'The Plague Dogs' - Revolution, Season One

Revolution

Season One

Episode Four

'The Plague Dogs' - 5.5

Some how, the blonde woman in front is kidnapped before they get to the diner just ahead, without anyone noticing. Sense?

And so Revolution claims its first real victim. No, it wasn't really anyone important, rather it was a character who had most likely been destined to die in order to increase the drama and up the ante, as it were. Nonetheless, I was a little surprised.

I'd have to say that 'The Plague Dogs' was another improvement for the show, and I admit that I'm actually enjoying the ability to turn my brain off for a short period of time and just absorb the cheesy awful of Revolution. Yeah, the dialogue is perhaps the worst that I've ever seen in a show of this scope, and on the whole I find it entirely devoid of personality or style, but yeah, I'm not minding it. I still wouldn't worry too much if it was cancelled, but I'm still planning to get through it. 

I wonder if my sudden lack of derision stems from my slow acceptance of Charlie as a protagonist. At the moment I still think Miles is depressing in his horrible conception and portrayal, but Tracy Spiridakos proved herself worthy tonight, depicting her character's grief and desperation, as well as kindness and fear all with realism and ability. Sure, it was standard TV emotions, i.e. over-the-mountain-top, incapacitating outpourings, but she did them well. 

The group learns early on that they are approaching Danny's captors, garnering information from a militant at a way station that his convoy passed through only the day before. This gives them incentive to move just a bit faster, as while they are catching up, they are also nearing his apparent destination. First though, the two halves of the pack convene in Lowell, having spent two weeks apart since their division in 'Chained Heat'. Once darkness falls, the group is attacked by a pack of hungry and wild dogs, who chase them through the city ruins and nearly tear Aaron's leg off. In order to save his life, Maggie kills the offending canine with a crossbow.

Aaron's absolutely fine though, despite clearly needing medical attention. He's well enough to walk the next morning at least. Ug, this show. Anyway, as they stroll through an abandoned amusement park, who should they confront but fucking Nate, who Miles is able to disarm. Charlie convinces him not to kill the dickwad for some reason, apparently for information. Whatever Charlie, I bet you're just going to sodomise the prisoner when no one's looking. Whore.

The dogs attack again, sending them all scampering into a diner for safety, only they lose Maggie in the process. No, she isn't killed by wild dogs, God, this is primetime, general masses-style television. No one's getting torn apart. Maggie is instead seized by their owner, who, rather than have his animals do his business, he'd rather do it himself, trying his hardest to jam his knife into her eye socket. She's too strong though, and she manages to deflect him long enough for him to settle on a simple leg stab instead, before running off when Miles turns up. 

Of course Maggie dies, but not before a long period of time is wasted trying to save her. Miles and Nora go off to try and track down the crazed dog man while Charlie and Aaron work their hardest to save the woman. Unfortunately, Charlie is grabbed while gathering supplies and dragged off into his creepy bad-guy lair, where he gives an insane monologue to his new prisoner. Not insane in a good way, insane in a clichéd, 'you remind me of my dead daughter' way. I didn't even cringe or shudder. It wasn't very interesting. 

I did cringe briefly as he set up a crossbow to fire right between Charlie's eyes when the door is opened though, clearly anticipating her rescue party to arrive shortly. Miles brings Nate with him this time, leaving Nora to help conduct the surgery on Maggie's leg, who is suffering from a severed artery. That's a good prognosis right here...

Crazy man is easily killed by Nate and Miles, but they come within centimetres of taking Charlie out as well, but lucky for them she's managed to loosen the chair she's sitting on and rock it out of the arrow's path. I admit though, I kind of wanted to see her get it in the brain. It would have been a gutsy move... Alas...

They return her to the diner where Nora and Aaron complete the surgery on Maggie, but sadly she's lost too much blood and dies after informing Charlie that she saved her. There's a whole long story here that was told through flashbacks - Maggie got stuck in the US, tried getting home for years, gave up and tried to kill herself, saved by Ben - but it is rendered so utterly pointless by her death I can't be bothered going into details. Regardless, I was depressed by the loss of this character, if only because of Charlie's desperate pleas as she died. I was a little put off that she died like so many other TV characters die; quickly. I'm not saying torture her, but they always just imply that the death of someone from blood loss just happens. No, you lose consciousness first, often a few minutes or more before you actually die. Did they even check her pulse? 

I'm angry now. 

The world's worst character - Danny - continues his really bizarre run of expert skills, this time predicting the arrival of a tornado. He convinces the convoy to pull into a shed while the storm passes, but is able to distract them with a wayward horse while he makes a run for it, only to be apprehended by Captain Neville and dragged into the basement. The two get to talking down there, with Neville likening himself to Ben Matheson, much to Danny's chagrin. He gets his small victory though, as Neville ends up trapped under a collapsed ceiling, a heavy range top only inches away from crashing down and crushing the captain. Danny's an idiot though, and he saves him only to get handcuffed and led away again. God you people suck. Giancarlo Esposito gives a heck of a performance, easily delivering the awful dialogue with thrilling and chilling mastery. I don't think I've really heaped praise on this guy enough yet, but I'm young and can't quite place him in anything before this. Nonetheless he's fantastic, and you people need to inform me of where I can find more of him. It was like torture though, watching him act circles around Graham Rogers, who I think needs to be axed. Seriously.

My other favourite actor on this show? Elizabeth Mitchell. The mum if you were wondering. No, not the dead one, the dead one that isn't dead, the one that Monroe is holding prisoner. It probably just stems from my Lost love (ha!), but I know for a fact that she can really bring it to the table performance-wise, and she definitely hinted at her underlying abilities at moments tonight. Notably, when Monroe came in to her beautiful prison to tell her that despite her strong will in torture - yeah she was tortured, wanna fight about it? - she would be a horrible mother if she could withstand Danny's torture. Rachel Matheson was absolutely shattered, but she couldn't show weakness to her captor, choosing to act with a cold, passive-aggressive stance that is highly reminiscent of Juliet Burke. 

Through flashbacks, we see Rachel leaving her children for the apparent last time and turning herself into the hands of the militia, this time led by none other than Miles himself. And I'm supposed to be surprised?

I find the flashbacks a tad tiresome. They aren't adding anything to the story really, we are just watching events we already knew happened. Hell, watch Lost for some great flashbacks, or even freaking 'The Walking Dead'. You need to know when and where to place them, you can't just chuck them about and expect people to care. I sure don't, not now that I know I can still see Elizabeth Mitchell in the normal timeline. 

I don't know if I can like this show while Miles is here and while the dialogue is this heartless. There are just so many little things wrong, I can't believe that this is produced by JJ Abrams. Often when I watch television shows, I think to myself how could I write something like this, but I'm almost viewing this show as a lesson in how NOT to write television. Yeah, it's beginning to intrigue me, but that fact is making me sadder than Maggie's death every could have. You could have introduced me to some of these people before you start killing them. DID MAGGIE EVEN HAVE A SURNAME?