Revival Episode 2 Recap: Keeping Up Appearances

In episode 2 of SyFy’s ‘Revival,’ titled ‘Keeping Up Appearances,’ the mystery deepens as Dana finds herself in a world of chaos and uncertainty. The previous episode ends with the town of Wausau, Wisconsin, waking up to Revival Day, with numerous deceased people miraculously coming back to life. Sheriff Wayne is forced to accept his new reality, one where people are desperate to use this supernatural phenomenon to their own advantage, as he navigates through his complicated relationship with his daughters, Em and Dana. The mystery of a dead horse promises to deliver some answers, but it only leads to more questions. The revelation that Em is a revival, the two sisters defeating their mystery attacker, leads to more questions. The premier ends on a high note, prompting a deeper confrontation with the true nature of the revivers. SPOILERS AHEAD!

Dana Confronts Em About the Truth

The episode begins with Em waking up stranded in the middle of a river in the forest, with no recollection of how she ended up like this. In a dazed state, she spits out a ring from her mouth and begins trudging her way back to her house. Here, she meets her roommate Mathurin, who is called back home after the shocking events of Revival Day, which resulted in a strict lockdown. Em locks herself in her room in a desperate attempt to sleep the feeling away but fails to. She then turns to drugs, only to realize that she no longer feels high. Her repeated efforts culminate in her angrily punching the washroom mirror, injuring herself in the process. To her surprise, however, the wound heals itself instantly. She sees the same result when she injures herself again, realizing that she is a reviver.

Back in the present, this information is learned by her elder sister, Dana, who stands in disbelief. Urgency strikes when the police forces announce they are coming, leaving Dana with little time to process the situation and act. With the violent reviver dead, the protagonist chooses to prioritize Em’s safety by making her true nature a secret. She takes over the attack weapon and hides her sister’s bloodstained clothes with a police vest, telling the Police that she is the one who attacked and seemingly killed the reviver. The Police begin to panic, not understanding how to deal with this supernatural entity. Meanwhile, Em has a panic attack in the ambulance and is immediately sent to the hospital. Upon learning this, Dana worries that their secret could unravel there and rushes to the spot.

Trouble Brews at the Hospital

The scene then shifts to a forest, where Cooper appears lost. He is found by a mysterious man who hands him his glasses and asks his name. When the kid refuses, the man simply points him in the direction of safety, following which Cooper reunites with Wayne. Back in the hospital, Em is let go after basic treatment and is confronted by Dana, who is full of questions. They are joined by the rest of the family, and the discussion quickly turns into the usual bickering between Wayne and his daughter, which Em quickly escapes from. Before Dana can catch up, she is interrupted by May Tao, the reporter from the previous episode who is eager to know the truth. Dana tries to explain the situation’s complexities but is interrupted by the hospital’s alarm bells, signaling that something terrible has happened.

As it turns out, the body of the old reviver, identified as Arlene, is placed inside the hospital for an autopsy by Ibrahim. Here, she quickly regenerates and begins a murder spree on her way out of the hospital. When Dana arrives on the scene, she realizes it’s too late and advises her father and his team not to engage her. They pay no heed and continue to follow the trail of dead bodies she leaves behind, eventually finding their way into the maternity ward. Unexpectedly, they find Arlene gently caressing a baby before running away with it upon noticing them. Wayne gives chase, eventually finding the baby in the parking lot with Blaine – the same mysterious figure who saved Cooper earlier that day. Blaine does not explain his reasons for being there, simply declaring that the gates of hell have opened. Meanwhile, Arlene remains on the loose while the authorities argue about containing all revivers.

Em Recounts What Happened on the Night of her Revival

Dana makes her way to Em’s apartment, only to find it unrecognizable, with litter strewn all across and strange occult drawings on the walls. Things take a turn for the worse when she discovers a bag of pills and realizes that her sister is doing drugs again. At that moment, Em returns and is hit by a barrage of questions and accusations. When the siblings settle, Em begins to narrate what she remembers of the incident. She recounts that she was sitting on the bridge on the day of the incident, mourning her mother’s passing after catching up with some friends. She admits that she got high that day, but emphasizes that she did not take her own life. Her last memories are those of bright headlights, implying that someone might have hit her and then run away. Dana suggests returning to the bridge in search of the answers.

Promising to get done with work soon and begin their journey, Dana brings Em to the police station and asks her to wait. As the younger sister grows impatient, she finds the car keys in the Police jacket she has been wearing since morning and decides to drive away from the station. Meanwhile, Dana enquires her colleagues about the cost of the various drugs Em has a stack of and learns that they can only be accessed by stealing or dealing, both of which terrify the protagonist. As she returns to check up on her sister, she finds her gone, along with the car. Running out of options, Dana seeks help from Ibrahim, and the two develop an awkward chemistry throughout the ride.

Em Struggles to Keep Her World Together

Meanwhile, Em drives to Nella’s, a pub that the family frequents, and has a chance encounter with Weimar and his wife Nithiya. Em chases him to the washroom and begins questioning him about his disappearance from his life and his involvement in her death, citing the ring that was in her mouth at that time. Weimar quickly shows his own wedding ring, proving her accusation wrong, and then begins to explain that they have not been in contact since the night she called and texted him relentlessly, forcing him to block her number and erase their mail history. Em falls back, realizing that she has no recollection of these events, thus making her memory of the past potentially unreliable. Weimar realizes that she is a reviver and attempts to comfort her but is promptly rejected by a broken Em.

Ibrahim and Dana’s conversations grow more personal as the latter begins recounting her past. She mentions that three years ago, the sisters’ mother passed when they were together in a car, with Em driving. Following her death, the family. The incident shares the same date as Revival Day, adding to the irony. She continues, saying that the family has changed irrevocably since that fateful day, and Em has to face the worst of it. Back at Nella’s, Em starts a bar fight with someone much bigger than her, leading to her getting brutally beaten. At the same time, Dana reveals that Em has a medical condition, making her bones brittle and prone to breaking. She claims that despite her limitations, Em has an unmatched fighting spirit that makes her feel superhuman. This is complemented by Em refusing to submit despite being beaten into a pulp.

As a crowd gathers around the scene of the fight, a young man manages to break it off and take Em to safety. With no one around, he refers to her as a dead girl, explaining that he saw her wounds heal and knows her secret. In the conversation that follows, the man introduces himself as Rhodey and reveals that he is a reviver himself, although he prefers to be known as a musician first. He proceeds to invite Em to his first music performance since the lockdown at a place called November Dismember. Em, who has been looking for an escape all along, decides to tag along with him, asking for a spot that can help her keep away from cops, implying her own sister. She discards her phone and writes a note on the back of the band poster, leaving it in the car for Dana to find.

Mathurin Might Have the Answers Dana Seeks

By the time Dana reaches the car, Em is long gone. Annoyed after reading the notes, the protagonist begins to look through the list of drug offenders in the locality and is surprised to find none other than Mathurin, Em’s roommate. Immediately, Dana storms their apartment, catching Mathurin red-handed while she is smoking weed. Promising no harm if Mathurin cooperates, Dana begins asking questions about the nature of her younger sister’s addiction. Mathurin claims that she and her friends merely introduced Em to weed as a way of alleviating her mental burden and that they had no involvement in the rest of her drug history. Dana refuses to believe her narrative, asking for the truth once again.

This time, Mathurin reveals that she heard the sisters’ conversation about Em being a reviver and that Dana is asking the wrong question. After a sudden realization that drains her face of color, Mathurin claims that she knows who killed Em, with the episode ending on that high note. A string of similar mysteries, such as Wayne’s phone call to the mayor after regaining his confidence through a conversation with Nella, the true nature of Rhodey, the motivations of the enigmatic character Blaine, and the present location of Arlene, all set the stage for the following episodes.