Chapter Seven – The Dilemma
After a brief flash to Madeleine’s nightmares, episode 7 of La Revolution returns to the light cliffhanger we finished on last time. We’re back with Elise and the syringe but just before injecting it into herself, Albert arrives. He talks her out of this, knowing first-hand how damaging this blue blood is. He swats the blue liquid away from her and embraces his lover. Meanwhile, Marie and the other newly-turned Blue Bloods stalk Katell and Joseph, preparing to eat them and their fellow prisoners. Only, Oka is there and manages to behead one of the nobleman. Capturing Maria, Oka is talked out of killing her. Instead they hold her up at their hideout as bait. While they do, Joseph tends to Katell and makes sure she’s okay. He warns Marianne though that the virus is at its most prevalent during these early days. He also tells her to be vigilant against the woman. Back at the estate, the sole surviving nobleman returns and faces Donatien. He reveals that the Brotherhood have his sister, leading him to try and come up with a plan against them. Charles stands with him and berates his son, telling him he’s a contamination and how he’s betrayed the King. With a revolution looking almost certain, Donatien snaps and beats his Father to a bloody pump with a snooker cue. With spatters of blood up the wall, he’s well and truly lost the plot now. Propping Charles up on the sofa, Edmond arrives and asks Donatien when he’ll bury his Father. Instead, Donatien throws the questions back at him and asks where Elise and the others are. Losing patience, Edmond is “disposed of” out in the woods with a grave dug and dirt shoved on him. Only, Edmond is smart and two gunshots dispose of the men out with him. Back at the estate, Donatien goes one step further and announces to all the noblemen in a meeting that he’s going to marry his cousin, Madeleine. As they all look on in shock, Donatien has his men kill them all and begins injecting blue blood to build his army. When Madeleine arrives, Donatien signals his true intentions. He wants to turn Madeleine into one of the blue bloods too, and attempts to do just that through sheer force. She’s smart though, and after conjuring forth the same ghostly apparition we’ve seen before, she knocks down the guard behind her. Then, she grabs the syringe and injects herself with the blue blood. It doesn’t seem to have any affect on her at all and as she leaves, the rest of the dead bodies in the room all come back to life. Back at the hideout Elise drops a major bombshell. Apparently Madeleine isn’t her sister after all. She’s actually her and Albert’s daughter. It’s a shocking revelation and one that sees Albert struggling with the ramifications of this. He heads into Joseph’s tent while he’s at work figuring out what to do next. Slamming his knife down on the table, Albert reminds Joseph that violence – not science – is the only way to deal with this blue blood threat going forward. Trying to find a solution, Joseph has everyone draw blood in a bid to try and see if any have an immunity. Unfortunately the group run out of samples before they can completely test their theory but right now it doesn’t look good. Back in town, we get another beautifully shot sequence. This time a one-shot take sees the army of newly turned blue bloods arrive at a local inn and massacre the entire place. With the camera effortlessly moving from window to window, the noblemen take out everyone inside. A single survivor manages to make it to the Brotherhood hideout though, where they realize the war has begun. Observing the carnage for themselves, the survivors look upon the bloodshed and contemplate whether they should leave or not. Eventually, they all agree to stay and fight.
The Episode Review
The whole show has built up nicely to the finale but in true Netflix fashion I’d imagine this one will end on a cliffhanger. Whether it’ll get a second season or not remains to be seen, but there’s definitely some good segments to take away from this one. The cinematography in particular is excellent. Those moments near the end with the tavern massacre were perfectly constructed and easily one of the highlights. Alongside that opening sequence in episode 1, this is definitely one of the finer technical moments of the show. That’s to say nothing of the story either which is well and truly building a division of two sides at war. While the middle slew of chapters haven’t had anything particularly outstanding, the final act of this one is building up nicely to a dramatic finale to come.
