron. Gene, too, as a bonus. Miles confesses that Li'l Sebastian is named Connor, and promises to take Monroe to him.
Julia Neville and the new Mr. Julia ride in a wagon with Allenford while a bunch of soldiers—including Tom and Jason Neville—walk alongside, approaching the grubby White House, now surrounded by legit forest. (Amazing that all that wildlife sprang up in an area that is completely paved.)
Rachel bandages Miles's arm and clucks about how Miles is practically dead and shouldn't be shlepping off on a wild Monroe chase. He says if he lets Monroe go on his own, he'll never come back, and he's not ready to say goodbye to his precious boyfriend just yet. Good thing, since David Lyons is just about the only character on this show who doesn't make me grind my teeth at his overwhelming stupidity (let's see how long that lasts). Miles assures her that they probably won't even find Connor, and asks her to come along with them. She refuses, because she just hates Monroe that much. Miles wants her there because when he's with Monroe, "people tend to start dying." Oh, and Rachel is so good at preventing millions and millions of deaths?
Miles gruffly tells Charlie, Gene, and Aaron to stay away from the patriots and not be morons. Rachel promises to be back in a week and they ride off. Aaron looks like he's wishing he'd demanded they bring him back all the tequila they can find.
At the White House, it looks like business as usual: at a tony reception, Julia's new husband, Victor, introduces her (as Rebecca) to some dude named Bill, the president's chief of staff. Tom is watching grimly from the sidelines. Allenford has to call his name twice to get his attention so Neville can hand over his briefcase.
Neville finds Julia in one of those long galleries Aaron Sorkin was always having his characters pedeconference down. He sarcastically asks if "Mrs. Doyle" is enjoying the party, and hands her a vial, telling her it's odorless and colorless and will make it seem as if Bill had a heart attack. She's impressed and turned on by his lethal capabilities. He replies that he's not sure about bumping off the chief of staff — since Victor Doyle is in line for the job. Julia replies that she'll get her husband to promote Neville when he's chief of staff, and says, "We're doing this for us."
Back in Texas, Aaron scribbles on a pad, then picks up one of the MacGuffin pendants. Charlie's asleep, so he creeps off into — sigh — the dark.
Miles, Monroe, and Rachel make camp. Miles wants to know what, exactly, Monroe is after on this quest. Monroe just wants to help his kid if he can, and Miles sardonically asks if he thinks it'll be like Field of Dreams. He reminds him that Connor's twenty-five now and might not be so thrilled to meet his father. It occurs to me that Connor might already have a father — maybe Emma was in a relationship with someone in Small Town Wherever, and that guy raised Connor with her. (It's also unclear when Miles spirited young Connor away — surely not when he was a baby. Maybe right over the blackout, when Monroe started going bananas?) Monroe snaps that it's not his fault he didn't have a relationship with his son before now. It's all very "Cat's in the Cradle."
Rachel is smirking pissily over by the campfire, and Monroe demands to know what she's thinking. She snarls that Miles asked her to help Monroe find his son after he murdered hers. And it's a testament to how loathsome I find this character that I can't muster a shred of sympathy for her. Possibly because we've never seen her grieve, not once, for the millions of deaths she caused, nor for the relationship with her daughter she sacrificed. And she didn't seem that thrilled to spend time with Danny when he was alive and they were locked up together in Philadelphia. He's just a convenient excuse she can use to bludgeon people with and they can't say anything back because dead child. Basically Rachel is Nancy Grace, is what I'm saying.
Charlie wakes Gene and shows him the note Aaron left. They split up to look for him. Gene, out searching, sees two government wagons moving past. Shaw, the government guy who recruited Gene in exchange for vaccines, hails the wagon's driver from the walls of Willoughby, and asks where the last wagon is. The driver says it's a day behind. Gene watches from afar.
Rachel, Miles, and Monroe lead their horses as Monroe grumbles about how far they're going — "We're running out of Texas," he says. Miles snarks that he never said Li'l Sebastian was in Texas. They come over a rise and see the Rio Grande just past a settlement. Monroe is vaguely horrified that Miles took his son to Mexico.
The United States of Mexico seem to be doing just fine — tricolor flag still flying, border guards still checking luggage. Rachel, Miles, and Monroe move through the settlement, walking past a wagon with a sign advertising for day laborers. Har. Monroe asks why Connor is in Mexico, and Miles explains that it's a relatively prosperous nation, far away from the Monroe Republic, and Connor had family there who could take him in.
There's a concrete border wall, and if John McCain is still alive in this future wasteland (and I'm sure he is—that guy will never die) he's no doubt delighted. Rachel wonders how they'll get across. A man asks for eight volunteers to pick tomatoes. Rachel raises her hand, but has to tell the guy that she'll do anything — winky face — for the job. She brings her men along with her and a wagon takes them across the border.
Charlie returns to the cellar from her search for Aaron. She tells Gene she found his trail but lost it — Aaron apparently was listening when she told him how to avoid being followed. Gene apologizes, as is his wont lately, and then asks why Charlie isn't angry at him. She snarks that she's stopped yelling at old people, for lack of results. Gene wants to go recon the patriots and the weapons he's sure they're bringing to Willoughby in those wagons, and Charlie's all, forget Miles's wise advice, let's go do something stupid!
Neville walks into yet another White House party and nods at Allenford. He catches Julia's eye and she excuses herself from her conversation, then strikes one up with Bill, the chief of staff. He sets down his drink as she clasps his hands in her own. Neville eyes the glass, then takes out his vial of poison. I should note that it's broad daylight, the party is crowded, and the table Bill set his drink on is higher than waist level for most people—seems like it would be very difficult for Neville to poison the drink without anyone seeing. Nevertheless, before he can do so, Allenford beckons him and asks for his precious briefcase. And then Bill tells the others that the president has asked for them. Victor, Allenford, and several others all rush off while the Nevilles seethe evilly.
In the day laborer wagon, the man who hired them flirts kind of grossly with Rachel. She tells Miles and Monroe they should make a move soon, but Miles gruffs that there's nowhere to take cover. But Monroe's all, nope! He grabs the boss man's gun and clubs him in the face with it. The driver, not wanting to get clubbed or shot, jumps out of the wagon. Monroe congratulates the other five laborers for achieving the Mexican dream, and boots them out of the wagon. He grins at Rachel and Miles, all proud of himself.
Charlie pops out of hiding and shoots one of the soldiers driving a government wagon. She leaps on board and stabs the other soldier to death. Gene comes out of the house where he was hiding and blanches at his granddaughter, the stone-cold murderer. She just stares blankly at him and asks what he expected when he asked for her help. Not… that? He whips back the tarp covering the wagon's cargo and finds crates of oranges. So… not weapons. Unless the patriots are just chucking them at each other, or hoping to give the good people of Willoughby lethal doses of vitamin C.
Puesta del Sol, Mexico. There are prostitutes everywhere, as seems to be a recurring theme on this show. Monroe ties the wagon up and scornfully asks Miles if he also got Connor a hand job and an eight ball when he brought him here. Miles protests weakly that the town used to be nice.
They knock and Rachel, in Spanish, asks the man who answers for Gary and Susan Bennett. The man replies that they died eight years ago. Miles says he didn't know, and Rachel asks the man about Connor Bennett. The man slams the door in their faces. Monroe grimly tells Miles there's going to be a problem if they don't find Connor — or if they find a grave. Miles's face is all, What? You're going to try to kill me and then wimp out and cry about it for the fourteenth time?
In the White House, Jason escorts Allenford to a bedroom. Allenford drops a leather portfolio with the patriot symbol on it on a table, then goes straight for the booze. In another room, Neville finds Julia. She chastises him for blowing the best chance they had to kill Bill, then emasculates him by telling him he sounds like an insurance adjustor again when he replies that his boss was staring right at him. She rants that she's not going back to being a housewife—Tom promised her a nice life and she doesn't care how he gives it to her. Those do not seem to be her only choices—she seems to have quite a nice life married to Victor, you know? Neville grabs Julia by the arms and grits, "God help me, I love you, and I will give you everything you want. But don't you ever forget who you're talking to." And then they made out because they are both murderous sociopaths.
Monroe asks a man in a bar about Connor. The man doesn't know anything. Rachel is also inquiring, and the waitress says she can't help her. Miles, eyeing a table of men in the corner, asks what's with the shoulder holsters. I guess back when there was power Miles didn't ever read a newspaper about the crime situation in Mexico? The waitress says they're from the Nunez cartel, and are very dangerous. Five bucks says Connor is the head of the cartel. Megalomania runs in the family, after all.
Rachel and Miles want to bail, but Monroe's happy to drink himself into an angry stupor and vent some of his rage at Miles for Emma's death. Miles protests that he didn't kill her (and in fact Monroe had threatened to kill her just seconds before Dixon shot her, but let's all forget that happened), but Monroe declares he's not leaving without his son.
The music stops, and a cute, curly haired young man (who kind of looks like Dan Humphrey) asks in unaccented English what Team M is doing in town. Monroe snaps that Lonelyboy should mind his own business, then refers to Puesta del Sol as "this cockfighting ring of hell," and, overriding Miles's polite attempts to interrupt him, continues, "Look at this man. Is this not the whitest man in Mexico?" BASS, ARE YOU NOT LOOKING FOR A YOUNG WHITE GUY? He finally listens to Miles, who just says, "That's him." Obviously.
Connor then recognizes Miles, looking stunned. Monroe realizes whom he's talking to and does his best end-of-The-Empire-Strikes-Back impression.
Connor speaks to his men in Spanish (not great Spanish, considering he's lived there at least a decade) and then tells Monroe that his mother told him his father was dead. Monroe gruffs that she lied, and Miles confirms it. Connor asks where his mother is, and Miles tells him she's dead. Rachel is watching all of this with a beatific smile on her face, as if everything is so amusing to Rachel Matheson, destroyer of worlds.
Monroe just wants to talk to his son. Connor snarks that they'll have a heart-to-heart, and maybe he'll make him an ashtray for Father's Day. Miles observes dryly that Connor sure does sound like a Monroe. Connor orders him to shut up, then tells his father to crawl back under his rock, or he'll kill him. Monroe is unimpressed, because he also never read a newspaper from 2008 to 2011, and sneers that Connor is nothing but a two-bit thug.
Connor replies that he has thirty men working for him, which doesn't impress El Generalissimo. Monroe tells his son who he is. Connor can't really believe it, but one of his men calls him away before Monroe can roll up his sleeve to show the tattoo and prove it.
At a campfire, Monroe mutters that he has to go back. Over Miles's objections, he says Miles dumped an innocent kid in Mexico and look what he turned into—"some punk with delusions of grandeur." Rachel dryly points out the resemblance, then cruelly says that no matter what Miles did, Connor would always turn out as he did, because he's Li'l Sebastian. (So was Emma also a genocidal maniac?) Monroe snaps back that by Rachel's logic, Charlie will grow up to end the world, and I have to pause the show because I'm cackling so hard.
Miles is all, stop fighting, I love you both! He gently points out that Monroe wasn't ever going to be a normal father (let's not forget that he knocked up his best friend's girlfriend), so maybe he should just cut his losses.
Allenford leaves his room at the White House. Jason, standing guard outside, waits till he's gone, then lets himself in and opens the leather portfolio with the patriot symbol on it. He flips through the handwritten papers inside (you know that manual typewriters don't require electricity, right, writers? And there are tons of them at Tom Hanks's house) and is stunned at what he sees.
Chief of Staff Bill splashes water on his face in his room, and when he stands up, Neville is behind him. They struggle and Neville forces the vial of poison into Bill's mouth. Bill goes slack and dies. Very quickly, because it's 8:49. Tom very coolly wipes his hands and leaves.
Campfire. Monroe lies awake, then gets up and ascertains that Miles and Rachel are asleep. He quietly ditches them. Back in town, Connor, sitting alone, pulls a photo from his jacket pocket. It's Emma, holding an infant. Monroe approaches and says he still wants to talk to him, and surely Connor has questions of his own. Connor wants to know how his mother died.
Monroe doesn't explain the whole I-used-her-as-a-hostage-to-get-Miles-to-love-me-again situation, just says Emma died asking for Connor. Connor says his mother said Miles took him to Mexico to keep him safe—he didn't know at the time it was to keep him safe from his father. Monroe pleads that if he'd known, he would have come to see Connor immediately. Connor replies that he's doing fine, but Monroe tells him that with thirty men, he's not aiming high enough. How about a thousand? Ten thousand? "You are a Monroe. You should be leading the republic," Monroe says. He says this is why he came to find Connor. (Really?) He wants to rebuild the empire, with his son.
Monroe looks up to find that he and Connor are surrounded by armed cartel men. Connor sarcastically says they'll have to take a rain check on running the Eastern Seaboard, because Mr. Nunez wants to meet Monroe.
Julia and Victor wake up to urgent knocking on their bedroom door. It's Allenford, calling Victor to speak with the president. Neville is behind Allenford, and after the two white guys leave, neither of them notices Neville staying behind, stepping into the bedroom, and telling Julia that once they've gotten what they want, he's going to gut Victor. This turns Julia on like whoa, because she is a crazy person.
Rachel and Miles reunite after looking separately for Monroe in town. He tells her Connor and the cartel took him away, and Rachel dryly says, "Let me guess. We're going to get ourselves killed saving Monroe?" Miles cheekily asks if she isn't glad she came with them.
In Willoughby, Ed hands out oranges to all the townspeople, calling them an unimaginable luxury. He says things like Florida oranges and North Carolina tobacco are treats they'll have again now, and continues speechifying as a soldier picks up a crate of oranges. Inside, soldiers inject the oranges with something nefarious (NANITES). Ed asks the people to pledge their allegiance and join the U.S. government in the glorious future, full of oranges and chocolate and cigarettes. USA! USA!
Aaron walks into a town that looks like a burned-out hellscape. It's Spring City, Oklahoma, and it appears completely abandoned. He hollers, asking if anyone's around, as he's flashing back to Kevin's words about waking up the nanites and Cynthia's death.
After he yells, "What does any of this mean?!" a female voice asks, "Aaron?" Aaron turns, and it's Grace Beaumont, with a shotgun. Grace, whom we last saw in the Tower.
time: Grace has some questions. And she also has Aaron's first wife, Priscilla. Down in Mexico, Rachel is pretty pissed about having to rescue Monroe, but at least Bass is shirtless.