S01.E10: No Place Like Home

[ottoDbusdriver]

Episode Description:

 

Chandler and his crew return home; a warlord threatens the restoration of law and order; Chandler sets out to save his family.

[ottoDbusdriver]

The promo clip and photos for the season finale is up on SpoilerTV

 

http://www.spoilertv.com/2014/08/the-last-ship-episode-110-no-place-like_18.html

 

http://www.spoilertv.com/2014/08/the-last-ship-episode-110-no-place-like.html

 

Looks like they manage to steer the ship all the way back to Virginia.  I'll be curious if they stop to refuel, since Slattery mentioned during the discussion a few episodes ago about where to get the test monkeys that there was a facility in Puerto Rico, but they would have to stop and refuel (and Virginia is a LONG way from the Jamaican region, much further than Puerto Rico).

 

Are they only going to Virginia to get the Captain's family, or are they stopping along the East Coast to pickup the family of every crew member that might be in the area ?  I'm not sure what the rest of the crew would think of the Captain's preferential treatment and waste of resources.  Or is just coincidental that Fort Detrick, Maryland (home to USAMRIID) is near Virginia, and also might have the facilities to mass produce the vaccine ? 

 

The Nathan James must make radio contact with someone on the mainland, because apparently Titus Welliver's people eavesdrop to know that a US Navy ship is coming into port, and appear to make plans to ambush them.

 

And Rachel seems to be in a very clean lab with another doctor -- maybe they do make it to Fort Detrick or do they connect with the CDC in Georgia along the way ?

[Lonesome Rhodes]

I am ignorant as to the relative support available at various ports.  However, any choice to go somewhere other than the closest possible port to Detrick would be dereliction of duty.  From there, they could go most anywhere as events warrant.

[Irishmaple]

I'm hoping this doesn't make the transition to an All About My Family  show - along the lines of Falling Skies.  I like the world-building they've been doing and I think they've done a decent job of keeping the stakes high.  It looks like a world where bad things have happened and are ongoing.  I don't mind family drama in the background but I'd rather it not become a main focus.

[ottoDbusdriver]

The latest promo is up on SpoilerTv for the Season finale

 

http://www.spoilertv.com/2014/08/the-last-ship-episode-110-no-place-like_22.html

 

I've spoilered things in case you didn't watch the promo

 

The Nathan James has sailed all the way to Virginia since the last episode, the crew has no more aviation fuel so they can't use the helicopter or drones, they are definitely trying to make their way to Fort Detrick, they managed to tap into a USAF Keyhole satellite to survey the situation only to discover that the labs (and only the labs) at Fort Detrick to be completely destroyed, Chandler's family does indeed have the virus and are all sick and successfully break through Titus Welliver's roadblock to try and reach Olympia (wherever that is).

Edited August 23, 2014 by ottoDbusdriver

[ottoDbusdriver]

That was a really bad season finale.  And really embarrassing for the crew of the Nathan James to be hijacked so easily after warring with the Russians and a Costa Rican warlord.

 

As soon as they let all those state troopers on the Nathan James (why would they bring them aboard in the first place ?  they had no reason to trust them just because they had credentials) and allowed them to roam around the ship, armed and unescorted, that shit was going to go down.

 

Power to the People ..... correction ..... People Power !!

 

Titus Welliver's warlord makes no sense -- how can he be patrolling podunk towns in the woods of Virginia, be at war with Granderson's people in Baltimore, blow up the labs at Ft. Detrick and raid the National Archives in Washington for copies of the Constitution.  I know that all those actions didn't take place simultaneously, but this guy has got around since the Red Flu hit.

 

ETA:  How stupid is that a ship full of military-grade weapons with a little under 200 people on board is easily taken over by a bunch of highway patrol officers ?

Edited August 25, 2014 by ottoDbusdriver

[Enero]

Love Alfre Woodard, but I knew the Utopia she'd established was too good to be true. What a mess Chandler and crew have gotten themselves into.

 

Perhaps Chandler and crew should've thought through their plan to return to the US a little better. At the very least, they shouldn't have allowed anyone to board the Nathan James until they were absolutely sure everyone was legit.

 

I don't know what Dr. Quincy was hoping to accomplish by charging that cop? Redemption for what he put his wife and child through? Stupid.

 

Well the wife is dead. Most predicted that. It leaves the door wide open for Chandler and the doctor. That said, I actually liked the interaction between Tex and the doc this episode and was kind of rooting for them. At this point, I rather she give him a chance than Chandler.

 

Anyway, decent episode, at the least the last 10 minutes. The first half was kind of cheesy, especially with the doctors at the facility clapping when Chandler and his crew showed up with the cure .

Edited August 26, 2014 by maraleia

[bentley]

Tex going solo/rogue may well end up saving the day.

 

Wasn't the cheesy clapping scene in retrospect pure theater? These are the doctors who were deliberately killing the patients, correct? Or was it just the Asian doctor?

 

The underground scene with Titus Welliver resets everything we thought we knew or saw, including the failed assassination attempt on the Alfre Woodard character. He's not an evil warlord.  He's the Underground Resistance.

 

In conclusion, Soylent green is people!

Edited August 25, 2014 by bentley

[Frost]

I groaned at the slow clap at the lab. Ugh!  I wonder if all the lab workers are aware of the nefarious plan?  Which I don't really understand.  Weren't all those people dying anyway?  Granderson just wanted to speed it up and have them die in an orderly fashion so she could burn them for fuel?  As soon as they passed through the desperate people picking through garbage to the gleaming utopian building, I knew she was the big bad.

 

Does anybody know if they changed the ending? When it was originally announced, wasn't the show supposed to just be 10 episodes?  After it was successful they announced a second season, but if it had remained a mini-series, I assume they would have found a working lab at Ft Dietrich or something?  I can't believe they would have ended it on a cliffhanger.

 

Not did the rebel leader move all over the place, but Jed Chandler is pretty quick for an old, sick guy loaded down with a dying daughter-in-law and ill grandchildren.  How did they get to Olympia and processed through before Chandler and the black vans got to the tire station?

 

I like the set up for the second season, even if the Baltimore PD being able to take over the Nathan James so easily was embarrassing. 

[marieYOTZ]

Captain's wife is dead! Captain and doctor is on for season 2, i belieeeeeve! Sorry Tex.

I don't know whether this show, The Lottery, or Under the Dome takes the cake for most whackadoodle but i can't stop watching any of them.

[Frost]

Of course, we never did see the Captain's wife's dead body, did we?  What was her name, Darian?  I thought he was calling for his son, but I guess it was his wife's name.  She could conveniently be resurrected in time for another plot twist.

[LuLu123]

The underground scene with Titus Welliver resets everything we thought we knew or saw, including the failed assassination attempt on the Alfre Woodard character. He's not an evil warlord.  He's the Underground Resistance.

If this is indeed the case, then great casting by TPTB since his characters are usually the bad guy.

 

I thought something was up when Granderson told the captain that everyone in the Presidential bunker was dead and there was no one left.  Dick Cheney spent all that time in an "undisclosed location" to keep the continuity of government, so perhaps there is a Secretary of Agriculture or Education around somewhere.

 

Anyway, lots of new storyline possibilities for Season 2.  I'm actually looking forward to it.

[thuganomics85]

Ah, the old switcharoo!  Titus Welliver from last week isn't a mere bad guy, but the leader of a resistance movement of some kind. Because the true villains are this Utopia group, lead by Alfre Woodard.  Who just happens to be the mother of that Granderson character, we see every now and then.  She really didn't do much this season, so I guess this will change things.  But, yeah, Utopia and Alfre seem to be taking a page out of the Revolution page book, with the whole "Only the smart and strong will survive!  Everyone else must die!" approach.  Got to love that!  

 

Chandler reunited with most of his family, but his wife died off-screen, I see.  Of course, since we didn't see the body, they could hilarious re-con it (Dad doesn't know how to check a pulse!), but I could see this being permanent, in order for Chandler/Scott to happen.  Of course, that depends on when they reunite, since both are separated.  And, there is still Tex.  I'm sure he'll be back; have a feeling his whole "going out on his own", will end up playing a part in helping the Nathan James out.  Maybe he teams up with Titus Welliver.

 

Forget Quincy getting shot like a dumbass: Master Chief was shot too!  No, don't kill off, Master Chief!  I don't want Charles Parnell to have to go back to shilling for phone companies, again!

 

Of course, since this was Baltimore, I kept waiting for the characters from The Wire to show up.

 

Ain't going to lie: I am totally back for next season.  This show is very silly, but very entertaining for the summer.  The additions of Alfre Woodard and Titus Welliver are a big plus.  And, as long as Adam Baldwin is around to chew the scenery, and Rhona Mirta is around to spout out science exposition with her sexy voice, I can't really complain.

[bagert]

Of course, since this was Baltimore, I kept waiting for the characters from The Wire to show up.

 

 

That reminds me - Alfre Woodward guest-starred on the Baltimore-based Homicide: Life on the Street in 1998, reprising her Dr. Roxanne Turner character from St. Elsewhere.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

The crew in the bridge stood stone still when lousy hubby created a diversion.  Well, I guess if we are supposed to believe the heroics and the intuitive decisions (like when they stopped at the last possible hatch on the Russke ship), we have to accept when they screw up, too.  It's easy for me to accept that Slattery isn't all that, though.   Very much like Cmdr. Riker, eh?

 

Why weren't they already taking on fuel?  Getting helo capability was a priority for Chandler. ..

 

Can anyone explain how the random dude had Papa Chandler's radio set?  We know he wasn't the one who was talking to Chandler - he would never have known the family details so well.  There is no way Papa Chandler would have given up that radio set without a fight to the death if he was the one who talked to his son through that set.  

 

Why did Granderson give Chandler the chance to find his family?  She had a much better chance dealing with him and the landing party in her fortified HQ.  I get why she gave him the lottery chance of raising them on the radio.  I do not get why they were allowed to leave the premises.  She had everything she was going to get out of them and she knew the jig would soon be up, anyway.   What orders did she give those cops?  Other than killing them off in a massacre, nothing makes sense.  

 

How many folks at Evil HQ were given the vaccine/cure?  Not very many.  Cray cray planning to not immediately convert to replicating the cure.  They could always revert back once they grabbed the ship and killed the crew.

 

I absolutely do love that we are seeing just how dark things get when might makes right.  This is human nature at work.  For this much, I give this series very high marks.  It takes guts.  

Edited August 25, 2014 by Lonesome Rhodes

[ttgreif]

And now what?

Do we have to wait till next June to know what's goin' on?

Somebody give us a cure...ooops...sorry... A CLUE....!!!

 

It was good, I enjoyed it, some really fun&thrill episodes out there, it was good summer fun...

Looking forward to season 2.

 

USS Nathan James greek crew...out!

 

 

PS. Soylent Green...Hmmmm....

Edited August 25, 2014 by ttgreif

[themadman]

Ah, what is that, I see? Oh my, it's a large, mighty Great White Shark! Oh no, the Nathan James just jumped over it. The shark, it has been well and truly jumped.

 

I'm not coming back for another season.

[Johnny Dollar]

This is a decent show, and much better than most of the late summer dreck that's foisted upon the public. Please don't go all Revolution on me show, or I will not be happy.

[Raja]

If this is indeed the case, then great casting by TPTB since his characters are usually the bad guy.

 

I thought something was up when Granderson told the captain that everyone in the Presidential bunker was dead and there was no one left.  Dick Cheney spent all that time in an "undisclosed location" to keep the continuity of government, so perhaps there is a Secretary of Agriculture or Education around somewhere.

 

Anyway, lots of new storyline possibilities for Season 2.  I actually looking forward to it.

The Secretary of Education could have been touring the battleship USS Iowa turned into a museum on the west coast when the Captain takes her out to sea to guard the fugitive fleet of cruise ships full of uninfected folks.

Edited August 25, 2014 by Raja

[xaxat]

This show would have been so much better if the bad guys weren't so mustache twirlingly evil. Burning people for fuel? 

 

I hope recent events don't mean less screen time for the Nathan James. She's a good character on the show. (But probably really expensive.)

 

They must have been pretty confident about renewal to cast Titus Welliver for a handful of scenes and Alfre Woodard for a single episode.

[ottoDbusdriver]

I absolutely do love that we are seeing just how dark things get when might makes right.  This is human nature at work.  For this much, I give this series very high marks.  It takes guts.

 

Just because Granderson et al were evil doesn't mean that Titus Welliver et al are good.  They could both be equally evil, fighting each other for resources.

[Frost]

 

This show would have been so much better if the bad guys weren't so mustache twirlingly evil. Burning people for fuel?

Oddly enough, burning dead bodies for fuel doesn't bother me all  that much.  For health reasons, I would think burning is the safest thing to do.  As cold as it sounds, if they have to be burnt, you might as well use that energy.  On the other, killing people in order to burn them for fuel is pretty hard core villainy.

[HalcyonDays]

Ah, the old switcharoo!  Titus Welliver from last week isn't a mere bad guy, but the leader of a resistance movement of some kind. Because the true villains are this Utopia group, lead by Alfre Woodard.

 

I guess this was the case about half way through - when Alfre Woodward's character asked her daughter "Will Chandler still take orders?"  Then I was like, No, looks like Titus is on the GOOD side. Even before, I was wondering why they wanted to sniper-out Granderson specifically. Shades of Walking Dead, in the sense of an individual going on a power trip and using the humans for their own personal gain. The use of the corpses to fuel the coal plant was a good creepy twist though.

 

ETA: Frost - you are very right. Who knows how long the virus can survive in a dead body. Allowing it to decompose may contaminate the soil somehow. Burning the bodies makes perfect sense. The creepy comes from the fact that it seemed like Granderson and her ilk were deliberating killing off the people to cull the population of undesirables and get a cheap and easy fuel source.

 

The clapping for Dr. Scott CDC briefcase... How did they even know what was in there? It would actually be kinda stupid to tell everyone in the building a cure was found. False hope and the less people know, the better, in my view.

 

Unfortunately, Chandler lost some of his brain cells when his focus shifted to finding his family. I understand why, of course, but he started letting his emotions guide him and in turn, starting making bad decisions. I expect better from a CO in the Navy. I expect him/her to be able to be a big stronger than that, but then considering the circumstances.

 

I also expect better from the US Navy on this ship - you let one cop basically commandeer your bridge and his minions to take over the ship. I expected the XO to kick the crap out of him. Any of the crew should have been able to disarm the cop and take him out. I guess my expectations are too high, in that I expect more kick-assedness from said military. I also expect more secrecy and guardedness from them. Way too trusting.

 

Tex is somehow going to hook up with the Titus gang and help save the Nathan James crew.

 

Overall not bad and let some nice cliffhangers. And once again, there is probably going to be a long wait for the next season. Damn. I like this show. It's entertaining and fun, despite some flaws.

[DrLar]

Why did Granderson give Chandler the chance to find his family?  She had a much better chance dealing with him and the landing party in her fortified HQ.  

 

I think her plan was to kill them right there away from the other crew, but that plan literally backfired. Let's see how the Master Chief handles the shoulder wound.

[Raja]

I think her plan was to kill them right there away from the other crew, but that plan literally backfired. Let's see how the Master Chief handles the shoulder wound.

Seeing how the Chief Engineer seems to be completely recovered from a bear trap I expect the old western flesh wound type of recovery for the Master Chief

[Shermie]

This show would have been so much better if the bad guys weren't so mustache twirlingly evil. Burning people for fuel?

 

Oddly enough, burning dead bodies for fuel doesn't bother me all  that much.  For health reasons, I would think burning is the safest thing to do.  As cold as it sounds, if they have to be burnt, you might as well use that energy.  On the other, killing people in order to burn them for fuel is pretty hard core villainy.

 

Yeah, burning bodies makes sense, from an efficiency and public health standpoint. However, the show implied that they intentionally killed the unwashed masses to have fuel (although that seems like a pretty finite resource). They also used Holocaust imagery with the trucks filled with bodies and the burning "ovens". So that makes the idea seem more evil than it actual is.

 

But yes, killing off the unwanted is evil. However, TPTB seem to be mistaking educated and muscled for intelligent and strong. 

[happyhumanist]

I liked this show. It moved along fairly well and held my interest enough to watch it each week. I think last week's penultimate episode was the best. Obviously, the last one was the set-up for Season 2. I didn't care for it as much. However much I love the actors (including Alfrie Woodard), I don't think I'll tune in next year. I didn't watch Revolution for all the distopia and likely won't care to see it here.

 

Still, I did enjoy it. Kudos to all involved! A job well done!

[derriere]

The show has been mindless patriotic (I'm not even American) fun all season and I liked how different the setting was to everything else on TV.

But now that it's turning into Revolution/Jericho/Falling Skies I'm out. I can't stand this genre.

Edited August 25, 2014 by derriere

[Artsda]

I liked the finale, I think their stupidity to just allow all the cops to board the ship was out of mental fatigue and mistake because they wanted so badly for to return home and find their loved ones. They let their personal feelings of curing everyone and finding their family cloud their judgement as to what they were walking into. 

 

Tex going renegade is probably the best thing for them all. He'll be on the outside and save the day hopefully. 

[Loza]

Ok. I knew that this show is ridiculous but they had  brought it to the whole new level with this outrageously unscientific "BURN! BODIES! FOR FUEL!" thing.
I had nearly fallen of the chair when the dramatic reveal with madam new Big Baddy switching on the light happened. I swear it would be less odd if everyone on the show had decided out of the blue to put on clown noses and squeeze them with wonk-wonk noises.
2/3s of human bodies consists of water! We are no good, very bad, god damn awful source of fuel!
You would do better by fishing logs out of the river...
What can be done is when bodies are cremated (the process that requires a column of flames produced by, you know, actual fuel: natural gas, oils, propane, etc...) the heat that is generated by said fuel to destroy the bodies could be channeled to some secondary task, instead of it just going out the chimney.
So while helping already sick to pass along under disguise of treating them might be eeeeeevel, to burn highly contagious bodies is a public service, and to use heat generated by the crematoriums in times when coming by fuel sources should be increasingly hard is simply smart and frugal.

 

Oh, and by the way if the the objective is to allow everybody except for intellectual elite to die, it makes no  sense  to gather already sick in one place and then waste valuable  fuel on burning all the bodies. There is no cure! 99,9% of infected are going to die no matter where they are, and than actually help along the "clean slate" objective by remaining a nice contagions corpse spread out throw the country.
If anything the utopian government should be sneaking dead bodies into yet uninfected territories and catapulting corpses in to rebels camps.

 

But that of course is the universe where humans burn like gasoline, so... logic-shmogic...

 

Why am I torturing myself?

Edited August 25, 2014 by Loza

[Collinwood]

I would love, love, love it if the show ditched the ship and the crew, made John Pyper Ferguson and Titus Welliver the leads and renamed the show Live Free or Die where our two leads fight Alfre Woodward for the cure.  JPF, TW  and AW are listed as guest stars, I wonder when we will find out if they are returning for Season 2.   Unpopular opinion I know.  I'm just tired of the endless jingoism.

[MDKNIGHT]

Yeah, burning bodies makes sense, from an efficiency and public health standpoint. However, the show implied that they intentionally killed the unwashed masses to have fuel (although that seems like a pretty finite resource). They also used Holocaust imagery with the trucks filled with bodies and the burning "ovens". So that makes the idea seem more evil than it actual is.

 

It does make sense from a POV of how do we get rid of contaminated things/bodies.  But it really isn't effecient.  From what I've read it is hard to burn a body to ashes (which is what you would want to make sure you get rid of the virus) and even crematoriums have a hard time getting it completely done and you have to EXPEND energy to get the fire hot enough.  Remember that explanation in Matrix about the machines using the humans as batteries?  Well that would have been really inefficient too and not worth doing because you have to provide nurishment to the humans which means you have to expend energy making some sort of nutrient and your return is minimal.  This is kind of the same in that you have to expend energy to burn people and you will ALWAYS lose some energy in the system through heat loss to atmosphere.  They are also expending energy making whatever the heck chemicals they are pumping into them.  Funny thing is I must have stepped away when they showed that they were doing this because I didn't know until I came here.  I knew they were killing people but couldn't figure out why.

 

I can only imagine the horror and shock Dr Scott as a doctor would have felt when she realized they were killing patients.  It would be like being dropped into the Nazi experiment labs without any preparation having never heard any Nazi propaganda.  I can only assume Alfre Woodard had any doctors with normal ethics wacked and fed to the flames. 

 

I do not know if they'll specifically go there on the show but when Alfre was talking on skype or whatever about what happened to the president at that very moment I just knew that Alfre had the president wacked to take power.  My guess is she floated her ideas about her "solution" and blonde president didn't go with it so Alfre had her muscle take out the president's group.  Alternately she tried to do that but the president survived and is in hiding and will reappear at an oportune moment. 

 

We know our crew is made up of stalwart and true red white and blue good guys but I wonder in real life if you were navy trained and your chain of command has had this massive a hit WOULD a captain go with following evil orders?  I mean normal troops in real life normally carry out orders even if they are evil.  They are trained to.  So if Alfre had been vice president to the new president and so now was president would an average captain order his people to inject sick people with poison if ordered to? Or at least protect the people doing it?  What do people think?

 

Liked the subtlety that deep down moma Alfre doesn't like daughter is gay because she referred to her girlfriend as her friend and doesn't want daughter to mount a rescue attempt.  It is going to be interesting when daughter realizes what mom is up to.  Won't be easy on her.  I wonder if they'll go even further Nazi parallel and have Alfre picking gays preferentially to cull.  She probably  isn't doing it by race since she's black and a lot of her muscle is white but she may also have some other bias.Hysterical that she asked if the captain had let power go to his head. 

[Frost]

The show managed to keep a hopeful outlook through the first season, even with evil drug lords, evil Russians, and weasle-like British scientists.  From the brief clip of the rebel leader interacting with knitting ladies and kids, it looks like he's positioned to be a good guy.  I think the show just wanted the twist of having the presumed 'good leader' and 'bad warlord' turned upside down.

 

I hope they don't go the BSG route where everyone was so damn grey it was hard to root for anybody to survive, human or Cylon. 

[xaxat]

I hope they don't go the BSG route where everyone was so damn grey it was hard to root for anybody to survive, human or Cylon. 

 

It's a Michael Bay production featuring the United States military. I wouldn't be too worried about that.

[bagert]

I'd like to suggest a not-so-differently filmed scene in Olympia that could have been used if this had been the series finale: the medical personnel are giving out the real vaccine/cure (i.e. they aren't evil) and Tom finds his wife in time to save everyone in his family. In that scenario, Alfre letting Tom go find his family makes a lot more sense :)

[Bishop]

I thought it was a great season finale, and there are so many ways this show can go next year and beyond (not just in the U.S. but to other nations).

 

I don't find it incredible that the Nathan James allowed police and government officials on board.  They are military, use to a chain of command, and the person who contacted them was a member of the President's Cabinet, if I'm not mistaken.  Why would they NOT trust her?  It's easy to say "Of course, she was bad, and they shouldn't have trusted her," but there was no evidence of that.  Also, she knew about the Nathan James' mission to the arctic AND a member of the Nathan James was her own daughter.  I can see why the Captain, Slattery, Rachel, and everyone else would buy what she was selling.  My first instinct, had I been Chandler, would not have been that Granderson was an evil woman trying to take over the country and commit mass genocide.  It's not anyone's go-to hunch.  I DO think that Slattery and his crew could have overpowered one guy with a gun, however.  That was stupid.  

 

I also didn't have a problem with Chandler trying to find his family.  Technically, without a government, Chandler has no say over the Nathan James as a military commander anymore, right?  The crew can disperse if they wish.  If I had spoken to my father and found out my entire family was sick but in town, I would drop everything to get them the cure too.  They would have all died had Chandler not gone considering what they were doing to sick people at Olympia.  As for why Granderson would have allowed Chandler to leave, she didn't expect him to get the drop on her men.  Chandler and his team killed Granger's people.  So she wasn't expecting them to get away.  Dumb.  They ARE military.  Also, I wasn't surprised or upset to find that Chandler's wife had died.  There was too much chemistry between Chandler and Dr. Scott to waste it, and so I'm not surprised that Darien (unusual name) was killed off.  Throw in that Rachel did not appear to be into Tex, and you know that Chandler and Rachel will eventually be end game.  

 

It was creepy and great that Granderson was basically picking and choosing who she felt was worthy to survive and then killing off the less desirables and using them for fuel!  Both ingenious and deeply sadistic.  I was surprised that warlord turned out to be the good guy who was feeding and caring for the people in his care.  I should have suspected as much when his right-hand, the sniper, wouldn't just take out Chandler.  Usually evil warlords just start shooting everyone, but he didn't kill her because he didn't have a clear shot.  

 

So basically, the season ended with Rachel being trapped inside the lab, the Nathan James crew and ship was taken over by Granderson's people, Tex was out and about on his own, and Chandler and another Nathan James crewman (can't remember his name) are on the streets with three sick (but vaccinated) people.  So Chandler has to get back his ship, get Rachel out of the lab, get the research and the cure back on the ship, find Tex, hook up with the warlord good-guy and take out Granderson and her killing machine at Olympia - and that's just in Baltimore.

Edited August 26, 2014 by Bishop

[Irishmaple]

The finale actually worked for me.  It certainly did enough to get me back next summer to see the dystopian USA exceed my expectations.  I did not expect Alfre Woodard to be a narcissistic elitist.  This is her world now and she's building it in her image, where every one is crisp and good-looking and intelligent.  I hope she kept around the people who can unblock a toilet without gagging and can cook for seventy with whatever is on hand.  Everyone else seemed to be hanging in Titus Welliver's bunker.  He was on Agents of SHIELD this year as a SHIELD agent so I wasn't ready to declare him a bad guy.  He's still working his way back from killing my ears with his "Irish" accent on Sons of Anarchy.  If he proves a decent foil to Ms. Woodard and maybe teams up with Tex to liberate the Nathan James crew, I'll finally forgive him the accent.

 

I was really disappointed that the Nathan James was taken over so easily.  It was one nasty guy with a gun.  No one could flank him?  No one had any idea until the recently-redeemed Dr. Quincy went for the suicidal sprint.  It was doomed to failure but at least he tried.  I was actually worried about Foster and the fetus for a second until I recalled everything that baby's been through.  At this point, the baby would probably spit back the bullet.

 

I'll give the show credit for moving on with the (to me) obvious Rachel/Chandler chemistry.  Tex is giving it his best shot, but I think Rhona Mitra has a great connection with Eric Dane.  He kind of smoulders at her even when he's not smouldering.  

[anstar]

I know why he did it, and I don't blame him, but I still found it kind of...I don't know...rude...for Chandler to pull out three syringes (and he had four so there's an extra in his bag), and inoculate his family right there in the middle of a giant room full of infected/dying people.

Is the virus insanely fast acting, or was there a time jump from one episode to the next? It didn't seem like much time had passed, but the vaccine/cure had restored everyone to complete health and Chandler's family was knocking at death's door so...

I'm not loving the Rachel/Chandler ship. Granted, it hasn't actually launched, but killing off his wife was definitely phase one.  I like Tex and Tex likes Rachel.

Having the 'heroic' doctor and the 'heroic' captain fall for each other feels a little trite to me. 

Count me is as one disappointed in the Nathan James crew on the bridge for just standing around while the trooper took over the ship.  They literally had him surrounded.  Why did the one facing the gun charge him?  What was wrong with one of the ones standing behind him?

Edited August 26, 2014 by anstar

[TV Anonymous]

I watched it somewhere that with the fat content of human body, it can act like tallow. Therefore, albeit the calorific values of burning human bodies are low, human bodies can burn on itself after intial combustion. The water content will just evaporate in the process.

 

One of the most ridiculous things (if not the most) in the series is how a single policeman with a pistol is able to hijack the bridge. That pistol has what, 15 rounds? The policeman is surrounded in the bridge with that many people. All the brave U.S. Navy Sailors are afraid by his threat? They could have just raided him together. Sure, there will be casualties, but they have been through terrorists, Russians, drug lord and vaccine testing. Really, they just stand there and be frozen by a Glock?

[CarBe]

 

Having the 'heroic' doctor and the 'heroic' captain fall for each other feels a little trite to me.

It's not trite, they're have a lot in common and are very similar - they both have dedicated their lives in service to others, both brave, both smart, both mavericks. From what we've seen of Tex so far, he's a bumbler. He and the other private guards, as we learned in the Welcome to Gitmo episode, let the Al Queda guys go since "it was the end of the world" and Al Queda picked off the five other guards so just Tex was left. They even captured him in the warehouse when he had the Nathan James crew with him. This being said, I think next season will see Tex hook up with Rachel just to toy with the audience.  Rachel definitely gave Tex a jealous look when he hit on that female police officer. I don't really understand the writers pushing the pairing, though. Her supposed boyfriend was a journalist, an intellectual job. Tex honestly seems like an idiot to me. For sure, he is bad at strategy. I guess if it's the end of the world, having a dude around who can slit a throat with a scalpel blade without hesitation may be all you need, but he only barely managed to keep himself alive in Gitmo.

[bmoore4026]

Well, good thing this show was renewed, or I'd be pissed for weeks.

 

Wonder if the SS Nathan James will become like Rivet City from Fallout 3?  Just filled with scientists, military people, and refugees.

[anstar]

It's not trite, they're have a lot in common and are very similar

I said "feels trite to me" because it's what most programs (or movies) do. It's predictable. At this point, I think I'd be shocked to see one where the hero stays happily married to a faithful spouse and has a functional, professional relationship with coworkers of the opposite sex.  Talk about subverting viewer expectations.

[gaPeach]

This show is my summer surprise.  At first I found it very cheesy but got hooked. 

 

I too found it very hard to believe that the bridge was taken by one trooper with a gun.  And why did the dr rush him on what can only be described as a suicide mission.  Who does that.  If the MILITARY guys in the room are staying put the you should too.

 

Looking forward to this show next year.  I did not realize this was the season finale. 

[JackONeill]

If someone else said this, I'm sorry.  This has been on my mind, but I've just now found the time --

 

I think the Alfre character sent Chandler into a trap.  She had someone get to his dad (and kids), give the radio to some homeless person (isn't everybody homeless now),  then told the cops to shoot the navy guys, which is almost what happened, except the navy guys (as opposed to the navy guys on the navy ship) were too fast for the cops.

[Latverian Diplomat]

I watched it somewhere that with the fat content of human body, it can act like tallow. Therefore, albeit the calorific values of burning human bodies are low, human bodies can burn on itself after intial combustion. The water content will just evaporate in the process.

 

 That does happen in certain circumstances, (e.g., intoxicated person smoking in bed) but it's low intensity fire that doesn't completely consume the body. That's why it doesn't spread to burn the entire room or house. To drive a steam generator, you need a good quality fuel that can produce a hot flame. It takes a lot of heat to boil water and pressurize steam. In any case, the idea that, in the middle of a highly contagious plague, they could have the manpower and resources and to operate a death camp is pretty silly And why? Stay safe and let the plague do the job.

 

This idea would have worked better a little later on, when Alfre Woodward's people have the cure and can discriminate in whom they give it to.

 

As silly as the "Revenge of the Nerds" dystopia is, at least in Alfre Woodward we have someone who knows how to underplay the big villainous speeches to achieve maximum creepiness.. 

 

I too found it very hard to believe that the bridge was taken by one trooper with a gun.  And why did the dr rush him on what can only be described as a suicide mission.  Who does that.  If the MILITARY guys in the room are staying put the you should too.

 

 

 I'm not a Navy person, but it seems like they are viewing this as a dangerous port (they haven't even dropped anchor?) In those circumstances, wouldn't there be guards posted at key locations?

[bagert]

where every one is crisp

 

 

No pun intended, right? ;-)

[Raja]

I'm not a Navy person, but it seems like they are viewing this as a dangerous port (they haven't even dropped anchor?) In those circumstances, wouldn't there be guards posted at key locations?

Remember when Ziva joined NCIS and she was shocked that on military bases nobody was armed? Since the post Vietnam war era when officers needed a police escort when going to the barracks very few people are actually armed. It's not a Klingon ship, but a US Navy ship. A nominally armed guard my be on the planks to the dock. But the tradition which is holding the crew together doesn't include armed sailors on standby while in a bay.

[Latverian Diplomat]

Remember when Ziva joined NCIS and she was shocked that on military bases nobody was armed? Since the post Vietnam war era when officers needed a police escort when going to the barracks very few people are actually armed. It's not a Klingon ship, but a US Navy ship. A nominally armed guard my be on the planks to the dock. But the tradition which is holding the crew together doesn't include armed sailors on standby while in a bay.

Yes, not every crewperson is armed. But designated security personnel are. They are not docked and not in a "safe" port. They have non-Navy personnel aboard. For that matter, those personnel should have had any weapons they brought with them secured when they came aboard. That last point is justifiable by safety, it's not even a statement of distrust.

Edited August 26, 2014 by Latverian Diplomat

[Hanahope]

One problem I can see with the whole idea of only the 'best and brightest' get to survive, at least at first, is who is going to do the labor?  You do need some people to do manual labor, farm fields, empty trash, clean toilets, etc.You can bet your educated elite isn't going to want to clean bathrooms.  I can understand speeding along the death of some that are too far gone, but the vaccine/cure can save most of the people and they will need a few to rebuild civilization. 

 

I do like the twist that the so-called government is acting more like a warlord and the 'warlord' is more than likely the resistance. 

 

Yup, Tex is going to join up and help rescue the ship.

 

Also surprised that they let one gunman take control of the command area.  I get that the navy personnel are not all armed with guns, but don't they at least get some hand combat training?  You think someone would have tackled the one guy when the doctor rushed him.

 

I'm really missing the Adam Baldwin snark.

[TV Anonymous]

BTW, I have enough of Revolution and - while I am eagerly waiting its new season - The Walking Dead. Meaning that enough of urban post-apocalyptic world where the government is gone. I want The Last Ship to be, well, the last ship. Go out to the sea, show military systems, procedures and hardware and fight from there.