Sunday night brought the five of us who are watching a brand new episode of Michael Bay's new naval drama. But first! - When last we left "The Last Ship," this is where we were:
- Most of the world's population is dying or dead from a mysterious virus.
- Dr. Scott is possibly the world's last hope of creating a vaccine.
- After debating whether to land in America, the ship turns around - and Quincy is not happy about it.
When we first join the intrepid crew of the U.S.S. Nathan James, that weasel, Quincy, is trying to talk Dr. Scott into letting him go on-shore at the re-fueling station at Guantanamo Bay. Later on in the episode, Quincy and Scott are both denied permission to leave the ship by Commander Chandler, so Quincy spends most of the episode meddling around with things he ought not. He's a weird dude. Obviously, he can't be trusted, but he doesn't really talk a whole lot. He just looks really nervous and walks around like a creep. It's strange and I don't know quite what to make of his character yet.
Meanwhile, the crew is having a hard time coping with the inevitability of their families, friends, and loved ones likely being dead. They hold a candlelight vigil of sorts (either that or a really lame rave, I guess) and reminisce about those they are missing. In what could likely be construed as an attempt to popularize the show with the rising generation of TV-watching Millennials, one crew member awkwardly uses the term "selfie" in her dialogue.
In a discussion with Chandler and a few others, Dr. Scott lays out the so-called "rules" of the deadly virus. Here are a few of the main points:
- The virus is airborne, which means that it is highly contagious, even from recently deceased corpses.
- Symptoms include coughing, bleeding sores and hemorrhaging, and, eventually, dementia and total blood loss.
- The virus' incubation period is likely 3-5 days, if Scott's somewhat-dated information is still accurate.
- Now that it has been artificially altered, Scott believes the virus to be stable and no longer capable of further mutation.
- Animals are probably immune - and, even if they did contract the virus, they couldn't transfer it to humans.
- One infected person could jeopardize the entire ship, simply by breathing.
Mike (or Mr. Adam Baldwin, as I like to call him) is having a hard time trusting Scott because she basically lied to the crew for four months, as outlined in last week's episode. "She's got a long way to go before she earns my trust," he says. But Mike tells Chandler that he still respects the naval chain of command and is will follow his orders.
The ship approaches Guantanamo Bay, where they hope to scavenge food and refuel. Though there are reportedly 9,000 people stationed at the base, the area appears to have been vacated. The crew splits up into four groups: one to stay on the ship, one to search the hospital for anything that might help Dr. Scott create a vaccine, another group to work on refueling, and a final group with Chandler that will be searching a warehouse for food. Let's focus on the three on-shore parties.
Hospital:
The hospital team immediately equips their oxygen masks, as to not inhale any contaminated air. Their oxygen tanks should last them one hour. As expected, the hospital is packed with deceased bodies (several of which are now rat-infested). From the ship, Dr. Scott is able to guide them around the hospital and successfully identify machines and supplies that will help with the creation of her vaccine.
Fueling station: Easily the least-exciting of the three groups, these guys basically just go, hook up to a pump, and start routing gasoline back to the ship.
Warehouse: Chandler leads his crew in slowly and they come upon a jeep with a (presumably dead) person dangling out the door. They pause and prepare to equip their masks, but are startled by some screaming lunatic who tells them to get out of the area immediately. Then the jeep blows up.
The lunatic, or "Tex," as he calls himself, announces that he is an uninfected American who, along with six other soldiers, had recently taken over the base. At this point, he says he is the last man remaining from his group, as the others were all taken out by a group of a dozen Al Qaeda fighters. He says that the terrorists are armed with RPGs and headed for the ship.
At this point, a series of gun fights break out, including all three of the on-shore U.S. groups. The group at the fueling dock has a bit of an issue when the valve gets stuck and eventually breaks off. The hospital team hits a bump in the road when they begin to run out of oxygen, then make their way to an exit that is locked from the outside and surrounded by Al Qaeda. And Chandler's group has their own set of issues when Tex is held hostage. However, Mike and the crew at sea save the day when they create a diversion that eventually frees Chandler and his men. The guys in the hospital make it out with nary a second to spare, oxygen-wise, and they take out the remaining Al Qaeda agents. All is well that ends well, as they say.
Another point of interest here is that Scott is sent inland to act as a medic and save a bleeding soldier's life. In a bloody sequence where the guy is leaking like a bullet-ridden gas tank, Scott patches up his artery, stabilizes his blood pressure, and regains much of the trust she had lost. Tex is recruited by Chandler and we will assuredly be seeing much more of him in episodes to come.
In the final sequence of episode, Mike tells Chandler that they food they brought back should last they five-to-six weeks and that their fuel tanks topped off at 96%. The lesbian, Granderson, reports that something tipped over in the lab (probably intentional *cough*Quincy*cough*) and they'll need to stay put for three-to-four hours until they can get it all back to normal. And then one officer on the bridge spots a ship on the radar, but can't quite make out its signature. Chandler calls over the radio and a woman's voice informs him that it is the crew of the Brittish HMS-Suffolk. Allegedly. Nobody is infected, but they're low on food. Since the Nathan James is stuck for a couple hours anyway, Chandler invites them on over for pot pies or something.
But guess what? They're not British. No, no. They're Russian. And the fabled "Last Ship" has something that those Russians want...
What we learned:
- Dr. Scott can be trusted again.
- Quincy (still) cannot be.
- Tex joins the crew and will likely play a pivotal role as the show develops.
- Al Qaeda is not good. But, obviously, we already knew that.
- Aaaaaaand there are more Russians to be dealt with.
--
Next week, it looks like the Russians will be after "the doctor" - but which "doctor" do they want? The teaser for next week makes it look like they're after Dr. Scott. Did you watch the show? According to the lack of comments on my last review, either none of you did or maybe you just haven't gathered the courage to join the conversation. This episode was another one, in my opinion, that merely continued to lay the landscape of the show, explaining in a bit more detail how deadly the virus is and things of that nature, as well as developing Scott's character and casting further doubt on Quincy. We'll see what happens next week, but there's got to be some big kind of bombshell to really draw the audience in. POTENTIAL SPOILER: WHy is Quincy only credited for three episodes on IMDb? Could that be an ominous foreshadowing? It's not like I MEANT to find that out. I just wanted to see who somebody was and realized that, while everybody else was basically listed as appearing in 10 different episodes, Quincy, on the other hand, was not. So... hmm... Anyway... In the meantime, leave a comment below if you're watching the show. If not, well, comment on one of the other lovely Underground posts. Catch you guys later.
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