Revival is finally here, bringing us a mixture of horror, sci-fi, and crime. The very first episode opens with the dead rising up, and it’s going to be up to a single mom and cop, Dana Cypress, to figure out what’s going on.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for Revival season 1, episode 1.
The episode opens with the supernatural element of the dead rising up, and you’ve got to feel for the mortician who is around as the dead start screaming from the fridges — and even one from the oven. Just what happened to bring everyone back from the dead?
Dana Cypress is ready to move in Revival season 1, episode 1
After seeing the dead rise in Revival, we head to Dana Cypress’s house, as she and her dad are arguing. She’s getting ready to leave the town, although he has no idea that this is happening, and he’s not happy that she’s taking away her grandson.
Well, it looks like moving isn’t going to happen, as the town is sure to be shut off from the rest of the world. As Sheriff Wayne Cypress gets calls about the events in the world, he orders his daughter out to check on some of those events. That takes her to the cemetery, where there are people walking around. They have all come out of their graves, including a small girl who is confused and lost. All she wants is her mom.
It's soon clear that people still have their own memories, and they look like nothing happened to them. We don’t stick right after the event, though. Instead, we jump to 35 days after Revival Day, learning that there was a lockdown in town but that has changed. However, the town remains shut off by the CDC.
The dead coming back to life isn’t the only mystery in Revival
It’s soon clear that there is another mystery in town. While trying to hook up with who we learn is Ibrahim Ramin, the new CDC liaison, Dana gets a call from her dad to check out a property belonging to a man named Lester. He called about his horse dying, but Dana realizes that there is something bigger going on.
There’s another dead animal, and this one has some sort of metal contraption around its waist, which Ibrahim explains some of the trap is a rail spike. There are also teeth next to it.
As she is trying to figure that out, people are mixed about the dead coming back to life. It’s clear that there’s already some segregation happening, and it’s even happening in the school. Hate is learned, and Revival is giving us a look at that as the kids taunt the little girl who rose from the dead at the start of the series.
Even the sheriff is pushing the segregation agenda, making it clear that when people die, they die. That’s the way it should be. He wants to get rid of everyone, and I guess in a way, it makes sense. Nobody knows why the Revivers have come back, and they could be dangerous. That’s something the CDC needs to figure out, which is why there’s a liaison.
On top of that, Ibrahim has learned that there’s something bigger about the Revivers. Anything that happens to a Reviver after they’ve come back from life will heal, which means that teeth can grow back, and with this news, Dana has worked out that the horse was planted. That horse died before Revival Day, and the horse was then planted for animals to get to it. The teeth at the scene belonged to a Reviver, and someone was hiding them, using the horse as a way to cover their tracks.
With the location of the tracks, Dana realizes that a Reviver was from prison. As she arrests him, it’s pretty clear that the teeth didn’t belong to him. Maybe he can help get to the bottom of the horse mystery to find out what was really going on out there.
There’s something going on with Em in the Revival series premiere
Em, Dana’s sister, is shut off from her family in Revival, and it seems like it’s out of choice. We know little about her, except that it looks like she’s in college and has something going on with her professor. He says that she’s getting a little scary, hinting that there is something much bigger going on with Em Cypress.
Em calls her dad to say that she’s “okay,” but he comments on her “condition.” It’s not clear what that condition is, but it’s clear that her professor has stood her up wherever she was supposed to meet him at. Someone is watching her, and this is a mystery that we need to solve.
The next morning, Dana sees Em sleeping on a bench. There’s a beautiful moment between the two of them as they reminisce over chocolate glazed donuts. It’s clear that they used to be much closer than they are now, but with the talk of the future, I get a sense that it’s not going to happen.
The conversation is halted when Dana sees something and slams on her breaks. Sure enough, there’s a red truck with a tarp that has some blood on it. Mr. and Mrs. Dipman go to see her, trying to keep her out of a shed, but she won’t take no for an answer. Maybe she should have stayed out when a Reviver appears, ripping her teeth out. It’s the mom of Mrs. Dipman, and we see that she has supernatural strength and seems to be attacking people. It’s no wonder the Dipmans had locked her in the shed.
While all that goes on, Wayne gets a call from the station about some yelling and disturbing noises from Mrs. Shaw’s house, so he goes out on a wellness check. Her fingers are black and dirty, and it’s clear she’s hiding something, and we’ll remember her from at the police station as she hoped that her husband would return from the dead. However, he passed away a day before what seems to be the cutout for the Revivers, which means he’s still dead. Well, Mrs. Shaw decided to dig his body up.
As Wayne gets to the car to call for the coroner, he realizes that the car door is open. Cooper, his grandson, heard something outside and is now missing.
This is when we find out what is going on with Em. She gets into the shed and tries to kill Mother Dipman with a scythe, but Mother Dipman stab Em with it in the stomach. Well, Em isn’t dead! Remember that Reviver tissue grows back, but the living will still die. ‘
Em is a Reviver!
It seems there is a way to kill the Revivers, though. Em manages to chop off Mother Dipman's head off at the brain with the scythe.
Revival airs on Thursdays at 10/9c on Syfy.
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