Revolution 1.09 Episode Recap And Review: Kashmir

This week’s Revolution episode didn’t provide any flashbacks from our characters; however, it put a new spin on things by preying on the weaknesses of some of them in the form of hallucinations.

We begin the episode at the West Chester Rebel Camp, 20 miles outside of Philadelphia, with Nora arguing with a rebel leader, Sergeant Wheatley, over the validity of her rebel status, since she walked into their camp with Miles. She tells Wheatley that they want to make a deal with the rebel group. Behind a nearby door Miles is bound to a chair and being dealt a punch in the face. Wheatley and another man, who introduces himself as Colonel Starkey, enter the room. Starkey ask Miles why they shouldn’t execute him, Charlie, Aaron, and Nora, and Miles explains that he can help them kill Monroe, in return for their aide in rescuing Danny. Starkey scoffs at Miles’s story, but Wheatley pulls him aside and they talk quietly before agreeing to help Miles and the others, once Miles convinces them that he knows Monroe’s location within the Philadelphia camp, as well as his habits.

The next night, some of the rebel group joins Miles, Charlie, Nora, and Aaron. One of them, Ashley, kills two militia men guarding an entrance to an underground subway station. As they walk along the underground tunnel, Nora warns the group to watch their step, because the militia is known to rig traps. As Charlie and Nora are walking and talking about Miles’s past friendship with Monroe, Charlie unwittingly steps on a mine.

Back in Philadelphia, Rachel is using a drill to build a machine, while in the background Led Zeppelin is playing on a CD player. Major Neville walks in and introduces her to Captain Burke, telling her that he wants Nora to explain what she is doing to Burke. When she balks, he tells her that Burke and his men – some as young as Danny – may rely on the “gadget” she is building, and therefore he insists that she run through the process with them. She explains how the pendant powers up electrical items within a limited range of about 9 to 10 feet, and that the machine she is building will act as an amplifier to boost the pendant’s powers to about half a mile.

In the underground tunnel, Nora marks out the various mines in their path, while Charlie stands atop the one she had accidentally activated. The rebel group moves ahead, but Miles and Aaron refuse to leave while Nora works on deactivating the mine. When she believes she has it deactivated, she has Charlie step off the mine, and the four of them take off running. However, apparently there is a mine below the original mine – a trap within a trap – and the mine explodes. While the four of them are able to survive the blast, the tunnel behind them is sealed off.

As they continue walking, Miles sees what he believes to be a militia scout dart across the path in front of them, and run into a room. However, when he flings open the door that he saw the man use, the door opens into an old electrical service closet, and no one is inside. Baffled, they continue on, and enter a room that is filled with water. They have to cross through the water to get to a stairwell across the way, and while walking, Nora hears noises around her, and suddenly plunges down in the water. She resurfaces, screaming that an alligator has bitten her leg, seeing the water around her darkening with her blood. As she thrashes, Miles grabs her, telling her there is no alligator and forcing her to pull her leg up above the water, where she sees it is whole. Aaron is the first to realize what is going on; that the tunnel collapse has sealed off the air supply, and they are running out of oxygen. This is causing their torches to run low, and for them to suffer from hallucinations. He is fairly certain that they are slowly suffocating, and that the hallucinations are the last stage before death. Miles tells the group that they are only 10 minutes away from Girard Station, the exit he believes they can use to sneak into Philadelphia, and the group hurries along the tunnel towards it.

They reach the stairs up toward Girard Station, only to discover that it has been bricked over by the militia. Even thought Miles does not believe there is another exit, they continue onward in hopes of finding that the militia has opened up a different stairwell.

While walking, Miles glances aside, and sees a door cracked open. He hears strains of Zeppelin’s Kashmir playing. He pushes open the door, and walks inside to discover he is in Monroe’s office. As he stares around the room, Monroe enters behind him. The two stare at one another, before Monroe walks forward, smiles, and embraces Miles. When he pulls back, Miles asks Monroe if he is hallucinating. Monroe laughs and says that he is, adding that Miles looks like hell warmed up, and not just because he is suffocating. As he fills two glasses with alcohol and hands one to Miles, he asks Miles if it was worth it; leaving the militia, trying to kill him. He asks Miles why he did it; Miles responds that Monroe went too far, that too much blood was spilled. Monroe responds that, even with that, Miles regrets leaving, and that a big part of him wishes he could take it all back. Miles tries to refute Monroe’s words, but Monroe laughs and reminds Miles that this is not real, and that this is all in Miles’s head, and therefore, Monroe knows exactly what Miles is thinking. He tells Miles that he knows his biggest secret; that if Monroe offered to forget everything and take Miles back, Miles just might be tempted enough to do it. Might sell out his friends and fall right back into line with the militia.

As Miles stands, frozen by Monroe’s words, he is shaken back to reality by Charlie. She tells him that she heard him “talking” to Monroe, and reminds him that they are all counting on him to get them to safety. Shaken, Miles pulls away from Charlie and hurries to the front of the group to walk next to Wheatley.

At the back of the procession, Aaron and Nora are walking together. Aaron keeps glancing at Nora, but denies that anything is wrong when she asks him if he is okay. It soon becomes apparent that he is hallucinating that his wife is walking next to him. She asks him why he won’t talk to her, reminding him that they love each other. She demands for him to look at her, and then asks why he left her. She begs to know why he could be strong for Charlie, but not strong enough to stay with her. Aaron listens as she starts to cry, saying that he broke her heart and that perhaps he didn’t really love her. This finally causes Aaron to speak, saying that it wasn’t true, but he breaks from the hallucination when Nora is the one to respond. However, as they keep walking, he imagines he hears his wife falling behind, calling his name, asking what she is supposed to do without him.

Suddenly, Wheatley notices that the torches are growing brighter, meaning that they are near fresh air. The group discovers a door that is riddled with bullet holes and that shows signs of being a potential exit. Wheatley hands off his torch, and he and Miles take turns attempting to force the door open. It finally gives, revealing stairs leading up to what appears to be an exit. Miles walks through the door, and as the others approach, one of the rebel group lauds the fact that they are getting out of there. Wheatley responds that only some of them will, and he suddenly turns and begins firing on the others. Charlie, Nora, Aaron, and Ashley manage to fall back around a corner, but the other rebel men are killed. When Miles tries to return through the door in response to the gunfire, Wheatley pushes him back through. He barricades the exit and holds his gun to Miles’s head. He admits to Miles that he is militia, having been undercover with the rebels for over 2 years, and that he plans to return Miles to Monroe.

The two men head up the stairs, and have just turned a corner when they hear the barricade falling and the door opening due to the efforts of Charlie and the others. Wheatley swings back around the corner and shoots Ashley as she is preparing to shoot him with an arrow. He continues on with Miles, when Charlie rounds the corner and manages to hit him with her crossbow. As Wheatley falls back, his gun discharges, and hits Charlie in the head. She crumples to the ground.

The next thing we know, Charlie is stretched out on a couch. She appears to wake up, and sees her father, Ben, washing his hands. When she wonders if she is dreaming, Ben walks over and pinches her, and then smiles and tells her to call Maggie and Danny in for dinner. Charlie starts wondering if she dreamed the whole thing; Ben being killed, Danny captured, Maggie killed. Ben sits down next to her and tells her that everything is well and that she is safe. He assures her that he isn’t going anywhere, and asks if she is okay. Charlie admits that her head hurts, so Ben advises her to lie back down. As he tells her to close her eyes, we hear another voice, telling her to open her eyes.

Back in the stairwell, Miles pleads with Charlie to open her eyes. He wonders why she is not responding, since the bullet just grazed her head; Nora responds that she also cracked her head when she fell, and that combined with the oxygen loss was likely the cause of the unconsciousness. Miles tells Charlie that he is going to get Danny back and that she can count on him, but first she needs to open her eyes. He keeps demanding this of her, his voice getting louder as he gets more visibly upset.

Charlie lies on the couch and listens as she is told to open her eyes; she does, and looks over at her father. She asks Ben if he hears the voice, saying it’s Uncle Miles. Ben responds that she hasn’t seen Miles since she was a kid. Slowly, Charlie realizes that she is dreaming, and that reality is back with Miles and the others. She hugs her father, telling him that she loves him and thinks about him every day. When Ben asks for her to stay, she responds that she has to go.

We return to the stairwell, with Charlie opening her eyes in response to Miles’s pleadings. He has her rest for three hours, and then the group continues up the stairwell. As they near the exit, Miles looks back at Charlie and asks if she’s ready to continue. When she asks him if he is, he responds, “Not really, but what the hell, huh?” before opening the door, and they walk outside.

The episode ends back in Philadelphia, with Rachel still tinkering over the amplifier. Monroe walks in, and tells her that Neville had a hunch about what she was really building, and that he had a second opinion brought in. Neville enters, with Brad Jaffe following behind with two militiamen. Monroe orders Jaffe to look over the machine and tell them what it can do. Rachel reminds them that it’s an amplifier, but Jaffe instead says that it is a bomb, using the pendant as an electronic trigger. Monroe grabs Rachel, telling her that she has broken their bargain and that she is now dead, as well as Danny. Rachel tries to convince him that he needs her, but Monroe responds that he has Dr. Jaffe now instead. He releases Rachel and she falls back against the machine. As Neville orders the men to grab Rachel, she turns, grabs a screwdriver, and plunges it into Jaffe’s chest. She apologizes as she is grabbed and Jaffe falls to the ground, dead. Then, she turns back to Monroe, and says that now he needs her as the militiamen drag her away.

Thoughts on Revolution Episode 1.9: Kashmir

Wow, talk about a bumpy ride! What are your thoughts on what Rachel did in the end? Was anyone else as surprised as I was? This episode was different in that there were no flashbacks; however, the hallucinations showed us some pretty interesting things about our main characters, some of the guilt, fear, and trepidation that they harbor. I’m sure I’m not the only one that got a little teary-eyed at the “reunion” between Charlie and Ben.

This episode was called Kashmir, after the Led Zeppelin song. Did anyone else catch the lyrics and wonder how fitting they were for the episode? Here are the lyrics we heard when Miles entered Monroe’s office:

“Oh let the sun beat down upon my face…stars fill my dreams…I am a traveler of both time and space…to be where I have been…to sit with elders of the gentle race…this world has seldom seen…they talk of days for which they sit and wait…all will be revealed.”

What are your thoughts on why the episode was titled after this song, and why these specific lyrics were playing when Miles entered Monroe’s office? Let us know your thoughts about this episode in the comments section!