Revolution Episode 2.05 One Riot, One Ranger

Monroe and Charlie spy on Willoughby. Charlie wants to go home, but Monroe holds her back. Clearly, the Patriots have taken over. Meanwhile, Truman surveys the charred bodies of the guards that died chasing Miles - what the hell could've caused this? In a panic, Aaron tells Miles and Rachel exactly what happened to the guards last night. He fears he is to blame, but Rachel insists the nanites aren't capable of that kind of intelligence. Suddenly, the town bell rings as five Texas Rangers trot into town, looking for Truman. The Patriots are occupying sovereign soil, and Texan Secretary of the Interior John Fry needs one reason why his men shouldn't kill them all right now. Miles tells Rachel their best chance at starting a war with the Patriots just arrived on horseback...

At the refugee camp, people are scrambling to get on the few wagons heading to a nicer camp in Perrysburg. Secretary Allenford has been called to D.C. and needs Neville to be a part of her security detail. On the road, another Patriot convoy stops them, and the commander shoots Allenford in the stomach. Neville springs into action and shoots the commander dead, saving Allenford's life.

Ordering his men to back off, Truman asks the Rangers to stay to observe Willoughby as proof of the Patriots' good intentions. Fry refuses. He'll tell his general about the Patriots, but he's leaving at first light. Soon afterwards, Miles summons Fry to warn of the Patriots' bad intentions, asking him to bring the Rangers to Willoughby to fight them. With a history of bad blood with Miles, Fry can't trust a word he says, and most of the Rangers are out fighting on the Southern border. His boss wants a treaty, not a war. He'll need hard proof to do anything else. Out of options, Miles asks Fry to meet him - alone - at Lasky's Mill up river at midnight; he'll see his proof there.

Aaron flashes back to his first days in Willoughby, when Cynthia interviewed him for a teaching job at the school. Aaron was in a dark place, drunk and unable to overcome the aftermath of the nukes dropping. Frankly, Cynthia thought he'd scare the kids, but Aaron begged her for a job. Back in the present, Aaron packs a bag and heads out. Cynthia asks Rachel to help her find Aaron, recalling his first days at the school just six months ago. She brought him a gag gift of chattering teeth because he never smiled. Her husband Carl showed up that day to threaten Aaron not to get to close to Cynthia.

Charlie accosts Miles on the street, where their happy homecoming is short-lived. After showing Miles Rachel's wanted poster, Charlie leads Miles out of town for another surprise: Monroe, in the flesh. Charlie admits Monroe saved her life, and he's come to help. "You want to help me?" Miles hisses. "Go away." But Monroe presses on. The best way to defeat the Patriots involves both of them together. Monroe is asking for a truce. Miles takes Charlie and Monroe to the train yard, but it's been scrubbed clean of any evidence to offer Fry. Monroe smiles mysteriously, confident they'll come up with some evidence by nightfall.

Rachel finds Aaron moping in the boat yard. Aaron insists he can't return home; he's too much of a hazard to the people he loves. Aaron killed those Patriots just by thinking it... and it wasn't the first time. Aaron recalls an incident five months previously: walking around drunk one night, he discovered Carl having sex with a woman in an abandoned car. Aaron's hatred for Cynthia's husband boiled up, and as he walked away, the car burst into flames, incinerating Carl and the woman, despite Aaron's best efforts to get them out. Regardless, Rachel advises Aaron to go home; they'll figure it out.

As Neville gently cleans Allenford's bullet wound, she tells him why the ambush occurred: she spoke out about the "camp" where the Patriots shipped the young, healthy refugees. It's not a camp, but a reprogramming center offering a steady cocktail of LSD and PCP and violent behavioral conditioning to yield zombified killing machines. Realizing Allenford is now dead to the Patriots, Neville prepares to abandon her, until she confesses that Jason has been taken to the reprogramming center. Neville stops dead in his tracks, demanding to know the center's location. Allenford offers to lead him there... so long as he takes her with him.

Miles, Monroe and Charlie search the train yard under cover of darkness, finding nothing. Suddenly, shots ring out - it's a Patriot ambush! Just like old times, Miles and Monroe take them out one by one until only Garrett is left. They drag him to Lasky's Mill, hoping to extract info on the Patriots to give Fry. In the meantime, Aaron has another vision, which draws him and Rachel to Lasky's, where Rachel snatches up a gun, hoping to blast a hole in Monroe. With Fry on his way, Miles disarms Rachel and tells everyone to hide. Rachel and Charlie immediately start fighting over Monroe - why didn't Charlie kill him when she had the chance?! Charlie protests that Monroe has changed, but Rachel absolutely refuses to hear any of it.

When Fry arrives, Miles is disgusted to discover Garrett chomped on his cyanide tooth and has killed himself. As far as Fry is concerned, his boss won't be starting any war with the Patriots without proof of their iniquity. A shot rings out, and Fry drops to the ground dead, as smoke wafts out of the barrel of Monroe's gun. Now all they have to do is frame the Patriots for Fry's murder, and Miles will have his war...