Revival Season 1 Episode 5 Review: Triage

Emotions run high on Revival Season 1 Episode 5, “Triage,” as the sheriff’s department looks for a killer.

Revival Season 1 Episode 4, “Run Along Little Lamb,” ended in pretty shocking fashion. First, someone shoots the prime suspect in Em’s murder. Then, the mystery killer shoots Dana, the show’s lead, leaving her bleeding out in the woods as the episode ends.

It was a lot to process in the last few minutes of the episode. “Triage,” however, doesn’t give viewers much time to catch their breath.

It picks up right where “Run Along Little Lamb” ends. It starts by revealing Dana’s fate and grappling with the emotional fallout of what happened. At the same time, the sheriff’s department’s investigation leads to another gruesome discovery at the end of the episode. 

Lots Of Character Development

Despite being out of commission for most of the episode, Dana is still the emotional anchor of “Triage.” Em, Wayne, and Ibrahim all have fantastic emotional moments in Dana’s hospital room as they deal with their feelings about almost losing her.

In that way, we still get to know these characters more through Dana, even though she is in a coma for most of them. 

That said, no matter how much the audience’s emotional investment in Dana helps raise the stakes of these scenes, they’re only as good as the people acting in them. 

The supporting cast knocks it out of the park on “Triage,” and delivers some of their best work of the season. 

All three of the actors deserve recognition for their work on this episode. Wayne’s scene, in particular, offers a vulnerable side of him we haven’t seen yet. It humanizes him and creates empathy for him that wasn’t there before.

It also makes watching some of his truly repugnant decisions about revivers that much harder to bear. 

The real standout of the episode, though, is Andy McQueen. Ibrahim has two excellent scenes on “Triage.” The first scene is with Em after he lies to the police and doesn’t reveal that she was there when Dana and Aaron were shot.

As with Wayne’s hospital scene, we see a new vulnerability for Ibrahim. It’s impossible not to want to reach through the TV and give him a hug.

We already know that he is one of the most moral characters on the show, and McQueen does an excellent job of conveying his discomfort about lying. You can feel how antithetical it is to every fiber of his being. But the clarity with which he says he lied for Dana, despite this, is completely swoon-worthy. 

Following that scene, there is a sweet scene between Ibrahim and Dana after she wakes up. It is reminiscent of the scene at Dana’s house from “Run Along Little Lamb,” further building their great rapport.

If there were viewers who weren’t rooting for this pair before, it’s hard to imagine that they aren’t after “Triage.”

We also can’t forget the sister scene between Em and Dana after Dana wakes up from her coma. Every time we get a bonding moment between these two, it’s an episode highlight. The sister scene on “Triage” is no exception.

It’s lovely and endearing, and maybe that makes me a little jealous that I don’t have a big sister like Melanie Scrofano.

The Dangerous Politics Continue to Escalate

The town of Wausau continues to hurtle down a dangerous path. Things have escalated at a rapid pace as the town has gone from a voluntary registry on Revival Season 1 Episode 1, “Don’t Tell Dad,” to full-on requisition and torture by “Triage.”

Making matters worse, the governor removes Ibrahim as the lead scientist when he objects to said torture. The person leading the project is now Doctor Morel.

Doctor Morel has largely flown under the radar so far this season, but there have been a few hints about how she views revivers in previous episodes. On “Triage,” her callousness is on full display. She doesn’t see the revivers as human; she sees them merely as test subjects. 

With Morel in charge and the governor making it clear where she stands, it seems like things are about to get exponentially worse. It’s also a little scary how fast everything escalates and how much that resonates with things we see in the real world. 

Another thing that seems to be growing exponentially is Blaine’s creep factor. 

The idea that Blaine has some connection to the events of Revival Day has been hinted at since his introduction. However, on “Triage,” we get our proof. 

After provoking a reviver into violence, Blaine and his cult perform an initiation ritual for their newest member. During the initiation, it’s revealed that Blaine has one of the creatures that Cooper and Jordon encountered in the woods.

The creature does something to the recruit, and he comes back with a marking on his hand, which we then see all the other cult members have. 

We still know nothing about the creature or its connection to Revival Day, but Blaine using one to further his agenda makes him ominous in a whole new way. 

I’m also putting out my prediction that whether these creatures turn out to be good or bad, they aren’t participating in Blaine’s activities by choice.

The Search For A Killer

The other major component of “Triage” is the search for the person who shot Dana and Aaron. 

The search initially points to Dana as the one at fault. That’s primarily because there is no bullet found, and it looks like Dana’s was the only gun fired. So, where is said bullet? Well, apparently, Dana and Aaron weren’t the only ones shot that night in the woods. 

The bullet went straight through Dana and hit Em. However, because of her reviver healing powers, she healed with the bullet still inside her. 

This complication gives us some of the most fun scenes of the episode. The scenes with Em and her roommate Kay retrieving the bullet from Em’s body and then planting it back at the scene of the shooting are a complete delight.

I love getting to see Romy Weltman stretch those comedy muscles. More of these two, please.

Eventually, thanks to Em and Kay’s efforts to replace the bullet, the sheriff’s department identifies a suspect, and it’s one of their own. 

The bullet that shot everyone came from the gun of Deputy McCray, who viewers will remember as the officer with the terrible rat-tail that gave Dana some info on drugs.

When they pick McCray up, they make a gruesome discovery. McCray has a trunk full of reviver body parts. 

If we believe that McCray is the shooter, it would seem he is involved in the black market scheme that the Check brothers have selling reviver parts. And if things are as they appear, Aaron was also a part of it.

That would explain why Aaron was so nervous, but not his involvement in Em’s death. Revivers didn’t exist when Em died, so neither did this black market. Things don’t quite add up yet.

McCray and the Check brothers appear to be collaborating on selling the reviver parts, but were they, or their mysterious boss, also involved in the shooting? Is any of this connected to Em’s death?

I suppose we’ll have to wait until the next episode to find out what McCray says.

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Revival airs Thursdays at 10/9c on Syfy.

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