NBC's Revolution - Episode 2.15 Dreamcatcher
Aaron awakes to find himself in a world with power, married to Priscilla and running his company. As he gets the feeling that something isn't quite right, familiar faces begin to appear.
"Dreamcatcher" is out-there trippy. The show basically throws all the rules of logic - or at least their sense of logic - out the window. Aaron wakes up in a world that has power again. He's the head of his own company and married to Priscilla. His life is pretty good. It's a fantastical premise for the show - as it typically derives a lot of its tension out of the circumstances this post-blackout world created. It's a heightened reality and plays with that basic premise very effectively from the very beginning.The show heads into this alternate reality - or Nano dream, as its coined here - with a lot happening. Even though it is set in a universe very similar to the one we live in now, there's still the same amount of action and plot movement that you expect from this show. It also does try to set up a grand mystery of whether or not this is real or created by the nanites. It makes Aaron weary of everything, come to accept it and then have the truth revealed fairly early on. From there, the stakes are clearly explained. Aaron needs to wake up or give the Nanites what they what. In this universe, that means he has to get his friends to remember him and help as well as learn how to control what happens here. Control is the main theme of the hour. Who has control over Aaron's mind goes back and forth between the nanites and Aaron. The show teases us along, making us think Aaron has bested the technology. And yet, things come to a much more devastating conclusion with Aaron giving the nanites the code they need because of another dream reality they put him in.
This hour relies so heavily on Zac Orth and he carries it very well. This season has worked so hard to give that character purpose and meaning. Remember how he was killed in the season premiere and I just wanted him to die? But this season had big plans for that character which all come to a crux in "Dreamcatcher." Now, Aaron's off to Willoughby to reunite with everyone. But he's also defeated. He failed at killing the nanites and now they have some bigger plan. I don't know how that will work out in regards to everything else happening this season - but this arc has also made me really appreciate Aaron as well as the nano technology as an effective villainous force.
Some more thoughts:
- "Dreamcatcher" was written by Ben Edlund & Paul Grellong and directed by Roxann Dawson.
- Daniella Alonso pops up for a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. That was too much for me. She also brings up thoughts of the first season - which should never be mentioned again.
- Neville just appears in bus ads and commercials - but he still seems like a dick to Miles.
- The hour also got to "kill off" Charlie and Rachel. It was all a part of the nano's tactics but it was still good to see them die.
