ottoDbusdriver June 14, 2016 Share June 14, 2016 Apparently in the 154 days since the end of S2, production has ramped up on American flags and super soakers. And they have somehow restored telephone/fax/e-mail communications -- faxes, really ? -- and reliable power thanks to some hydroelectric dam. And then the president prattles on about some nonsense about the banks and ration cards. Hope that mural of Tom Chandler doesn't go to his head. Because it's pretty big. And we get a completely new intro that consists of a giant blue drop that spills onto Missouri and spreads across the country -- and looks a lot like a feminine hygiene product commercial. But then it runs into a smaller red blob in China, and we finally get a shot of the Nathan James cruising towards the viewer between the series title. It looks incredibly fake. Meanwhile in Southern Japan, people at a campsite are dead of the red flu as a dog sniffs around the corpses. And the sole survivor is more than a little upset that the cure doesn't work for them. I suspect they haven't actually been getting the cure and instead are getting diluted blue Kool-Aid instead. Apparently Kara had Danny's baby, but Danny has yet to see his spawn since he is away on the Nathan James -- on the way to Vietnam. No wonder he has been gone so long, they had to take the long way. Where exactly did they refuel on this long route from St. Louis to Vietnam ? Because they appear to be sailing alone with no support like a fleet tanker, for example. Slattery is the new captain of the Nathan James. And the helicopter has made a reappearance on the aft deck. It's confirmed that Dr. Scott is indeed dead, and is commemorated with her face on ration coupons. So she won't be coming back as a ghost, I hope. Am I the only one that noticed the typo on the ration coupons ? The coupon numbers go 18203, 18204, 18206, 18207, 1808, 1809 -- so what happened to 18205 ? Well done props dept., you had one job and you fucked it up. And Chandler "overhears" that the virus has possibly mutated at a Presidential briefing -- and is a little pissed that he was left out of the loop. Apparently the Chinese president has been hoarding the cure, but there is absolutely no mention of how the Chinese gov't survived the red flu in the first place while the rest of the world went to shit. He was given a million doses for Japan, but kind of neglected to share. And the US Navy is growing with 2 more destroyers in the Okinawa area -- all in 154 days you say, that seems like a little fast to completely outfit two new destroyer crews AND sail them all the way to the Japanese area. Are there any assets in the Atlantic in case any other rogue Brits or surly Russians decide to come back and play ? According to the brief in the President's hands, the new Chinese president, Peng, is 41 years old, is 5'8", 160 lbs, lives in Hong Kong, likes long walks on the beach, and isn't afraid to cry while watching romantic movies. And there are reports that the Chinese air force is bombing North Vietnam. Gee, it's almost like China wasn't impacted by the red flu at all. The President is going to arrange a meeting in Hong Kong, along with what's left of Asian leadership. The VP (whoever that is) is in South America and without a Secretary of Defense Tom Chandler is next in line. But apparently there is also a US Army still existing (based on the earlier scenes of soldiers distributing food) so why not send the head of the Army. That's right, plot convenience so Chandler is in the same time zone as the NJ. Pirates ? Really ? So none of the people of SouthEast Asia were remotely affected by the red flu they just kept on with business as usual. Why does entering Chinese airspace suddenly mean that they are broadcasting in the clear ? They have Valerie on board so everything should be encrypted up the wazoo. Even more impressive is that Chandler is on a plane that that has flown from St. Louis to the greater South China Sea area. Apparently the last 6 months have been a technology renaissance. There's still a Vietnamese gov't ?? So the British, French, Russian and all the major European gov'ts failed, but Vietnam is up and running and open for business. And they are throwing the crew of the NJ a big party. No, that's not suspicious at all. Why does the Chinese air base look suspiciously like an American airbase, complete with English signs. And apparently the Chinese have a working satellite phone network. How exactly ? Chandler and hacker girl extraodinaire Valerie meet up Wolf with the Chinese representative -- and the translator is an old flame of Chandler's (of course she is). Her name is Sasha and she's pretty hot in an end-of-the-world-looks-a-little-like-Dr.-Scott way. She says she got married after dating Chandler. but I suspect she's single again and ready to mingle (because she kind of drops the hint that everyone lost someone). Slattery and a bunch of the NJ crew head off to a party after dropping off the cure, I'm sure this will work at well. Apparently Wolf and Valerie are an item. And Valerie is really concerned about noise on a comm channel which I'm sure will come into play later (Chekov's chatter). And the big whoop-dee-doo in Hong Kong has various Asian nations represented except Japan. Which has Chandler worried. Chandler decides to "poke the elephant" and accuse the Chinese President of withholding the cure, and all of a sudden the Chinese President speaks perfect English. And after being embarrassed by Chandler, the Chinese President "suddenly" has to leave. No doubt to do something evil. Oh come on, a nightclub !! What the fuck !! Did the red flu even get to Vietnam ? Because aside from the inoculation stickers it pretty much looks like any other day. Are they kidding ? In a world DEVASTATED by a plague it looks more like their at Spring Break. And do they really expect the viewer to believe that that entire club is powered by that one shitty little generator outside the entrance. FFS ! The Nathan James picks up 3 civilian vessels sailing in tight formation coming straight at them ... at night. That's not suspicious at all. Of course, right before everything all goes to shit Slattery tells Danny he's on the next plane home to see his son. Uh, about that, probably not going to happen. So the US has an air base up and running in Okinawa, that explains how Chandler can fly all the way to Hong Kong, but I'm really curious where all the fuel is coming from. Who's refining new stuff ? Meanwhile, Chandler has a balcony heart-to-heart chat with President Peng. So Peng is pissed that the US is delivering more cure to the enemies of China, and aren't helping. Boo hoo !! And Peng is pissed because Chandler is using the NJ as a delivery van. Really ? Where the hell has this guy been all this time ? Hey, the helo still works and arrives at the rally point to pick up Slattery et al. But where did those 3 mysterious ships go -- asks no one on the bridge of the NJ -- until they disappear from radar. As the shore party is gathered up to hit, despite some wanting to stay and get lucky, the power goes out once again. And that's when the heavy weapons fire starts up (good thing they pulled this, hits a little too close to what happened in Orlando). Pirates, I guess, are shooting the place up and even have tasers (seriously ?). Slattery goes down via taser, the engineering chief goes down via taser and Danny redshirt sailor gets shot in the hip. but it's because these pirates (???) have a specific list of who to kidnap and who to kill. Comms are dead because the pirates (??) blasted the place with an EMP -- oh come on. And as Danny and Burk head to the idling helo, a pickup truck with an RPG shows up and blows it up. So much for the helo this season. Burk (the other brother Burk) checks in with the President and the NJ is ordered to sortie offshore and await further instructions -- Kara, on behalf of the President, places the order knowing that Danny is MIA (and she has the sads). Meanwhile the Vietnamese leader pleads with Chandler at the Hong Kong dinner that it was not her gov't who did this. I am so impressed that commas are so reliable and quick, it's like the red flu never happened at all. Valerie and Chandler are ordered by the States, but Chandler is going to save the missing crew of the NJ. He's going rogue with help from Sasha (oooh, baby) and Wolf. As Valerie discovers ..... something ..... about the signal clutter in the comms channels and tells the pilot to turnaround because it is a matter of national security. And as the plane returns to Hong Kong within line of sight of Chandler the plane explodes in mid-air. Part 2 And as the plane goes down, two jeeps rush the airfield. This is the most deserted airstrip on the planet -- and that's saying something. The jeeps open fire and we get our first car chase of the season. And the bad guys and Chandler/Sasha really are the worst shots. They are at nearly point blank range and can't hit the broadside .... of anything. Chandler finally shoots one of the pursuing jeeps and it literally launches itself into the air despite the fact that there was no explosion, unless it hit a mine or something similar. It is so fake. There are concerns back in St. Louis after they confirm that the NJ is safe in International waters, but no sign of the missing sailors. And we cut to a freighter, correction, a container ship somewhere off shore with all the missing sailors who have been stripped to their skivvies. As they get tossed into a brig, one of the sailors is bleeding out and it doesn't look good. Meanwhile, back in the mean (though deserted) streets of an extremely well-lit Hong Kong, Chandler is calling out on the radio for the missing sailors -- while Wolf has a minor meltdown behind the wheel. Acting CO Burk determines to do something while waiting so they head off in pursuit of the mystery ships, as the pirates (??) enter the brig and removed the severely wounded redshirt. Danny and Burk change clothes and case the pier. To steal a boat, I guess. Meanwhile, Chandler, Sasha and Wolf go to an apartment building where a really good pilot friend of Sasha's happens to live. But Jessie doesn't answer the door and all you hear is loud music playing behind the door, so Wolf breaks it down. To discover numerous sleeping bags in the living room and a scantily clad Jessie sleeping on the couch -- but look at the apartment with the remnants of cigarettes, bourbon bottles and cherry coke on the coffee table. The red flu really has been hard on the population of Hong Kong </sarcasm>. Jessie wakes up, slugs Sasha and fills her in on the fact that all her friends were killed on a relief mission only to encounter Peng's missiles and the security guarding them. Missiles ?? Missiles for what ?? But Chandler convinces her to come along and let them borrow her helo. Danny and Burk come up with a plan to kill the bad guys guarding the pier, and it works mostly as Burk gets shot in the leg as they hunt down the bad guys. The other Burk orders pursuit of the freighter after it ignores their hails and tries to cheez it. Wolf gives Jessie a hard time about smoking while driving. WTF ? And as Sasha probes Chandler about his feeling or whatever, the Humvee stops at a traffic light. The Chinese security is hot on their tail and they are stopping for traffic lights. President Michener has a video call from Senators from California and Washington State -- how were these guys nominated let alone elected in 154 days since Michener's inaugaration (we find out later that they organized their respective areas). And they are complaining about the ration cards. The Cali senator is bitching about stale cereal. Seriously ? They claim that rationing is just not in the American DNA -- are these guys for real ? Plus, who is manufacturing cereal ? Because if it's from pre-red flu stores it is already stale. Meanwhile, the President's advisers argue about his "honeymoon period" being over and the fact he was not elected -- this is not 'The West Wing'. Humanity was almost wiped out and this is what they are concerned about. Kara comes in to splain that Chandler's plane is not responding, and she can't raise Sasha in Hong Kong. If they had to wait until Chandler's plane was outside of Chinese airspace to talk to it, why are they able to talk to Sasha in Hong Kong ? This makes no sense. And speaking of making no sense, the freighter that was 1.3 miles from the NJ is now 16 miles away and speeding away. Not many freighters can do that. Did they forget to step on the gas on the NJ ? Jessie, Chandler, Wolf and Valerie go down to a dock. Wolf is so going to bang Jessie -- since he thinks Valerie is dead. Sasha reminds me of Renee Walker from '24'. Sasha thinks that there is something bigger going on, but what ? But after trading something with the fisherman they hop back in the car and keep driving. This is too funny -- Danny is interrogating the only person guarding the dock that survived using a Vietnamese for Dummies book. Only Burk thinks that it's maybe not the Chinese or the Vietnamese based on something he found with writing on it. Dinner time in the brig -- and it looks yummy. Steak and apricots. As another redshirt with seasickness is taken away. Sasha, Wolfe and Chandler all hide as Jessie tries to cross the checkpoint, but once Sasha is found in the trunk, Chandler and Wolf hanging drop down from undercarriage and Jessie opens fire killing all the soldiers. And they head to an irradiated zone caused by a nuclear power plant that melted down, and they only have 20 minutes to get in and get airborne before the radiation kills them. But won't the helo also be heavily irradiated from parking next to a malfunctioning nuclear reactor ? Burk and Danny continue Interrogation for Dummies, but the bad guy dies after saying something about "losing blood" and "he won't like that". President Peng calls Michener to tell him that Chandler's plane went down on it's own. All by itself. Oh no, the helicopter won't start so they are going to borrow a battery from the truck Do the writer's even know how radiation works ? That it is cumulative over a lifetime, and just ducking out quickly will offset any exposure. Meanwhile, Chandler and Sasha are already starting to cough from the radiation as the Chinese military appears while trying to jump the helicopter. Wolfe lobs off some shots with a grenade launcher that land right in front of both jeeps (with some noticeably bad CGI explosions) and do almost no damage to anyone or anything. And based Chandler screwing with the car battery, the helo is fired up. Danny and Burk have commandeered a boat and are driving along sending up flares to the the attention of the NJ, which they do. But as they attacked by a boat load of bad guys, the helo shows up and attacks the bad guys blowing them up with cheap CGI explosions and smoke. Kara is on the phone smiling as we pan up to a shot of the Chinese helo sitting on the helipad of the NJ, as she has found out that her baby daddy is safe -- and Chandler is ok too. Meanwhile, back on the freighter of evil, the bad guys are draining all of the blood from the redshirt that was gutshot. Because ...... why not ? Selling the blood on the black market as a cure. Who knows ? but I'm sure it will be evil. 2 Link to comment
HalcyonDays June 14, 2016 Share June 14, 2016 Hey Everyone, Due to the tragedy in Orlando, TNT had decided not to air the first two episodes of the season in respect and due to some violent content in the episodes. However, some television stations may have broadcast the episodes anyway, andsome of you have already seen then. Some have also maybe only seen The Scott Effect due to an 'accidently' TNT airing a couple days ago. So to allow those who saw the episode to discuss it, while keeping the episode "pure" and spoiler-free, I've created this thread as a temporary discussion location. /// ------> BEWARE - SPOILERS BE HERE. EPISODE DISCUSSION IS HERE. <------- \\\ If you accidently popped in, then hit the Back Button NOW!! FTR, the "Unaired USA" red tag basically means that not all TV markets have had the episodes broadcast at the same date/time for them all to watch. Since we don't know 100% if TNT will air the two episodes this Sunday or pospone until later, I will lock the other episode thread for now, and open it when it airs. Once that happens, the discussion posts here will be moved over there. Thank you. Link to comment
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