[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Revival series premiere “Don’t Tell Dad.”]
The Revival series premiere title is the one request that Em (Romy Weltman) has for her sister Dana (Melanie Scrofano) in the episode’s final moments following a major reveal about her.
Revival begins with Dana, an officer and single mother, planning to leave town — and fighting with her father and boss, Wayne (David James Elliott) — when they’re distracted by reports of the dead coming back to life. These “Revivers” are seemingly normal, acting like their old selves, with no zombie behavior in sight … except for one. As scientist Ibrahim (Andy McQueen) discovers, Revivers heal from any injury inflicted post-death. And there’s at least one out there strong enough to bite through and kill a horse. Dana tracks down that Reviver and is attacked. Em intervenes to help her and is impaled in the process … but she’s okay because she’s, surprise, a Reviver!
Executive producer Aaron B. Koontz credits the comic on which it’s based with that, since that’s how it sets up the story. “It just made so much sense. When I read it, I was like, ‘This is a pilot. This just feels so much like a pilot,’” he tells TV Insider. “It’s one of the only times where, the first issue of the comic and an episode are very, very aligned. From there, we kind of diverge and go in different directions.”
Naomi Peters/Lavivier Productions/SYFY
It goes back to that common concept of, “Horror hits home more when it’s about family,” he explains. “The stakes get raised to an entirely different level because of how you can as a human connect to that and the amount of empathy you’re going to create.” Now, it becomes a question of what happened that led to Em dying to make her a Reviver. “It creates emotional stakes that sometimes can cloud the pragmatism that a detective might normally have,” Koontz adds. “And I think that’s what really makes it interesting and creates more conflict.”
Em’s sole request of Dana so far is to not tell their father. “It’s not like my dad is freaking out or anything and treating these people super poorly,” Weltman laughs of Wayne’s reaction to the Revival event. It also going back to the fact that she has OI (osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disease), and so her father and sister have constantly worried about her. “She’s been told that she can’t do so much, and I think she started to believe it. That’s why Em’s coming to terms with so much throughout the rest of the season,” Weltman previews.
She’s also keeping it a secret because she doesn’t know how to process it. “I think she’s freaking out,” explains Weltman. She’s also learning that there are things she used to do that she no longer can — like get high off the oxy she was addicted to.
That major reveal about Em has stirred up mixed emotions in Dana, Scrofano confirms. After all, at least her sister is still alive…ish. Then there’s the matter of trying to figure out what happened to her. “All bets are off,” says Scrofano. “I have to protect my sister even if she doesn’t really need protecting.”
She adds that Dana’s feeling similarly about being underestimated, in a sense, as Em is. “She’s like, ‘I can do a better job if you just give me the chance,’ and that’s why she wants to leave in the beginning,” according to Scrofano. “But she’s also doing that to Em without even realizing out of a sense of love.”
Elliott agrees it’s a “pretty complex” situation for Wayne when it comes to Em hiding she’s a Reviver, especially from him, and how he’ll react. “He’s just been lecturing people on not hiding that fact from us. And it’s the fact that it’s their obligation to be forward about it and then suddenly it’s his family. So yeah, he finds himself at a crossroads,” he says. “It’s always different when it’s your own and we deal with that and continue to have to deal with it in many ways, shapes, and forms throughout the 10 episodes that we shot. Those answers are there.”
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Revival, Thursdays, 10/9c, Syfy