Revolution

Revolution

Episode 19: Children of Men

By: Carlos Uribe

Revolution is a show set 15-years after electricity died.

Spoilers Ahoy!

Children of Men largely takes place at the Tower. All of the characters are largely there even as they're split up into their own little plot arcs as the series builds up to the finale. This has some mixed results as Revolution presents a solid penultimate episode to it's first season. The only two main characters who don't get to enter the Tower are Neville and Nate. The two get captured by the militia after they get shut out of the Tower. It was the right move to make tactically to close the doors as they were in the middle of a firefight and had no reasonable chance of being able to make it. So the two get captured and Neville decides to take opportunity of the loyalty of a wavering captain. He suggests that the only thing wrong with the Monroe Republic is Monroe himself. He suggests that the militia's officers should stage a coup to replace Monroe with a sane leader who is capable of leading. Neville points out that this should be easy since Monroe had a tendency to try to kill any officer that was loyal to him. He suggests that he would be better fit to lead the Republic. This holds potential depending on where it goes. If the coup fails, Monroe would be even more alone as it basically reveals how there's nobody really loyal to him anymore. He has killed or driven away his loyal officers so he would become even more paranoid. If the coup succeeds, a more capable and intelligent leader would be able to take over. The only reason Monroe is any kind of threat is because he has an army. He simply has too many personality problems and isn't that smart to make the militia the credible threat that it should be. If he didn't have access to those drones, he would have easily lost the war against Georgia and the rebellion. Now, Neville is a different story. If he had the militia, then they would certainly be a more serious threat since they would have a capable leader. If the series goes ahead and makes Neville the new leader of the Monroe Republic, it might be one of the best narrative decisions that the writers could have made. Here's hoping that the finale is confident enough to actually change the status quo by putting a real leader in charge of the milita.

As for Monroe, he gets trapped into a bunker with Rachel. She failed to kill him as the grenade was thrown out of the tent just in time. It's a little disappointing the series didn't go through with it but it's understandable. Killing two main characters in one scene might have been bold but it could have been foolish. She basically gets Monroe into the Tower and the two manage to barely escape getting slaughtered by hiding in Cheney's secret bunker. This is basically just a huge excuse to have them be stuck in the same room together because of drama. Monroe figures out that Rachel basically blames him for Danny's death and he makes her realize she doesn't actually want to die. Still, she refuses to help him because he killed Danny until she sees Charlie in the security footage. Realizing that her daughter's life is in danger, Rachel finally agrees to help Monroe with the promise that he'll save Charlie. I guess the scene was important in that Rachel regretted trying to blow herself up but it's a bit surprising she doesn't shoot Monroe in the back after Charlie is saved. It's not like they're friends again as they are still on opposite sides again. Anyways, Rachel ends the episode being captured by the people who live in the Tower. I guess this resolves the cliff-hanger from a few episodes ago where Grace had sent Randall's man to his doom. It wasn't a monster but rail guns. It was one thing for Revolution to basically abandon the sword fights and limited bullet rule for gun fights for modern technology but now it's using futuristic military weapons. Seriously, it's like the writers have decided that the no electricity world has been played out. There's no doubt in my mind that the finale will lead to the power turning back on for everyone simply because the series has long stopped being about a world without electricity. Oh, she might have an obstacle in her old colleagues but the characters will find a way through them.

The rest of the characters basically have to find a way to survive getting killed by rail guns. They try to find an armory only Miles finds out it's empty. The only logical solution is to sneak behind the people trying to kill them to steal their guns after taking them down with bare hands. They manage to start a fight and there's a lot of action that feels like it's padding the time. Anyways, once the characters are taken out of the way it's time for Monroe and Miles to confront each other again. They both have rail guns pointing at each other. Once again, the show ends with Monroe's life being threatened by yet another main character. It feels a bit repetitive but I guess it's a little different since Miles had already confronted his former best friend. The promise is that maybe something will turn out a little different but I'm skeptical. It would make no sense to kill Monroe. He has a missing son to find and he has to deal with the coup outside the Tower. It makes no sense to kill him at this point. As for Miles, there's no way the show is going to kill one of it's most major protagonists. It would harm the show since he's the strongest character of the group. It therefore feels very melodramatic to have the episode end with the idea that they're about to have a showdown where one of them might end up dead. It's hard to get excited for this cliff-hanger for the reason that I'm not convinced at all that neither character is going to die.

Children of Men works up to the finale in a decent fashion. The most promising plot element is Neville taking over the milita and it's his coup I'm most interested in following. The whole plot to turn the power back on seems inevitable to occur since the writers seemed to have lost interest in an electricity-free world. With rail guns, drone strikes, and very few people acting surprised to see technology working, Revolution has lost it's sense of it being a world without modern tools. As for the Monroe and Miles showdown, it seems like it's going to end like last time: the two of them getting close to killing each other but without it actually happening. I can't see the show actually killing Miles or Monroe off. Overall-I'm intrigued to see how the plot works out but I'm not as excited as I was going into this episode.