Danny and the other dead during the attack are being
buried while everyone looks on in grief. Charlie looks on, stony faced and when
Rachel tries to take hold of her hand, she pulls away.
Nora reports to Commander Ramsay that scouts from the
other camps confirm no further helicopter sightings. He praises Danny – and
Nora makes sure he does call him Danny, not just the boy. Commander Ramsay
believes it’s time for business as usual which Miles calls “Losing.” The
rebellion isn’t have any affect, it’s an annoyance to Monroe. Unless it does a
lot more damage, it’s not going to make a difference.
How’s he going to do that? By joining the Rebellion. And first thing he needs is his own soldiers and officers from the militia – the ones who backed him up when he first tried to assassinate Monroe. Starting with someone called Jim Hudson. Great so long as Miles can a) find him and b) not be killed by him. Miles can manage the first part – 50%’s not too bad, right?
The next day Miles saddles up – and Rachel wishes he
would hang around a little longer – not for her of course, but for Charlie. But
Miles is having an angst moment – he’s made nothing better.
Charlie and the others go on to another rebel base and
that night Nicholas takes Charlie on a raid against some nearby militia troops.
Rachel begs her not to but Charlie has to do something and shuts down her
mother again.
Aaron goes through their things and takes out 2 power
pendants. This is detected by creepy Randal for Monroe, who can track them when
they’re turned on – and he turns them on remotely. Grace taught him how. Monroe
objects to Randal’s disrespectful tone but Randal says he can hand Monroe a
continent with the pendants, more amplifiers and scientists like John.
Miles and Nora are riding looking for this Jim Hudson –
and Miles is doing the “I’m sad and tortured but am too damn manly to admit it”
thing and snaps at Nora when she tries to get him to talk. Unfortunately one of
the people at the camps saw him and tell
the militia where Mile’s going and why. He gets killed by the militia for his
trouble showing that he’s a fool and the militia’s not exactly intelligent when
it comes to maintaining sources.
Interlude for another scene of Rachel trying to get
through to Charlie and Charlie showing how big and tough she is now since she’s
blood spattered and keeps brushing her own mother off. Miles and Nora arrive in
Culpepper, the next stage in looking for Jim Hudson, the locals don’t seem to
know him but the library – in the dystopian world there aren’t a lot of
libraries – catches Miles’s eye and he finds Jim Hudson inside, under a false
name of Henry Beamis. And he has a wife, Sophie. “Henry” makes noises of them
leaving soon to his wife but when Miles is stubborn about it, he meets Nora and
Miles privately
And draws a gun on Miles. Jim isn’t happy with Miles – he got Miles into Monroe’s bedroom, all he had to do was pull the trigger, instead he left – and left them high and dry. But Miles says he wants another go.
Another Charlie interlude, where Charlie shows how big
and tough she is by treating her own wounds and, again, ignoring Rachel. Rachel
says enough, she can’t stand the idea of losing her as well with Charlie going
out fighting all the time – Charlie rejects that it’s her decision and when
Rachel involves motherhood, Charlie asks since when – since she hasn’t been
there for Charlie or Danny. Rachel slaps her. Charlie leaves while Rachel
stammers apologies. Emotions are interrupted when Rachel realises the pendants
are on. Aaron assures her they do that sometimes, but as one of their creators
Rachel know that no, they don’t. The alarm goes off and a line of Humvees and
trucks are approaching – Monroe has power again.
Back in Culpepper, Jim doesn’t like Monroe but can’t
become the warrior he was – he’s a husband now, he’s making something good. Miles
counters that his wife doesn’t even know Jim’s name and he can’t wash that much
blood off his hands
At the rebel camp everyone runs but Charlie notices her
mother is missing – she and Aaron run back in and find her pouring chemicals in
a bowl to destroy the pendants – she knows Randal is tracking them and every
pendant Miles gets is another war machine – and more dead kids. As Randal
arrives with a pendant around his neck to track them, Aaron tells Rachel she
can’t destroy them, they tried. Rachel calmly unplugs them, showing that they’re
flash drives, and drops the drives into acid, dissolving them. Randal finds
them and is not happy.
Flashback time – a year before the blackout: when
soldiers arrived at Randal’s door to tell him and his wife that their son, a
soldier, had been killed in action.
Rachel, Aaron and Charlie play cat and mouse with the soldiers, trying to escape the base while Rachel tells them about Randal, assistant secretary for the DoD and her boss (nice moment of dystopia with Charlie not knowing what the DoD is) and Aaron’s horror that she was building a weapon. Which is when Randal gets a megaphone to tell them that he’s there for Rachel, not the pendants.
Nora and Miles are disappointed by Jim’s no (Miles moping
a bit) when they see the Militia arrive – a kill squad there for Hudson, Miles
or both. They head back to see Jim and warn him. Jim blames them for leading
them here and Miles wants to fight them off. Jim protests he has a wife and
people he cares about and Miles angrily says men like them can’t have that –
they’ll just get them hurt or killed – he knows (was Miles really that invested
in Danny? Or is there more we don’t know). He says they’re killers, that’s all
they are. And Sophie overhears Miles call Jim, Jim not Henry.
At Monroe capital, Neville wants to know why he has been
sidelined and isn’t on the mission to retrieve Rachel, but Monroe gives Neville’s
“bereavement” as the reason. Neville doesn’t trust Randal since he’s so new to
them.
Which is time for another flashback, 1 month before the Blackout,
with Randal saying they’re deploying the weapon in 4 weeks despite Rachel
saying it’s too dangerous, they haven’t tested it enough. Randal will hear no
argument.
Cat and mouse continues and Rachel takes a break for some
parent angst about failing Charlie. Emotions interrupted by troops finding them
and now it’s running and fighting time. Charlie with her crossbow and arrows
manages to take out 2 soldiers and grab one of their guns (yes she has become
rather more capable and ruthless but still has a troubled moment over the last
corpse)
The militia killsquad arrives in Culpepper to find the
streets deserted. Jim greets them in the centre of town. Miles steps out of the
woods behind them when the commander asks where he is. He warns the captain to
surrender, they have him surrounded – something the captain doesn’t believe and
orders them handcuffed (better to have them shot but then we wouldn’t get all
the fancy sword play). Jim turns pulls a sword and Miles starts slicing and
dicing with his bared blades – Nora attacks from behind. Well, there may be
only 3 of them, but he’s right, they did have the militia surrounded. Jim is
distracted in the fight and sees Sophie, in a window, watching in horror. The
captain notices and heads her way.
At the abandoned rebel camp, Charlie hands Aaron a gun
but they’ve been separated from Rachel – and she is captured by Randal and his
soldiers. Rachel agrees to turn the power back on but not working with Monroe.
Randal doesn’t want to put the power back on – it was abused by too many
people, he wants to put the power in the hands of the few (those who will
definitely abuse it) and make a better world. As they leave the facility though,
Charlie opens fire on them, hitting several soldiers and giving Rachel chance
to run and the three of them chance to escape.
At Culpepper the dream team slaughter the rest extras
while the captain breaks into the library. He finds Sophie and draws his sword
to kill her – when Jim attacks him from behind and hacks him into teeny tiny
little pieces. While saved, Sophie looks a little disturbed.
Militia body clean up time. And Jim tries to explain
things to Sophie – who leaves without listening after asking if anything is
true. Jim tells Miles that he’s ruined his life, again – but he will go with
him, what other choice does he have (run away somewhere else? Just saying).
To the camp where everyone meets up again (rendezvous
point) and Charlie and Rachel have a bonding moment. Charlie apologises to
Rachel and explains how for so long (10 episodes) her sole goal was to get
Danny back – and now she can’t.
Randal has another flashback to the night of the Blackout
and them deploying the weapon in Kabul, telling them to use the weapon while
holding his dead son’s dogtags.
Aaron sits down while Charlie is asleep to talk to
Rachel, he wants to know what’s going on. She’s reluctant but he appeals to
their old friendship, him, Rachel and Ben, and she says ok and starts to tell
him about the tower.
Ok, while big-tough Charlie is really getting on my last
nerve, my very last nerve indeed, and I want something to eat her I can’t
entirely condemn her here and not just for a “everyone grieves differently”
reason. While her behaviour towards Rachel makes throttling seem tempting,
there is a point to her resenting Rachel coming back and assuming a motherhood
role after years of absence. Even if that absence was beyond Rachel’s control,
she has been away from, as far as we can tell, many years and most of Danny’s
life and at least a significant proportion of Charlie’s.
I did quite like Aaron constantly assuming some kind of
expertise about the pendants and every step Rachel quietly showing him just how
little he knows and that, as the pendant’s creator, she knows far more than
him.
I like to have some motivation for my bad guys, but,
really I don’t think it was necessary to try and make Randal sympathetic. He wanted
to make a weapon to secure power and now, in a new world, he wants to ensure
only a select group keep power. He works for the DoD, this does not need a dead
child to give him this mindset – or the DoD would have to have grief therapy
Thursdays every other week.
While I like the addition of Jim and increasing the
diversity of the show, I also can’t look past the fact Miles has swooped in,
utterly destroyed his life (AGAIN) and dragged him off to deal with Miles’s
problems. You got a life here, Jim? Tough, white guy got a problem, drop
everything and move out – and be thankful Sophie survived because there was at
least an 80% chance of her dying to give you a revenge motive.
