Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 328

Science Fiction and Media Theory Trailers

I thought I'd put up a page, which will be continuously updated, for all the trailers that have been posted for my science fiction and media theory.  They range from 6-9 second Vine-like clips, to longer trailers of a minute or two.


Unburning Alexandria  by Paul Levinson



The Silk Code  by Paul Levinson



The Chronology Protection Case movie by Jay Kensinger
from the novelette by Paul Levinson



New New Media by Paul Levinson



Hell Scrolls - written by J. Charles Sterin, and published
by JoSara MeDia on my Connected Editions imprint

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Revolution 2.9: The Boy and the Attitude

A strong but flawed Revolution 2.9 tonight, in which we see the nanites or nanotech that heal and kill on behalf of Aaron in the incarnation of a boy - a friend of Aaron's when both were boys in grammar school.

Fair enough - though the incarnation seems to trivialize or at least makes the nanites less mysterious, which is not a plus - but the nanities in the form of the boy also have something of a petty attitude. Aaron tells him and they to get lost. They come back to help Aaron kill Dr. Horn and all the pseudo-patriot soldiers. But when Aaron then pleads with the "boy" to once again heal Cynthia - who has been shot dead by Horn, after she was revived from the knifing - the boy throws a bit of a fit and refuses, leaving Aaron to mourn over the Cynthia's body.   If this is the nanites' way of teaching Aaron a lesson, it won't be very effective.   Aaron will now likely move from not liking the nanites to hating them.

But the destruction of Horn and all the brutal patriots in the vicinity does have the advantage of saving Rachel and Miles, and Charlie and Monroe.   But Miles is sinking quickly from his infected crushed hand - the nanites could save him. and if they lose their attitude and try to be helpful.   Meanwhile, maybe I'm crazy, but I see a future in which Charlie and Monroe are a couple, despite Monroe having killed her brother last season.

And, as Revolution takes a pause after this Fall finale - to return in the Spring - it's good indeed to see Tom reunited with his wife, who I just knew all along was still alive.   The two are on a train, Hitchcock style, with their son, and all sorts of potentially dangerous characters.   One thing is clear: wherever the train is now headed, it will eventually get out West for a reunion with Rachel, Aaron, and the gang.  Or maybe they'll all come East.   Either way, things are beginning to come together on Revolution.

See also Revolution 2.1: "The Last Surviving Friend" ... Revolution 2.2: Reanimation ... Revolution 2.4: Nanites and ... Maybe Aliens? ... Revolution 2.7: Firestarter Aaron vs. the Creepster

And see also Revolution: Preview Review  ... Revolution 1.2: Fast Changes ... Revolution 1.14: Nanites and Jack Bauer ... Revolution 1.15: Major Tom and More 24 ... Revolution 1.16: Feeling a Little Like the Hatch in Lost ... Revolution 1.17: Even Better Nanites ... Revolution 1.18: Whodunnit? ... Revolution 1.19: Cheney's Bunker ... Revolution Season 1 Finale: Good Pivot




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Almost Human 1.2: Sexbots

Almost Human was back for its second show tonight - about sexbots aka bangbots - and was as good as the first.  Lots of cool future tech on hand - from "DNA bombs" that bad guys use to erase all DNA evidence in a crime scene, to mechanical toy giraffes that move like the real living kind - all wrapped together in a story with heart and style.

Dorian, as we know, is capable of emotion.  He's attracted to a sexbot who is starting to bond with him - as per her programming - but has to be deactivated aka killed, because her skin is made of human DNA, and that's illegal.

The DNA from human skin is the centerpiece of the story and the police investigation, because the DNA is harvested from human woman who are kidnapped and eventually killed in the process.  One might think that, by the 2040s and with all of this tech savvy, human skin DNA could be rapidly grown from a few cells - which could be grabbed from people without they're even knowing - but that's ok. The destruction of the human hosts in suitably future creepy labs lends a Matrix atmosphere to show, a good combination with the Bladerunner vibe.

Apropos Freud and his thanatos and libido as the motivating forces of life, Almost Human also deals with Dorian's attempt to understand the nature of death, which, of course, Kennex doesn't completely get, either, because none of us humans ever do.   Kennex's view that the departed live on in the memories the living carry of them is as good as any view about how to transcend death, and it's better than most.   This helps Dorian come to terms with the death of the sexbot that he never got to make love to, and Kennex with the death of his partner four years ago, as he pays a visit to his partner's home to tell his son about his father.

But back to libido, there's clearly some ahead, at least for Kennex, with Detective Stahl.  And good humor - not one of Freud's basics, but still important - throughout the episode and, in particular, in the future tech guy, who looks and sounds like a young Ducky from NCIS.

I'll be back next week.

See also: Almost Human debuts: A Review





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The Walking Dead 4.6: The Good Governor

A good standalone episode 4.6 of The Walking Dead last night, in which we saw what happened to the Governor after the end of last season.

The story is a satisfying tale of finding some happiness in the walker ridden world.  The Governor not only adopts and is adopted by a family, but it's a family with a girl, Megan, pretty much his own daughter's age, and the hugs they exchange, the new daughter in his arms, ripple back to the the Governor's life before the biters aka walkers took it all away.

The Governor also finds comfort with the woman of the house, Megan's young mother Lilly, reminiscent in some ways of Maggie. The episode ends with the Governor saving his new daughter from a walker attack, the night after he and Lilly make love.  It's about as happy a family as we could get in this apocalyptic world.

But the happiness will have its boundaries, and not just from bumping into walkers.   We know that it's close to time that the Governor will come into contact with our people in the prison, and what will happen then?   Will the Governor plead for mercy and forgiveness, on behalf not so much for himself but his new family?   Michonne and Rick would never accept him.

On the other hand, they would take his help, wouldn't they, to fend off a walker attack.   And what would Hershel counsel?   How far can forgiveness and redemption go in this world?

Whatever the result, the Governor's return is welcome - at least to the viewer - and signals a ratcheting up of all that will now happen in this season of The Walking Dead.

See also The Walking Dead 4.1: The New Plague ... The Walking Dead 4.2: The Baby and the Flu ... The Walking Dead 4.3: Death in Every Corner ... The Walking Dead 4.4: Hershel, Carl, and Maggie

And see also The Walking Dead 3.3 meets Meadowlands ... The Walking Dead 3.4: Going to the Limit ... The Walking Dead 3.9: Making Crazy Sense ... The Walking Dead 3.10: Reinforcements ... The Walking Dead 3.11: The Patch ... The Walking Dead 3.12: The Lesson of Morgan ... The Walking Dead 3.13: The Deal ... The Walking Dead 3.14: Inescapable Parable ... The Walking Dead 3.15: Merle ... The Walking Dead 3.16: Kill or Die, or Die and Kill
And see also The Walking Dead Back on AMC ... The Walking Dead 2.2: The Nature of Vet... The Walking Dead 2.3: Shane and Otis ... The Walking Dead 2.4: What Happened at the Pharmacy ... The Walking Dead 2.6: Secrets Told ... The Walking Dead 2.7: Rick's Way vs. Shane's Way ...  The Walking Dead 2.8: The Farm, the Road, and the Town  ... The Walking Dead 2.9: Worse than Walkers ... The Walking Dead 2.11: Young Calling the Shots ... The Walking Dead 2.12: Walkers Without Bites ... The Walking Dead Season 2 Finale
And see also The Walking Dead 1.1-3:  Gone with the Wind, Zombie Style ... The Walking Dead Ends First Season




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Boardwalk Empire 4.11: Nucky on the Beach

A powerful  Boardwalk Empire 4.11 tonight, with no less than three stories receiving sizzling treatment, only one of which is resolved.

Let's start with the resolution.   We knew there was something not quite right about Jillian's beau - I could feel it in my bones, not to mention the snippet of the conversation we caught him having on the phone.  I thought for a brief few minutes tonight that maybe I was wrong.   But few if any people live happily ever after on this show.   So after he "killed" the guy in the garage, and Gillian began pouring out her heart and history to him, it occurred to me that maybe he faked the killing, to loosen Gillian's tongue.  And sure enough, that's just what it was.   (I didn't see that Dominic Chianese's Leander was behind it - but it all makes awful sense.)

Of the two other stories, the slightly less significant but bigger action one concerns Chalky, taking refuge with Maitland at Oscar's, his old mentor.  Lou Gossett, Jr. put in a great performance as Oscar, and the shoot-out at the end was one of the best of the series.   I thought for a second that Chalky might end up a goner after all, and it was good seeing Oscar's men come to the rescue.  With any luck, they'll be regulars on the series next year.

And there's Nucky and Eli in the beach house..  So now Eli knows, and Willie suspects that Nucky knows, though just what Willie can't be sure.  Nucky tells Sally at the end that he wants "out".   As well he might and does, since almost the last thing he'll want to do is kill his brother.   But of the two - Nucky leaving the business or silencing Eli - I can't really see him doing either.   Which means there will either be a third alternative - in which Nucky is able to get Eli to get the Feds running around in circles - or, well, if I had to pick, I'd say Eli will go.

Which I'd hate to see, but it's the only logical move for Nucky, if he can't come up with a plan that saves Nucky and gives it to the Feds at the same time.  The meeting he's agreeing to is somehow a part of this.   He already has a plan in motion, even though he's telling Sally he wants out.   Is that part of the plan?

We'll see in seven days.

See also Boardwalk Empire 4.1: Sneak Preview Review ... Boardwalk Empire 4.2: Sneak Preview Review ... Boardwalk Empire 4.2: J. Edgar ...Boardwalk Empire Sneak Preview Review 4.3: Honey, Sunny ...Boardwalk Empire 4.3: Nucky, Sunshine, and Heroin ... Boardwalk Empire Sneak Preview Review 4.4: Downfalls ... Boardwalk Empire 4.4: Bullies and Betrayals ... Boardwalk Empire Sneak Preview 4.5: The Gift of Rage ... Boardwalk 4.5: Two Deaths ... Boardwalk Empire Sneak Preview 4.6: Good Lovin' ... Boardwalk Empire 4.6: Sally and Margaret ... Boardwalk Empire Sneak Preview 4.7: Beds, Promotions, Surprises ... Boardwalk Empire 4.7: Family and History ... Boardwalk Empire Sneak Preview 4.8: The Blues ... Boardwalk Empire 4.8: Knives in the Back ... Boardwalk Empire 4.9: The Imbecile ... Boardwalk Empire 4.10 Sneak Preview Review: Unholy Alliances ... Boardwalk Empire 4.10: Family Treachery

And see also Boardwalk Empire 3.1: Happy News Year 1923  ... Boardwalk Empire 3.2: Gasoline and the White Rock Girl ... Boardwalk Empire 3.3: The Showgirl and The Psycho ... Boardwalk Empire 3.5: "10 L'Chaim" ... Boardwalk Empire 3.7: Deadly Gillian ... Boardwalk Empire 3.8: Andrew Mellon ... Boardwalk Empire 3.9: Impaired Nucky

And see also Boardwalk Empire 2.1: Politics in an Age Before YouTube  ... Boardwalk Empire 2.2: The Woman Behind the Throne ... Boardwalk Empire 2.3: Frankenstein and Victrola ... Boardwalk Empire 2.4: Nearly Flagrante Delicto ... Boardwalk Empire 2.5: Richard's Story ... Boardwalk Empire 2.6: Owen and Other Bad News for Nucky ... Boardwalk Empire 2.7: Shot in the Hand  ...Boardwalk Empire 2.8: Pups with Fangs ... Boardwalk Empire 2.9: Ireland, Radio, Polio ...Boardwalk Empire 2.10: Double Shot ... Boardwalk Empire 2.11: Gillian and Jimmy  ... Boardwalk Empire Season 2 Finale: Stunner!

And see also Boardwalk Emipre on HBO ... Boardwalk Empire 1.2: Lines and Centers Power ...Boardwalk Empire 1.10: Arnold Rothstein, Media Theorist  ... Season One Finale of Boardwalk Empire





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Almost Human debuts: A Review

Almost Human - the latest J. J. Abrams' offering on television - debuted on Fox tonight.   No Robocop this sophisticated, crackling story of androids and human police.   Rather, Almost Human has the ambience of Bladerunner, which is to say, really good.

Michael Ealy (Sleeper Cell) plays the android Dorian, teamed with the initially dyspeptic about androids John Keenan (played by Karl Urban), the human cop.  Urban plays Bones McCoy in the new Star Trek, never a fan of high-tech, so this is a good fit.  Beautiful Minka Kelly of Friday Night Lights fame is also on hand as police.

Keenan's been in a coma about two years, after the syndicate in this town some 30 years up the road from us (2048 Los Angeles) all but took out his unit.   He's saddled with an MX - the latest kind of cop android, considered a step forward in that they operate solely on logic, not emotion - but Keenan throws his MX out of the car into speeding traffic and android death when it figures out that Keenan's been visiting a black-market cyber-shrink to recover his memories - one of the reasons I said Almost Human harkens to Bladerunner.   Still obliged to be partnered with an android, Keenan pays a visit to the android shop. All that's available is a de-commissioned older model - phased out because these models feel emotions and are in that and other ways unreliable.  Meet Dorian, who's awakened from four years in android limbo.

So we've got a nice set up for a continuing story.  By the end of the premiere episode, Keenan has come to respect and appreciate Dorian, and Dorian appreciates this appreciation.   Keenan also discovers, in one last and dangerous dredge of his memories, that his former girlfriend betrayed him.

The police force is suitably diverse - other than the MXs - with Michael Irby (of The Unit) playing the typically skeptical cop who views both Dorian and Keenan as wrecks who came back to the force, and Lt. Maldonado (Lili Taylor) seeing them both as "special" i.e., much needed.   I like the mix, I like the style, I like the storyline, I like the action, and I'll back tomorrow.





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The Walking Dead on Mars

Just saw The Last Days on Mars - a British film out in the UK since September, due to open here in the US in early December.  It's a low-budget, pretty good movie that might well have been entitled The Walking Dead on Mars.

The mission to Mars is looking for any signs of life.   They find it all right, in the form of a deadly bacterium that not only kills the humans it infects, but does it quickly - in well less than an hour - and turns them into vicious zombies without pulse or need for oxygen, but a drive to attack and therein infect other humans - i.e., the rest of the mission.

There's a cold and logical ecological aspect to this.   Since Mars is devoid of oxygen, it makes sense that the bacteria would turn the human invaders aka astronauts into creatures that need no oxygen. Perhaps this is what the original denizens of Mars were like, though we see no real suggestion of this in the movie.

The ending is nicely - i.e., harrowingly - ambiguous.   Does the astronaut survivor, who may be infected, allow himself to be rescued, and therein risk bringing the contagion back to Earth, or commit a noble suicide?

Given what we've seen in The Walking Dead, we might have our answer.   But The Walking Dead is of course another reality, which may or may not be linked to The Last Days on Mars - obviously the movie and the comic book/television series are not, so I'm talking metaphysical popular culture.   But we've yet to see - at least in the television series - any indication of what caused the plague on Earth, so I'll opt to look at The Last Days on Mars as a strong, scientific prequel.   And, hey, nice to Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan)  and Romola Garai (The Hour) on a screen together.

See also The Walking Dead 4.1: The New Plague ... The Walking Dead 4.2: The Baby and the Flu ... The Walking Dead 4.3: Death in Every Corner ... The Walking Dead 4.5: Hershel, Carl, and Maggie

And see also The Walking Dead 3.3 meets Meadowlands ... The Walking Dead 3.4: Going to the Limit ... The Walking Dead 3.9: Making Crazy Sense ... The Walking Dead 3.10: Reinforcements ... The Walking Dead 3.11: The Patch ... The Walking Dead 3.12: The Lesson of Morgan ... The Walking Dead 3.13: The Deal ... The Walking Dead 3.14: Inescapable Parable ... The Walking Dead 3.15: Merle ... The Walking Dead 3.16: Kill or Die, or Die and Kill
And see also The Walking Dead Back on AMC ... The Walking Dead 2.2: The Nature of Vet ... The Walking Dead 2.3: Shane and Otis ... The Walking Dead 2.4: What Happened at the Pharmacy ... The Walking Dead 2.6: Secrets Told ... The Walking Dead 2.7: Rick's Way vs. Shane's Way ...  The Walking Dead 2.8: The Farm, the Road, and the Town  ... The Walking Dead 2.9: Worse than Walkers ... The Walking Dead 2.11: Young Calling the Shots ... The Walking Dead 2.12: Walkers Without Bites ... The Walking Dead Season 2 Finale
And see also The Walking Dead 1.1-3:  Gone with the Wind, Zombie Style ... The Walking Dead Ends First Season




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Bones 9.9: Friday Night Bones in the Courtroom

A fine, different kind of Bones tonight - episode 9.9, debuting at the new time, Friday night - which brings us Bones not just in the courtroom but on a jury.

Bones' personality and the reaction of the jurors provides the comic relief to a story that comes with a rock-hard ethical dilemma:  do you find someone not guilty, when you feel in your bones that the guy is guilty, because there's not sufficient evidence?  Bones as a woman of science of course insists on deciding solely on the basis of the evidence, and her logic eventually sways the jury.   But we and she know that a murderer is being set free.

We actually know this even better than Bones, because the victim in another murder case that Booth and the Jeffersonian crew are investigating turns out to have been a witness in the Bones on the jury case.   And the fact that this witness never got to court to testify is the decisive piece of lacking evidence that leads Bones to convince the rest of the jury that there is insufficient evidence to convict.

I like that Bones on the jury made a decision based on principle - not enough evidence - and that Booth and then Bones can then figure out a way to nab the killer, by finding irrefutable evidence that he killed the witness.   In the ideal world of television, we should aim for the highest principle.

Meanwhile, there's an especially interesting side story tonight, as Cam and Angela look into who stole Cam's identify and is racking up charges on new credit cards in Cam's name.   The charges look a lot like what the real Cam would spend money on, which made me think that maybe Cam has some sort of split personality, and stole her own identity.   The answer is almost as good, and promises some interesting storyline ahead.

PS - Apropos of being on juries, I was foreperson on a jury in a criminal case this summer.  Here's the little account I wrote up after the trial, with names of course not revealed.

See also Bones 9.1: The Sweet Misery of Love ... Bones 9.2: Bobcat, Identity Theft, and Sweets ... Bones 9.3 and NCIS 11.2: Sweets and Ziva ... Bones 9.4: Metaphysics of Death in a Television Series ... Bones 9.5: Val and Deep Blue ... Bones 9.6: The Wedding ... Bones 9.7: Watch Out, Buenos Aires ... Bones 9.8: The Bug in the Neck

And see also Bones 8.1: Walk Like an Egyptian ... Bones 8.2 of Contention ... Bones 8.3: Not Rotting Behind a Desk  ... Bones 8.4: Slashing Tiger and Donald Trump ... Bones 8.5: Applesauce on Election Eve ... Bones 8.6: Election Day ... Bones 8.7: Dollops in the Sky with Diamonds ...Bones 8.8: The Talking Remains ... Bones 8.9: I Am A Camera ... Bones 8.10-11: Double Bones ...Bones 8.12: Face of Enigmatic Evil ... Bones 8.13: Two for the Price of One ... Bones 8.14: Real Life ... Bones 8.15: The Magic Bullet and the Be-Spontaneous Paradox ... Bones 8.16: Bitter-Sweet Sweets and Honest Finn ... Bones 8.17: "Not Time Share, Time Travel" ... Bones 8.18: Couples ... Bones 8.19: The Head in the Toilet ... Bones 8.20: On Camera ... Bones 8.21: Christine, Hot Sauce, and the Judge ... Bones 8.22: Musical-Chair Parents ... Bones 8.23: The Bluff ... Bones Season 8 Finale: Can't Buy the Last Few Minutes

And see also Bones 7.1: Almost Home Sweet Home ... Bones 7.2: The New Kid and the Fluke ...Bones 7.3: Lance Bond and Prince Charmington ... Bones 7.4: The Tush on the Xerox ... Bones 7.5: Sexy Vehicle ... Bones 7.6: The Reassembler ... Bones 7.7: Baby! ... Bones 7.8: Parents ...Bones 7.9: Tabitha's Salon ... Bones 7.10: Mobile ... Bones 7.11: Truffles and Max ... Bones 7.12: The Corpse is Hanson ... Bones Season 7 Finale: Suspect Bones

And see also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah ... Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty ... Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations ... Bones 6.7:  Newman and "Death by Chocolate" ...Bones 6.8: Melted Bones ... Bones 6.9: Adelbert Ames, Jr. ... Bones 6.10: Reflections ... Bones 6.11: The End and the Beginning of a Mystery ... Bones 6.12 Meets Big Love ... Bones 6.13: The Marrying Kind ... Bones 6.14: Bones' Acting Ability ... Bones 6.15: "Lunch for the Palin Family" ...Bones 6.16: Stuck in an Elevator, Stuck in Times ... Bones 6.17: The 8th Pair of Feet ... Bones 6.18: The Wile E. Chupacabra ... Bones 6.19 Test Runs The Finder ... Bones 6.20: This Very Statement is a Lie ... Bones 6.21: Sensitive Bones ... Bones 6.22: Phoenix Love ... Bones Season 6 Finale: Beautiful

And see also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ...Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ...Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ... Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution




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The Chronology Protection Case released with new, extended ending

The Chronology Protection Case has been released on iTunes with a new, extended ending.

The 40-minute movie by Jay Kensinger, first released in 2002, is an adaptation of Paul Levinson's novelette "The Chronology Protection Case," first published in Analog Magazine in September 1995. The novelette was a finalist for the Nebula Award, reprinted five times - including in the currently best-selling Mammoth Book of Time Travel - and made into an Edgar nominated radio play.

Kensinger directed, produced, wrote, and plays the role of Dr. Phil D'Amato in the movie.  D'Amato has appeared in two other novelettes by Levinson - "The Copyright Notice Case' and "The Mendelian Lamp Case" - and in three novels by Levinson, The Silk Code, The Consciousness Plague, and The Pixel Eye.

The extended ending in the 2013 release of the movie brings the story forward from 2002 to 2013, and was written by Levinson and Kensinger.  The 2002 release was shown at science fiction conventions around the east coast, including ICon and Philcon.

A trailer follows.   More details about the movie on IMDB.



"The Chronology Protection Case" reprinted in

The Mammoth Book of Time Travel, ed. Mike Ashley, Robinson Books, 2013 The Best Time Travel Stories of All Time, ed. Barry Malzberg, I-Books, 2003. Nebula Awards 32: SFWA's Choices for the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, ed. Jack Dann, Harcourt Brace, 1998. Infinite Edge (online magazine), June-July 1997 Supernatural Sleuths, ed. C. G. Waugh & M. Greenberg, ROC Books, 1996



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Revolution 2.8: Family and Faulty Experiment

A powerful family-dynamic on Revolution 2.8 tonight, in which Rachel comes to terms with her father - that is, moves from professing to not care what happens to him to wanting to save him from the pseudo-patriots - while Major Tom back East learns the truth about how his captive's husband really feels about her.

We also get a good flashback retrospective of Dr. Horn, which gives us context as to how and why he's torturing Aaron.   As is often the case with these sorts of quietly sicko people, Horn's reasons go beyond just patriotism.

But the logic of the experimentation on Aaron is somewhat lacking.  Horn demonstrates that Aaron's nanites have the power to heal Aaron, even when Aaron is drugged - semi-sedated - to keep him from burning anyone up.  Ok - but then, why don't these nanites have the power to rouse Aaron from his semi-sedation, apply themselves to the wound in his mind, so to speak, so he can bring into the play the fire against his tormentor, Horn?  That may not have occurred to Horn, because after all he's here to learn about Aaron, but it should occur to anyone who's been following the storyline this season.

And then there's the other side of this - Horn giving Aaron a stimulant, so Horn can goad Aaron into getting some fire going.   Horn does leave the room - to be safe from the fire - but how can Horn be sure that Aaron's powers don't extend to the next room?  He hasn't exactly mapped out all of Aaron's powers as yet, and certainly not their range - because, again, that's what he's here in this small, unstable Texas town to investigate.

It was good to see Monroe kill a few more people, and Rachel's father do the right thing.   But, as a science fiction story, Revolution needs to pay a little more attention to the logical consequences of the intriguing phenomena it has set in motion.

See also Revolution 2.1: "The Last Surviving Friend" ... Revolution 2.2: Reanimation ... Revolution 2.4: Nanites and ... Maybe Aliens? ... Revolution 2.7: Firestarter Aaron vs. the Creepster

And see also Revolution: Preview Review  ... Revolution 1.2: Fast Changes ... Revolution 1.14: Nanites and Jack Bauer ... Revolution 1.15: Major Tom and More 24 ... Revolution 1.16: Feeling a Little Like the Hatch in Lost ... Revolution 1.17: Even Better Nanites ... Revolution 1.18: Whodunnit? ... Revolution 1.19: Cheney's Bunker ... Revolution Season 1 Finale: Good Pivot




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