Hamburgo1001

Hawthorn

Thanks for opening the thread!

I see that Jason's ways to cope with getting disowned by his father involve getting an haircut. Whatever floats your boat, man.

Hamburgo1001

Just watched the episode. They should feature Giancarlo Esposito/Neville more often like they did this week because he's one of those actors who can elevate the material that he's being given by the writers. I thought it was a joy to watch him do his thing.

It kind of pains me to say this because I love Liz, but I think I am over Rachel's constant whining and displays of self-pity. And I feel the same way about Miles. He's just as guilty of that as she is. Also, I think it would be nice if Rachel would finally say what exactly Miles did or didn't do to her. I know she can't reveal it because of plot constraints, but it bugs when characters are constantly beating about the bush for no logical reason.

I was very relived when the whole episode went by and there was no Miles/Nora kiss. I actually just went back and checked the promo pictures for this episode again and judging from the clothes and setting, I'm thinking that NBC mixed up the promo material and the picture actually shows the Miles/Nora kiss from 2 episodes ago. Having Miles kiss both women in the same episode would have been overkill, anyway.

I liked that we finally got to see the rebels take some sword fight training, but dayum, the Nora character really seems to be getting the shaft. It almost looks as if even Jason will now become a bigger factor in the rebel's storyline than her.

Not surprised about the reveal that nanotech is the cause of the blackout. Nanotech is the go-to explanation in the sci-fi genre these days.


Ratings are out:

And the half hour numbers:

~Ross

Ratings make me feel a little better because the gap in the half hour is becoming less huge (even if it's still a lot of viewers less). I hope it won't go down in the finals this time. It also rose from last week but Castle was on repeat.
I read an article that said Revolution will have an early renewal, probably this week but I'm not sure if it's true.

Hamburgo1001

Revolution was adjusted down a tenth to a 2,2 in the finals:

Retention out of The Voice was at 44% this week.

Hawthorn

I have a plan.

My plan involves matches, a tank of gas, and burning down the whole headquarter of the militia so Monroe WILL HAVE TO FINALLY GET OUT OF THAT OFFICE.
Because at this point it's just ridiculous.

Short and random bullet points commentary:
- I wish the nanotechnology reveal had had the same mind-blowing effect on me that it had on Aaron. For a minute I feared the guy would get a heart attack processing the information given to him by Rachel. My reaction was more in the range of "Ok then."
- I knew something was going terribly wrong with my appreciation of Rachel in this episode when I realized Charlie was being the smarter/more tolerable of the two.
- Neville jamming to Lionel Richie >>>>>>>> everything else (this is how you make a funny scene work, show, not with lame lines like "Conan the librarian" or "What's a boy band"). And Giancarlo Esposito was amazing in this episode, let's have more of him from now on thank you.
- I didn't think much of the theory before, but after this last episode I'm 98% convinced Miles is Charlie's dad ("You sound like Miles", "Take better care of her than you did of me", etc).
- More on principle than out of care for the character, I keep being pissed off at the treatment reserved to Nora.

Hamburgo1001

Charlie has been more tolerable ever since the show returned from hiatus and I think the writers have pulled that off by doing the following things: 1) Not featuring her as much as they did during the first 10 episodes. And 2) Making the characters around her more unlikable.

So you have finally jumped on the bandwagon. I find it so incredibly obvious that I would be shocked if they were to tell us that Ben is Charlie's biological father.

If we get a death spoiler for the season finale, my guesses would be Nora or Monroe. It's obvious that the writers have no further use for Nora outside of her role as love triangle prop.

Hawthorn

I also think they toned down the running forward without any idea of what she is doing first, but now that you mention that second point...
Perhaps it was just denial on my part because I'm not exactly crazy about the storyline. And that somewhat nice dream Charlie experienced featuring Ben gave me hope.
I agree with both your candidates (sadly).
Let's hope down the road they don't introduce a new female character with more chemistry with Miles/fan following than Rachel, otherwise she'll be the next on the chopping block looking at how things are going.

~Ross

I don't get the "Rachel is annoying thing". I think she is the best character so far with Captain Neville. Maybe it feels this way because of the acting but without the two of them I don't know what this show would be.
The whole "we can't kill him now, we are going to do it later" was actually annoying and frankly a little OCC for Charlie who has been that kind of impulsive kid from day one. What's changed for her? being with Miles this whole time has made her wiser? pfffffff

Hamburgo1001

You mean someone like a Jennifer Garner? The writers would totally pair her character off with Miles if she were to ever decide to take the producers up on their offer and join the show.

I'm not saying that I agree with that point of view, but I can see why people could feel that way. In general, it's never a good look for a character when they come across as whiny and keep secrets when there's no logical reason for them to do so. Just think of all the flak teen characters tend to get for similar reasons. Then add that Rachel has greatly contributed to the mess they're all in right now and that she's at the center of a soap opera storyline with 2 brothers, and the fats in the fire, so to speak.

IloveJules!

I was loving the episode because it was full of Tom and unexpected things happening with Tom. Then Miles decided to kiss Rachel and she accepted it. I knew it was going to happen because Liz spilled it out at the WonderCon, just didn't expect it to be so soon. What a killjoy.

Well, I thought Rachel was going to explain everything. She didn't, right? Because if that's the everything I'm very underwhelmed. Aaron was having a nerdgasm and I was like: That's it? I mean I thought Rachel was going to talk more about Randall, their project, about the night of the blackout, the Tower... I'm more interested in those things because I can comprehend them better than all the sci-fi stuff.

It's really great to know the science behind the blackout anyway. Even if I don't understand the logic that much, it's just a lot for my brain. I'm not ashamed to admit that I just thought about nanotechnology because Liz said she had to read about it to understand what her character was doing.

So it was caused by these nano viruses that were created to absorb electricity and to replicate so they will always eat the electricity. OK, so that's why they put Randall in that thing that looked like an incubator to contain the virus. Even if they breathe it in, it looks like it doesn't affect the human body electricity otherwise they wouldn't put Randall inside the incubator. OK, so what might have happened is that the virus was contained somewhere inside the Tower and it accidentally escaped the containment, which according to Ben wasn't enough tested. So the virus escapes, eats every energy it finds and replicates after doing it creating a domino effect or something like that. Hm, maybe this explains why the blackout happened so fast. But if the energy is being eaten by those little things, how the pendants bring the energy back? They get if from the air?

The problem is that it was just an accident (apparently) and in The Pilot it didn't look this way at all. Ben was certain everything was going to turn off and it never would be back, but in this episode Rachel says she doesn't know exactly what happened in the Tower and in the episode before this one Rachel and Ben aren't sure about what can happen... Randall is not really a problem. His purpose is underwhelming and confusing, but maybe he just really wanted to end the war against Afghanistan and then the worldwide blackout happened and now he's loving it anyway. But Rachel and Ben, they knew exactly what was happening. The blackout happened in seconds, so let's say Ben finds out about the accident in the nick of the time, even if lived next to the DOD, he wouldn't have the time to come home and tell Rachel about it and call his brother and download things and stop to look at Rachel so she could just ask him if it's happening. Yeah because she knew what was happening. I hope the writers explain this.

I think this episode answered what's the thing inside Danny. It is a cute nanorobot, I guess. I know there is something called nanomedicine and they are doing researches and experiments, but the idea is to put nanorobots inside the human body to cure diseases more efficiently or to had less invasive surgeries. Attacking exacly what needs to be cured without having the whole body to feel the consequences of it. So I guess that's what they did with Danny. I just don't know how it connects to the blackout. Maybe Rachel just got it because she can use it to bring back the energy.

Rachel is obviously not going to die. The same way Tom wouldn't be killed. I think this whole 'going to the Tower is very dangerous and can kill you' thing is a way to justify why Rachel or any other scientist never tried to do it before. But I'm very curious to know what's so dangerous about trying to bring the power back.

Oh and thank you writers for taking Rachel away from Miles and the rebels. She's not a rebel, she doesn't fit in. She was destroying all the pendants, if she can't give them the electricity, what else she would do? She will see Miles again, but I hope it happens just in the last episode or season two. Don't like that she's going to be away from Charlie though. And I don't understand why only Aaron is going with her. Two nerds walking alone? Rachel is a little bit crazy, but she's not enough. They should have some trained rebels to protect them. I guess Miles was too busy kissing Rachel to think about it.

Didn't like what Randall said to Tom. Don't mess with Tom, Randall. If you had captured Rachel, she would be near Bass now and she wouldn't have kissed Miles. So you're the incompetent.

Finally Julia is back. Loved everything with Julia and Tom. Unexpected things. Now they will have to run away from the militia and what's going to happen? Julia is way too ambitious to simply leave the "good" life behind. But she loves her husband and son more than anything.

This is no news, but Tom is awesome. I think the actor helps a lot too. What a great actor Giancarlo is and a truly gentleman in real life. Loved when he mentioned Danny. Tom and Danny, IMHO, was one of the coolest dynamics/relationships of the show.

Hamburgo1001

I agree that the story we are getting now doesn't really flow with what came before, but I think that is because the writers are making up the answers as they are going along. David Rambo divulged that in a recent interview.

IloveJules!

David Rambo. The one who said that Eric Kripke wants to kill Bass.

If that's true, that's really bad. They have a great premise on their hands, so they should have all the idea behind the blackout planned since the beginning. Oh well, at least they got to consult a physicist. The nano virus is something that makes sense.

Hamburgo1001

I think David Rambo could use some PR training. He's too honest for his own good.