‘Revolution’ 1.14 Episode Recap And Review: The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia

As we all know, last week’s episode of Revolution was delayed until this week, due to the horrific incident in Boston. It would have been hard to write a review of the show at that time; I am glad that NBC chose to wait to air it.

In this week’s episode of Revolution, we begin with further insight into how far off the deep end Monroe is plunging. Major Neville’s aide delivers the news that Neville and his wife have fled – and that there have been several sightings of Jason with the rebel camp. Monroe starts musing about who he can and cannot trust, and in a fit of pique kills the aide, despite the Captain’s desperate assurance that he is loyal to Monroe and the militia.

In a rebel outpost, a horse gallops into the camp, and its rider, a rebel scout, falls off the horse into Miles’s arms. Before he dies, he manages to pass on the message he and three others gave their lives to deliver: that Monroe sent the nuke to Atlanta, Georgia, with a 3-man strike team, with plans to detonate it if Georgia does not surrender. Nora reluctantly agrees to try and disarm the device, and she, Miles and Charlie (“Your mom told me to take care of you, so I figured I’d drag you in front of a nuclear weapon,” Miles tells her) head to Georgia in hopes of getting there in time to stop the mission from succeeding.

As the three climb under a barbed wire fence, officially leaving Monroe territory and entering the Georgia Federation, Charlie pauses, and in one of those cliche, often-used beginning-of-a-journey movie lines, stares back the way they came while telling Miles that she’s never left the Monroe Republic. Miles, in his usual blunt fashion, responds with “My God, you’re a hick,” before telling her to keep moving. They head into a forested area, and when they emerge on the other side, they are greeted with the sight of a blue bus, powered by a steam engine, tooting its way down a paved street. Miles gives Charlie a quick run-down on how Georgia varies from the Monroe Republic: they are rich, enjoy warm weather, grow crops, and have even begun trading with Europe.

They decide to infiltrate Atlanta by posing as Georgia soldiers. While Nora and Miles hide in the woods, Charlie heads for the front door of a military outpost, acting as bait to lure any soldiers inside into opening the door to her. She even slips a few buttons on her shirt to display her cleavage in better fashion. However, after knocking on the door several times and hearing no response, Miles decides to ram the door open. Inside, they discover that the soldiers have been killed; apparently, Monroe’s team had the same idea as Miles. All the spare uniforms have been taken, leaving Miles, Nora, and Charlie with the only option of taking the clothing off the dead soldiers.

As Miles starts to reach toward one of the bodies, the sight of a knife on a nearby table distracts him. He picks it up, telling the others that he recognizes the knife as one that he used to own. Visibly shaken, he tells Nora that it can only mean that someone named Alec is leading the strike team; this is why the outpost they picked happened to be the same one that Monroe’s team got to first. As he trained Alec, the man would do the exact same thing that Miles would, in the exact same way. He suddenly plunges the tip of the knife into the table, and rushes out of the room. When Charlie starts to follow him, Nora prevents her from leaving, telling her to give Miles a moment.

Outside, Miles tears off his jacket, and slumps down next to a tree. As he stares off into space, we see the first flashback of this week’s episode:

Seven years after the blackout, Miles is sitting in a bar, drinking in celebration with Alec, who just made Captain within the Monroe Militia. They reminisce about how they first met, a few years back, and Alec admits that he wouldn’t be where he was without Miles’s tutelage. Miles pulls out the knife that we just saw in the soldier outpost, and he shows it to Alec, telling him that his grandfather carved the handle himself and took it with him to Korea. He then passed it on to Miles’ father, who took it with him to Vietnam. His father then passed the knife on to Miles. Miles stares at the knife for a moment, before putting it on the bar, telling Alec that he wants him to have it, as a lucky charm to make sure he always comes back alive. Alec tries to refuse the gift, but Miles insists, telling Alec that it can be something that Alec’s son might appreciate one day.

Meanwhile, Rachel and Aaron are searching for one of Rachel’s old co-workers, a woman named Dr. Jane Warren, whom Rachel says knows the Tower better than anyone. As they walk through a forest, Rachel warns Aaron that Jane can be “odd,” and that he should try not to set her off or even make eye contact. They are suddenly stopped by two men, who tell them there is a “toll” for using the path they are on. One of the men throws Aaron to the ground and stands over him with a weapon, while the other grabs Rachel in an attempt to rape her. While she is fighting him off, the first man suddenly starts coughing and sweating. As he screams that he’s burning up, his skin starts blistering and burning. His friend lets go of Rachel and rushes over to him, and he, too, is soon screaming in agony. Both men fall to the ground in a fog of burning, bubbling flesh, and die. As Aaron and Rachel scramble away from them, a woman approaches, whom Rachel greets as Jane; it is soon apparent that Jane used some kind of device to incinerate the men, telling Aaron, “It’s not magic…must be what God feels like,” before inviting them into her house for sandwiches.

Miles, Charlie, and Nora manage to sneak into Atlanta in their guise as soldiers. Miles pulls out some flashlights, stating that the nuke would be using one of the pendants for power, and if the flashlights start working, it will mean they are within the vicinity of the nuke. The three separate, and it’s not long before Miles happens to get a ping on his flashlight as he passes an alley. He finds the nuke, hidden inside what might have been an old housing for an air conditioner, and as he goes to lift the grate to grab it, he is waylaid by Alec. The two exchange terse greetings; Miles asks Alec how long he’s been back in Philadelphia, and Alec responds that he’d returned to the Militia about a year ago. He also states that he had been keeping an eye on the nuke because he’d been warned by Monroe that Miles might make an attempt to disarm it. He asks Miles if he got his message; in answer, Miles pulls out the knife that he’d found at the outpost. Miles starts to speak, mentioning something that he did to Alec; Alec responds that it was “for the good of the Republic” before pulling out a sword and rushing Miles. The two fight, and Alec seems to be getting the upper hand when he is struck by one of Charlie’s arrows. He is only wounded, and manages to grab the nuke and take off. Charlie helps Miles up, and they set off in pursuit of Alec, but lose him in the crowd. Miles sends Charlie off in one direction to search, and he heads off in another. By some miracle, he locates Alec, and follows him into another alley. Alec runs into a Georgia soldier, and pushes him towards Miles while simultaneously shooting the man. As Miles catches the officer, Alec throws the gun at Miles’s feet and takes off. When Miles realizes the officer is dead, he starts to chase after Alec, but is apprehended by other Georgia officers who had heard the gunshot and assume he is the shooter. As he is led into a tall building, Nora and Charlie follow at a discreet distance, trying to figure out how they will be able to free him.

Back at Jane’s house, Rachel is stunned to see Jane’s partner, Beth. The two hug, and Rachel alludes that she and Aaron are just passing through on their way to Colorado. Before Beth can question her further, Jane has Beth take Aaron into the kitchen for some lunch, and leads Rachel back outside. She asks Rachel why she wants access into the Tower, and becomes upset when Rachel responds that they need to turn the power back on. Jane states that turning the power on will destroy the “Nanites,” which are responsible for keeping Danny alive; in response, Rachel shows her the device that she had removed from Danny after his death. While sympathetic when told of Danny’s death, Jane insists that the power should remain off, saying that Beth has survived 16 years of Stage 4 cancer because those same Nanites are keeping her alive. If the power is turned back on, that would mean that Beth would die, and Jane is not willing to lose her. She urges Rachel to drop the subject and heads back into the house.

While Charlie is scouting around the building that Miles went into, she is confronted by Alec, who says he wants to warn her about Miles. He tells her that he used to believe that Miles cared for him, but found out the hard way that he didn’t mean anything to the man, and that if Charlie isn’t careful, she’ll find this out herself. When Charlie responds that Miles wouldn’t hurt her because he is her uncle, Alec scoffs, and tells her to ask Miles what he did to Charlie’s mother. Suddenly, helicopters appear overhead and drop small cards sporting the Monroe emblem on one side into the air. While Charlie is distracted, Alec shoves her into the side of the building and runs off. When she regains her balance, Charlie picks up one of the cards, and reads the message on the other side.

Inside, Miles is escorted, handcuffed, to the office of the President of Georgia, a woman named Kelly Foster, whom he greets as someone he already knows. He warns her that, while he didn’t kill the policeman, she needs to be worried about the man who did. Kelly is holding one of the cards that had been dropped from the sky, and she reads it to Miles: a warning from Monroe that if the Georgia Federation doesn’t surrender to him by midnight, he will detonate the nuclear bomb that Alec had smuggled into their midst. Miles urges Kelly to let him go, so that he can help find where the bomb is and make sure it is not deployed. Kelly walks over to Miles, and suddenly pulls a knife and holds it between his legs (a place where no man ever wants something sharp to be near). She tells him she should slit him open, not only for all of the troops that he had killed while with the Monroe Militia, but also for what he did to her, personally. Miles doesn’t argue with her accusations; he simply tells her that the man in control of the nuke is someone that he trained, and therefore, he knows how to stop. He again asks her to let him go so that he can help stop Monroe from destroying Georgia.

As night falls, the citizens of Georgia are rushing toward a common area as sirens wail. They stream around Charlie and Nora, who are still trying to determine how they should proceed. Just as Nora decides they should go after the nuke without making an attempt to rescue Miles, Miles appears and thanks Nora for her loyalty. He starts leading them after the fleeing citizens, telling them that Alec is going to deploy the bomb wherever the people are.

The next flashback of the evening begins. Nine years after the blackout, Alec returns from a covert mission to assassinate the Governor of Texas. He enters Monroe’s office, where Miles and Monroe await. Monroe greets him briefly, before leaving the room. Miles and Alec embrace, before Miles asks Alec how the mission went. Alec responds that it went smoothly, but Miles negates his words, stating that he only winged the Governor, and in fact, was recognized. Miles tells him that they cannot afford to go to war with Texas, and so he has to turn Alec over to their Governor. Alec pleads with him, saying that Miles knows what will happen to him if he is given over to the Texas government; a stoic Miles merely responds that “This is the job,” and watches as Alec is grabbed by some soldiers. Alec struggles with the men, begging Miles to help him, telling him that if Alec meant anything to him, he wouldn’t be doing this; Miles merely gestures for the men to take Alec away, and stands silent as the man is dragged off.

In Jane’s house, Rachel sneaks into Jane’s office, and starts searching through her desk. Jane, who demands to know what Rachel is doing, confronts her. Rachel responds that they have killed too many people and the power must be turned back on. Again, Jane refuses, stating that Rachel is asking her to sacrifice her family, which she wouldn’t be doing if the same technology keeping Beth alive was still keeping Danny alive. Rachel replies that she did awful things for Danny, and in the end, none of it mattered because he still died. She goes on to tell Jane that, if she had the chance to do it all over again, had the chance to save Danny again, she wouldn’t have done what she did. Jane says that she doesn’t believe Rachel, and she pulls out the device that she had used earlier to kill the men that had attacked Rachel and Aaron. She begins to step toward Rachel, when Beth appears in the doorway, having overheard much of the conversation between the two women. She tells Jane to help Rachel; that if her own death were the only excuse Jane has to keep the power off, then Beth would take her own life if it meant that Jane would aid Rachel quicker. Distraught, Jane goes to a bookshelf behind her desk, pulling down a book and handing it to Rachel. She tells Rachel it will tell her everything she needs to know to get the power back on, before demanding that Rachel and Aaron leave and never come back.

Back in Atlanta, Nora, Charlie, and Miles search amongst the panicking citizens for Alec. Miles spots him climbing a stairwell in a nearby building, and the three follow him. They enter the building after him, and split up in search. Miles finds him, sitting next to the nuke, which has been powered on by the pendant. Miles demands to know if Alec really means to detonate the bomb, killing not only himself, but all of the innocent people outside; Alec climbs painfully to his feet, and throws Miles’s words from long ago back at him: “That’s the job.” Miles admits he was wrong; that in fact, he is trying hard not to be the General Matheson that Alec remembered. He goes on and tells Alec that, no matter what would have happened back then, he should have looked out for Alec and protected him, instead of using him to avoid going to war with Texas. Alec refuses to believe what Miles is telling him, saying that he now understands why Miles did that to him; that it was for the good of the Republic. He tells Miles that it was that understanding that helped him survive his years in captivity, and when he got back to the Republic and discovered that Miles was gone, he then felt like his years of suffering had been for nothing.

Before Miles can respond to Alec, the walkie-talkie next to the nuke crackles to life, telling Alec that the mission is a go and that he is authorized to detonate the nuke. This prompts the two men to begin struggling, as Alec fights to reach the nuke and Miles fights to stop him. When Alec does not respond to the initial command, Monroe takes over, and as Miles and Alec struggle, we hear him repeatedly asking Alec to confirm that he will be following Monroe’s orders.

Miles tries to beg Alec not to proceed, but Alec is bent on doing as he is told. Miles seems to realize that he won’t be able to dissuade Alec, and is forced to do the only thing he can at that point; he manages to get the upper hand, and stabs Alec in the chest with his knife. Alec grabs Miles’s hand, and the two stare at each other for a moment before Alec dies. Charlie comes running in, and Miles looks up at her with an anguished expression, before getting up and pulling the pendant from the nuke.

Later on, as Miles sits outside where things have calmed down, he stares down at the knife and the pendant that he is holding in his hands. As he sheathes his knife, Charlie comes over, and – ignoring Miles’s requests to be left alone – demands to know what Alec was talking about when he told her about Miles and her mother. She insists that she deserves the truth when Miles tries to evade the question. Finally, Miles looks up at Charlie, and tells her that people who depend on him always end up getting hurt, because he hurts them and doesn’t even think twice about it. He then tells her again to leave him alone.

The two are interrupted by some soldiers, who inform Miles that President Foster wants to see him. He follows the men inside, back to the President’s office. The disabled nuke is on her desk, and Kelly angrily asks Miles what he did with the radioactive material. Miles doesn’t bother denying that he took it, merely responding that this way she can’t build a bomb of her own.

Kelly informs Miles that she plans on attacking Monroe in retribution for what he tried to do to her and the citizens of the Georgia Federation. She states that her troops will attack his southern border, if Miles and his Rebels will join her and open up a second front, by hitting Monroe from the inside. As Miles starts to argue that he doesn’t have the manpower to do what she asks, she leads him out onto a balcony, and shows him soldiers that are gearing up for battle. As Miles stares down at them in disbelief, Kelly offers him the men and the weapons needed, to join the rebels, and the episode ends with her asking Miles if he’s ready to be a general again.

What did you think of this week’s Revolution? Sound off in our comment section below!

Review By: dawnie279

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  1. It’s deja vu all over again for Miles. Should he or shouldn’t he? I think Miles will take Kelly’s offer and lead the GA Federation into battle but on his terms.

    I’m more interested in The Tower and Rachel and Aaron’s journey. Hope to see more of them in mext week’s ep.
    Thanks for the recap!