‘Revolution’ midseason premiere shocker: Eric Kripke explains the dramatic ending (major spoilers)

Death came to “Revolution” again in the shocking ending to midseason premiere episode “The Stand.” We’re only halfway through Season 1 and the show has already lost its second full-time cast member, now that Danny (Graham Rogers) has joined Maggie (Anna Lise Phillips) as casualties of the increasingly dangerous rebellion.

“I think it’s exactly the right type of shocking development that really ramps everybody up emotionally for their mission in the second half of the season,” showrunner Eric Kripke says of the decision to kill off Danny. “It emotionally escalates everything.”

Poor Danny had only recently been reunited with his mother Rachel (Elizabeth Mitchell), sister Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos) and uncle Miles (Billy Burke) before he bravely faced off against an attacking Monroe militia helicopter and saved the rebels by shooting it down. As the copter came crashing down out of control, Danny was struck and killed by the spray of bullets.

“Every character needs an intense emotional drive to face down General Monroe and to not do it just for political reasons,” Kripke says. “To do it for intensely personal and tortured reasons.”

Kripke says the writers discussed their options at length and settled on Danny’s death as the catalyst because “we realized that this move would not only blow people’s hair back, but really mobilize everybody to take the fight to Monroe in the most fraught and desperate way possible.”

To that end, Kripke promises significant drama ahead for Rachel, Charlie and Miles, calling that trio of characters “a center of gravity for the show.”

“The show is really at its heart a family show,” Kripke explains. “The issues we discuss and the thematics we discuss are much more about family than anything else. Between all three of them there’s a very rich amount of material to play. Rachel and Miles have a very complicated history which we’ll begin to unveil and explore more in the second half. Rachel hasn’t been in her children’s lives for years and suddenly she’s coming back. They’re different people, they’re strangers. You don’t want to feel frustration but you can’t help it. You don’t want to feel resentment but you feel it.”

And what about the mysterious object Rachel pulls out of Danny’s body in that devastating scene of her saying goodbye to his corpse? Will we find out what it is and if it has any connection to the blackout? Elizabeth Mitchell promises the show “absolutely will” answer those questions soon. “It’s really intriguing,” she vows. “I was intrigued by it as a nerd.”

What did you think of “Revolution’s” midseason return? Did the episode make you more or less excited to watch the rest of Season 1?

Photo/Video credit: NBC