Contributor: J.M.
Written by Monica Owusu-Breen and Matt Pitts
Directed by Frederick E. O. Toye
“Revolution” finally sputters into the concluding act of the first half of the season, wrapping up the Danny-Philadelphia act. While by all rights this episode should be a pay off on the long journey from Chicago to Philadelphia and the valiant fight against Monroe, the episode falls flat and highlights everything about the series up to this point that has absolutely fallen flat and ultimately boggled the parts of the show that had been showing the most promise.
The biggest problem that this episode has it feels so completely perfunctory, as if the writers have just given up even trying to make the whole world and plot cohesive. The intersection of the gang and Monroe’s world brought the show to a new level of mediocrity, rather than raising the level of the show. Even Neville’s absolute verbal dismembering of Aaron, an amazing character moment for both of them, was nothing other than a positive blot amidst a sea of mediocrity. The reactions that should have been emotionally powerful and fulfilling moments were instead so boring that I could barely stand to watch, and had to resist the urge to change the channel.
Then there is the simple frustration of the lack of plot progression. The writers have solved the big opening twist of the show: finding Danny and rescuing him from Monroe. But they have failed to tie it into exactly what caused the blackout, how it took Monroe as long as it did to figure out where the Matheson family lived, why he didn’t figure out their link sooner if he was so close with Miles, the evolution of a post-blackout order, or really anything interesting or worth watching at all. Rather than an all-encompassing test that forced character growth, all that the viewer got was a wooden, mediocre plot point-driven episode that didn’t even do that well.
All of the promise that had been built up around the world outside of the quest for Danny, the Monroe Republic as a whole and its relations with the other states that emerged out of the fall of the US, including the rebels who were fighting for a renewed United States, proved to be just the good window dressing: the only involvement here was when Monroe spoke about some suddenly emerging border war with Georgia, apparently pursued because he believed he would have access to power when others would not. Now with the cliffhanger ending, one that is most undoubtedly the least suspenseful cliffhanger in recent memory, there is nowhere for the plot to go. They could be involved in the rebel movement against the Republic, but the writers have shown no inkling of that, and it would likely take several episodes to develop. With only nine more episodes remaining in the spring half-season, there would not appear to be enough time to do it.
While this episode could have been the chance to elevate “Revolution” from mildly intriguing and mostly dull television to something matching it’s fleeting potential, in the end it devolved into perfunctory mediocrity that wasted that potential and leaves the audience wishing the power had in fact gone off for good.
Score: 5/10
