'Revolution' Review - 1.04 The Plague Dogs

        On the newest episode of NBC's Revolution, after Charlie and Nora rescued Miles from the Militia, they set off to meet up with Aaron and Maggie; Nate continues to track Miles and Charlie; and unforeseeable challenges await as the gang reunites and continues on their journey.

        In a way very similar to this show's genre predecessor Lost, tonight's episode of Revolution effectively told the backstory of an underdeveloped supporting character only to kill her off by episode's end. Lost popularized this technique in serialized storytelling - which can also be great Emmy submission episodes - but I'm not sure Revolution was able to live up to those past, great standards. But does it have too?
        There are both pros and cons to doing this kind of episode. First, it truly lets that tragic character have their best moment to shine on the series. If they have to go, they have the chance to go out in as big as powerfully moving way as possible. Unfortunately here, this episode felt almost too standalone in its main plot that it felt like just the episode where they could write Anna Lise Phillips out of the series. That reasoning is quite tragic because she did bring some great small moments to the show in her four episode run - most notably everything concerning her phone. The crazy dog guy did play insane quite well but he came off as a one-off, episodic cartoon villain with no more depth than "I want to kill her cause she killed my dog." That is just sad that Maggie had to meet her demise in the hands of the least engaging villain this show has created yet.
        The episode also had a side story of Neville and Danny being trapped in a cellar during a tornado. Again, these scenes had some great work from Giancarlo Esposito while Graham Rogers was best used just listening to him. Danny again tried to escape and again was captured quite easily. That story is just becoming too boring and redundant now. The squad really can't get back to Monroe and Rachel fast enough. Also, did it bother anyone that Neville and Danny were supposedly less than a day away but they had a tornado while it was bright and sunny where Charlie and the gang where at?
        Bringing things back to Monroe and Rachel, in present day she was yet again being submitted to questions about Ben. Although this was the first time it happened on screen, the way the scenes were portrayed it really did feel like we had already seen these interactions before. That really make this scenes stand out as much. The prospect of torturing Danny has me intrigued but I hope that reunion comes sooner rather than later.

So what did everyone think of the episode? That young Charlie was perfect casting, no? Tired of all of Danny's failed escape attempts? Share your thoughts in the comments.