When last we left the U.S.S. Nathan James:
- Our good pals the Russians had Commander Chandler and Tex held captive on their ship.
- Dr. Scott has a vaccine that she claims works. She boarded the Russian ship and injected one of the Russian officers with it to ensure that it worked.
- Scott encountered that freaky scientist, who would later be identified as "Patient Zero," the moron who jacked up the virus and destroyed half the planet.
- Well, we never actually found out whether or not the vaccine worked because Mike sent an extraction crew to save Chandler, Tex and Scott and they succeeded in blowing the evil Admiral Ruskov and his crew to heck while they were at it. Patient Zero and Admiral Ruskov are presumed dead.
- Also, Cossetti died. So sad.
We start the episode back on land. An old guy is dragging a dead deer past a sign that clearly says that hunting is prohibited. Perhaps the man is illiterate. He is bringing the deer back to a trailer home, but a voice from inside the house tells him not to come any closer. One of the home's female residents has contracted the "Red Flu." "She didn't see the X," the voice says. Ah, the mysterious red X that we've seen in the intro video! The old man spray paints a giant X on the side of the house, which, I assume, means that the people who live there have contracted the virus. "Keep away," basically. The man walks back to a regular-sized home. It looks like a cabin. He enters the house and is greeted by an adult woman and two children - a boy and a girl... AHA! Could this be Commander Chandler's family? At the beginning of the season, they were able to get in contact with the Nathan James and told the commander that they were all healthy and staying at a family cabin. A conversation between the man and the woman confirms it: this is Chandler's father and wife. Cue the intro video.
Speaking of things being confirmed, Cossetti is officially dead. Meanwhile, Scott releases her final monkey, as it is no longer needed for vaccine testing. Scott will be moving on to human testing. Tex seems confused. Scott clarifies: she will be giving six crew members the vaccine prototype and then inject them with the virus. Tex doesn't think that's a good idea.Then they make out. Just kidding. They don't.
Bertrice, that Jamaican girl the crew picked up a couple episodes back, is listening to the last recorded S.O.S. calls from her shipmates. She says she wanted to hear the man's voice again - but not like that. Tears are welling up in her eyes. If you can recall, Bertrice survived because she is immune to the virus. Her blood helped create Dr. Scott's vaccine. She has a vested interest in the success of the prototype because it will be "[her] blood flowing through those people."
Cossetti is given a proper burial at sea. Mike, Jeter and Chandler discuss how, exactly, Dr. Scott will be able to run the vaccine trials in a timely manner. Due to several complications, Chandler feels the need to volunteer as a test subject. Jeter agrees that someone in a leadership position needs to set an example; he has had Dr. Scott prepare him for testing, as well. He passed all the background checks and has been cleared to go ahead with it. Jeter says that God put him on the ship for a reason. "Maybe this is it," he says. Oh great. He's going to die.
Quincy thanks Chandler for saving his family from the Russians. As you undoubtedly remember, the Americans rescued Quincy's blackmailed wife and daughter during last week's escape from Red October. Quincy seems genuinely apologetic. The odd-looking scientist begins running medical checks for crew members as part of the search for vaccine guinea pigs. Danny and Tex are among the volunteers, much to the surprise of Mike and Chandler.
From the looks of it, Foster are among the six ultimately selected to be used as test subjects. She explains to her former flame, Danny, that Dr. Scott wants the volunteers to bring some sentimental belongings with them into the lab. They might be there for a few days. Foster was apparently some kind of beauty queen. She must come from a small town.
Tex joins Jeter and Foster among the six test subjects. Scott calls the six crew members "remarkable people" in a remarkably bad bit of acting. She is either trying to act emotional in this scene or she legitimately can't remember her lines. Either way, it's not good. Speaking of "not good," what are the odds of at least one person dying from the virus in this scenario? Pretty good, I'd imagine, right? Eighty, 90 percent? Somebody's not going to make it out of here alive.
EVERYBODY LOOK OUT! IT'S THE STAY-PUFT MARSHMALLOW WOMAN!! Oh wait... It's just Dr. Scott in her enormous, white lab suit. Man, that freaked me out for a second. Anyhoo, she starts injecting people with the vaccine and we're off to a commercial.
Back on land, Chandler's wife is looking for an electronic capacitor in a run-down computer store of some sort. Whilst scavenging, a man in black ("LOST" reference because it's the actor who played the "Man in Black" on "LOST"...) guns down a woman in a rainy alleyway. Looked like the chick was infected, so I guess that means she deserved it? The man is with a group of other dudes who are packing heat and they seem pretty upset that somebody breached the area. Chandler's wife books it outta there, but guess what?? There is a dead guy on the ground in the shop. He looks infected, too. Dun dun dun...... Yeah... The Man in Black sprays an X on the door. Oh crap. Chandler's wife!!
Back in the testing lab, Jeter plays some Jamaican music for Bertrice, who, amazingly, is not brought back to tears at the thought of her deceased friends, and the rest of the guinea pigs bob their heads to the music like people who are clearly not Jamaican. Tex flirts with Dr. Scott, who is not impressed. Foster, on the other hand, thought it was a decent attempt. Others in the quarantine room are talking about their families and loved ones. One woman says, "Better to not have a child than to not be there when they need you." Obvious foreshadowing, as this conversation follows Chandler telling Mike about one of his children being born pre-mature.
The patients eventually start to show symptoms of the so-called "Red Flu" virus. Foster has a fever. The nerdy white guy that was shown briefly last week has a sore throat. The Black chick he was trying unsuccessfully to hit on says she is so tired that she can't lift her arm. Jeter is fine... because he's a baller. Tex tries to impress Dr. Scott again and she actually smiles for once. Go figure. Perhaps there is hope for him, after all. Tex starts telling Foster that he thinks he can see a future with the doctor, but Foster's eyes go lifeless and she starts to have a seizure. After some quick work by Scott, Quincy and Bertrice, Foster's temperature subsides and the seizure calms. She's fine. After some further examination, Dr. Scott assumes they may have overlooked something in Foster's medical history. They'll make an effort to bolster the other patients' immune systems, as to prevent any further mishaps with the vaccine.
The patient who was talking to Dr. Scott about her family is having trouble using her arms. She is unable to hold onto a clipboard that Quincy offers her. Tex has a nasty, nasty rash all over his back and shoulders. He says he doesn't know when it started and that it doesn't itch. Quincy looks spooked. He wonders if the vaccine even works in the first place. He suggests that the symptoms of the virus may have evolved since they first started working on the vaccine. The patients are delirious. Like, they're going insane. All of them. The Black chick has an intense nosebleed and appears to be lifeless and the show cuts to a commercial. Hands down, the creepiest scene of the entire season, thus far. Yikes.
Back in America, Chandler's potentially infected wife and father are listening to a radio. Apparently, that's why they needed the conductor. A message that sounds like a public service announcement says that progress is being made to treat the Red Flu. "Come to Olympia. We can help." The father is skeptical that any successful treatment is out there at all. He cites several other false claims of a cure and doubts that this "Olympia" is any different. Chandler's wife speculates that somebody out there has to be making progress.
The chick with the nosebleed is zipped up into a body bag. She's gone. Scott is crying. Quincy tells Chandler that he thinks the vaccine isn't working. Scott vehemently denies it, saying that the woman, Maya, died of a heart attack, which isn't a know symptom of the virus. Quincy suggests "passive immunization," meaning that they would inject Bertrice's immune antibodies directly into the test subjects, but Scott says the amount of blood that would take would kill the young girl. Bertrice is willing to comply and, against Dr. Scott's wishes, the process begins.
Quincy hands Scott Foster's "test results" and Scott looks positively annoyed. Chandler approaches Danny on the deck and gives him the news: Foster is pregnant... and, in the words of Maury Povich, "You ARE the father!" Danny dons a Stay-Puft suit and visits Foster, saying, "Don't you dare leave me."
Quincy finds Scott, who is practically in the fetal position, crying like a wuss, and informs her that the passive immunization hasn't been working. In fact, the symptoms are getting even worse. The good news, however, is that Bertrice is fine. Scott plunges even further into self-doubt, accepting defeat and wondering why she thought she could solve the world's biggest problem in the first place. She stares at the last monkey, which is sitting across from her in a box, and asks, "Why did it work on you?"
The rest of the crew has been permitted to make visits to the test patients. They're all pretty shaken up about these developments, of course, and death seems pretty much imminent for our six little guinea pigs. Chandler puts on a suit and steps inside the lab. Tex looks like he is barely hanging on. Chandler, emotionless, kneels by Jeter, saying, "When they tell the story about the Great Plague in the 21st Century, they'll talk about you. The Six."
Dr. Scott storms back into the room. "Blah blah blah medical nonsense mumbo-jumbo blah blah blah." Basically, what she's trying to say is that Patient Zero's modified version of the virus tricks human immune systems into attacking themselves. The vaccine worked on the monkey because it didn't have any human DNA to attack. After spewing even more unintelligible rubbish, she says that the only way to reverse the problems being manifested in the test subjects is to send in that primordial strain that they found in the Arctic at the beginning of the season as a "Trojan horse." Just like that, the team of scientists begins to inject the primordial strain into the subjects' IV streams.
Bertrice wakes up sad, thinking that her part in the passive immunization had failed. She sits up to see that the five remaining test subjects are recovering and looking, well, better, I guess. In this case, "alive" is "better." Tex cracks a joke about Dr. Scott and the other four muster the strength to chuckle. Dr. Scott tells Danny that his baby will be born immune to the virus. I suppose that means that the five survivors have developed an immunity, as well. Yippee. Scott confirms it: "We don't just have a vaccine... We have the cure... We can save people who are already sick." Hugs all around.
Back on land, Chandler's young son shows off a nifty handmade drawing of the U.S.S. Nathan James. Mr. Chandler has got his radio up and running again. He's sending out a call for his son's ship. But all is not well - Commander Chandler's wife pauses at the sink for a moment to wipe the sweat from her brow. A fever, perhaps?
--
Here's what we learned:
- I'm pretty sure the Russians actually are dead because it's looks like we've got a new group of villains back on land.
- Dr. Scott's vaccination of the Russian officer last week wouldn't have worked. However, she's got everything patched up and ready to go now. It's not only a vaccine - it's the cure! And they will be able to take that mamma jamma back to America and save everyone who has contracted the sickness.
- But they better hurry because Chandler's wife is sick and has, unbeknownst to everyone at Cabin Chandler, infected his father and both of his kids, too.
--
Oh baby. What an episode we had tonight, huh? I'm serious when I say that the scene with the delirium was the freakiest thing we've seen all season. Gave me the dang chills! Thankfully, it looks like we won't be stuck on the ship much longer because next week's season finale (!!) has got Chandler and the crew back on American soil with vaccine in hand and crosshairs in sight. We're gonna have ourselves an old-fashioned barn-burner of an episode next Sunday, ladies and gentlemen, as Chandler races to find his family and the Man in Black and his team, apparently, have their sights set on the crew of the U.S.S. Nathan James. We'll see you then, as I wrap up my recaps for Season One of "The Last Ship."
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