Come Blow Your Horn (208)

[GateWorld]

REVOLUTION - SEASON TWO COME BLOW YOUR HORN EPISODE NUMBER - 208 Miles and Rachel plot a chemical attack on the Patriot leadership, only to find that her father will be among them. Neville tries to manipulate Secretary Allenford's husband, and Aaron falls into the dangerous hands of Dr. Calvin Horn. VISIT THE EPISODE GUIDE >>

[VampyreWraith]

I really enjoyed the episode; I loved almost everything about it.

Loved Rachel; I love it when she's all ruthless and determined(even if she comes off looking a bit unstable). Rachel standing there mixing chemicals while Miles was beating a guy for info was great. I am glad she came around regarding her father though. Gene was great in this episode too, I really felt for him.

I loved seeing Rachel and Charlie work(cook) together.

I loved Monroe. I loved watching him kill those Patriots. I love the use of swords on this show. I'm glad he's still just doing things for his own reasons, and not because he's suddenly turned into a good guy that wants to help everyone out. I was kind of afraid that they would make him too nice lol.

I loved Neville. I love watching him be ruthless and manipulative. I liked Justine Allenford, but I'm not upset that she died the way she did(she is dead, isn't she?).

I really liked getting some backstory on Horn. I think he's a good character. I like that even Truman seems afraid of him.

The only problem I had with this episode was Aaron. What happened in this episode with Aaron's ability(or inability) to use his powers, is the main reason I don't like it when powers are introduced in a show like this. Powers can only work when it's convenient to the plot, otherwise things are too easy, so reasons have to be manufactured to block those powers. Sometimes those reasons make sense, sometimes they don't.

I'm not really understanding why Aaron didn't at least end up setting Horn on fire when he was cutting him. The sedatives that were given to Aaron weren't strong enough to block pain(he screamed, so we know he felt it when he was getting cut); why wasn't the pain enough to illicit an emotional response that would cause Aaron to set people on fire? Why wasn't Horn turned into a smoldering corpse?(Other than the obvious reason that the writers still had use for the character.) It would have been more understandable if Aaron was totally out of it and couldn't feel anything, but from what was shown/heard, he wasn't; he was pretty lucid and in pain.

I know that they had Cynthia as a hostage in the other room to try to ensure his cooperation; but it doesn't really make sense that he would trust them not to hurt her and that he would just go along with them. Since he can apparently set people on fire with his thoughts, wouldn't it have been safer/easier/make more sense for him to just kill everyone and escape with Cynthia. It's what he's done before, and he's never been able to stop himself from setting people on fire; it just ended up happening when he's been really upset. Shouldn't being captured, threatened, and tortured and have made him really upset. Maybe there's more to it, or maybe I'm overthinking this and/or missing something lol.

Anyway, despite my problems with Aaron's captivity and his inability to use his powers, I really enjoyed the episode.

[garhkal]

Its cause he can't control when the kick in that he didn't try. BUT once again it shows how gullible aaron is to think that they would keep their word.
As to horn, i like that he is doing this out of a reason to save himself more so than just wanting to be able to control aaron to kill his enemies.. but who knows maybe that is also his reason.

[VampyreWraith]

But if he can't control them, shouldn't the Patriots be dead anyway, since every other time Aaron has been threatened/really scared the nanites have responded by setting people on fire. Except for the time he was killed anyway, but that happed suddenly, if I remember correctly(but maybe not). If he's trying not to set Patriots on fire, and he doesn't' end up setting them on fire, that implies a level of control. Unless the nanites themselves had a specific reason for not wanting to set people on fire at the time? Or they were just unable to do so for some reason? Also, Horn's pretty reckless for assuming that Aaron has control.

I think Horn wants both, to get better and to kill his enemies. He seems pretty deranged right now, I guess his illness could be making him that way though.

[garhkal]

Perhaps they respond not only to his 'anger' but what is causing it.. All 3 times either he or someone he was buddies with was in real jeopardy.

[VampyreWraith]

The time that Cynthia's jerk of a husband was set on fire, no one was in any real immediate danger though. Aaron was walking away, clearly angry, and Cynthia's husband was already back in the car with that other woman.

[ZRFTS]

Come Blow Your Horn

Spoiler:

On tonight's episode of Revolution, we get an episode which supposedly deals with the father/daughter relationship and the mother/daughter relationship. All things that have been overplayed for this season. But wait, what's this? Aaron's in it? And the nefarious bad guy is in it? Well I'm somewhat sold but still...

The first things you need to know is that this episode is slow; you have Miles jumping in and out of a building at random times, the obvious "Patriots" are bad news business and people just standing around discussing matters. It's kind of boring to say the least; while you get your minimum dose of character exposition and storyline progression, it seems like you have to suffer through what seems to be an undetermined amount of time to get to it and trust me, it's the same as the past 7 episodes. It's problematic because it's the most pivotal moment of the episode; the one where everything comes to fuition. I don't know what scenes in which nothing happen and scenes involving cooking would do for the characters but to other people it might be satisfactory; for me it isn't. I want more from this show, I want character exposition, I want progress, I don't want to be held back by the same old stuff.

One thing that'll grab viewers is the amount of action that's in this episode. You've got your usual "intricately planned out action", your "sudden spontanious action" and your "confrontational" action. Action is usually good in that it keeps the audience excited and hooked and as expected the action is as flashy and well produced as you expect; to me it's a detractor but here it's tolerable, tolerable to the point where it improves the episode. I thought this was going to be a slow episode dealing with relationships but when the action kicks in, man it'd be working. You get to see the end plan take full effect as we see Monroe slash throats, patriots inject tranquilizer into Aaron and tons and tons of screaming and trust me, things are coming to a close. This of course leads to increased stakes and as you know, increased skates can make a series better; just look at The Siege from Stargate Atlantis.

Mother and daughter bonding.

There is the added twist of dealing with family relationships such as that with Aaron and his wife and Rachel and her father but they never get developed much, especially Aaron's where we get only one scene in which the wife is all pissed but then the relationship is reset to the usual wife/husband relationship with no mention at all. The relationship with Rachel's Father is done better to an extent with the father delivering some exceptional lines but the characters don't do much with it besides state the usual "you broke our trust" and "how could you do this?" While it was redeemed at the end, I think they could of done better. Something like have the relationship between daugher and father explored, explore the feelings of distrust that they experience, make the relationship between Charlie/Rachel less than a fight. I would like to see the relationship with Rachel and her father continue on but the relationship between Charlie/Rachel desperately needs to go.

One positive benefit that comes from the episode is our new bad guy and his newfound revelation. Through flashbacks, the show tries to weakly explore religion that contrasts the power of faith and whether or not god exists. It's admirable that the show would want to explore religion and how it compares to stuff such as nanites that can heal anything and is based on technology we know and but the whole religion thing has been worn out for quite a while as have every show that has tried to explore it (including Stargate Universe). One of the best things is that it gives this guy character; by giving him character, it makes him less like a generic creepy bad guy and more like a desperate person that just wants to live. I thought he just wanted Aaron to control him but no, he doesn't. The torturing, the analysis, the knowledge, it all makes sense by giving this bad guy character. It actually draws me to the show and makes me want to somewhat root for this character even though he has an odd fixation with Aaron.

Pure faith.

One thing that is coming to fruition is Nevil's plot to get Patriot High Command to see her wife The Senator. It seems like Nevil is finally going to get his revenge against the US Government; really, until the entire thing becomes a continuation of Nevil's plot to rise to the top, when is that plot going to end?. Although questions do have to be asked whether or not they're doing that for his wife or for power. It does provide some intricate dialog about love, trust and just how evil these Patriots are; it's interesting to see just how much they love one another and how certain things can conflict with love, such as brainwashing and being on the run and betrayal. The guy really utilizes the better writing to his advantage and he shows his love as best as he ever can, the wife's no slouch either. He comments on the trust of Nevil to his son Jason and even shares an emotional moment with two tears! Now if that isn't improvement than I don't know what is!

Overall, this is the pivotal moment in their journey where everything gets better but it's still not better than most of the stuff on TV right now. It's got it all, action, dialogue, character exposition but it also contains boredom, overly flashy scenes, unexplored plots and general disappointment all around. Still despite all that; it's a big step for Revolution and it's the episode before the episode which has all of the promise and revelation that you expect from a series like this. Nicely done.

6.5/10

[Looney]

The only problem I had with this episode was Aaron. What happened in this episode with Aaron's ability(or inability) to use his powers, is the main reason I don't like it when powers are introduced in a show like this. Powers can only work when it's convenient to the plot, otherwise things are too easy, so reasons have to be manufactured to block those powers. Sometimes those reasons make sense, sometimes they don't.

I couldn't agree more. I don't mind the "powers" plot being introduced, but it is all how they use it. And of course, the powers "can only work when it's convenient to the plot". It is ridiculous. All of those guys would have been burned up from what we've seen with regards to these powers. When you introduce a story or story elements you set up rules. The rules have been established that when Aaron feels threatened or feels someone he cares about is being threatened then people explode. You falter when you try to change or break those established rules just because they don't fit the plot you want to explore this week. Yeah we don't know everything about these powers, but nothing we saw in that episode, except when they drugged him to the point that he couldn't walk, should have stopped those guys from exploding into flames. They established that he really can't control it other than controlling his emotions and he didn't really control his emotions when he was getting cut.

Another problem I had with it was when she brought up him killing her husband. Where is the "I didn't do it on purpose." or "I didn't know I did it." I hate it when they leave obvious responses out of dialogue just for dramatic effect.