Television: Revolution, "Dreamcatcher"

In this fake-out episode, the nanotech create a false world for Aaron, or maybe recreate his life prior to the blackout, thus trying to dupe him into fixing their faulty code as part of his day-to-day job. But other parts of Aaron's brain fight back in the form of Charlie in an attempt to thwart the nanos and deliver Aaron back to the real (that is post-blackout) world.

The nano fight back by killing Charlie but before she dies she tells Aaron they need to get to Rachel. So Aaron goes and finds her, Miles, and Monroe and begs them to be who he needs them to be: their badass selves. Here is where the show fudged a bit in my estimation. In the virtual world, Rachel, Miles and Monroe all thought Aaron was crazy. Until suddenly they didn't. Aaron, when cornered, was able to give them all weapons and remember who they really were. I really felt he should have had to work for that more.

Rachel, Miles, and Monroe then convince Aaron that the only way to wake up from the virtual reality is to throw himself off a building. Then, just as in any dream, one awakens. Right?

Gee, with logic like that . . .

The nano continue to fight (form of: Dr. Horn!), but Aaron has learned the power of focusing and thus is able to disarm the nanotech. So the nano give Aaron what he professes to want: They send him back to his post-blackout world and he and Priscilla walk to Willoughby, Texas, and meet up with Rachel and Miles only to find people being struck by lighting. Somehow (and here is where I looked away for a minute or two to do something else) Aaron is able to stop this, and we discover that this reality is also false, and that by fixing the power surges and lightning, Aaron has actually repaired the nanotech after all.

And now the nanotech is as powerful as they have ever been and will go off into the world to do . . . God knows what.

On the one hand, they promise to leave Aaron alone now. I suppose that's better than killing him out of revenge for his refusal to help, but it probably behooves the tech to make sure Aaron stays alive in case they need him again at some point. On the other hand, Aaron no longer has the benefit of the nanotech's help when he needs it. It's like he's leveled down in a game or something. (I guess. I don't play those kinds of video games. But I've seen them.)

The episode was a nice alleviation of all the typical scruffiness involved in the show, but I do wonder what would have happened to Aaron's physical body in the real world if he'd remained in the virtual reality. Would the nano have sustained him somehow? Or just let him run himself down?

On the whole, it was a lot of rigamarole for one simple outcome, namely that the nanotech is now fixed and even more powerful. No other progress was made. Which in the end, despite the breather, feels like something of a wasted hour. The writers should have done more with this or less—it could have been Oz or Wonderland in proportion and covered more than one episode, or it could have been one story line in the episode intercut with others—but devoting the whole hour just didn't play quite right.