Enjoy the Torture! - Revolution - Season 2, Episode 22 - Series Finale

Oh, the joy of happy endings!  At least, for some of us.  Revolution ends its season, as well as the Series, with our heroes smiling as one of Miles' crazy plans finally works.  Literally, twenty episodes of failed ideas finally get erased because Miles finally gets lucky.  And Monroe finally comes through.  Aaron gets Priscilla back, but she has bad news for him which we only get to speculate on.

Let's start with Rachel and Aaron's electrocution experiment, which didn't work.  Nano Priscilla is still in control, although we finally get a glimpse inside the real Priscilla's head.  Real Priscilla is basically repeating the same awesome day over and over, enjoying a joke with her fake daughters, when a lightning storm strikes right outside the house, meant to convey that Aaron and Rachel's stunt actually pierced the dream she's having.  She's stunned, but her "daughters" try to get her attention back to them, and the dream she's having.  Nano Priscilla is busy working on Rachel and Aaron, as she literally tries to beat them to death.  Both notice that she's bleeding from an ear, and Aaron decides to re-try the useless talking from last week, this time shouting at Nano Priscilla, hoping to reach the unconscious, real one.  He tells her to wake up, that she's been taken over.  And he tells her that she's the love of his life, and he just wants her back.

It's faint, at first, but as Real Priscilla realizes she's hearing Aaron's voice, her "daughters" transform into eyeless, mouthless beings.  She realizes, finally, that it's a dream, and rushes out the door of her "house", standing outside and forcing herself to wake up.  As the Nano loses control, she gets a flash of disconnected images, too quick to make out before she can wake up.  Which, she finally does, crying at realizing that the last few weeks haven't been real.  Nano Priscilla, and Starship, are finally gone.

Miles and Monroe invade the courthouse just as Ed is walking President Davis away, a tech is setting up the gas and Marion as a patsy, and soldiers are chaining the doors shut.  They hack at the chains, and kill the soldiers at the doors.  Miles bursts into the courthouse, with all of Willoughby frozen in place.  Realizing that he's not properly dressed, and carrying a massive gun, he shouts, "Run, you idots!".

I've got a gun!  Run away from me!

His plan works- the people are convinced he's come to attack them, and rush away from the mustard gas, foiling Ed's plan.  He and President Davis  hear gunshots as their plan is foiled, and Davis begins to lose faith in Ed, who escorts him to a bunker.  Carver, President of Texas, joins them almost immediately, demanding to know what's going on.  President Davis sends a coded warning to Ed, that he just fucked up his last chance.  Ed, in true selfish fashion, simply shoots everyone there except President Davis.  The two men stand together among the bodies, and Ed says he's going with Plan B.  Carver is now dead, and Ed decides to make himself the hero.  Why not?  It's his plan.  He shoots himself in the arm.

Both Ed and Davis, the next morning, arms in slings, recount how Carver was killed by Miles and Monroe working for California.  Scanlon wanders in and out of the crowd.  While Blacksmith Joe and his daughter look on in fear, the newly-saved residents of Willoughby cheer enthusiastically for Davis and Ed as they announce that Texas has officially declared war, and the Patriots will be with Texas every step of the way. To disaster.  Willoughby will have to sacrifice Ed for the war effort, as he'll be right there with Texas, guiding them to "victory".

Back at the super secret hideout, Gene is crushed after finding Marion's body the night before.  They were lovers once, and then friends.  And, he sent her back to Willoughby and Ed despite her fear.  And now she's dead, probably by Ed for discovering the gas he was about to use on the town.  Monroe is bitchy, as he now can't find Connor, Neville, or Scanlon.  He whines to Miles that he went along with Miles to the rescue, only to lose his own son.  To Neville, of all people.  Rachel thinks the lives of about 200 people are a decent consolation prize, but we all know that's not enough.  Monroe's idea is to just kill President Davis.  Miles is thinking kidnapping, and he sends Gene, Dr. Rachel's Dad, to contact Miles' old buddy Frank Blanchard, stabbed by a Patriot cadet, but recovering in Austin.  Somehow, Miles will get Texas a full confession of the Patriots' crimes.  He sends Blacksmith Joe to find about three trusted buddies.  Joe is absolute as he assures Miles he's got friends, even if Miles isn't.

Rachel checks in with Aaron, who is worried over Priscilla.  She has a fever, and is sleeping it off.  Who will wake up?  Priscilla, or the Nano?  Rachel tells him to wait it out.

Neville, Connor and Scanlon, sitting around a campfire, decide to kill President Davis.  And Neville knows just how he'll do it.  Miles tries giving Monroe, Rachel and Charlie a pep talk, which Monroe cuts short.

Neville, Connor and Scanlon scope out the road Davis will have to take to get to the train station, which is, horribly, located far away, along an easy to ambush route.  Instead of close to the town it's supposed to serve.  But he's disappointed, as Team Miles hits it before they can.  Neville, Connor and Scanlon can only show up late to an empty convoy, Davis gone.

Foiled, twice in one episode.  A fitting end.

President Davis, gagged and tied up like the boss in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, is being marched away towards a waiting wagon.  When he gives Rachel a funny look, she confesses to the team that they already know each other.  

Sucks balls for you, dude

The Patriots, though, have caught on and are coming for Davis.  And them.  The front wave is on horseback, but there's a second wave coming on foot.  And their numbers are just not beatable.  So, stuck behind the ruined chimney of an old house, Miles sends Davis on with Monroe, to meet up later at whatever rendezvous they've got.  Miles is pretty bitchy about it, but he tells Monroe that he's trusting him, and Monroe understands.  If Monroe doesn't come through, Miles' whole plan is for nothing.  So, Monroe better choose him this time.  Monroe escapes with Davis, and Miles finishes off the mounted Patriots.  He, Rachel and Charlie run off to lead the Patriot soldiers on foot away from President Davis.

Dr. Rachel's Dad finds Blanchard easily enough in Austin, and he's back in fine, lecherous form.  Until, that is, he realizes Gene isn't his doctor.  Gene calms him down, and says he's got a plan from Miles.  Blanchard, not missing a beat, points to a paper he's reading, full of war and bluster, and says Miles is too late.  Gene, though, is still hopeful, telling Blanchard that Miles' plan is a little better than Blanchard thinks.

Miles, Rachel and Charlie are hiking through the woods, silently, until Monroe acknowledges that he might have been foolish to trust Monroe.  He polls Charlie, trying to rationalize his decision, but Charlie reminds him that Monroe is unpredictable.  Miles reminds them that Monroe came to help them end the mustard gas plot.  He also reminds them that he's supposed to be a good person now.  With faith.  And hope.  And sunshine coming out his ass.  They walk on together.  There's nothing they can do except get to the meeting place, and wait for Monroe.  To show or not.

Monroe holes up in an abandoned utility shed, setting President Davis around while he scopes out the surroundings for trouble.  Davis tries to use the moment to chat, and tries to butter Monroe up.  Monroe leans in real close, and uses his patented creepy half-whisper technique to set Davis straight.  He's never going to help Davis, who he considers a smarmy fake.   Miles' plan might not work out, but either way, Monroe will enjoy killing him.  The look on Davis' face, with a guy he can't scare and bluff, makes Monroe happy.

Outside, Monroe is approached by Connor, stubbly messy-looking.  Gone is the cute kid they picked up in Mexico.  Now there is a bitter young man who tells Monroe that both Neville and Scanlon are ready to shoot, and his only chance is to hand over President Davis for Neville to kill.  Connor is fine with Texas and California tearing each other apart, and reminds Monroe that they would have to kill Davis eventually, anyway.  Monroe turns him down.  After all the mistakes of the previous seasons, Miles is still willing to trust him.  Monroe, for once, wants to make his old friend happy.  Connor is tired, and he just can't take his dad preferring Miles over him anymore.  Neville and Scanlon open fire.  Monroe manages to kill Scanlon. Neville and Connor advance on him, and Monroe evades them by going back into the shed.  When Neville and Connor finally break in, they find it empty, with the door on the other side locked as the door they entered through shuts behind them.  Monroe, outside, barricades them in.  After placing Davis in the wagon, he rides off.  Leaving his son trapped with Neville.

It's the dead of night, when Monroe finally meets Team Miles at their rendezvous, which is an old farmhouse.  Miles is relieved when they show up, and announces that they're watering the horses and leaving in ten minutes.

This is us, being patient

While they wait inside with a still tied up and gagged Davis, Rachel takes the chance to sit Davis down, and tell him he's been a very bad boy.  And no, he's going to bed with no dessert.  Calling him an insult to the Real America, she curses him with a "Screw you from the bottom of my heart".  When Patriot soldiers surprise them, and take the house, guns on all of Team Miles, Rachel is still unrepentant.  She tells him, about to die, that people will figure out the truth about him some day.

Davis, back on top with his soldiers around him, enjoys telling Rachel that Americans don't really want freedom.  They want to feel safe.  And they will hand over control to anyone who tells them what they want to hear.  He orders the soldiers to kill everyone on the spot, but they hesitate.  They drop their weapons as the camera moves to show... Blacksmith Joe!  His guys are the "soldiers".  This was all fake.  Dr. Rachel's Dad shows up with Frank Blanchard and a few Texas Rangers who heard the whole thing.  Everybody relaxes at the Patriots haul Davis away.  Miles finally gets the bad guy, telling Davis to enjoy the whole Texas prison experience as a parting shot.

The next day, Texas is all camped out and ready to roll on California, with Patriot commanders working with them.  Blanchard shows up with his troops, and the Patriot commanders don't realize what's happening.  Until, that is, Monroe gingerly steps in, and declares the treaty over.  Blanchard leads Texas on a slaughter of Patriot soldiers.  Where is Ed so Texas can kill him?

Ed is getting out of a port-a-potty just as the slaughter starts, and slinks off before anyone can find him.  But, it's still a great victory.  Miles tells Dr. Rachel's Dad that he'll get his town back.  And Charlie officially gives her blessing to Miles and Rachel, telling him to take her away somewhere and start over.  Yay.

Aaron is relieved when Real Priscilla wakes up.  She's not.  She tells Aaron about what she saw right before waking up.  It was fast, but Priscilla remembers seeing people.  Millions of mindless people.  And a grinning man.  She reminds Aaron that the Nano will easily find other people to control.  As she tells Aaron that the Nano is going to make the Patriots seem like Boy Scouts, we see President Davis.  And a tired, dirty Ed.  And Neville.  Each visited by a cluster of green fireflies, and then a ghost.  Davis sees his father.  Ed sees Marion, who he killed.  Neville, sees Jason, who he can't let go of.  They each tell the season's worst people to visit a town named Bradbury.  In Idaho, which is in what's called, the Wasteland.  As Davis, and Ed, and Neville hear this news, we finally see the Grinning Man.  He's a clown.  And he's lighting up.  The town around him lights up, left deserted years ago but coming to life.  Just in time for a crowd of people approaching.  The Nano's first victims.

Our new villain!

The series is ending here, when Team Miles will presumably trek all over the Mountains looking for a new villain to rail against uselessly for a season.  We'll miss these deeply flawed people floundering as they try to hold on to whatever they care about, or fail at correcting their own mistakes.  We wish them luck.  But, not too much luck.

If You Can't Beat Them, Arrange to Have Them Beaten - Godzilla 2014

"The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles … hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages … And we think some plastic bags and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet isn’t going anywhere. WE are!"
George Carlin

We are small creatures. We are, compared to other large animals, fur-less, claw-less, and fang-less. We run slower than most four-footed creatures. We can't breathe underwater, even though that's 70% of the surface of the planet we live in. The only thing impressive about us is that we can build whatever it is that we lack physically and use that for protection, food and mating. And, even that can be dwarfed by a planet that really doesn't care about our survival, as individuals or as a species.

Gareth Edwards' Godzilla presents us, even the most powerful of us, as insignificant ants whose nuclear power started the whole mess to begin with, and then uselessly scurry around trying to keep our own mistakes from killing ourselves. While a primordial, giant lizard/dinosaur actually solves the problem. Every visual in the movie tries to show how Godzilla and his enemies, monsters called MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism), are just on a different scale from humans. In terms of size. In terms of strength. In terms of endurance. Godzilla and the MUTOs he fights are literally creatures that have survived for millions of years before even the dawn of primates. They evolved at a time when the Earth's surface radioactivity was much higher, and the Earth itself a tougher place. So they evolved to survive this radioactive, probably highly volcanic world. A world you and I would last, maybe, five minutes in.

The movie, overall, feels like Rosenstern and Guildencrantz Are Dead, the modern re-telling of Hamlet through the eyes of bit players who die mid-way through without ever understanding what was going on. We, humans, are the bit players, while Godzilla as Hamlet handles the male MUTO as his murdering uncle, and the female MUTO, as his enabling mother. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, as Lt. Ford Brody (parallels to Chief Brody from Jaws?), just happens to have a constant front-row seat on the action in every location, ostensibly to get home to his family in the monsters' rendezvous point of San Francisco. As he faces near-death along every step of the way, he spends the movie getting progressively dirtier and more beat up. He's set up as a human counterpart to Godzilla. While Godzilla battles the MUTOs, destroying multiple cities as he does so, and facing human fire because no one realizes he's just there to help, Ford Brody must live through every battle, saving a few lives along the way where he can, too. Ford and Godzilla share a special moment in San Fran, as Ford has just destroyed a new generation of MUTO fetuses, and Godzilla is nearly defeated. They share a long look, with both realizing that they'll just have to keep going, no matter how tired, dirty and hurt they are. As the movie's final battle ends, both Ford and Godzilla collapse together, Ford clearly feels Godzilla's pain and exhaustion.

Ford's father, engineer Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston), is set up as a major character, but we lose him about 1/3 of the way through. An emotional man, whose own wife describes him as a maniac, and wants birthday kisses every day, he's devastated by his wife's death while examining a nuclear plant in Japan. His crazy obsession with what authorities are hiding at the old site is partly to acquit himself of responsibility in her death, and Ford is clearly jealous that he lost his mother that day, as well as the attention he should have gotten from his Dad after. Their conversation in Joe's depressing, conspiracy theorist apartment in Japan demonstrates that Ford just wishes his Dad would concentrate on the family he has, and not the one he lost. But Joe Brody is on a very emotional mission, and his ranting after he gets caught (again) wandering around quarantined areas is the only emotional scene in the whole movie. Once we lose him to the first, male MUTO, it's like the emotion just gets sucked right out of the movie. We are left with a Japanese researcher, Dr. Serizawa, played by Ken Watanabe.

Dr. Serizawa's contribution is to amble around, shell-shocked, at everything he sees and hears. He also acts like a prophet no one will listen to, who ends up right in the end. His assistant, Dr. Graham (Sally Hawkins), can only show worry and fretting at everything happening. She basically does all the grunt work, so Dr. Serizawa can come on-screen and make a tortured announcement that leads the US Navy to watch a monster wreck even more havoc.

Almost as useless are Ford's wife and son. Elle is played by Elizabeth Olsen (yes, one of those cute twins from Full House). She's basically playing the same character she played as a baby, in charge of staring wide-eyed at anything that might threaten Ford as he makes his way home, and making comforting sounds to their son, Sam. The scenes where she runs frantically around San Francisco, trying to evade the great Kaiju battle, are really her greatest contribution to the film.

The film is also populated by various military people from the Navy and Army (Air Force too?), as they uselessly scramble to stop the Kaiju in Hawaii, Nevada, and California. Whether on land, in air, or sea, no one is a match for creatures that can create an EMP that fries electronics, and bullets just annoy the monsters, known as Kaiju to fans. Missiles probably feel like papercuts to them. If the movie is trying to demonstrate that our armed forces will bravely fight any battle that retarded military planners give them, it succeeds brilliantly. Eventually, they realize that humans are really only useful at setting up distractions for the MUTOs until Godzilla can come and really deal with them.

Where the movie succeeds best is in showing, visually, just how insignificant we are, and how little any of us can really see of the Kaiju. Shots of the monsters are, rarely, the kind of overall pans that would reveal their whole bodies, unless that's what a human character is seeing. When humans are up close, we see these monsters as we really would; in huge parts that we have to evade if we want to live, through hazes of smoke and dust from collapsed buildings. When Ford participates in a HALO jump from 30,000 feet, he must jump through two sets of clouds, with no idea what he'll see or what he's free-falling into until he passes those smoke and dust clouds over San Fran. Turns out, he has a front-row seat for Godzilla's battle, and the shaky camera shows him falling past Godzilla, only able to take in one body part at at time. When MUTOs get really up close and personal with him, the focus is on their red, glowing eyes, the better to show how malevolent they are.

When Dr. Serizawa finally convinces the US Navy Admiral Stenz (David Strathairn) to just let the Kaiju duke it and focus on getting a lost nuke out of San Fran, Dr. Serizawa basically pronounces the point of the movie, reminding us that we don't control the Earth. We just live here, for as long as the Earth feels like having us. Ford and Godzilla recuperate on a sunny day by the Bay, each trying to pick up the pieces left.

When Godzilla finally feels up to leaving San Francisco, a grateful city cheers his survival and return home. In setting up the franchise for later sequels, Edwards has firmly established that Godzilla, while too huge for human safety, is a protector. Not of humanity. Godzilla, like the Earth, doesn't give a shit about us. Godzilla is here to protect the existing equilibrium of the planet, because we can't.

Obla Di, Obla Da - Cosmos - Season 1, Episode 11

From Episodes 1 and 9, we learned just how small our life spans are compared to the planet, and how small our planet's history is compared to the history of the universe.  Does anything humans have made, or any life form, beat the system?  A wide variety of human creations can survive time, and a smaller variety of microbes can survive space.  If they have an ark.  But, not necessarily Noah's.

Cosmos shows, basically, four different arks.  The first is that of writing.  Tyson takes us back to ancient Uruk, humanity's first real city, established about 7,000 years ago.  About where As-Samawah is in modern-day Iraq (I hope we all know where Iraq is at this point).   Uruk was part of the Sumerian/Babylonian civilization that basically straddled the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Using the Euphrates River as a highway, Uruk depended on farming villages surrounding it for food and raw materials for the first urban lifestyle.  From Uruk, the world's first bureaucrats managed the agriculture, trade, religion and security for the region.

Uruk's DMV, where you could register your barge and get your oarsman license

Uruk has the great distinction of the being the birthplace of writing, the first "ark" Tyson covers.  With writing, a person's thoughts and information could be transported and transferred.  Harvests could be counted.  Receipts could record where produce went and how much was paid.  Rules could be made into laws, that could now be standard throughout an Empire.  Kings and their reigns could be listed.  Basically, with writing, came the invention of fame.

Uruk could also support religious authorities, one of which was an Akkadian Princess named Enheduanna.  Princesses could also be Priestesses at this time, and Enheduanna was appointed Priestess of the moon goddess Nanna.  It was a powerful position, and so given to royal women close to the king, which she was.  It was also a privileged position.  Not needing to actually grow her own food or make her own clothes or home, Enheduanna's main job was to keep religious power close to the throne, and write the world's first documented poetry.  She is the world's first known poet, mostly religious hymns and praises, but some autobiographical work.  She is long since dead.  But we still know her name, where she was from, who she was, who her family was, and what she did.  Her life story remains, long after she is gone.

The first Emily Dickinson?

Uruk also produced the world's first hero.  Before the Greeks' demigods or Ulysses, and our Kryptonians, there was Gilgamesh.  The hero of The Epic of Gilgamesh, he was revered as an ancient king of Uruk and son of a goddess.  The Epic of Gilgamesh details his travels, searching for immortality, which he didn't find.  But he did find an old wise man named Utnapishtim, who gave Gilgamesh the first Great Flood Story.  It's eerily similar to Noah's story, but much older.  Given the job by a god to fill a giant wooden boat with animals and his family, Utnapishtim survived a 12-day storm that covered land as far as he could see.  Three different birds had to be sent out to determine if there was dry land as the waters receded.  Utnapishtim counsels Gilgamesh to abandon the quest for immortality, as that is alone for the gods, so Gilgamesh goes home to face death.  But his story lives on, in the wide variety of super-human stories we tell each other today, replicating with tweaks through the millenia.

Every story is a re-boot of Gilgamesh's franchise.

Tyson continues to show another story that continues, with tweaks every generation.  It's the story of the molecules that live in each and every cell in every living thing.  And have replicated, with minor changes in each copying, through billions of years.  It's the DNA in our cells.  DNA is basically an alphabet of molecules, that we gave the letters A,C, G, and T. These four letters are repeated in varying sequences throughout two, spiralling strands linked by "rungs" of sugars and phosphates that form the structure's backbone.  Basically, DNA's job is to determine how each cell is made in order to do the job the cell will have to do.  The instructions for making every cell in our body are encoded in a huge sequence of four-letter words.  And the full instructions are stored in almost every single cell.  The helix only splits, giving half the sequence to one cell and half to another, in our sex, or germ cells, that will be used during reproduction.  This process of DNA (or RNA) creating new, self-replicating cells has been going on for 3.5 billion years.  The cells of your body are quite young; but the DNA, and the story of life it tells in those cells has been passed down from eons.

Those eons included tweaks, or copying errors in DNA, which produced the mutations that Natural Selection uses to shape living things for their environment.  If we go back through the history of life, we find that the earliest organisms were single-celled creatures that existed to make amino acids and proteins.  Where did they come from? How did the inert, non-living matter of Earth, 3.5 billion years ago, transition to carbon-based and replicating?  That transition is called abiogenesis, and it's the great mystery of our time.  We can, in a lab, recreate the conditions on Earth that existed at the time of the first known living things.  And those conditions, recreated, can produce the amino acids we need to form DNA.  But how do they form DNA and start a replicating process?  

Tyson explores the hypothesis that life originated elsewhere, and was literally carried here through space.  And he describes the arks that might have transported it.  In 1911, a meteorite fell to Earth near Nakhla, Egypt, which is near Alexandria.   The Nakhla Meteorite has the distinction of containing compounds that form in water, indicating that it came from somewhere that had water when the meteorite was first formed and sent into space.  In 1975, NASA sent the Viking 1 and Viking 2 probes to Mars, and when they landed in 1976, and began examining the content of Mars' atmosphere and surface, scientists figured out that we had a ton of Mar's materials on Earth, produced by collisions in the Early Solar System between Mars and other space debris.  When ancient asteroids with more power collided with early planets, including ours, it produced a debris field that drifted into space, to be pushed and shoved by the newly forming planets' gravitational fields, and would eventually orbit the Sun, until prodded by gravity to land somewhere else.  In other words, Mars was dumping its trash on our planet.

Give a hoot, don't pollute

This includes the Nakhla Meteorite, which shows that Mars must have had water.  The Viking Probes found even more evidence of early water on Mars.  More importantly, it showed that materials can be transported from planet to planet, by arks called asteroids.  Could life have come to Earth this way?  It's possible.  Some Earth Microbes can survive in space, even for long periods.  Less than ten years ago, NASA sent up a sampling of Earth Microbes to live on the outside of the International Space Station, and found some still alive when they were retrieved and brought back to Earth.  These microbes survived the cold, the heat, the lack of any atmosphere, and the intense radiation of space.  But, could they survive the eons of space travel between worlds?  Maybe, they don't have to.

Planets dump their trash on each other in at least one other way, by the movement of stars and their orbiting planets around their galactic cores.  Our sun takes a Galactic Year of 225 million Earth years.  As it spins around, it passes through dust and gasses of earlier supernovas, where debris from previous solar systems is making its own, slower, trek around the galactic core.  Our Sun's gravitational field could easily shove a piece of galactic debris to one of it's planets.  And like our International Space Station, there could be small organisms surviving the radiation, cold, heat, and vacuum of space.  Were some of them the Earth's original inhabitants, finding Earth a great place to settle down and evolve?  Have Earth's ancient microbes seeded other worlds?

Tyson explores one way Earth has dumped on the rest of the universe:  radio waves.  In 1946, the US Army managed to bounce a radio wave "ping" off the moon, and hear it echoed back, from Belmar, NJ.  They called it "Project Diana".  However, radio waves expand, like ripples from a water drop.  Which means, that most of the radio transmission went past the moon, into space. As does every other single radio transmission ever.   Since the mid-twentieth century.  All of our music, our TV shows, and even communications.  Radio waves travel at the speed of light, which becomes about 6 trillion miles per year. That is about seventy years, or 420 trillion miles from us.  Some have, no doubt, reached planets surrounding other stars.  Is anybody listening?  We are.  

SETI is an acronym for the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.  It takes a few different forms, but the one we're all familiar with was shown in Contact (a movie based on Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan's book) .  Basically, we point a radio antenna towards a star, and listen for any radio transmissions coming from it.  And like most radios, all we get is static.  Is this really the best way to detect other intelligent life over astronomical distances?  What if other intelligent species have moved on from radio waves, using some other means of communicating?  What if other intelligent species have short-lived civilizations?

Earth's past is full of dead civilizations.  Enheduanna and Gilgamesh's society died out thousands of years ago due to war, over-farming, and a drought that ravaged Eurasia.  Ancient societies of the Western Hemisphere were also wiped out by drought and the diseases Europeans brought during the Age of Discovery.  74,000 years ago, the massive, supervolcano Toba erupted and spewed sulfur clouds around the world, creating a five-year winter (no Starks, though).  Tools from the areas affected showed that humans survived, but their societies did not.  Our own Sun has about another 4-5 billion years before becoming a Red Giant that will, at the very least, make Earth a scorched hell.  Planets surrounding a Red Dwarf star are luckier, with Suns that can last trillions of years.

Will it be inhabitants of a Red Dwarf system that establish a new, interplanetary society?  Or, will humans survive, as we survived the Toba Volcano, and find a way off Earth before our Sun destroys it?  Will we repeat Utnapishtim's story, of traveling through an interstellar flood in an advanced society's version of an ark?

Let's hope so.

Life going on...

Out With The Old - Game of Thrones - Season 4, Episode 7

Tyrion gets his fighter, but reveals more about himself and his character when facing defeat.  Cersei lines up what she thinks are sure things for both herself and Tyrion.  The Hound learns he doesn't have to face life alone, at least until he gets rid of Arya.  Jon learns that he's still just a Steward.  Selyse indulges her fascination with all things Melisandre and the Lord of Light.  Danys gets laid, and temporarily settles a rivalry between Daario and Jorah.  Brienne and Pod make unexpected progress.  And Littlefinger burns down a little more of the old world.

Let's start by comparing Littlefinger's actions this week to Dany's.  Both get some action from another character they've long had their eyes on.  In the case of Dany and Daario, he tries to indirectly complain that his current watch duties in Meereen are a little boring, but that sex could keep him perky.  He demonstrates this by evading her own guards to wait for her in her own room.  After that, he's all loyal servility.  He really feels that he could further demonstrate his devotion to Danaerys, like a corporate tool asking for a promotion.  Dany takes him up on at least part of his offer.  When she orders him to take off his clothes, he knows enough to take his time, and give her a good look at the goods.

The Queen wants a show!

Littlefinger starts by watching Sansa.  She enters a snowy courtyard in the Eyrie, reminded by the scene of home, which she gets down to work re-building in snow right then and there.  She's quietly reminding herself of all that she's lost, in the hope that maybe, just maybe, this could be her home, too.  Robin, Little Lord of the Vale and Lover of the Moon Door, ruins the moment with nosy questions, and a demand to remake the snow Winterfell with a Moon Door.  When he ruins her quiet peace and the result of her days' work, she slaps him.  This is the first time in three seasons that Sansa has set a boundary, and enforced it, and stood up for herself, and she immediately regrets it.  Littlefinger dismisses her worries, telling her he'll handle it, reassuring her that it was the right thing to do.  Sansa sighs that she'll never see Winterfell again, but Petyr comforts her:  Never Say Never in Westeros.  Anything can happen.

I'm sure nothing will come along and ruin this...

Sansa takes a chance, and risks talking about Littlefinger's part in Joffrey's death.  Why kill someone who's benefited you?  Who wasn't an immediate threat?  Petyr claims to have done it for Catelyn, revenge for a woman he loved years ago, who he couldn't have because of duty and his own lack of importance twenty years ago.  A woman killed so Joffrey could be securer on his Iron Throne.  Sure, he makes it sound personal, but only before reminding Sansa that you must demolish the old world before you can build a new one. He waxes on about how Sansa could have been his daughter before gently kissing her.  It's Sansa's first real kiss, and she pulls away a little too late for a spying Aunt Lysa.

Both Littlefinger and Dany have some 'splaining to do to long-time admirers after their dalliances.  Ser Jorah runs into Daario dressing as he ambles from what could only be Dany's chambers, and it's a scene right out of a bad  romantic comedy.  Ser Jorah tries not to show his disapproval to Dany, but she knows he's crushed, and tries to comfort him by telling Jorah she's sent him away to kill the Slavemasters of Yunkai, to prevent the re-emergence of slavery there.  Jorah doesn't just not want Daario fucking Dany, he doesn't want Daario getting special assignments from her, either.  He questions Daario's loyalty, reminding her that Daario beheaded his former bosses (though not remembering, it was for Dany).  He also echoes Ser Barristan, asking for some compromise with the Slavers of Yunkai, reminding her that he was also a slaver.  Where would she be if Ned Stark had managed to kill him?  How will former slaves learn not to carry out revenge killings, if Dany doesn't show them a new way forward?

Dany comes up with her own ruthless compromise for the Slavers of Yunkai.  She tells Jorah to find Lo Loraq, the faithful, pious son from the previous episode.  He, a former slave-owner himself, can give the Slavers of Yunkai her really awesome deal:  live in her new world, or die in their old one.  Sending Jorah to give Daario the news, she instructs him to tell Daario it was his idea.  Just so Jorah can have his own bragging rights.  At this point, she's not just going for a throne.  She's re-making the world to correct the wrongs of everyone who ever used power to control someone else.  To abuse and exploit someone else.  And this new world will be by her command.  Maybe she should write a manifesto, first.

Wait, am I a proletarian or a bourgeoisie?

Aunt Lysa summons Sansa to the Moon Door Room, staring down into the abyss where the Vale's enemies are executed.  She uses a more restrained voice, but she's just as fascinated with killing people by sending them to the rocks below as her son.  Whereas Robin can only talk about how much fun it is, Lysa focuses on what's left afterwards, and the rocks' fickleness in which body parts are preserved.  Sansa thinks she's being reprimanded for slapping Robin, and hurriedly apologizes for it as they stand together at the edge of the door, but Lysa has a more direct threat involved, grabbing Sansa by the hair and slamming her face into the empty space, face down and looking directly at the snowy rocks below that might let her pretty face remain intact.  She's screaming for help as Lysa accuses her of stealing her husband, like everyone has always done all of Lysa's life.

You'd think I'd be used to this by now....

Petyr intervenes, slowly and gently walking forward, reassuring Lysa that he'll send Sansa away and talking her down enough for Lysa to toss Sansa back onto the floor behind them.  Lysa literally grabs Petyr, wanting every reassurance he can give her.  That he loves her.  That he didn't love Catelyn.  That all the sacrifices she's made have made Petyr hers.  Petyr draws it out before crushing her.  Like Ryan Seacrest announcing who will stay for next week, he makes it sound like she's been his love, before saying ".... your sister."  Lysa's face falls in complete disappointment before she realizes that Littlefinger has pushed her out her own Moon Door.  We hear her scream as she falls.  Littlefinger has solved the problem of his loyalty between his wife and his love, by picking his love's daughter, and killing her rival.  Lord Robin is now under his "protection", making him even more powerful.

Nope

Tyrion gets visited by three potential champions in his upcoming trial by combat.  The first is Jaime, the brother who he wanted to fight for him in the Vale.  Tyrion admits to Jaime that he threw Tywin's deal back in his face out of spite.  The original deal would have been of more benefit to Tywin than either of them.  Tyrion might not survive the Wall; and Jaime would be under his father's thumb the rest of his days.  Tyrion's put himself on a sure road to death for the angry look on Tywin's face when he was cheated of his victory.  Jaime calls it pride.  But Tyrion has really saved his brother's freedom, and will probably pay with his life.  Tyrion moans that he's been a loyal son his whole life, while Jaime's screwed up every way he can think.  Jaime sets his limits- no whining, and no reminding Jaime that about the whole incest thing.  In the end, Jaime must decline being Tyrion's champion, as he can't fight much beyond a stable boy.  And he'll never defeat Cersei's champion.

No, we can't talk about how I fuck my own sister

Who is getting a little vicious slaughter practice in.  What must be peasant prisoners condemned to die anyway are marched, one by one, up to the Mountain that Rides, Gregor Clegane, to be killed in some bloody and painful way.  They try to beg for mercy as they're disemboweled.  Cersei watches on, perhaps in anticipation of Tyrion or his champion being killed this way.  She approaches the giant, covered in blood and barely able to speak full sentences.  She relishes in the power she has to have such a brute warrior fight for her, and help remove the brother she hates from this life.  The Mountain, for his part, just wants a fight.  He doesn't even care with whom.

Selyse and Melisandre have a different talk.  Instead of power on display, it's envy.  Selyse is so sorry to disturb a comfortably nude Melisandre while she enjoys a hot soak in a tub.  Melisandre is all chummy, and happy to share an intimate moment with one of her first and most devoted followers.  Selyse, who calls herself a Queen, is happy to serve Melisandre some vial for her bath, shrinking from the potions she shouldn't touch, watching Melisandre enjoy sensual delights.  Selyse has never looked so shriveled, while Melisandre looks radiant.  When Melisandre tries a light joke on Selyse, it bombs, and Melisandre gently explains to Selyse that sometimes, a lie is necessary.  She gracefully ascends from the tub, like Venus from the waves that birthed her, and shows Selyse how most of her potions are just parlor tricks to get people to pay attention, so she can bring out the actual good stuff.

Melisandre is totally comfortable in her own, beautiful body, while plain, embarrassed, Selyse is carefully wrapped up.  Melisandre tries to comfort Selyse, first by telling  her that the flesh is just something with needs, and that Stannis is fucking her because men need the chase.  But she further butters up Selyse with praise for her piety, and convinces her that she, too, will now be able to know the will of the Lord of Light.  Selyse brings up one more concern:  bring Shireen on the family's planned voyage on Stannis' quest for the Iron Throne?  Selyse is angry at Shireen's refusal to convert, and convinced it's just teenage rebellion, which would anger a woman who's always obeyed authority with so little to show for it.  Melisandre is all ease as she insists that Selyse must bring Shireen.  Stannis has already made it plain that harming Shireen is a line no one should cross, so Melisandre possibly thinks that the journey, wherever it's to, will give her a chance to show Shireen her god's power.

The fire says you could spruce yourself up and get your man back, Selyse

Brienne and Podrick treat themselves to a night at a peaceful inn with some awesome kidney pies and a very familiar cook:  Hot Pie, last seen staying behind as Arya and Gendry rode off with Thoros of Myr's Men of No Banners.  Hot Pie is ecstatic over the praise, and he takes a totally uninvited seat between them, waxing on about the importance of each ingredient, especially the gravy.  Don't even make a kidney pie without that.  Brienne is annoyed from the beginning, and even Pod looks weary of the food talk, until Hot Pie inquires about their journey, and Brienne decides to see if Hot Pie will talk about Sansa Stark as much as food.  Hot Pie becames cagey.  He's managed to avoid getting hurt on this journey, and survive the civil war, and he doesn't want to ruin it.  The next day, Pod is trying to advise Brienne not to advertise their task, when Hot Pie approaches.  Pod's advice isn't bad, but doesn't really apply to the boy offering them the juiciest information they've gotten; Arya Stark is alive, and Hot Pie saw her not too long ago.  They were going to trade Arya to her mother at the time.  He even demonstrates that he was convinced that it was Arya Stark, by presenting her with a direwolf cake, supposedly for Arya if they find her.  With Catelyn Stark dead, the Men with No Banners would have to take Arya to the Eyrie, and see if her aunt Lysa will pay for her.  Pod admits that it could, very easily, be a wrong guess, but Brienne decides that it's their best lead yet.  They take the right turn, presumably toward the Vale.

We're totally eating that cake ourselves

Arya and the Hound, on the road, decide to cautiously approach a smoking house, hoping for food and no soldiers.  There's neither.  Only a middle-aged man, who doesn't understand why the world isn't fair anymore.  Soldiers used to pay for food.  Now they kill for it.  It doesn't make sense; you don't kill the people who need to feed you next year as well as this one.  Neither Arya or the Hound have any words of comfort for him.  Arya tries to tell him that nothingness will be better than his suffering, and at least not worse.  Is nothingness better than hopelessness?  It's not.  But it's not worse, either.  In a way, Arya's telling him to not fear death.  The Hound gives him a last drink of water, and both commiserate that it's not wine right before The Hound slips his sword right into the man's heart.  The Hound literally tells Arya that's how it's done, right before he's leaped on and bitten in the neck.  The Hound easily kills his attacker, but there's one more;  Rorge, one of the prisoners being escorted to the Wall, who Arya would name as one of the people she wants to kill, but couldn't until now, when he tells her his name.  Arya unceremoniously stabs him in the heart, and The Hound is pleased that she's finally learning.

Tyrion is, at last, visited by a very spiffy-looking Bron, dressed up as a character from The Princess Bride, and sad to tell Tyrion that he's refusing to be Tyrion's champion.  Cersei has offered him a marriage to the second daughter of Lord Stokeworth, and all Bron has to do is kill the infertile older sister to get it for himself someday.  Bron has a sure thing, without having to fight.  Why go up against the Mountain, in a very uncertain chance of maybe winning some frozen grass in the North someday?  Tyrion tries to hide how crushed he is.  His sister has out-bribed him, and he knows it.  He knows he's a little closer to a beheading too.  But Tyrion, the noblest character on the show, is too brave.  The same pride that caused him to throw Tywin's deal in his face now holds Tyrion together as he and Bron have an honest discussion of Bron's chances in either scenario.  They also, honestly, discuss whether they were really friends, with Bron reminding Tyrion that the life-risking was entirely Bron's on behalf of Tyrion's.

Dude, check your privilege

Bron, who can no longer count on a Lannister to protect him in King's Landing, must do the best he can for himself, and can only wish Tyrion luck.  Tyrion even manages to offer Bron his hand.  The two have a long handshake that neither wants to end.  Bron's last words to him are a wish to hear that Tyrion defeats the Mountain himself.  Bron looks like he really wishes Tyrion could kill the Mountain.

Jon arrives back at Castle Black, to lots of happy people, and a pissed off Ser Alliser Thorne.  Using his derogatory name for Jon, again, he orders Jon to lock up his direwolf.  Technically, that's not a bad idea, but he does it with such a pissy tone, breaking up everyone's joy, that Thorne betrays just how weak his position is.  A mission that Thorne didn't think worth his time is successful.  By a fucking Steward.  Maybe Thorne should stop calling him Lord Snow.  The name might become official.

But Thorne isn't done being a horse's ass for spite.  Jon calls out his repeated warning of Rayder's strength.  He then proposes the best defense- seal the tunnel under the wall at Castle Black, and dig in for a hard fight.  Thorne is furious that a Steward has a good idea, and totally unbelieving of Jon's description of Rayder's giants.  He turns to the head of Builders, who is too scared to challenge Thorne.  Hey, at least Janos Slynt isn't insulting his dad anymore.  Jon and Sam get night duty on the Wall, for, like a month.  Thorne has now put Jon in a position where he can even better prove that he's a better fighter and leader.  Does Jon realize this?

The Hound and Arya stop after their fight, and Arya is about to walk over to The Hound with a burning stick to cauterize his wound when the Hound releases some fury, and Arya can only watch as he fucks up cleaning and stitching his wound.  Arya wants to help, and the Hound just isn't used to it.  He recounts how his brother, The Mountain, held his face to the fire over a fucking toy.

In his defense, it was a Tickle-Me-Elmo Doll

It was painful, with the disgusting smell of burning flesh, but the fact that he was viciously attacked by his own brother, and his father tried to cover it up, were the worst to bear. The Hound berates Arya- she's been alone for about a year.  He's been alone for a couple decades.  Arya shows him that, for now, he's not alone.  For today, despite his name on her list, she'll pour some dirty water on his bite and stitch it up properly.

One last visitor for Tyrion today:  Oberyn Martell, aka Sexy Revenge.  Tyrion wants to hear all about Oberyn's latest sexual escapade, but Oberyn actually has taken his head out from between Ellaria Sand's legs.  For now.  Oberyn, instead, wants to talk about the person who's orchestrating this entire farce:  Cersei.  Tyrion muses that Cersei is good at using honest emotions to sell a lie.  Oberyn tells Tyrion the story of how the actually met, years ago.  Dorne wanted an alliance with Casterly Rock, so Oberyn's father sent him and Ellia to Casterly Rock for a meet and greet with Jaime and Cersei, hoping for at least one marriage.  At the time, Tywin was obsessed with Cersei marrying the Targaryen prince Rhaegar, and turned Dorne's offers down, which is part of the bad blood between the familes.  Along the way to Casterly Rock, on a boring voyage that Oberyn hated, he heard every single tale of Tyrion's deformity, believing that there was a real, baby monster at Casterly Rock.  Cersei, in true Cersei form, played with Oberyn's fascination and desire to see little Tyrion.  Oberyn recounts how disappointed he was in Tyrion's appearance.  He looked like a baby with a big head, but otherwise normal.  He tells Tyrion how Cersei grabbed his baby penis and twisted it so painfully, Jaime had to stop her.  Cersei then told Oberyn that this little baby had killed her mother, and she couldn't wait for it to die itself.  

My sister may be raped and dead, but yours just sucks.

Tyrion thinks that Oberyn is trying to mock or demoralize him, but it's the opposite; Oberyn is trying to tell Tyrion that he sees beyond Cersei's lies, because he's always known how much Cersei hated Tyrion and wanted him dead.  Oberyn remarks how Cersei wants to kill a Lannister even more than he does, and he reminds Tyrion of his vow to get justice for his sister and her children for the horrible crime the Mountain committed.  Tyrion tells Oberyn that King's Landing is the wrong place for justice.  Oberyn tells him he'll settle for revenge, and offers to be Tyrion's champion.  Tyrion is actually surprised; hated by his family, disappointed by his friends, this prince who only knew him as a babe is now offering to save his life.  Defeating the Mountain would do more than save Tyrion's life; it would remove a powerful force for chaos and cruelty from the realm, and give the land a chance at peace.  And Oberyn will try it, just for the chance to deal with the past, and help Tyrion and Westeros, find a future.

We're All Okay - Revolution - Season 2, Episode 21

Miles tries to fight a guerrilla war like a good guy.  Is it a coincidence that he fails at it?  I think not.  Ed turns out to be even worse than we thought.

Neville and Monroe forge an alliance that lasts a whole day... which is pretty good for Tom Neville. While holding Connor by the throat with a knife, Neville lays out the mayhem he hopes to cause.  Neville admits what Monroe already knew, that the Patriots would never have freed Julia, and he's sympathetic, especially when Neville spits out all the revenge he wants to get.  Neville plans on a blood-soaked march to Washington D.C., ending by shooting President Davis in the head, personally.  Monroe sounds like he's trying not to masturbate right then and there when he accepts Neville's help.  The only catch is that Miles has pussied out.  Neville is unfazed.

Joe the blacksmith, wearing a spiffy US Flag armband, strolls outside the fence of the railroad station Willoughby magically has now, saying it's for water.  He really meets up with Miles, Charlie and Scanlon.  At first, it's all an imitation of bad spy movies, as they voice their mutual distrust with each other.  Until Miles declares that Marion has already said everyone's okay.  So, that decides it.  I guess Marion is in charge of the resistance now.  Joe helps Team Miles by bringing everyone to a spot where they get a perfect view of the train station without being seen.  Do the Patriots ever conduct security sweeps?  Or, do they just stand around with guns, looking at each other?

Joe points out the red tanker truck of mustard gas, which horrifies Miles.  He decides that they'll have to steal it.  Scanlon bitches that Monroe isn't around to help.  Miles tells him that now, maybe, Scanlon can step up instead.

While Joe is helping Team Miles, Marion is using her delivery of Ed Truman's lunch to spy on him.  Up until now, or maybe the last episode, Ed's been presented as this semi-bumbling nice guy, who wants Willoughby as a foothold on re-taking the United States by managing things better than they were previously.  He seemed committed to the town and to effectively running it.  Marion finds out that it's all a cover.  She finds an old photo of President Carver of Texas, along with papers covered in yellow crosses.  She manages to not get caught, cooing at Ed before she leaves him to enjoy his lunch.

After nightfall, she sneaks over to the Team Miles hideout, where Miles pieces together that Ed plans on killing President Carver, and a whole lot of other Texans, with the mustard gas.  Rachel has another problem for Miles to solve:  Aaron and Priscilla are missing.  Miles gives this problem all the attention it deserves:  almost none, telling Rachel to go look for them while he takes the train.

Scanlon sneaks over to Monroe's hideout, which is really the old hideout by the chemical factory.  He lets Monroe in on Miles' plan to steal the train of mustard gas to render it useless with lye and water.  Monroe starts off his war with the Patriots by basically hijacking Miles' plan.  He and Neville decide to take the mustard gas for themselves, to use on Washington D.C.

Marion's brought more than info, she's also brought two locals who want to help Miles take the train:  Joe the blacksmith, and his pretty daughter.  Miles is unimpressed; neither have ever fought or killed.  Joe has more than battle smarts, though.  He's pissed that the Patriots got his kid killed.  Turns out, he's the dad of the kid Miles shot in Austin.  The one posing as a new Texas Ranger to kill President Carver.  Miles decides to let them in on the plan.  He wanders back into the hideout, which they've all been standing in front of openly, together, for a few minutes.  Charlie follows him, to find out whether Miles will tell Joe how his kid died.  Miles agrees to, after they're done fighting.  He and Charlie gripe together about how being good sucks, and goes against all of Miles' instincts.  Miles may have realized that anybody can fight a war, if they're ruthless enough.  It takes a real leader to fight only enough that there will be something left to win.

As Miles and Charlie discuss the overall suckiness of good guy-ness, Gene basically has to talk Marion into returning to Ed.  She's frightened, and starting to realize that Ed is a lot more dangerous than she could have imagined.  With Scanlon watching, Gene and Marion have a hug before she goes back to the trenches.

The next day, Rachel is scouring the countryside, looking for Aaron and Priscilla.  She's confused at first, but after a few seconds, the sound she's hearing is definitely music.  And. not just any music.  Starship's We Built This City.  In the woods.  Or rather, from the creepy house in the woods.  Rachel slowly approaches the door, and is about to circle the house looking for a way in, when Aaron yanks open the door and tells her to leave.  Now.  Since Aaron can't actually hurt anyone, ever, Rachel simply storms past him into the house.  Where she sees the lights.  And the TV.  And the Patriots, still frozen in their gas masks.  The worst, is a middle-aged woman, sitting in front of a mirror, endlessly running a wire brush down her scalp, which long since lost its hair and started bleeding.  Rachel is horrified, but Nano-Priscilla walks in and welcomes her as if a backyard BBQ is about to begin.

Aaron fumbles as he explains to Rachel just what's happened to Priscilla.  As he explains the situation to an increasingly disgusted Rachel, he basically has to admit that he's just allowed the whole thing to continue with no resistance.  As Nano-Priscilla shows Rachel her most recent work, with rats on the floor of a closed-off room, Rachel realizes why she saw an entire road of dead rats in the early part of the season.  Nano-Priscilla waxes on about working on living things like rats and fireflies.  She thinks she's ready to experiment on humans, and lists all the awful things humans do to each other that she's going to end.  Rachel screams that the Nano is just a fucking science project with delusions of grandeur, and slaps her, and Priscilla looks put out for a moment.  But that creepy smile returns, and Priscilla tells them both that she looks up to them as parents, and will never turn "from them".  Does Nano-Priscilla think she's doing Aaron and Rachel a favor?  When they've already told her to stop?

Yep, I'm mastering rats

Joe's daughter sneaks Team Miles into the railroad station, by smuggling them in a hidden compartment in her wagon of food.  They immediately get to work on stealing the train.  Joe lures the train engineer into the train engine, where Miles forces him, at gunpoint, to start the boiler.  Charlie sneaks up to the guard in the tower, and knifes him, leaving him to bleed.

Amazing Stretch and Slim Powers

Let's give the Patriots an extra minute.  Just to be fair.

The whole thing goes great, until the poor dead guy's blood starts seeping through the bottom of the tower, to drip on soldiers below.  Who, really, can't ignore this.  After all, it happens in a spot they're actually guarding.  The alarm is sounded, and Miles and Charlie have a brief snit-fit over whether she took care of the guard, but they unite with Gene to ruthlessly shoot down advancing Patriots while Joe must take over the now-dead-engineer's job and get the train going.  He fumbles a bit, before he decides to just open every valve, which does the trick.  The train starts slowly, but the Little Train That Could really gets going.  Only four Patriots make it on to the train, and Charlie and Miles almost enjoy themselves in the shootout.  They all enjoy themselves once the train is theirs, with Gene blowing the whistle to celebrate their stunning victory over the worst soldiers ever.

When Nano-Priscilla leaves to find another human test subject for her human-controlling campaign, Rachel immediately decides that she and Aaron will need to stop Nano-Priscilla.  Aaron cowardly tries to talk her out of even talking about resisting Nano-Priscilla.  Rachel baits Nano-Priscilla to come back, and smugly enjoys it when there's no reaction from Nano-Priscilla.  Rachel points out that the whole point of her slap was to see if Nano-Priscilla can be caught off-guard.  Which she can.

Oooh, there's something fancy going on and Marion is getting all gussied up as Ed comes in wearing his own dress uniform.  Ed's all happy while he opens the drawer containing his gas mask and war crime orders, but he only digs deep enough to uncover a jewelry box.  He presents Marion with a lovely necklace, while she tries to play his loving fiancee.  Come on, Marion, put something into the role.

So I Married a War Criminal

Scanlon meets Monroe at some unspecified, unguarded point along the train tracks, with the lye and water he's not going to use on the mustard gas.  Monroe sends Connor and Neville away for a private meeting with Scanlon.  Connor, a little pissed at being treated like a kid, bitches to Neville about Monroe and Miles' bromance.  Neville doesn't have any explanation for it, just empathy.  He hates their love/hate-ship even more than Connor does, because he's had to put up with it for longer.

Nano-Priscilla returns with a young woman she's coaxed into coming to the house.  When she opens the door, Rachel is standing there, with a shotgun pointed at the woman, who runs off.  Nano-Priscilla is pissed, and starts stalking into the house.  In bare feet, for some reason.  With the power turned back on.  With her bare feet in a very convenient puddle, Rachel throws an appliance in the puddle and Aaron plugs it in.  Nano-Priscilla is electrocuted, and collapses.  Aaron, completely uselessly, begs the real Priscilla to come back.  Which she doesn't.  Totally furious, she turns the lights right back on.  She means business now.

I'm sure MacGyver would have done the same

Team Miles shows up, and Monroe pops out to hold a gun to Miles and steal the mustard gas.  Miles bitches and moans, mostly about how Scanlon totally sucks, and Monroe tells Miles that he's turned into a pussy.  They all look pissed.  At each other.  But it gets interesting when Neville sees Charlie again, and decides that he'll kill her this time.  Miles steps between them, reminding Neville that it was the Patriots who turned their kid into a killing machine that went after Charlie, but he is unmoved.  Until Monroe pulls a gun on Neville.  Words are said, shots are fired, and a couple hit the tanker.

My first great plan is to ruin yours

Which should release mustard gas from the bullet holes, but doesn't.  The team panics at first, but then realizes nothing's coming out.  Miles bangs on the tanker, probably the first time he's made sure if anything is even in there.  The tank is empty.  Where's the gas?

Ed and Marion, with front row seats, watch some schoolkids sing "America the Beautiful", with the rest of the town watching behind them.  Marion asks Ed why there are Texas Rangers present, and Ed is excited when he gets up and introduces both Presidents Carver and Davis.  So the United States and Texas can announce a great new alliance to take on those dirty terrorists, California.  The camera pans up, and we see the top floor is covered in mustard gas cans.

Miles figures out Ed Truman's real plan:  gas Carver.  But here, in Willoughby.  Starting a war with Texas and the Patriots wiping out California.  Texas might win, but would be seriously depleted, just in time for the Patriots to topple them.  And it will start with the slaughter of Willoughby's residents.  Miles convinces Monroe to come with him to stop it, and Charlie and Gene hop on to travel.  Connor is stunned that his dad will sign on to a suicide mission just because Miles has asked him.  He takes the bratty kid routine up a notch by refusing.  Monroe calls him on it, telling him he's grounded.

As President Davis glad-hands President Carver, Ed stands next to them on stage, and gives a totally obvious signal to some soldier in the back.  Marion, already horrified that Carver is here in Willoughby to be killed, totally announces her intention to spy on Ed by leaving the assembly.  She promptly gets into the top floor, and can barely take seeing all that poison gas, set up to kill her and her neighbors.  She turns around to see Ed, still with that Nice Guy smile, telling her that he really does love her.  Before he stabs her.  So Marion was right.  Going back to Ed was a big mistake.  He leaves her body there, probably to be blamed as a patsy for the attack, and heads downstairs and outside, where the Chief Mustard Gas Soldier is waiting with his gas mask, and we hear the kids singing again.

Did Ed ever have any intention of actually running Willoughby?  Did he always view the people of Willoughby as convenient collateral damage?  Probably.  He yelled at President Davis to let him run the Texas operation his way, and one presumes this is his way.  Ed always seemed like a guy whose morals were decided by convenience.  If being decent was the easiest way to get what he wanted, he'd be that.  Same for being violent.  He's ridden by so many people during the season:  Dr. Horn, Doyle, Neville, that it was hard to find out what his actual leadership style was.  Instead of just a guy willing to go along with others' crazy schemes, turns out Ed has some of his own.

Next week:  Revolution is not being renewed, so we'll have to be content to see what stories are closed next week.  And we'll have to endlessly speculate about the stories that aren't.

Nothing Is Too Wonderful To Be True - Cosmos - Season 1, Episode 10

Electricity.  It's all over the goddamned place, by just flicking a switch.  Or pressing a button.  But what is it?  And how did someone ever figure out how to use it?  The discoveries of electromagnetism were so important, Einstein considered their discoverer a genius.  So, Tyson spends an episode on the life of Michael Faraday.

Electricity is basically subatomic particles being either attracted to or repulsed from each other, depending on whether they have a positive or negative charge.  What's a positive/negative charge?  All about how many positively charged protons there are versus negatively charged electrons.  In each atom.  If the atoms happen to be metal atoms in the shape of a wire, a change in negative/positive charge sends electrons all along the wire.  That wire can be fed to a light bulb.  Or a computer.  But what starts the process of repulsing or attracting electrons?

Magnets.  And Faraday figured it out.  Born in 1791 in a tenement in what was then a suburb of London, he left school early due to a speech impediment, and never returned.  He eventually was apprenticed to a local bookbinder, where he could spend nights reading the books he literally made during the day.  He discovered an interest in scientific books.  Working at a bookbinder had its perks:  he received tickets, from a friend he met through work, to lectures at the Royal Institution, given by the Royal Society.  Covered before, in the episode on Isaac Newton and Edmond Halley (episode 3) , the Royal Society was Britain's collection of the most eminent scientists.

It included Humphry Davy, a man who had already discovered calcium and sodium, who liked to enliven his lectures on chemistry and electricity. Back then, electricity was produced with chemical batteries.  Basically, buckets of positively charged or negatively charged fluids connected by a conductive substance, so electrons can flow between them.  Over time, the chemicals transfer enough material (positively or negatively charged) so that the buckets have an even distribution of electrical charge.  Then the transfers stop, the power runs down, and you have to go get another battery.   Humphry Davy would use a basement of huge chemical batteries to power the show at his lectures, all so he could demonstrate a small light of electric arc current between two wires.  London was spellbound.  Faraday took notes.

Faraday, using his skills as a book binder, literally turned his notes into a book on Davy's lectures, and impressed him enough to hire Faraday as a temporary assistant when Davy injured his own eyes in a chemical experiment.  Faraday was so useful, Davy kept him on.  Faraday excelled at experiments to solve problems.  When William Wollaston and Davy couldn't figure out how to get an electrically charged wire to spin a magnet, Faraday went to work and built what is now called a homopolar motor:  a wire, extended into a pool of mercury that already had a magnet in the center.  If the magnet received an electrical charge, the wire would start to stir the mercury around the magnet, stirring the mercury in an unending circle for as long as the battery could charge the magnet.  Faraday created the world's first motor.  Every motor is essentially this, converting an electrical charge into some sort of circular motion that then drives another machine.

Build your own!

When Faraday published his work, Davy was furious for not getting the recognition he felt he deserved.  Davy punished/buried Faraday, by assigning him the task of making optical glass that could compete with Bavaria's (episode 5).  Faraday spent four years failing at this, until Davy died.  Four years of effort, and all Faraday had to show for it was a glass block of a failed optical glass recipe.  He kept it as a souvenir of his fruitless efforts.

After returning to the Royal Society's good graces in the 1820s, Faraday spent most of the rest of his career experimenting with the relationship between magnets, electric charges, and even light.  Faraday discovered that if he set up a spiral wire, and move a magnet in the center of the spiral, that creates an electrical charge. In other words, Faraday created an electrcomagnetic generator.

Ta Da!

So, not only did Faraday discover that electricity could produce movement, but that movement (of a magnet) can produce electricity.  The two (electricity and magnetism) were even more linked than previously thought.  Most of what we do now is figure out new ways to create some sort of movement with a charged material that produces electricity.  It's usually a turbine, which is any rotatable device, that has to be turned.  It can be turned with pressure from steam, gas, or water.  Producing the steam or gas is where fossil fuels have come in (from episode 9).

But Faraday wasn't done.  Despite memory problems that brought on bouts of depression, he decided to see whether light waves were effected by magnets.  By setting up a lantern with a mirror, he reflected candlelight through just about any chemical he wanted, set on top of a horseshoe magnet.  Reflecting the light off a mirror transformed the light (which scientists already described as a wave) waves from diffuse rays going everywhere to specific rays in one direction, which is polarized light. This light then traveled into a lens (a Nicol eyepiece) from which Faraday could examine the light.   This meant that not only did light pass through a transparent chemical, so did a magnetic charge.    

Faraday creating polarized light

But that's not all.  When Faraday took down his useless glass block sample from his souvenir shelf, he found that when light passed through the glass block when the magnet was charged from a battery, he got a perfect light wave through the Nicol eye-piece.  As long as the eyepiece faced him.  When it didn't, the light wave disappeared.  In other words, Faraday had discovered how to make oscillations of light waves. We call it the Faraday Effect. In other words, Faraday invented the signal that would one day be used for all telecommunications.  The magnetic charges had to be parallel to the direction of the light, leading Faraday to conclude that magnetic charges were really invisible lines.

The idea of magnetic charges as lines was as revolutionary as the technology that would later make cellphones possible.  No one at the time believed him, mostly because these lines are invisible to humans.  But we can know they exist for several reasons.  One, birds can detect them naturally, using them to differentiate between North and South for migration.  Two, birds can also detect, naturally, variations in these lines of magnetic force, and use those variations in place-finding, which is how carrier pigeons were used as communication devices until we had phones.  Three, that's how your compass works.  The magnetic pole doesn't "point north", it literally aligns itself with the lines of magnetic force that connect Earth's Poles.  This is because the middle of our planet is liquid iron.  That moves.  And what do we know about moving, negatively charged materials?  Why, they create magnetic fields.

Yes, we are surrounded by invisible circles.

Faraday eventually had help.  A man from a totally different background, raised by wealthy, doting parents as an only child, James Clerk Maxwell was determined to prove mathematically, what Faraday could only infer from experiments.  Using 20 variables and 20 equations, Maxwell used math to describe Faraday's lines of magnetic forces.  It was Maxwell, solving electromagnetism with math, who realized electricity and electromagnetic waves move at the speed of light, which is why we perceive it to be instantaneous.  Or, in the case of your satellite phone conversations, almost instantaneous.  The waves have to travel, literally, thousands of miles.  So, be patient.

Faraday, raised poor with almost no formal education, wasn't done innovating.  In 1825, while working for the Royal Society, he started a yearly tradition that continues to this day:  The Royal Society's Christmas Lecture,  a showcase of the Royal Society and science worldwide.  Faraday gave many of the early ones, until his death in 1867.  But the tradition lives on, with lectures by John Tyndall, David Attenborough, Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins, Susan Greenfield, and Bruce Hood.  They lecture on their areas of expertise, from sound to light to biology to the search for other worlds.  And the kids get up close and personal.

Tyson ends with our world's oldest and best light show: the Auroras over both the North and South poles.  Our sun emits more particles than just light protons.  These particles carry their own positive or negative charges, and hit the Earth's magnetic lines of force, where they ride the line to either Pole and release their energy as light photons.  How fitting that Earth's best show combines light, magnetism, and electrically charged particles to demonstrate one of Faraday's most famous quotes:

 "Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of Nature."