La Revolution season 1, episode 7 recap – “Chapter Seven — The Dilemma”

This recap of La Revolution season 1, episode 7, “Chapter Seven — The Dilemma”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.

You’ll recall that the previous episode ended on quite a cliffhanger. Here in La Revolution episode 7, the penultimate chapter, we return to it after a very brief nightmare deviation and find Elise just about to inject herself with blue blood before she’s wisely stopped by Albert. These two just keep on running into each other at the right times, don’t they?

Also following on from the previous episode, “Chapter Seven – The Dilemma” finds Marie and company newly infected on the hunt for blood – particularly that in the tasty veins of Katell and Joseph, though admittedly not if Oka has anything to say about it. After a rescue and a capture, the rebels hold Marie captive as bait, keeping a close eye on her.

This news, courtesy of a surviving nobleman, quickly reaches Donatien and his increasingly appalled father, who rightly berates his nutcase son at every opportunity, even though this time it predictably backfires. Donatien violently sets about him with a pool cue, and his “you never listened to me!” angst is a bit rich given how ludicrously he has been acting over the last few episodes. Nevertheless, Charles is dead, and when Edmond later arrives he finds him sat up on the sofa in a grisly pose. Donatien is naturally really full of himself now, referring to Edmond as “a good hound”, worried about his enduring loyalty to his “master”. It’s obvious where this is going, which is out into the woods to a freshly dug grave. But Edmond isn’t an idiot, and he’s able to swerve his premature burial with a couple of well-placed gunshots to his distracted guards.

Believing himself to have pulled off quite a coup here in La Revolution season 1, episode 7, Donatien goes a step further, smugly announcing his intention to marry Madeleine to a room full of noblemen and having his men strangle everyone present. He injects their corpses with blue blood, the first step in creating “an army”. When Madeleine herself arrives, Donatien tries to subject her to the same fate, but he underestimates her uncanny ability to summon black-masked ghostly apparitions for help. Nevertheless, she injects herself with the blue blood, which seems to have no effect beyond making her a little chatty.

Ah, Madeleine. In many ways, the entire season has been about her and her mysterious nature, which means that the bombshell revelation of “Chapter Seven – The Dilemma” actually lands with a fair amount of significance and surprise. See, as it turns out, Madeleine isn’t Elise’s sister, but her and Albert’s daughter. Ah-ha! That’s a proper development, and even though it has been under everyone’s noses the entire time, I personally didn’t see it coming. Neither did Albert.

With this new revelation, the penultimate episode hurries into some tremendously-shot sequences of violence as the infected noblemen set about the patrons of a local inn. It’s genuinely evocative stuff – if this show has remained consistent in any one aspect, it’s the visuals, and this grim massacre is a turning point for all of the characters, who realize they have a decision to make. Will they leave, or will they fight? I think we all know the answer.

What did you think of La Revolution season 1, episode 7, “Chapter Seven — The Dilemma”? Comment below.