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Recap
Kendal runs into the village, firing his handgun into the air, to break up a scuffle between some sailors and the local townfolk. One of the sailors took a banana from one of the market stands without paying for it, assuming that he has every right to anything he wants. As Kendal asserts his authority, the sailors push back and one is taken to the brig.
At the NATO station, Chaplin fields a call from a Miranda Straw, a White House negotiator who tells him he must surrender the Colorado and her crew in a timely fashion or they will be disowned and cut from the U.S. Kendal meets Chaplin and mentions the fight in town and the decline in discipline. They also discuss three sailors who are supposed A.W.O.L. (absent without leave) and Chaplin makes a decision.
At the brig, Chaplin makes a deal with C.O.B. Prosser to go free and resume his duties if he’ll help get the enlisted men back in line. Prosser offers that the A.W.O.L. sailors likely didn’t leave on their own, with which Chaplin agrees. In town, King is given a watch from one of the missing sailors, Cortez, strengthening the belief that they have been taken.
Kendal speaks with Sophie about going with Chaplin to talk to Julian, the criminal trafficker who has appointed himself head of the island. Sophie is with a man who wants her to leave the island with him, but Kendal convinces her to help the captive sailors.
In Washington, while Secretary Curry pleads the government’s case on TV for firing nuclear missiles on Pakistan, Kylie gets a call from Admiral Shepard to meet with some information. She mentions to her boyfriend Robert that all her information on the Perseus device and the government is on a hard drive she locks up in a house safe rather than in a bank. Talking with Shepard in a parking garage, Kylie gets a file on the orders sent to the Colorado to fire her nuke.
On the island, Cortez sleeps with Julian in order to protect herself and the other two sailors from his bloodlust. After, Chaplin and Sophie arrive to speak to Julian about the missing crew. Without admitting to holding them, Julian agrees to provide their whereabouts in exchange for getting cargo from a ship outside of the blockaded border of the island. Chaplin agrees.
As Kylie speaks to Robert, who is a Senator’s aide, about using the Senator’s connections to get information on why the Antarctic network was used to send Colorado her orders, the Perseus device momentarily goes down on Colorado as she makes her way toward the blockade. With the device back on-line, the sub skirts underneath the ships undetected and rendezvouses with the trade ship. On the way back, though, the Perseus fails and begins draining the battery and harming ship systems. Chaplin orders it shut down and they go back to traditional silent running.
King, meanwhile, meets bartender Tani’s family out in the brush. She gets into a argument and takes off. He finds her a bit later and they talk about her family coming to the island from Australia. Her mother got sick and instead of going back to Australia to treat her, her father made the choice to use native medicine of the island. The family decided to stay. Tani takes them to a waterfall that is a right of passage for boys on the island and the two go for a swim.
At the beach, Sophie decides she’d rather help the crew rather than leave with her man. The crew needs her help as destroyers in the blockade seem to detect the sub and begin standard depth charge runs. After seeming to avoid detection again, a noise in the sub causes the Colorado to be picked up by sonar. To avoid more depth charges, Chaplin directs the sub on a course that takes them into an underwater ravine.
Robert is visited by a strange man in D.C. asking about Kylie’s information. At home, Kylie steps out of the shower and hears some noise. Investigating, she finds that the hard drive has been stolen out of her safe.
On the boat, Kendal calls Grace at the NATO station for some help in navigating the ravine. Sophie arrives and begins coaching them through. She asks for a ping of active sonar to determine the depth and location, knowing it could reveal them to the surface ships. She guides them through the ravine and to safety, engaging with Kendal in a pretty charged exchange. They are too late, though, missing a deadline set by Julian to have his cargo back by dawn.
At Julian’s compound, they threaten to shoot one of the sailors. When they settle on Cortez, one of the others blurts out to take the third, a sailor named Retman. He’s taken out back and shot. Chaplin arrives with the contraband cargo. Only two of the sailors are released to him and Chaplin recognizes that the other has been killed. Chaplin and Julian stand off against each other, knowing that they will come to an impasse at some point.
At the NATO station, Kendal talks with Sophie to thank her for helping them. While guiding the sub, Sophie saw that her man’s ship left the island. She and Kendal talk about her bad choice in men and how she knew she needed to stay this time. They are interrupted by Prosser, who tosses Kendal a gun.
In the town, the crew assembles and Kendal learns that Retman has been killed. Angry, he prepares to confront Julian. Chaplin stops him and convinces him that they will get retribution on Chaplin’s terms and timescale.
At Kylie’s, the strange man who visited Robert arrives — and is her father. Meanwhile, Chaplin shares a drink with Cortez and talks about what happened. A commotion starts outside and they come out to find a funeral procession for one of the island boys. Part of the procession, Julian locks eyes with Chaplin as they walk the street.
Review
Buzz about the two episodes of Last Resort following the series premiere was that they would be a bit over-the-top and less engaging as a result. Nothing could be further from the truth as both episodes have solidified the show into a taut thriller with multiple fronts.
Silently commanding presence aside, up to now, Andre Braugher’s Captain Chaplin has felt in charge but more a man of the people than a staunch military executive. This episode adeptly tilts the needle back in the direction of career officer with combat experience, none more compelling them when he takes firm reins of the sub while it attempts to slip detection. Braugher’s conviction with the character and skill as an actor continues to develop Chaplin as a complex man in very short strokes. To see him glowering at Sahr Ngaujah’s Julian after finding out about his crewman’s death was something to behold.
With Julian, the pilot seemed to give us a rather tepid character with a Napolean complex that was more or less swept to the side when the sailors commandeered the island. He seemed to be more of a buffoonish presence that thought more of himself and would occasionally pester life in this new home. It’s a wise move to re-position him as one of Chaplin’s greatest threats so quickly. The close proximity offers ground level, everyday dangers and challenges that the distance of the shadow puppeteers in Washington simply can’t and the scale of tactical war overwhelms. Braugher and Ngaujah effectively sell the animosity and distrust between the two and build one of the more fascinating relationships seen yet on the series.
On relationships, one has to watch through the splits of their fingers with their hand to their eyes as the show tries awkwardly to involve Kendal (Scott Speedman) and Sophie (Camille De Pazzis) in some type of romantic tension. On the one hand, De Pazzis is quite charming and her French researcher is a welcome presence amongst all the intrigue and chest-pounding. On the other hand, setting up Kendal’s marriage with the young, sweet-as-pie Christine (Jessy Schram) — especially as both have communicated with one another during this ordeal — lends the attempt a distinctly unattractive quality. Humans have foibles, particularly in high stress situations, but you don’t want to sacrifice one of your “white hats” so early. Not when you haven’t really built up enough likability amongst the ensemble to weather such a thing.
This week, we at least get to put a face to the disembodied voice of Secretary Curry, but it’s a bit surprising how slow and piecemeal they are delving into the conspiracy swarming through Washington. Granted, it’s only the third episode, but we’ve yet to really be introduced to any of the major players involved, making it a bit hard for the audience to glom onto the conspiracy whole-heartedly. Curry would seem to be involved but as the show has spent little time with him, we’ve still yet to see a face we can identify and rally against.
That said, the focus on Kylie (Autumn Reeser) trying to get to the bottom of the use of the Antarctic network and the introduction of her father as a hidden roadblock filled the intrigue gap nicely. Also nice was seeing a few slower gears of Kylie, making her a bit softer and more human than what we’ve seen previously.
Overall, the mix of Kylie’s efforts with the sub mission and the race against Julian’s clock to free the captive sailors made for a taut episode that’s solidifying Last Resort into a primetime keeper. Let us into the conspiracy without giving away the farm and this could be appointment television.
