Revolution
Episode 20: The Dark
Tower
By: Carlos Uribe
Revolution
is a show set 15-years after electricity died.
Spoilers
Ahoy!
What...
the...
hell...
Seriously,
Revolution? How is it possible that the creator of Supernatural could
have thought that this was a good way to end the season? The Dark
Tower is a very weak season finale that failed at it's primary job.
The cliff-hanger it presented at the end of the season was devoid of
any real meaning. The “twists” in this episode basically
red-conned what we previously knew about the characters while Nora's
death dragged on for too long. I'm actually very discouraged about
the second season after watching this finale. A lot of people are
looking at the Wednesday timeslot as the network trying to kill the
show. That doesn't make any sense because NBC actually benefits from
Revolution lasting as long as possible. This means ensuring it's
success and the network clearly thinks it can find it in it's new
timeslot. It's noteworthy to point out that the only real competition
Revolution is going to have is Arrow and that basically gets CW
ratings. If Revolution dies next season it'll have nothing to do with
where the network placed the show but everything to do with it's weak
writing. The narrative is inconsistent, the mythology is silly, the
characters are terrible, and the relationships are dull. I'll have to
state that the finale really disillusioned me. Revolution has been a
trouble series for the whole season and it's clear that they have no
idea where they're taking this show. Revolution could have been a
good series but it's never been able to pull itself together to
become something remotely good. It's decent entertainment and I'll
come back for the second season but I'm not terribly excited about
it. I'm hoping that Revolution finds a way to pull itself together
but I'm very doubtful that will happen. Revolution suffers the
following key critical problems that it hasn't been able to solve for
the whole season: a weak narrative, weak characters, and even weak
logic. These problems have existed since the pilot and the writers
have had a whole season to confront them. If anything, the writers
have actually embraced them to create a frustrating series.
The
weak narrative is a major problem but it's very reflective in the
ending the writers decided to end this show on. The cliff-hanger is
that the electricity has been turned back on, Randall breaks into the
facility, and he launches two nuclear bomb. He aims them at Atlanta
and Philadelphia to wipe out the Monroe Republic and Georgia
Federation in one stroke. Why? He was a patriot this whole time and
he wants the United States to come back. This motivation makes little
sense but I'll touch on that in a bit. The bombs have been launched,
the power is back on, and the final cliff-hanger is revealed. The
President of the United States has been hiding out in Guantamo Bay
this whole time. Now that the power is back on, he's ready to come
back and lead the nation into this new world. Which what? This is so
vague that it's hard to understand what's at stake or how this will
personally affect our characters. We don't know enough about the
world to truly comprehend how his presence will affect the nation. In
other words? It's a cliff-hanger that might have sounded cool but
ended up being completely flat because it's so meaningless. Now let's
talk about the logic behind this...actually there is none. Why was
the President hiding out? Why did they access Aaron's backdoor and
cause the blackout? It just makes no sense. Why would sending the
nuclear weapons to the capitol cities wipe out the nations? Are their
whole militaries in those two cities? If the goal was to unite the
country, how come every other nation didn't get nuked? None of this
makes any sense. I get why they did this: so they could develop the
Texas Republic and the California country. At the same time, it's
plain stupid. As for Randall's motivations? His flashback episode
indicated he had caused the blackout as he was resentful over his
son's death. Now he turns out to be a patriot and his plan to give
power to a select few characters turned out to be a fluke? That makes
no sense and betrays the character the show had set up. This isn't a
“twist” that shows us a new side of him but one that erases the
person we used to know. This isn't to mention on what exactly he was
doing with Monroe in the first place. Revolution had the perfect
cliff-hanger: Aaron pressing the button. That would have been an
exciting cliff-hanger. Predictable? Sure-but a preferable one.
Now
let's talk about the weak character problem. Nora was introduced
early in the series as an ex-girlfriend of Monroe who was good with
explosives. The series tried to give her a sister but the writers
haven't been able to develop her whatsoever. She remained a rather
one-dimensional character who had a use but had little actual
personality. There's a moment where she's laying dying and she
encourages the characters to help Rachel rather than attempt to save
her life. Why? There's no real reason except the narrative demanded
that's what she wanted. There was an attempt by the writers to create
a love triangle between Nora, Miles, and Rachel. This completely
failed because Miles barely had any scenes with Rachel. Their
relationship was hinted on but it was never developed. So when Nora
talks about how he would always chose Rachel, it literally comes out
of nowhere. First of all, Miles has never, ever chosen Rachel. Ever.
There is absolutely nothing to indicate that he would. He ends up
proving her wrong when he tries to save her life instead of helping
Rachel but he fails. She dies before they could reach the infirmary.
Did I feel anything? No. Nora was never a character but someone who
played a role in the team. That's it. If anything, she should have
died quicker. It really felt dragged out to me especially considering
how inevitable it was. I might not have been rooting for Nora to die
but I'm not going to miss her in the second season because the series
had never been able to truly flesh her out or make her compelling.
Because in the end of the day, I really can't answer the question of
who Nora really was.
Revolution
also has weak relationship problems. A huge part of the series is
supposed to be the bromance that Monroe and Miles used to share. That
is until Monroe tried to kill his best friend but even then they
still remained brothers. I don't mind that the two didn't kill each
other since it was obvious that wasn't going to happen. What was
hilarious is when Monroe told Miles that everything he did was for
him. I couldn't help but burst out laughing. Not only is that
terrible dialogue, but it's terribly misplaced. The whole “I did
everything for you” fits parents and lovers. It doesn't fit best
friends, even if they were like brothers. That is not the kind of
relationship Monroe ever shared with Miles. It was so out-of-place
but it just shows how Revolution has really struggled with developing
the relationships between the characters. The show sort-of leaves
Monroe is in some thunder storm, having lost the command of his
troops due to a coup. He's all alone and that's basically it. I know
he has a whole son arc that the series has him on, but I was still
hoping that he would die because he's such a two-dimensional
character. Gah. Honestly, there is one very good part of this show
and that comes the Neville family. Giancarlo Esposito is just an
acting force to be reckoned with and he's made Major Tom Neville
single-handedly my favorite character on this show. What I would like
to see more in the second season is to continue his strained
relationship with his son. It's basically the only relationship that
still works on this show.
The
Dark Tower is a pretty terrible episode of television. It easily
dispatches a threat (the people inside the tower) instead of using
them to create a more epic climax. Nora's death was stretched out to
the point where it was annoying. If only she had an actual
personality before she died. The cliff-hanger ending did the opposite
of making me want to see what happens next: I laughed. I laughed at
how ludicrous and idiotic it was. I have no idea what this
cliff-hanger even means. Why am I going to be excited about this? If
anything, I'm actually less excited about the second season than I
was going in. The Dark Tower is definably a very weak note to end the
season on...and a huge disillusionment on how little progress this
show has made at rectifying it's progress because it doesn't seem
like the writers know they are there.
Other Notes:
So
after Miles saved Atlanta from being nuked, it's going to get nuked
anyways. Which also means that we'll never find out what his history
with the President of Georgia was. It's this short-sighted kind of
twist that really harms the show's ability to throw together a
coherent narrative that can hold itself together.
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