The Last Ship
Resistance
Original Air Date: Sep 4, 2016
Vincent Chia – Staff Writer
vincent@thetwocentscorp.com
Last week, we saw the regional leaders take power of their respective territories. High on their priorities list was to capture (or realistically, kill) Captain Chandler. We saw in the preview that the Nathan James would explode as it approached San Diego. Does it manage to simply be crippled but not destroyed?
The Nathan James gets a message from San Diego Naval Base, which is now commanded by a general of the California United Forces. The message also asks the ship to be prepared to turn over prisoner Tom Chandler. Meylan thinks the odds are against them with an entire country against one ship. As usual, Chandler is much more confident.
Back in St. Louis, the regional leaders are quarreling over who gets to take over Senator Beatty’s Pacific Northwest territory. Allison Shaw settles the dispute and says Manuel Castillo, currently ruling over the California/West territory, can expand into the Pacific Northwest, with the caveat that the spoils will be shared. Shaw also orders Colonel Witt to destroy the Nathan James.
Kara, Tex, Oliver, and Tex’s daughter have driven to Vegas. They find the city almost completely empty. When military forces took all the food, the 30,000 residents abandoned the city. Kara and her group continue driving to San Diego. In the dark of night, they watch as the Nathan James approaches the harbor. However, two missiles strike the ship and it seemingly goes up in flames. Kara runs into the ocean sobbing. Tex holds her back and they both promise to avenge their former shipmates.
On the Nathan James, Chandler’s officers confirm that the Henan was struck. The Henan appears to have been remotely operated and used as a decoy. I guess that was a decent use of the Chinese warship, but it kind of feels like a waste. I also wonder how realistic it was to either remotely operate the Chinese warship or set it on cruise control. Though, I’m glad it worked out and glad that Meylan or any other officer wasn’t sacrificed.
Chandler orders the James to stay at least 40 miles offshore. Meanwhile, he will take a land team to infiltrate the enemy.
Kara and her group follow a military lookout to a warehouse where the regional government appears to be hoarding food so that they can force the citizens to work 16 hour shifts in factories.
Someone sneaks behind Kara and covers her mouth so she can’t scream. It turns out to be her husband Danny Green and they have an emotional reunion. Tex also rounds a corner and runs into Chandler and his team. Tex is glad to see his “commodore” for the first time in a long while. Chandler then splits his people into multiple teams to scout the facility and devise an attack plan.
As the sun rises, Sasha reports back that the food isn’t being hoarded, it is being shipped somewhere. Chandler wants to intercept the rail shipment and steal the food, and with it, the loyalty of the army.
General Bradley gets on a satellite phone to report to Governor Castillo. The James intercepts the transmission and records it. As they clean up the transmission, they determine that Bradley isn’t transporting food on the train, but people. Lieutenant Granderson has the James break radio silence to warn Chandler that they train they are planning to attack is carrying civilians. Weirdly, it seemed a little bit like a “force” that they were moving civilians in cargo railcars instead of passenger railcars, in which Chandler would clearly be able to see that it was people being transported.
Slattery speeds off in an SUV and delivers Chandler, Tex, Green, and Wolf to hop onto the train. A firefight ensues has Chandler tries to take over the train. Chandler gets into a fistfight with General Bradley and eventually wins. Chandler also manages to pull the train’s brake and stops the train within about a foot of hitting the explosive charge that Chandler’s team had set on the railroad tracks to derail the train.
Chandler opens the sliding door to the railcar and finds dozens of civilians inside. Chandler tells them that they are now free, but the civilians appear confused and ask to continue on their journey. Although the civilians will be used as slave labor, they need food and want to be on the train. Bradley tells Chandler that this is the new world. Chandler is disgusted and chews Bradley out since Bradley had sworn an oath to protect the country. Bradley defiantly says that the country doesn’t exist anymore, he may as well have sworn an oath to the tooth fairy. Chandler says Bradley could have resisted, but Bradley says his former commanding officer did that and he was assassinated for it. Bradley is simply trying to stay alive and also keep his family alive.
Soon, Bradley decides to cooperate with Chandler and helps draw out Castillo. Bradley insists that Chandler must kill Castillo, or else Castillo will kill every one of the resistance officers.
Castillo arrives to meet Bradley, but is immediately arrested by Chandler’s men.
Bradley angrily asks where he now answers to the CNO. Chandler says no, they all answer to President Oliver, who shows his presence. All the military personnel salute Oliver and he tells Bradley that he needs to re-administer the oath of service to the troops so they are loyal to the United States government.
Allison Shaw receives photos from divers in San Diego that show it was not the Nathan James that was sunk. She prepares for a confrontation with Chandler.
So now, Oliver’s central government has been re-established and controls the Western parts of the country. I still wonder whether there is any issue with food shortages. And if the food shortages are real, will the masses turn on Chandler/Oliver as Castillo predicted?
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