'No Quarter' - Revolution, Season One

Revolution

Season One

Episode Three

‘No Quarter’ – 5.5

The majority of these men die pointlessly because Mark Pellegrino can't spell 'tactic'

I don’t actually know what ‘No Quarter’ refers to, other than it being the title of tonight’s instalment, all I know is that this show has yet to dig itself out of its disturbing rut of predictability and absolutely god-awful characterisation. Miles, I still hate you. I do not understand why the general consensus is that you’re cool, you’re just kind of pathetic.

Actually, while it still hasn’t fixed any of its major issues, something about ‘No Quarter’ brought a higher level of quality to the nearly failing drama. Perhaps it was because the cringe-worthy performances were overshadowed by the amount of action, even if the action involved some very dodgy CGI smoke. Seriously, the acting is deplorable: Charlie and Miles (Tracy Spiridakos and Billy Burke, respectively) are the apparent protagonists, and yet neither would ever receive a call back from me – assuming this were some extended audition tape or something. I’d look at it, shake my head then move on. If I were a producer, I probably wouldn’t get rid of Miles (he’s too damn popular) – not yet anyway – but Charlie would certainly be on the chopping block.

For this niece/uncle pair, most of their storyline takes place in the base of Nora’s rebel alliance. Am I getting too Star Wars-y? God I hope not, because I honestly didn’t enjoy at least half of those movies. Though now that I think of it, there really are a lot of similarities between these two universes, with their weird mix of the modern and the archaic, as well as the anti-establishment ideology and oppressive enforcement of unjust rules and such. All they need is a Darth Vader and they are cool. Anyway, some of the rebels are wounded after attempting a raid on a militia group which resulted in a dozen fatalities and one of them captured. If anyone on this show was remotely intelligent or prepared for war, they would know that you run now. Yeah, Miles makes that point, but Nora, who is supposed to be some powerful revolutionary, decides to stay. I hope you die, Nora. Not because I don’t like you, but because realistically, you would. War is not idealistic, you can’t hope that carrying a puppy will save you a bullet to the brain, you have to work your hardest to ensure your group’s survival, and remaining exactly where they know you are (to help the injured soldiers, no less) is largely counter-intuitive. Sorry Nora, but realism just issued a death warrant with your name on it.

I don’t think realism has much to do with this show at all though, as sure enough a whole swarm of Monroe’s militia turn up at the base, guns blazing and taking out a boy that Charlie had shown an interest in. Mark Pellegrino plays the commanding officer of this little brigade, and I was happy to see a pretty good performance amongst this mess, even if the character himself isn’t much more than a bad guy. Anyway, the rebels are outnumbered, but they have the sniper rifle, sending a guy up onto the roof to take out any of the soldiers that get too close. The militia’s tactic was bizarre; sacrifice soldiers until the bullets run out. You’re kidding right? You aren’t even going to try and shoot the sniper? Every time he fires he gives away his position, and he’s not even ducking or anything. I like your character, Pellegrino, but he isn’t much of a battle strategist. Sure, your guns kind of suck, and need to have the gun powder patted down before they work, but that doesn’t mean you can’t at least TRY and hit the guy who’s taking you down. And they send one at a time as well, despite the fact there are like fifty of them! The tree line is like ten metres from the base, no sniper can take out that many soldiers before they run ten metres. THINK, PELLEGRINO. God.

Eventually the rebels do run out of ammo, and the militia quickly storms the base, but somehow (I don’t understand exactly how) Miles is able to disable Pellegrino’s character and restrain him, while the rest of the soldiers... stand around? I have no idea what they were doing. I don’t think that they wanted to see their commanding officer’s throat sliced, but he honestly seemed to care less. You were so willing to sacrifice one another to the pointless sniper death, yet you won’t let your head honcho die? Whatever.

Miles actually knows Pellegrino, and through a couple running flashbacks we learn that the two had met under unfortunate circumstances. Seems that six months following the blackout, Miles and Monroe had set off on a bonding mission to track down Ben Matheson, only for Miles to become struck by the total anarchy they encountered along the way. In a moment of vigilantism, Miles rescues a man from a daring highway robbery, killing his two attackers. Surprisingly (not), the man he saved was Pellegrino (Ok, I’m sure he had an actual name, but I don’t remember what it was). Back in the now (well, the important time), Pellegrino explains that Miles is actually the cofounder of the Monroe Militia, and had both commanded and trained the soldiers for years before going rogue. In his own words, Miles explains that the soldiers are ‘brutal and smart and vicious because of me’, which totally fits the description of the thirty-or-so men who just died pointlessly outside your door.

Heroically, Miles offers to turn himself into the Militia in return for the freedom of the rebels, a proposition that Pellegrino jumps on, and our annoying protagonist is led off to certain doom while Charlie and Nora and all the rest get to remain behind. It’s not that simple though, since this show refuses to lose a ‘good’ character, having Charlie and the others instigating an ambush of the militia as they transport their prisoner, using powerful (but CGI) explosives to take out a bridge and put some distance between Miles and Pellegrino, rescuing him from a plotline that could have been somewhat interesting. Oh well.

For the other militia prisoner, Danny Matheson, the trapped life is pretty rudimentary. He gets mistreated by his guard, who throws his water at his feet, then later beats him with a sack of potatoes or something. Either way, the soft spoken little shit deserved it, and I was unsatisfied when he regained the upper hand over one of these ‘brutal and smart and vicious’ soldiers. Isn’t he supposed to be a sheltered sixteen year old? Again, realism has a death warrant. Get Ned Stark on this dickwad’s arse!