When last we left the U.S.S. Nathan James:
- The crew rescued a girl named Bertrise from a wrecked Jamaican fishing boat. Dr. Scott discovered that Bertrise is immune to the virus, which could potentially allow her to continue her research for the vaccine without any more unfortunate monkeys.
- Commander Chandler and Tex did battle with the Russians, escaping, but having to abandon their ship and swim for safety. Chandler ordered his crew to cease all rescue efforts, but Mike sent a helicopter to look for them, anyway.
- A helicopter eventually found the brave commander and his perverted friend, but it wasn't Mike's rescue team - it was the Russians!
We begin the episode with Chandler and Tex being escorted - in handcuffs - to see Admiral Ruskov, that wiley Russian son of a gun. Tex is hauled away and Chandler demands, in Russian, to know where he is being taken. Cue the five-second intro video with the dude in the haz-mat suit and the can of spray paint that still hasn't been explained or alluded to...
Chandler is brought to see Ruskov at gunpoint. Ruskov orders Ava, Quincy's daughter who is being held captive on the ship as blackmail, to leave the room. She asks if her father is with the Americans. Chandler responds, "No, he's not. But he's alive and safe on my ship." Ruskov introduces Quincy's wife, who was the voice behind the fake British distress call back in Cuba. "Excellent liars, the whole family," Ruskov says. Ruskov asks Chandler about Dr. Scott's progress on the vaccine, but Chandler refuses to cooperate. 'Atta boy, Chandler.
Back aboard the Nathan James, Dr. Scott is teaching Bertrise a crash course in biology. Bertrise seems kind of bored. Blah blah British accent. Bertrise is introduced to Mason, who overheard Bertrise's SOS call in last week's episode. She thanks him for saving her. Mason reports that there has been no word on the whereabouts of Chandler and Tex. But, back on the bridge, Mike receives a radio call from Ruskov. He demands Dr. Scott and her research - and nothing less - in exchange for Commander Chandler. The Russians give a 10-minute deadline for the exchange and the call goes dead. Mike immediately calls down to the guys in "combat" and asks if they got a location for the Russian ship.
Down in the lab, a suited-up Dr. Scott is examining some microscopic samples from her final monkey. She nearly bursts into tears, calling the monkey "the lucky one" and hurries out of the room. I'm... guessing that's a good thing?
Scott bursts into the war room, where Mike and Danny are contemplating an attack on Ruskov's ship. She announces that she and her last little primate have created a successful, working vaccine. She suggests, now, that Ruskov doesn't need her in exchange for Chandler and Tex - they can just send a dose of the vaccine and call it good. Foster is there and she says something, but it doesn't really matter because everyone who watches this show still thinks she sucks at acting. (Right?) Scott says that she will go aboard the enemy ship, if necessary, to guarantee that the vaccine is real. Mike and Danny are hesitant about giving into Ruskov's demands, but Scott thinks that going over with the vaccine is the only way to free the American captives and stop Ruskov once and for all.
Chandler is brought into a holding room, where Tex is being held prisoner in a cage. Chandler is locked into the same cell and the Russian guard doesn't speak very good English.
Danny and Cossetti, that clumsy guy from last week's mission, are plotting a potential attack on the Russian ship. Danny invites Cossetti to the mission because, obviously, he didn't learn his lesson last week. Cossetti looks frightened - and he should be - but then he smiles and says he's ready. Time will tell. Looks like Dr. Scott is also getting ready to head over to the other ship and they're giving her a gun, which they have to explain how to use because she has apparently never watched any TV or movies in her entire life. Point and click, lady. Point and click.
Speaking of movies, Chandler and Tex are thinking out an escape plan using plots from famous Hollywood scripts, but quickly come to the realization that those storylines are highly implausible.
Scott reaches the Russian ship, where she is promptly frisked down and searched for weapons. Little do the Russians know that there's a gun that she doesn't know how to use in the bottom of her giant metal box. Additionally, there's a tracking device in her life jacket, which is now sitting, unattended, on the deck of their boat. The American extraction team is mobile. Chandler, Tex and Scott are simultaneously taken to Ruskov. As soon as Scott sees Chandler, she plants a juicy one on him - right on the lips. That was weird. Tex is totally jealous. Scott asks that Chandler and Tex be freed, but Ruskov wants to make sure the vaccine works before letting anybody go. To the lab!
The creepy scientist that we've seen a couple times before recognizes Dr. Scott. She doesn't remember him, but he had apparently met her at a convention years ago. He goes on about his colleagues and Scott suddenly realizes - this is "Patient Zero," the monster that weaponized the virus. He says he didn't "weaponize" it; he added some of his DNA to it and re-injected it into his own blood stream. He says that the mutation worked, making him immune to the virus, but it also made him a carrier for it. They have a bit of an argument, in which Scott accuses him of killing four billion people without the intention of stepping forward and taking the blame, and she tells him that she has successfully created the vaccine. He becomes very frustrated with her, telling her that she cannot take credit for the vaccine without him. She storms out of the room (as she is prone to do) and he gets to hang tight in his quarantine zone.
Meanwhile, Tex is still flabbergasted that Scott kissed Chandler. He is married, after all, plus he's in the navy. As we've learned with Danny and Foster, fraternizing with the opposite gender is against the rules. "Did you not get the talk?" Tex asks. Apparently, what Scott was doing was transferring a note into Chandler's mouth. Sick. Germs. Chandler takes it out and reads, "Ladder room, port side 0400." Along with the note is what appears to be a small blade. "I was standing right there," Tex says. "She could have easily passed me the note." (Line of the night nominee.)
Ruskov is not happy with Patient Zero. Patient Zero claims (out of desperation, most likely) that Scott's vaccine won't work without him. It's testing time. As Patient Zero watches from his plastic living quarters, Dr. Scott prepares to inject one of the Russian officers with the vaccine. She injects the vaccine and Ruskov's men force the guy into the contaminated room with Patient Zero. Patient Zero breathes into the officer's face as the guy who may or may not actually be Ruskov's brother screams like a little girl. I think the real test would be whether or not Patient Zero needs a breath mint.
Ruskov heads in to talk to Chandler and Tex. Tex asks if Ruskov needs to get back to Transylvania before midnight. Like the evil maniac he is, Ruskov says that, once the vaccine has been proven to work, he will likely kill all the Americans and become the most powerful man in the entire world. He asks Chandler if he would be willing to work alongside the Russians, but, again, Chandler refuses to cooperate.
From the bridge of the Nathan James, Mike and the crew are beginning to get nervous. The extraction team is closing in on the Russian ship and Mike assures his sailors that they will be successful in retrieving the three American prisoners. (For the record, I didn't understand the "two sailors walk into a bar... and they both walk out" joke. Jeter says it was a good one, but I didn't get it.)
Chandler tells the Russian guard (or "Bad English," as he is officially called) that he needs to use the bathroom. He comes over to unlock the cell and is promptly slammed into the cage by the wily American commander. Tex uses the small blade that Scott gave Chandler to slit the guy's throat and Tex grabs the keys to the cage. They're out. One violent romp through the halls later, they're also armed with machine guns. They head to the ladder room, as per Dr. Scott's note, and are met by the Nathan James' extraction team. Elsewhere, Cossetti sets a charge that will likely blow Ruskov and his men to Kingdom Come. More charges are set in the hallways as Chandler and the team make their way down to the lab to save Dr. Scott. But first, they make a quick pit stop to save Quincy's wife and daughter. "You want off this ship? Come with me right now," Chandler tells them. They hurriedly get to their feet and are taken to the extraction point by two members of the team.
Ruskov is alerted that Chandler and Tex have escaped. He orders one of his officers to seal all the doors on the ship and find them, but to stay off the radio since Chandler speaks Russian. He also demands that Dr. Scott be taken to him on the bridge. The officer goes to get Scott, but she says that she can't leave until she administers the second part of the vaccine. In this case, it looks like part two of the vaccination involves a pistol with a silencer. She fumbles around with the gun, trying to sneakily put it together in the bottom of her crate, but she can't do it quickly enough. When the officer comes over to check on her, she pulls out the gun (without the silencer, of course) and shoots the guy. In the shoulder. Because she doesn't watch TV or movies and doesn't know that that's a dumb place to shoot somebody who is holding you captive. Ugh. Women. Oh. Yikes. She just shot him in the head. The extraction team busts into the room. Tex approves of Scott's newfound marksmanship. Patient Zero is left in the dust since he can't leave his plastic prison without killing everyone on the ship. Sucks to be him... and the Russian guy who is stuck in that room with him... Hope that vaccine works, buddy!
Cossetti and another team member continue to escort Quincy's family. They pause for a moment and Cossetti blows the charges, killing many of Ruskov's men in the lower parts of the ship. The admiral anticipates that Chandler will make his way to the stern of the ship and swears that the Americans will not get off the boat alive. Chandler realizes that the lack of an alarm or any radio communication in the ship likely means that the Russians are waiting for the Americans to head to the stern of the ship. He tells his team to find another way off the boat. Ruskov tells his crew to find and destroy the American rescue boat before Chandler's team can escape.
Quincy's family is first to the rescue boat. They're lowered down on a rope ladder before the Russians can find them. Chandler and company, on the other hand, are spotted on the deck and engage in a brief firefight with Ruskov's guards. Ruskov is no a happy man. Another charge is detonated - this one much closer to the bridge - and Ruskov goes ballistic, yelling at his men to find the Americans immediately. He screams down to the engine room to fire up the engines, full steam ahead.
Chandler's team makes it to the rescue boat and Scott begins to descend the ladder. Tex and a few others continue to fend off Ruskov's guards and Tex blows a charge toward the top of the ship, dispatching two more enemies in one fell swoop. Three more charges detonate. I've never seen so many scared Russians in my life. They're running down the hallways of the ship in slow motion - and one of the sailors is Patient Zero! He's out of his holding cell and could contaminate everybody on the ship! The Americans have got to get out of there!
Ruskov is shown with tears in his eyes as another charge blows. Commander Chandler and his team are shown speeding away from the Russian ship as several more explosions go off. That ship is toast. "You rocked it, man," Danny says to Cossetti. "You really rocked it." Cossetti collapses and a bullet wound is shown as Chandler and Danny frantically try to keep him alive.
Quincy is reunited with his wife and daughter in a tearful reunion. I still don't know how Quincy got such an attractive wife. He's one goofy-looking dude.
It's daytime all of the sudden and Chandler and his crew have hoisted a motionless Cossetti back onto the ship. Solemn music plays as the rest of the Nathan James crew looks stunned and devastated at the loss of their crew mate. The shot fades to black and the episode is over.
--
Here's what we learned:
- Dr. Scott has a vaccine that, as far as we know, works. We didn't get to see physical proof of that, though, as the one guy who was vaccinated just got blown to smithereens.
- Quincy and his family have been reunited. Will Quincy show his gratitude to Commander Chandler by working cooperatively with the Nathan James or will he continue to be the slimy little weasel we have all grown to know and despise?
- It seems, for now, that the Russian threat has been neutralized. But I'm a big believer that, unless you see the dead body, they may not actually be dead. Is this the last we've seen of the evil Admiral Ruskov?
- Cossetti is bloody and lifeless, presumably dead, though, like I said, we can't be too sure right now. How will the crew of the U.S.S. Nathan James rally around the alleged loss of a sailor?
--
There are just two episodes left in the season, which means, first and foremost, that I'm going to have to find something else to blog about, come September. From the post-credits teaser, Tex asks Dr. Scott if she plans on infecting the crew with the virus to test her vaccine. Bertrise is shown looking very ill and a body is shown being buried at sea. Dr. Scott asks, "Who did I think I was that I could solve this?" and is shown overlooking what looks like a Patient Zero-quality quarantine zone with several sick beds. What's in store for us next week? I liked this episode and feel like the show is building momentum toward a big season finale here in two weeks. What did you think? Leave a comment below, if you dare, and we'll catch you next Sunday night for another episode of "The Last Ship."
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