Revolution, Season 2, Episode 10: “Three Amigos”
Written by David Rambo & Anne Cofell Saunders
Directed by Charles Beeson
Airs Wednesdays at 8pm (ET) on NBC
With a finger firmly poised on the reset button, “Three Amigos” rolls into town almost like it had never been away.
It keeps up the frequently relentless pace of the season to date. The core gang are shifted into fresh groupings and sent on their merry ways through various circumstances. Giancarlo Esposito gets to be a menacing badass. It has all the elements of a successful episode, and thankfully it doesn’t disappoint.
Miles, Monroe, and Rachel are on their merry way to Mexico in search of Monroe’s son. There are a couple of solid twists here. Just when you see the fence at the border and think “great, another immigration parable,” the rug’s pulled out from under you when you realise it’s the residents of the former USA who are desperate to get across to the other side and earn cash in the relatively affluent Mexico. Similarly, the reveal of Monroe’s son Connor as the leader of a cartel suberts any expectations that the youngster would appear destitute. It also stirs Monroe’s primal urge for control as he tries to convince Connor to help him take back his empire.
Aaron is also on his way out of Willoughby. With Cynthia dead and answers to find, he takes off alone for a small Oklahoma town, on a tip from the nanites. He’s largely out of the action, but gets the episode’s final scene, where we discover that Grace, largely believed to have died in the Tower, is alive and well, with a rifle ready to point in trespassers’ faces.
In Willoughby, Gene and Charlie get to spend some time together, and stumble across a new mystery. Just why are the Patriot’s feeding residents oranges laced with (presumably) drugs? A cynic might wager that without mass propaganda tools like subliminal messaging on TV or the Internet, the government has to do something to placate the people, right?
Finally, the Nevilles reach the White House, and all is not rosy for the reunited pair as a plot to poison the chief of staff fails. Tom gets to complete his task in the end, but not before a heated argument with Julia. Their plotted power grab is not off to the warmest of starts.
Complaints about this outing are frankly few and far between — we’d complain about, how yet again, a rescue operation seemed to be carried out with ease, but given the rescuers had little more to do this time round than wade through a sea of bodies charred to death by Aaron’s mind-fire (or the nanites, whatever), it’s a moot point. Monroe landing in custody yet again is something we could also do without.
Sadly, we don’t get to see much of the interplay between Monroe and Rachel with Miles as mediator either — the tension between Rachel and Bass could sink a battleship, but was only on display to a limited degree here. We also could have done without seeing the maggots crawling all over Miles’ arm as a makeshift medicinal tool because gross.
It’s a fast, frantic episode with a myriad moving parts and little chance to breathe. Until next week, do us a favour and stay away from the oranges — you never know what’s inside.