Revolution: "No Quarter" Review

Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.

The beginning of this episode felt really clunky – mostly because some of Miles’ dialogue about Nora being a “full on rebel now” and his continued harping on how being a rebel will get you killed was laid on so thick. Miles is already an obvious Han Solo-type character and an enjoyable one at that, but it’s pushing things to have him be this overtly anti-rebel when, let’s face it, he’s totally going to join the rebels eventually, right?

Fortunately, this episode improved as it went on, with the Miles and Monroe centered flashbacks giving Miles some pretty interesting shadings and backstory. The reveal that he actually helped Monroe form his militia and was his main general was a cool one - even as I was bemused when he insisted there was no stopping the Militia because he trained him, with the implicit, “I’m freaking awesome so these guys are too!” undertones.

Seeing Miles, in the wake of the blackout’s beginnings, bemoan “No one is coming to help” as they found people murdered for food and supplies and then go full on Punisher/Judge Dredd when he and Monroe found the men responsible was effective. And clearly the idea is that Miles created a monster in Monroe, who was initially shocked at his friend’s actions.

Hopefully this is the beginning of Monroe becoming a more interesting character, as he’s still overshadowed by those surrounding him, which continued with the introduction of Jeremy. The always-fun Mark Pellegrino (whose many roles include his stints on Revolution EP J.J. Abrams’ Lost as Jacob and showrunner Eric Kripke’s Supernatural as Lucifer) was terrific as Jeremy, who had a wry, seen-it-all sense of humor. Jeremy sighing, “Terrific…” when the man he’d just been talking to was taken out by a sniper was pretty funny, but it was outdone when the truth about Miles came to light and Jeremy remarked, “This is soooo dramatic. You guys remember One Life to Live?”

I was hopeful Jeremy would make it out of this episode alive, as Pellegrino was such a fun addition to the story - and not only did he do so, but we now see he was basically Miles and Monroe’s first recruit in the past, setting the stage for bigger things with him in both the “present” and flashbacks.

In the meantime, I hope the writers can get through all of this early Charlie/Miles squabbling pretty quickly - yes, the reveal on Miles was a big one, but their main mode of interaction has already been arguing/distrusting one another, with one disagreement after the other. Some downtime from that for awhile would be appreciated.

Danny’s plight this episode, being tortured by a vengeful friend of the man he killed in the pilot, helped make him more sympathetic to be sure – and it was good to see him get so tough with the man (knowing Neville wants him alive). It’s a step in the right direction, but we still need to know more about what makes Danny tick – though so far, I’m just glad it doesn’t seem to be the self-centered, “My problems are bigger than this world crisis” vibe teenage boys like Tyler and V and Josh on Terra Nova have so annoyingly represented in recent sci-fi/genre TV series.

It’s a bit odd to split Aaron and Maggie off from the others so early in this show’s run, but their scenes, which initially felt a bit tedious, had a decent payoff. Aaron going more into his own history and the fact that he simply was not cut out to handle himself when the power went out, was a nice, humanizing moment for him. And it’s good to see these two discover the device Aaron was given has some ability to bring power back – quickly moving the story along by having a couple of the main players find out the potential is there for such a thing.

Meanwhile, I was fine with them sitting Nate out this week, but it felt odd to not have any follow-up on the reveal that Rachel is alive. Hopefully next week…

Source : ign[dot]com