Recap: THE LAST SHIP -Season 4 Finale

[photos courtesy TNT]

 

 

Episode 409: “Detect, Deceive, Destroy”
Written by Jill Blankenship and Onalee Hunter Hughes
Directed by Lukas Ettlin

The plants have grown and Vellek (Peter Weller) is packing them away in crates with a jar of bugs in each crate. As he does this, he’s proudly talking to his son Kristos (Drew Roy), who we know is not in the room. He’s long dead, years we learn. This begins the two hour season finale of The Last Ship.

Okay, so I laughed out loud when I noticed that the senior officers of the Nathan James were using game pieces from Battleship to plan an attack on the Greek warships. As the Nathan James decides what they’re going to do to get to Malta, Lucia (Sibylla Deen) is on the Greek warship trying to convince Stavos (Christos Vasilopoulos) to head straight to Malta to deliver the crates.There are three Greek ships and the Nathan James believes that they should fight them at sea in open-water.That ends up being the plan. Lucia decides they should just continue to Malta, but Stavos knows they will need to fight first.

At sea, the Nathan James finds the three ships, but they realize that there must be a fourth ship. Stavos’ plan has failed, the Nathan James found them and the Lucia is angry because she wanted to go directly to Malta. Giorgio (Jackson Rathbone) and Lucia have a sister brother moment and you once again see Giorgio’s struggle to do the right thing, especially since Lucia immediately wants to take nostos, to dull her pain.

Now we have arrived to the point of the episode that is one of the best things I love about this show. The Nathan James begins its cat and mouse maneuvers to avoid the Greek warship and the ship tries to find them to destroy them. They have a plan. Azima (Jodie Turner-Smith), Wolf (Bren Foster), and Green (Travis Van Winkle) set out on a small vessel to target the fourth ship and make them believe that they are the Nathan James.They hide behind a commercial ship to give Lucia and Stavos the illusion of size. Lucia set out to find the small vessel believing it is the Nathan James meanwhile leaving her father’s ship unprotected.

Azima, Wolf, and Green realize there is only one ship coming for them, not the three they were hoping for. They make the decision to take on the ship themselves, since the Nathan James still has to deal with the other two ships. Oh my gosh, these guys are the best! So, on a small navy speed boat, they head straight to the Greek warship towing explosives…then BOOM! One Greek ship down, three more to go. Oh no, Wolf is hurt! He wakes up, it’s all good. Azima looked very happy he wasn’t seriously hurt and Wolf was happy she cared so much. Yes, this could happen, I like that union.

Lucia threatens Chandler (Eric Dane). She’ll start killing innocent people (commercial fishermen) if they don’t surrender to her.The Nathan James manages to take out another ship but Vellek’s ship takes out the Nathan James’ helicopter with Kathleen (Jade Chynoweth) on board. She manages to jump out before the crash. The Nathan James is still not done. It finds Lucia’s ship and opens fire. Giorgio is killed and Lucia abandons ship. It was a gut wrenching goodbye and now you know Lucia is REALLY mad.

The Nathan James finds Kathleen in the water and Kathleen tells them that the rest of the helicopter crew were killed in action. Now, the crew of the Nathan James is REALLY mad too.

With three Greek ship sunk, Vellek’s ship is still out there. Chandler is unaware that Lucia escaped and made it back to her father’s ship. Vellek seems unphased by the death of Giorgio. Lucia is pretty much fed up with her dad. She gives him all the nostos and leaves him to it…

Episode 410:“Endgame”
Written by Hiram Martinez
Directed by Peter Weller

Vellek is doped up on the nostos tea. Lucia tells her dad they must change their course. They can’t go to Malta. Vellek decides to continue on course to Malta. This infuriates Lucia. That’s where the Nathan James plans to intercept Vellek’s crates. She knows this, but she can’t convince her father to change his mind. I have trouble accepting this because on the bridge of the ship, Lucia calls all the shots. Her father is basically a druggie, why is she still following his orders? This family is tight.

Vulture Team plans to intercept the crates at the airfield before it’s distributed and loaded on to planes. They do and they take on fire. Miller (Kevin Michael Martin) is shot, then Green is shot saving him! Ugh, none of these guys listen to orders! They think they are invincible! Burk (Jocko Sims) is left to take care of them and finish the mission.

Sasha (Bridget Regan) and Slattery (Adam Baldwin) figure out that the leaf eating bugs are what is carrying the nostos and contaminating the new crops. They order Vulture Team to destroy the bug infested crops in the crates, but one plane manages to take off. The Nathan James fires on the plane and it explodes, but firing on the plane also gave away their position. Lucia’s ship then fires on the Nathan James. No major damage done, but the Nathan James can’t return fire because Lucia still have the good seeds.

Lucia throws out all of Vellek’s tea. He’s definitely going through withdrawals. He’s basically useless, but has enough energy to slap Lucia when she tells him so. Ugh, family drama is the worst.

It’s chicken fight time! Lucia and the Nathan James decide to go head-to-head! Chandler makes the decision to sneak on Vellek’s ship. Sasha goes with Chandler. Once on Vellek’s ship they begin to sabotage engines, communications, and weapons. Vellek’s ship is just a sitting duck in the water.

Lucia figures out that Chandler must be there already because there’s no way everything can break all at once. Chandler sets out to find Vellek’s lab. Vellek is losing his freaking mind. He douses everything with fuel and he lights a match. This is when Chandler finds him in the lab. Chandler tries to convince him to create the cure without the nostos, but he won’t have it. He throws the match and runs. Sasha remains in the lab trying to get the seeds before they are destroyed in the fire and Chandler chases Vellek.

Half of Vulture Team is hurt and the rest are bringing back the injured. The Nathan James plans to go alongside the Greek ship and board the ship with a team to get Sasha and Chandler back safely. Jeter does an all call and asks for volunteers. The team consist of Slattery,  Meylan (Emerson Brooks), Alisha (Christina Elmore), Carl (Ben Cho), and…..Gator (Michael Curran-Dorsano)? Yes, the ship’s navigator goes…yeah, ok. Turns out, Gator can shoot! Go Gator!

Sasha can NOT find the damn seeds, Ugh! Chandler is running around looking for Lucia who shoots Sasha!! But does Sasha stop looking? Nope! She finds them. Lucia thought she killed Sasha so she was already long gone. Chandler finds Vellek on the ship’s deck of all places and the big showdown is over fast. Lucia shoots Chandler and Sasha shoots Lucia dead. Chandler tries to convince Vellek to come work on the cure, a real cure, without the nostos. Nope, with all three of his children dead, he is convinced that his peace and ‘light’ is in death. He doesn’t want to fight anymore. Chandler says the best line, “You fight everyday, so that you can see the light.” Vellek doesn’t agree and jumps off the ship.

Once again, Chandler has saved the world. Well, it was more a collaborative effort. So, I’ll say the Nathan James has saved the world.This cast has been together four years and it shows. Their banter and chemistry on screen is that of a real team. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for next season…

Oh and what’s this? An exclusive sneak peek of season five? Bring it on! It looks like a cyber virus is next on the list to attack the world and some Latin American country is the new enemy. Hm, it’s been done, but maybe The Last Ship will do it with some new flair. We’ll see…

The Last Ship returns in summer 2018!