Maggie’s death on this Monday’s Revolution dealt the post-blackout gang a one-two blow: Not only did the stabbing strip Charlie of her surrogate mother, it robbed the band of survivors of its only trained doctor.
Cruel? Sure – after all, with her dad murdered, her real mom “dead” and her brother kidnapped, Charlie now feels truly alone. But the move was also a necessary storytelling decision, insists creator Eric Kripke.
“We decided, internally, very early on to show that this world had very real stakes and that it was truly dangerous,” he said during a conference call with reporters. While the doc could have been saved in the days before the power outage, the major artery-nicking cut proved fatal because “you’re not close to hospitals, you’re not close to paramedics, you’re not close to help.”
But to really drive home how perilous and unpredictable the survivors’ reality is, Kripke and his team “very quickly realized the scariest thing we could do was kill the doctor among them,” leaving them helpless, he continued. “It was purely a creative decision about giving the world a real charge of danger. As we move forward in the series, we want the audience to really understand that nobody is safe, including the main characters, and bring that suspense because we think that’s honest to the world we’re trying to create here.”
Meanwhile, the fallout from the loss will force Charlie to ponder “how much duress and hardship can she face before she loses what’s truly special about her, which is this belief in mankind and this belief that things can get better,” previewed Kripke. “Because if she doesn’t have that, then she’s lost. And, in a way, we’re all lost.”
More scoop from the call:
• The answer to what made the lights go out may be coming – and not in the series finale! “We’re talking dangerously about revealing that secret before the end of the first season,” shared Kripke. “It’s part of my philosophy about not being too precious with anything. We may reveal the secret sooner than later.”
• Next Monday’s episode will delve into Captain Neville’s backstory and “how [did] his character, who before the blackout was pretty mild-mannered and maybe a little submissive, transform into the violent psychopath that he is today,” Kripke said, laughing. The introduction of Kim Raver (Grey’s Anatomy) as his wife should give viewers some insight into that. “We’re planting Kim now, and then we’re going to meet her in the present day and really explore her character a couple episodes down the line. We’re going to see how [someone who was ] a very normal suburban wife before the blackout post-blackout transformed into Lady MacBeth.” Along those lines, “everything changes” for Rachel when Danny finally arrives in Philadelphia, leading her to reveal some of the secrets that she’s been holding onto.
• Episode 10 sounds like one not to be missed. Not only will Charlie & Co. catch up to her brother during the hour, but Miles and Monroe — who share “a very tragic, emotional, Cain-and-Abel kind of” history — will come face-to-face, as well. “They still really love each other. When they see each other, they’re not really sure if they’re going to kill each other or hug each other,” previewed Kripke.
• Grace will reappear in Episode 7. Teased Kripke: “We see who Randall is, this person who kidnapped her in Episode 2, and we get to learn more about him. We start to expand it because she is under duress with this character, Randall. She’s in a dangerous position right now… In the second of the half the season, Grace and Randall and what’s happening with their storyline begins to play a huge, huge part in the main storyline of the show.”
• Charlie will learn what happened between her mother and Miles this season, Kripke said, and it’ll be “pretty explosive.”
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