Revolution Post Mortem: Who are the Patriots? [Eric Kripke Interview] 

[WARNING: Spoilers for Revolution season two]

At the end of Revolution’s “Love Story,” The U.S. Government took over Willoughby, Texas. The Patriots have raised their flag and saved the townspeople. But who are they? We don’t know much yet except for the fact they’d been hiding out in Cuba for the better part of 15 years. There’s no more hiding out now. They’re making their move on American soil.

 Clip from “Love Story”

At a recent Q&A with creator Eric Kripke, he gave some insight to the newest villains on the Revolution canvas:

The Patriots wear a mask but they’re not to be messed with

ERIC KRIPKE: There’s elements of the public face — the public relations face is all God Bless America but the things that are happening behind closed doors are truly awful. So it let us have a certain amount of mystery because our bad guys aren’t wearing their evil on their sleeves. They’re hiding it, and there’s more subterfuge.

So far their agenda includes looking like the heroes

ERIC: They’re creating a problem so they can be the solution. Randall, who was their vanguard, launched the nukes. And then they came into sweep up the mess. And then they go to Willoughby and what do they do in Willoughby but make a mess. And then they arrive to clean it up. So they have an MO.

But make no mistake, these guys are villains

ERIC: The Patriots represent all of our negative impulses and all of our selfishness. And our heroes are all of our better angels. And it lets us really tell the story of the soul of America and it’s a conflicted soul and we’re hoping obviously the light side wins out.

In fact, consider the Patriots the big bad of season two

ERIC: I’m basically a fan of — I haven’t seen [Marvel’s Agents of] S.H.I.E.L.D. — but I’m a fan of the Joss Whedon school of show running. And that’s how I learned which is you organize a season around a big bad. And then you unveil more and more about the big bad as the season goes on. And you live in the first half of the mystery of who are these people? And what do they want? And then you live in the second half of the season of ‘Okay, now we gotta stop these sons of bitches.’ So the season will be organized around a villain who is scary and the drive of trying to defeat somebody and understand who they are and what they want and ultimately how to stop them for me is satisfying.

Slowly but surely we’ll find out why they waited 15 years to make their move

ERIC: We’ll reveal more about what’s happening in sort of that kind of twisted black box that is Cuba and reveal more as the season progresses. But the idea being that they’ve been waiting and planning and plotting this invasion for quite a long time. And that who was in Cuba wasn’t necessarily — maybe it started as the remnants of our government but it quickly became something else. And there were other influences and powers and energies down there that kind of muddled and curdled it into something else. And then that’s who comes out of Cuba and sort of starts very insidiously trying to take over the nation.

We’ll continue to realize there’s no trusting them

ERIC: You take like paranoia madness and a healthy dose of Blackwater and shake well. And that was some version of what happened in Cuba. But they’re really intelligent. I think they’ll give [Neville] a run for his money. And they’re very manipulative. What’s interesting to us about them — and you know not unlike certain elements of our own government — they’re remarkably good at public relations. And they know how to put on a public face. And they know how to manipulate to get what they want. So making a villain who was one scarier because so much of it happens behind closed doors but also more manipulative was interesting to us.

We’ll get to know some of the faces of the Patriots

ERIC: In the very next episode you’ll sort of meet the guy who’s the governor of Willoughby — a character, [Edward] Truman, played by Steven Culp. And then there’s Allenford [Nicole Ari Parker] — who you get to learn more about who she is through Neville’s story. The president remains kind of a shadowy off-camera figure for now, but we’re breaking the episode right now where we introduce him.

And we will get some answers on who the Patriot’s true agenda by the mid-season finale

ERIC: I’m not somebody who’s a fan of the endless mystery. So before the first nine are out we know a lot more about what the nanotech are doing, we know what the Patriots are doing in Willoughby and we learn what they want with Rachel.

Revolution airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on NBC.