Who Is Rachel? Revolution's Elizabeth Mitchell Opens Up About Her Mysterious Character

Before Revolution's two-week hiatus, the freshman drama left us hanging in a major way when Rachel (Elizabeth Mitchell) gave in and told Monroe (David Lyons) how to reverse the blackout. But now that Rachel's officially started helping the militia, does that make her the enemy?

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"You will always want to strive to be the hero in life," Mitchell tells TVGuide.com. "You strive to be the hero and along the way — I mean, even the worst person that you can possibly imagine still thinks of themselves in heroic terms."Mitchell, who has had previous roles on Lostand V, is no stranger to serialized mysteries and morally gray characters. "They're just my favorite," she tells TVGuide.com. "I think it's because I grew up studying Shakespeare and Chekov. I like these big, big shows with the archetypes. And the fact that it's an ordinary person in an extraordinary situation and what that shows about who that person proves to be, good or bad."The blackout has certainly brought out a different side of Mitchell's character Rachel. When the lights went out, Rachel was a wife and mother who was far from equipped to deal with the chaos and violence that followed. "She's not in any way a badass," Mitchell says. "She's not the person most likely to survive. She's not any of those things. She's a highly intelligent mother of two who's devoted to her kids."

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Though she might be vulnerable, Rachel remains undeniably strong. Viewers have already seen many ways survival has hardened Rachel, including her (first?) attempted murder. But still, the question of what's really motivating Rachel remains unanswered. Fortunately, Mitchell promises we'll learn more about Rachel transformation from housewife to hostage in Monday's episode, "Sex and Drugs." So does Rachel have good intentions or is she misguided? "She's an incredible mother and a good person, so I guess you kind of have to draw your thoughts from there," Mitchell says of why Rachel went to the militia. But whether working for the side of good or evil, Rachel remains one of the most intriguing aspects of Revolution. This is because, as Mitchell explains, Revolution isn't sci-fi so much as it is "an action-adventure with strong characters."

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That's not to say Revolution will compromise its complex mythology. "I wouldn't worry," Mitchell says. "I think we're going to know things we want to know and we're going to be fascinated by what we hear. I don't think we're going to be bored... I think it's going to be more fun than people realize."And though Mitchell might find Revolution's world fun for viewers, she hopes it never becomes her reality. "It doesn't seem to be a world that I want to be stuck in," Mitchell says with a laugh. "Watching the meltdown of society, watching it turn to both violence on one hand and then an extreme cooperative situation on the other is really fascinating to me. I do feel like, in some ways, [Revolution's world is] a wonderland, but the flipside of that is the warlike culture that is created and that is somewhat horrifying."

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What do you think about Rachel? Do you think she's working on the right side?Revolution airs Mondays at 10/9c on NBC.