Brownie Harris/NBCElizabeth Mitchell is about to give Revolution a major jolt.
After last week's record-breaking premiere, NBC's drama about a post-blackout world returns tonight with an episode that includes some tasty twists involving Mitchell's presumed-dead character, Rachel. "There are some major things that happen that take everything and turn it on its ear," Mitchell tells us. "And at the end of the episode is a massive reveal. It's huge."
Leave it to Mitchell to give good tease. She is, after all, a woman with plenty of practice, having spent four seasons on Lost as fan-fave fertility doc Juliet, a role that ultimately earned her an Emmy nomination.
Now, more than two years after that feverishly dissected drama wrapped, the actress is clearly thrilled to be starring in another big-budget, high-concept mystery from executive producer J.J. Abrams. "They're my favorite because they're so romantic in the way that I like to be romantic," she says. "Things are lush and amazing, and it just feels like there's an element of anything can happen. That's my favorite stuff to do."
Thankfully, there will be more for the actress—who appeared only briefly in the pilot via flashbacks—to do starting tonight. (C'mon, you didn't really think Abrams and Revolution creator Eric Kripke would hire EMitch for a role that wasn't major, did you?) Look for a pivotal sequence that takes place shortly after the blackout occurred 15 years ago in which Rachel and hubby Ben (Tim Guinee) decide to pack up kids Charlie and Danny and hit the road. First pit stop: Ben's lab, where the plugged-in scientist picks up a few things. (Hmmm...might those things hold clues to what caused the world's power to go out? And perhaps shed light on how to turn it back on?) Along the way, they run into a drifter who threatens the Matheson-family food supply. "My character has a huge split-second decision to make," reveals Mitchell, "and it's gonna be interesting to see which way she goes on it."
If that sounds a little ominous, it should. According to Mitchell, Rachel will be one complicated, morally ambiguous chick: "What we discover in [tonight's] episode is she will do anything to protect her kids. I mean anything. She'll sacrifice her moral integrity and everything she is to keep her kids safe. And she will sacrifice anyone else."
Expect Mama Bear Matheson to be a noticeable departure from the über-capable women Mitchell has become known for recently, thanks to both Lost and ABC's V, in which she played an alien-battling FBI agent. "I don't think I've created this vulnerable of a character in a long time," she says. "She's in a really difficult situation, and she doesn't always make the right choices. Some of it's gonna be infuriating to watch. I turned to [costar] Giancarlo [Esposito] today and I was like, 'Women are gonna be infuriated by this!'"
Women are probably also going to be jealous of Mitchell's character after tonight. "The guys that I get to work with [in the episode] are just so freakin' cute!" says the woman who got to romance both Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Jack (Matthew Fox) on Lost. "Have you noticed that I'm always with the most beautiful men you've ever seen? And they have to talk to me because it says so in the script!"
And we've got a couple of more spoilers for you. (You're welcome!) Tonight's episode introduces a new fierce femme, Nora (One Tree Hill's Daniella Alonso), who's a rebel fighter against the militia that kidnapped Rachel's son, and Charlie's (Tracy Spiridakos) brother Danny (Graham Rogers).
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)