The hunt for Danny has the group slowly growing, as well as our knowledge of the post-Blackout world.
What They Say:
Chained Heart – When miles and the gang realize they need help rescuing danny, they search for Nora, a rebel fighter.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After setting up some of the basics in the pilot, Revolution brought a few interesting things to the table overall while having some of the natural inconsistencies you’d expect from something like this. The general idea of the search for Danny to kick things off lets Charlotte see a bit of the world and to connect with Miles now that he’s part of the group that’s slowly forming. What we get right from the start here is a big push towards why Charlotte is so intent on finding her brother as we see the promises made in that first week, things that have long since defined Charlotte and how she deals with her brother. And now with her father having been killed, it’s even more intense for her, understandably so.
While Charlotte is kind of holding the cards when it comes to getting this group underway, there’s some chaffing coming from Miles for obvious reasons, at least when it comes to how he’s ready to kill a bounty hunter that came after him. Miles knows the rules of the world and adheres to the cold way it works, but doing things Charlotte’s way only serves to get them into more and more trouble. He’s trying to get some help for the job ahead, since it’s not going to be just them that that can take on Monroe and the militia men he has under his command, so he’s intent on getting help from someone that he’s known over the years named Nora. But there are hurdles to cross first because of how Charlotte’s mindset works against them.
This division changes the dynamic a bit as Miles sets off on his own to get Nora, having learned that she’s in a work camp. Putting the other three together to continue on their journey with the intent on meeting in a few weeks elsewhere, it lets him do what he needs to do without her interference. Of course, she’s acting like a stupid kid here as she ends up sneaking off in the middle of the night to follow him. You can understand some of her position in that she needs him to get her brother, and he’s family as well, so she doesn’t want to let him out of her sight. But to abandon the others in the middle of the night was just bad thinking on her part and paints her as someone who is going to have a hell of a time surviving in this world out of the little community she started off in.
The show gives us a bit more of a view of the world, past and present, across the episode that helps to flesh things out a bit. Some of the time in the past gives us a look at the week after and the dangers that the family faced. We also get more of a look at events around the Monroe Republic, seeing Monroe himself deal with a rebel that they captured and want information from as well as seeing some of his soldiers deal with a separate rebel who has a flag and weapon that he shouldn’t. There’s also a look at a work gang that’s under Monroe’s control as he’s looking towards a future where there is power. Acquiring weapons and equipment- and helicopters- in order to secure himself when that time hits is a rather smart move. The idea that the power may come back some day is definitely something to work with as an overall plan.
In Summary:
The expansion on the world itself here, both in the Monroe Republic as well as events happening after the Blackout began, the show is filling in some of the minor blanks. It’s nothing really outstanding in its own way, but it’s definitely useful and done in a context that works well to highlight more some of where the show intends to go. The series is working through a couple different angles of the same idea, that being hope. Hope for restoring the power, hope for restoring the country and hope for finding Danny. Each of these is touched upon in the larger context of how society is dealing with the Blackout itself all these years later. Seeing some if through Charlotte’s naïve eyes can be frustrating, but that’s also part of the point as she’s the one that will bring some of that change back into the world. Or at least that’s the intention, though you can see her being weighed down by much of what she sees. There’s some interesting things brought into play here that has me still curious to see where it’s going to go and whether it can work the twists right.
Grade: B
