Lord of the Fireflies - Revolution, Season 2, Episode 1

The season opens with a repeat of Randall’s suicide, reminding us all, as if we needed a reminder, that Randall is a total asshole.  Miles and Rachel spend a few desperate moments berating Aaron to turn the power back off, desperate to now stop two atomic bombs hitting major East Coast cities.  Well, they’ve been launched, Miles and Rach, they’ll fall somewhere no matter what you do.  Have Miles and Rach considered (of course they haven’t) that recovering from a nuclear strike would be easier with electrical power?  Grace’s darker prediction ended up coming true, in a way. Rachel did end the world, at least for Atlanta and Philly.

We cut to Charlie in a bar, working on getting laid.  Charlie has emigrated, leaving her mother and uncle about two months after arriving in Texas.  She’s drifting through a post-apocalyptic, Wild West version of Sex and The City.  I can’t blame her.  The very opposite of the trusting girl who thought the world outside would be kinder a season ago, she gets a tip on a certain asshole’s location, within easy traveling distance from her.  She can’t have electricity, or ice cream, or even her old postcards back.  But she can at least put Sebastian Monroe’s head on pike.

We cut to Miles stumbling out of a shed, bloody from obviously killing someone, because he burns down the shed.  Miles does what he always does.  He burns the shed, cleans himself off, and stumbles back to the small Texas town he’s been living in, slipping right past the sheriff.  Miles may realize what a terrible person he is, but it’s not like he wants to pay a price, or suffer any consequences, for his flaws.  He returns to Rachel, and we find out they’ve been living with Rachel’s dad for about six months now.  Rachel blames herself for the nuclear strikes on the East Coast, probably thinking that if she had just screamed into Aaron’s ear a little louder, the bombs would have magically gone back to their silos.  While I can’t blame her for turning the power back on, everyone rooted for that for good reasons, I can definitely blame her for stupidly turning the power back off just when approximately 10 million people on the East Coast needed hospitals, emergency transportation, heat and clean water.  

Aaron has “remarried”, got another teaching job near Rach and Miles, and is basically trying desperately not to tell his new wife, whose name I refuse to learn because she’ll be dead by the mid-season finale, everything.  Who would believe him anyway?  Well, he could tell the fireflies that glow like the Northern Lights in his backyard.  But then, the fireflies probably already know everything.

While patching Miles up from his fight, Rachel’s dad decides to give Miles the “You’re terrible for my daughter.  Disappear before I get all medieval lord on you” speech.  Miles listens and tries to ride off, after a pointless attempt by Rachel to convince him to stay.  I’m of two minds on their relationship.  Part of me wants them to just jump each other already, stumbling through mistake after mistake together.  But they’d probably tear each other apart if they face their own flaws together; better to screw up, each on their own, and minimize the damage to civilization.  Miles gets as far as the shed he’s burned down, only to find that his fighting skills are needed for a nearby family being attacked by outlaws so bad Miles ends up dragging a body back to town to explain to the sheriff just how bad.  The sheriff, in contradiction to every way a plot warning is supposed to go, believes Miles and starts to shore up the town’s defenses.  Miles and Rachel talk again about whether they’ll ever be rid of each other.   We find out that Rachel still thinks Charlie will return to her.  Miles knows that’s not going to happen, we know that’s not going to happen. 

Major Neville has not been idle.  He’s presumably walked back to Georgia to wander through refugee camps looking for his very likely dead wife.  Jason is resigned to his mother’s fate, going from pity for his father’s hopeless crusade to contempt at Tom’s meager attempt to commit suicide. An old-fashioned sailing ship showing up with food and US flags, coincidentally on a sunny day, sliding through a shining river brings everyone together.  It’s run by US military, and a woman who introduces herself as a Cabinet Secretary of some kind shows up with kind words for them, respect for the rebels fighting against Georgia’s mortal enemy, accusations of genocide against Monroe and his militia, and assurances that now they have something to live for.  Tom, who is only driven by naked self-interest and hate, has a new purpose.  He knows this woman is full of shit.  But he wants to know exactly what game they’re playing, and then ruin it somehow.  Their game, whatever it is, involves jail cells in the basement of the old White House.

Sebastian Monroe is obviously doing well, in a job that allows and encourages his psychotic desire to kill.  No more uniforms, no more burdens of governing the NE United States.  Just beating guys up, to the death(?), with his bare hands.  He’s not really happy, but numbs himself with booze and gambling.  Someone besides Charlie is interested in him, but Charlie moves first with the bookie, setting up the kill.  That she almost gets.  Christ, Charlie, shoot sooner next time.  Unnamed stalker guy has buddies who whisk Monroe away in the dark, with Charlie getting the choice of either following and getting her revenge, or letting these guys do whatever with him.

Aaron is locking up, and deciding to stay up and keep watch over the house.  His resolution is quickly forgotten when his wife tells him she’s in the mood.  Which is just as well, since their bedroom is where the first attack on the town starts, with Aaron taking a baseball bat to the guy, and getting a good hit in before his inexperience and (still!) terrible physical shape get him slashed across the chest.    Nothing can help him now, and he bleeds to death in Rachel’s arms while Miles attacks the invaders, and is saved by the sheriff’s awesome shooting.  Really. The guy is a firearms expert or something.  Too bad he doesn’t remember to check behind him, because that’s where the blow that takes him down comes from.  Surrounded, Miles gives us the resigned-to-yet-another-stupid-defeat look.  Marched up to the invaders’ leader, we then get the what-the-fuck-is-this look when the leader offers them tea.  Sweet tea.  I’m thinking he’s got some of the last half tea/half lemonade bottled drinks in existence. 

Rachel has still not left Aaron, even after the wife goes downstairs and sees the fireflies gathering outside.  We are left to admire the show for killing off a major character in the season premiere, which is a gutsy move.  But that admiration turns to resignation at contrived plot lines when we close on Aaron’s face, at peace before he gasps and opens his eyes.

Questions – who did Miles kill at the beginning of the episode?  Why are fireflies now glowing green and stalking Aaron?  How long until Monroe and Charlie have hot sex?