Revolution Episode 104, “The Plague Dogs” aired this week and I believe this was the best episode so far. We witness a compelling back story about Maggie and the last time she saw her kids. We see a parallel in the heartbreaking flashback to the last time that Rachel saw her kids. We get some insight into both Captain Neville’s character and the kind of man that Ben raised in young Danny. The persistent not-Nate has broken out of his chains and caught up to the group but his true motivations are still unknown. We witnessed the tragic death of a character we were just starting to get to know and understand. And in a shocking conclusion, we see that the man responsible for separating young Charlie and Danny from their mother 9 years ago was none other than our reluctant hero Miles Matheson.

Now that we are a good 4 episodes into this season, I feel that we’ve got a number of the pieces of the puzzle, and I’m ready to start laying them out and seeing where they might fit together. Here are a few of the things on my mind.

Rachel in Restraints

Since we learned in episode 102 that Rachel is actually alive and being held against her will by Monroe, there have been a number of questions that have come up about where she has been and what she has been up to since Charlie and Danny saw her last. We got a few more meaty clues this week to the mystery of Rachel. Here is what we know so far:

• It appears that Rachel and Ben worked together and both knew in advance about the blackout.
• Ben, Rachel and the kids left Chicago and were able to keep safe and alive for several years.
• Rachel turned herself in to Miles and the militia at his request around 9 years ago.
• This was the last time that Charlie and Danny saw their mother. They thought they she was getting supplies and would be gone for a few months.
• At some later date, Ben told Danny and Charlie that their mother died “out there”.

Here are some conclusions that I might make from this information:

We don’t know if Rachel told Ben that she was turning herself in to the militia or not. At first it seemed unlikely to me that Ben would allow Rachel to do this, considering the reputation of the militia. However, if he knew that she was turning herself in directly to Miles, perhaps Miles made some promises to his brother to keep her safe. But why would they want just Rachel when Ben seemed to know as much if not more than she did about the power? My guess is that Miles knew he had to bring back at least one of them to Monroe, but he didn’t want to leave the kids without both a mother and a father, so he asked Rachel and Ben to choose which one would go with him, in return for some assurances of their safety and eventual return. Rachel seems like a better choice since Ben was probably more capable of protecting and keeping the children safe on his own.

We don’t know if Ben actually thought that Rachel was dead or if he just told the kids that. However, I don’t think Ben would have told his kids that she was dead if she just never came back from her “trip”. There would have always been a chance that she would return. I believe that he really thought she was dead. I think that Miles told Ben that she was dead, and Ben trusted Miles enough to believe him. This is likely a reason why Miles and Ben were estranged, even though Miles had left the militia, he did not keep his promise to keep Rachel safe.

This begs the question – does Miles know that Rachel is still alive? I think Miles is also under the impression that Rachel is dead. Maybe I’m giving him too much credit, but I don’t think he would have kept that from Charlie. I think Miles had every intention on bringing Rachel back to them alive but Monroe had other plans for her and told Miles that he had killed her. Of course, these are all just theories based on what little I have seen so far, so only time will tell.

The Knowledge of Power

One of the biggest mysteries of the show revolves around the blackout itself and how the people who have the pendants are involved. More specifically – how were Ben and Rachel involved, and what is the purpose of the pendant? Since we are only 4 episodes in, I don’t expect (nor do I want) all the answers right off the bat. However, here are a few of the clues that we have been given so far:

• Ben and Rachel knew the blackout was going to happen at least several minutes before it actually happened (if not earlier). This was discovered in the very first scene of the pilot episode.
• Ben and Rachel worked together at what appears to be the Computer Science department of the University of Chicago. In a flashback, Rachel tells Charlie that they had to stop there because Ben had to get something from “their work”.
• Ben was also working with the Department of Defense and had a special security clearance. We learned this information from Monroe this week while he was interrogating Rachel.
• The pendants seem to have the capability to either power up or allow electrical items to power up in its presence, at least temporarily.
• Ben and Grace are connected through the knowledge they share about the blackout.  They both had pendants that seem to look alike and work similarly. Ben instructed Aaron to find Grace and he also knew where to find her.

Here are some conclusions that might be derived from these clues:

Ben and Rachel knew what was going to happen, but they didn’t know when or even if it was going to happen. If they had more advance knowledge they would have been better prepared. They were taken by surprise and had a very short amount of lead time before the event actually happened. Because of this, I believe that Ben and Rachel were not directly involved in causing the blackout. If this were a planned attack and they had direct knowledge, they would have been far more prepared for this event. They would have already situated themselves in a safe place, gathered ample supplies, weapons, etc. to weather the aftermath.

When Ben was downloading something onto the pendant drive from his computer there were tables, graphs and maps on the screen at the time. That, in addition to the knowledge we know about where he worked (not an algebra teacher!) makes me believe that perhaps Ben and Rachel were part of a group of scientists that were tracking some type of warning signs that this blackout may occur. If they had made this discovery, this group of scientists may have decided to secretly put together a post-blackout plan that involved the pendants. Why didn’t they share this knowledge with others and/or the government? Given Ben’s government security clearance, maybe they did but were dismissed as being alarmists.

So even if some of these theories pan out (I don’t have a great track record so far, so I wouldn’t make any banana bets on it), it still leaves a lot of unanswered questions that I don’t think I have enough information yet to even form a conclusion. These include:

• Who or what is responsible for the blackout?
• How do the pendants work and what else can they do?
• Is there a way to restore power?

The Morality Issue

Possibly the biggest question of the series to me is whether the blackout is man-made or naturally occurring. At this point I am leaning towards man-made, due to the nature and extent of the power loss. If “physics went insane” as Aaron states, some kind of deliberate force seems to be responsible for maintaining this unnatural state. If we assume that people are responsible for this, then the next question is about motivations. Could there be any moral grounds that someone could use to actually justify the massive scale of misery, fear, death and destruction that this blackout brought upon the world? Could there possibly be an argument to be made for the ends justifying the means? To me, nothing short of preventing an entire worldwide mass extinction can even come close. These are the questions that are at the very core of the show. I look forward to getting more pieces of the puzzle as the season continues.

What are you thoughts? Sound off in the comments section below!