S02.E13: A More Perfect Union

[jb0495]

I feel like Lt. Green's girlfirend, cannot remember her name has been pregnant for a long, long time but I guess in the show's timeline it hasn't been that long since they left their families. I wonder if that will become a focus in Season 3, one of the first immune babies to be born. I guess we'll see. 

 

I like this show in the summer, it's fun and entertaining so I'll probably be back. And there is usually nothing else on during the summer (Big Brother and the horrible Bachelor shows don't count). 

[dinkysquid]

They finally let Rhona Mitra be all pretty and sultry, though can someone put that woman's hair up and out of her face?

 

 

I was thinking the same thing. They'd always show her working away with her hair hanging down. When I had long hair, that drove me nuts, hair getting in my face when I'm trying to do something although what I was doing was never as important as Rachel saving the world. I was thinking she could at least use a good trim but I guess with all this plague stuff happening, it would be really hard to find a stylist and a decent blow out is out of the question.

 

As far as her being dead, I look at this season's True Detective and if Colin Farrell could get shot in the gut, point blank, with a shotgun and show up alive the following week, then anything is possible.

 

Besides......who will the Captain get cozy with?

[AlwaysWatching]

I know it's only me seeing things that aren't there, but a few episodes ago I felt they were slowly getting rid of Dr. Scott.  Then, when she said she was pardoned and was being sent to different places to work on more cure (?), I thought, ok, that's how they're going to do it.  Chandler had also been given desk duty by that promotion ( did I get that right?), so with her gone, TPTB might think he knows more about what she was doing than anyone else and he sends him to all these places.  Or, it could be revenge. Or both. They have to get the big guy back on the Nathan James.  And, sadly I agree with many posters who have said Dr. Scott's story line might be used up as far as the writers are concerned.  

 

Hopefully, I am totally wrong and we are going to have another person miraculously healed from a severe bullet wound.   Uh, the only reason I can think of for them to have Dr. Scott shot dead, is then they wouldn't have people wondering if she would show up later from her travels. 

 

It doesn't really matter to me as far this story goes. It just seems kind of cruel to kill off the woman who found the cure, then found a contagious cure for the sick and, well, basically save most of humanity.  But, eh.  The military and their fuzzy morals.

[MissLucas]

I can see how this might be very upsetting to you if you really enjoyed the character.  In that case, rest assured that I do not pay attention to casting news so I have no idea whether or not the actress is signed on for another season or if she's moving on.  If she's staying, then I'm sure they can find a good way to create a new purpose for the character.  

The only character whose demise will upset me is Tex. Other than that I'm fine. But the rules of tv land demand at least one romance on a show. Since Green proposed that romance is out of the picture for good (again according to the rules of tv land) and the writers did a hell of a job of setting up the feels between Chandler and Doctor Scott during the last two episodes. We will get the good Doctor back because she's just got the purpose they so long kept away from her: being the love interest of the hero. She might get another purpose as others have indicated, I hope so because I'm not too fond of this kind of writing and I enjoyed the show for not immediately going there. But once Chandler's wife had died I knew poor Tex had no chance.

Edited September 8, 2015 by MissLucas

[crowswork]

So now we have a shot up Doc (You got rid of those guards a bit too soon) and the Captain has shrapnel in his liver. The doc needed to be surrounded by guys with guns - hope of the world and all.

[Garnett7]

 

The only character whose demise will upset me is Tex.

Same here. Tex is my fave. He better not get bumped off. I was happy he found his daughter.

 

I will be shocked if Rachel is dead. But I fail to see how it's a big cliffhanger. Even if she died, she's already found the cure and her data is recorded and can be passed on to other scientists and doctors. A much better cliffhanger would be if there were some major side effects to the vaccine or perhaps the virus unexpectedly mutates to be resistant to the cure.

 

I re-watched and I don't think the man who shot Rachel was sick. He looked dirty and sweaty, more than a little crazy, but not sick.

 

My biggest pet peeve has to be the working cell phones. There's no electricity with the infrastructure down so how are they keeping them charged? More over, why would you keep one turned on all the time knowing there is no internet or cell service? A radio broadcast makes more sense than a cellphone message sent out.

[Raja]

So now we have a shot up Doc (You got rid of those guards a bit too soon) and the Captain has shrapnel in his liver. The doc needed to be surrounded by guys with guns - hope of the world and all.

 The " guards" were in fact jailers. We still have the other doctor who survived the hospital ship massacre and joined the crew besides any other doctors who survived the virus along the Mississippi River

[RedDwarfIV]

If the next season and beyond is about rebuilding the nation, then Nathan James and her crew can no longer be 'the last ship', thus the relevance of the title. However again, there are precedents in The Good Wife and Rookie Blue.

Between Vrenya, Solace, and Achilles, I'm pretty sure the Nathan James was never really the last ship at all. It's just the name of the book the series was based on.

[ttgreif]

The only character whose demise will upset me is Tex. Other than that I'm fine. 

 

Except for Lt.Kara Foster (what can I do? ....i'm in love...I'm only joking, but I quite liked the "chicken n1pple shooting from 1000 yards" comment back in Season1..)

...I totally agree!

Tex is giving the show that extra "spicy sauce" that's needed to consider it something different when it comes to characters.

Edited September 9, 2015 by ttgreif

[Bishop]

I don't agree at all that the show should now end because there's no where else to go.  There is an entire world to rebuild, and Europe, to my knowledge, does not have the cure.  The Nathan James can still head out across the Atlantic to help the rest of Europe and run into enemies.  Dr. Scott's work is not done because the virus is something she knows better than anyone else, and if it mutates, she is the "go-to" person to talk to about it.  She is being sent to start up each new "cure outbreak" and to make sure it distributes properly.  I think there are tons of stories to still be told.  Could it be a series ending?  Sure, but it doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of stories left to tell.  

 

It was nice to see the Nathan James and her crew get a win and be treated like the heroes they are.  So that was nice to see.  They still have a way to go to get the cure to everyone and bring law and order back to the U.S. and establish a government.  THEN they have to help out the rest of the world.  

 

The shooting of Rachel was a surprise, but she's definitely not dead.  I'm guessing Chandler heard the gunshot and will be there to get her the medical attention she needs.  I hope there isn't going to be a time jump of three months or so.  I hate time jumps.  

 

I am not torn between Chandler, Rachel, and Tex.  I have always believed that it would be the Captain and Rachel.  At no point did Rachel ever hint that she had feelings for Tex, but she DID hint to having feelings for the captain.  When Chandler and Tex went missing at sea, she asked "Where's the Captain?" when they didn't return - not "Where is the Captain AND Tex?"  Also, she had a choice to pass that note to either Chandler or Tex on the Russian ship, and she passed it to Chandler.  Also, when Tex finally made his move and kissed Rachel, she did not respond in kind.  Tex realized in that moment that she didn't have feelings for him the way he did her, and since then, he's treated her like a good friend.  He must have figured out that she has feelings for the Captain because he gave her a pep talk a few episodes ago that she and the captain would get a chance to say their good-byes.  I think Chandler and Rachel have great chemistry, and I like that Chandler is fighting his feelings.  Rachel's feelings at this point are obvious.  

 

I think next season will be about rebuilding the U.S. and then heading over to Europe or South America.

Edited September 9, 2015 by Bishop

[RustbeltWriter]

This was a fine series end. I'm afraid next season will see the Nathan James outfitted with giant wheels like a monster truck so the crew can roam the country righting wrongs.

[nitrofishblue]

Wow, now I know how the town of Defiance was founded. They setup the government in St. Louis with the lovely arch in the background. That made the town the target for the aliens to attack it and they renamed St. Louis Defiance. Then the arch gets blown up!! Go tie in there boys.

[Caffae]

I agree with 
 

 

"what is wrong with telling a great story in one or two seasons then letting it end then coming up with a completely new story? We loved the show, but I doubt we will watch it next summer, the story has been told."

This episode was a great close-off, there was some conflict with the cure provision but mostly it was a good end to the series. There wouldn't really be much to continue from for a new season since the main theme of the show is about being the 'last ship' able to save humanity from a dangerous virus and the continuation probably wouldn't be on a ship (since the cure is just being distributed) which spoils the naval theme and the cure is already soon to be widely available so they wouldn't really be the 'last' anything. The resolution of several of the subplots (romance between the lieutenants, relationship between the captain and the doctor and the general plot of the soldiers returning home.) and the main plot has lead me to conclude that the continuation would be rather pointless, and the shooting of the doctor was probably only to provide a basis for the start of season 3 (i.e the immunes are not really gone) which is just annoying.
 
All in all, 'the last ship" was a pretty great series, with a great focus on the main plot and amazing actors. Although the sub-plots were really badly handled (the frequent killing of characters when the audience just started to care about them), and there was a lot of tension that in the end amounted to nothing - for example, Niels (aka Patient Zero) was just killed and the Captain and Dr.Rachel had all that conflicted emotions between them and she just leaves? considering her character it would have been more realistic to have her worry about the shrapnel in his wound and the Captain's characterisation seemed rather off at the end. - so it does give off a feeling of a checklist being ticked for each episode to just provide the basis for the next episode without a proper focus on characterisation and character development. In a nutshell, the show is too focused on plot and not focused enough on character development and the relationships between the characters.

 

I do hope that the doctor survives and that the next season would be more focused on the doctor, hopefully with a villain that isn't so easily killed :)