This is in no way meant to be a comprehensive nor, at times, possibly even coherent recap of Revolution since I stopped recapping it mid-season. I did continue watching it out of some misguided sense of... I'm not sure what.
In any case, season one has ended, with season two assured. And my oh my, was the second half of the season's quality consistent with the show's first half. The high point during mid-season - and of the series as a whole - was the show killing of Danny. But then slowly and surely, Revolution went about deleting much of what made it unique or interesting, like the sword fights and what few inconsistent details they offered on the outset of what life would be like in a world without electricity.
No, Revolution often went to the same well: send the characters in small groups to whatever places they had to go for whatever reason, and watch them wrestle with insipid moral dilemmas while engaging in gunfights. Yes, in the second half of the season, swords and muskets gave way to everyone and their mother armed to the teeth with machine guns.
BLAM! BLAMBLAMBALABLAM! KA-BLAMMO! is how much of season 1.2 went.
We got constant drama between Miles Matheson and General Monroe, the show flogging their Good Friends/Better Enemies relationship and even mocking it in the finale with a funny line from Giancarlo Esposito's character about Monroe's "erotic fixation" on Miles. Monroe cemented his claim as one of the worst and most ineffectual villains in the history of television.
We traveled to other Republics, most notably the Atlanta Republic, at war with the Monroe Republic based in Philadelphia and the Great Plains Republic further out west. They all have two things in common: They all hate the Texas Republic, and all points are reachable on foot within a few hours, as Miles, Charlie and friends are able to just walk to any point on the map lickety split as the plot requires. Are there wormholes in the woods across America? Must be.
We learned what turned the power off: nanobots. I shit you not. Gazillions of nanobots released all around the globe. "They're everywhere, they're in the air, they're inside of us", the show not-so-helpfully explained.
And then there is the saga of the Tower, the government control system where the nanobots were launched and controlled from, which all roads lead to, and all the characters converged. There are troops at the Tower guarding the secret of turning the power back on, and after a lot of gun fighting, a lot of regular fighting, a major character death (Nora, who died knowing Miles liked her more than Charlie's borderline insane mom Rachel), and a bizarre suicide by Colm Feore's ridiculous villain character, two major things happened:
1) Aaron, Rachel and friends turned the power back on.
2) Colm Feore launched two ICMBs at Atlanta and Philadelphia before killing himself.
Let's talk about 1. The power came back on, which we saw in some cutaways to various parts of the country where lamps came back to life, radios begin playing music, and cities started to flicker with light. Wait. Wait wait wait. It's been over 15 years since all the power went out. A generation has gone by without it. You're telling me all those lamps and electric devices were still plugged in? Those lamps still had bulbs inside them?
In the final shocker of the season, we find out the mysteriously silhouetted President of the United States is still President of the United States (what's left of it) and has been living in the US colony... in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba!
Boy, am I looking forward to Revolution season 2 when Miles, Charlie, and friends need only a scant few hours to walk to Cuba.
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