THE LAST SHIP Serves Up An Action-Packed Season Opener

[photos courtesy TNT]

 

 

Episode 401:“In Medias Res”
Written by Steven Kane
Directed by Paul Holahan

Well, The Last Ship is back and right back to the action!

The episode opens with a farmer in Nebraska discovering his entire crop of corn is covered with a red rust. It quickly cuts to Morocco where a man named Mahmound (Frauk Amireh) has one seed, and knows where to get more. Sasha (Bridget Regan) and newcomer Fletcher (Jonathan Howard) are meeting with him, with Vulture team lurking about. The action breaks out when the Mahmoud is shot in the neck by…the bad guys? Who knows at the this point. Now, there is a beautiful woman (Jodie Turner-Smith) lurking about just watching the action. Just when Wolf Taylor (Bren Foster) is about to finish the last guy off, she does it for him and she’s now on Vulture team. It’s that easy? Who is this chick? Okay, I guess we’ll see.

Now, we are in Greece, beautiful Greece. Our hero Chandler (Eric Dane) is fishing. He makes a hell of a catch only to have it be taken away from some guy who proclaims he owns the ocean. Um, yeah, okay, whatever, does he know who Tom Chandler is? Once Chandler is hanging out with Alex (Anthony Skordi) contemplating life, he gets a visit from the strange man who told his catch of the day. Turns out he takes from everyone. It’s a tax they pay. So, he’s a thug. He’s Giorgio (Jackson Rathbone) and he seems to recognize Chandler, but Chandler simply introduces himself as “Nobody” and that’s what Giorgio calls him.

The team, with Captain Slattery (Adam Baldwin) at the helm, dock in Spain to restock. They are met by Kara (Marissa Neitling) and the baby! Sasha is busy being Sasha. She is getting as much intel as she needs and it’s always fun to watch her gather data. In the meantime, Mahmound, our man with the seeds, has just woken up from his coma (oh yeah, he didn’t die from the shot to the neck). Sasha manages to get the name “Omar” from him, but he seems scared to give up any information. Cameron Burk (LaMonica Garrett) and Calton Burk (Jocko Sims) give out food and water and it because obvious that the food is not going to last forever.

Back on Greece, Chandler and Alex watch some organized street fighting. They decide since everyone is so preoccupied this is a good time to steal their fish back and they do. Something tells me they just rocked the boat a bit.

A small boy approaches the base; it seems innocent enough. He’s going to retrieve a soccer ball which Cameron Burk has ready to hand him. It looks weird, it sounds weird, as a matter a fact, I think the sound was just cut or lowered which made it ever so awful when the boy blew up and it was back to full sound. It’s a full fledged attack on the base. Burk is badly injured from the explosion.

It seems like a Spanish soldier is helping Omar (Anthony Azizi) get to Mahmoud, who has revived from his coma but still bed ridden. Omar leaves Mahmoud dead in a gruesome scene and our team is left with no witness to where the seeds are. Luckily, Mahmoud had a tattoo that gave them a clue that the seeds might be in Algeria. This was a little too convenient for me. Didn’t they see this when he was bedridden? They gave the explanation that the IV was in the way, but still.

It was a bad idea to steal the boat. Chandler discovers the boat was set on fire and Alex is dead. I was really sad to see Alex go so quickly. He seemed to be a good voice of reason. Chandler decides to leave Greece, but not before he gets in on the street fighting.

The USS Nathan James sets sail for Algeria with Kara rejoining the crew, and this concludes our first episode and with no pause or TNT fanfare, it moves on to episode two and so will I.

Episode 402:“The Pillars of Hercules”
Written by Onalee Hunter
Directed by Reza Tabrizi

Chandler and Giorgio have a very interesting exchange on the beach of Greece. The thug could have killed Chandler, but didn’t. Giorgio wants Chandler to work for him and Chandler seems interested in the deal, but I know that he can’t be. The exchange is interesting enough that I want Chandler to go along just to see what’s going to happen.

I might regret wanting this. Chandler goes along and Greece is still beautiful by the way.

Oh, I forgot to mention, there’s this tea everyone is drinking in Greece. The people are addicted to it. I don’t know what this has to do with anything, but I’m sure it’s going to come into play later.

The USS Nathan James is making its way through the Mediterranean Sea. During this time, we find out Sasha and Fletcher are romantically involved. It’s weird. It’s awkward. I didn’t sense the romance and Sasha didn’t seem too interested. I’m still holding out for a Chandler and Sasha hook up.

The Nathan James runs into a net and they lose all power. They are basically sitting ducks. They try to get the ship’s power back on and they are drifting toward the island that has now fired on them but missed. Captain Slattery sends Vulture team to investigate the island and it’s strange that they haven’t fired again.

Okay, what’s with all the beards, Vulture team? Let’s get these guys some razors. Sorry, back to the action.

Vulture team get into the tunnels of the island to see where the weapon is that fired on them. The one weapon is gone.They find tracks and realize the weapon is mobile, they just missed it. It’s on the move and Vulture team needs to find it before it fires at the defenseless Nathan James again.

Giorgio has taken Chandler to the mansion of Stavros (Christos Vasilopoulos) where more fighting takes place and Chandler takes interest in the Giorgio’s beautiful sister Lucia (Sibylla Deen). Beware of beautiful women with a jerk for a brother, I say. Just when I think that, Lucia gives Chandler a warning. Basically nice guys finish last in this world, or more like dead. Giorgio or Stavros, I couldn’t really tell, decides Chandler should fight his best fighter and I’m back to my original thought, he shouldn’t have come with the thug.

Now, with the Nathan James trying desperately to regain power, the Vulture team intercepts Omar’s guys and they’re under attack in the tunnels, and finally Chandler is fighting the thug’s best fighter.This is absolutely the best! It repeatedly cuts to all three action scenes! It’s basically non-stop action until the ship regains power and fires at the weapon in the tunnel just as the Vulture team makes their escape into the water. It did not disappoint. Chandler beats the guy to a bloody pulp as Giorgio gives him the thumbs up to do so. It cuts away, so I assume that Chandler finishes the guy off.

The episode ends with the Nathan James heading toward Iran. Their current intel leads them to think Omar and the seeds are there. Chandler makes his way into Lucia’s bedroom…uh huh.

Yup, the band’s back together! What a great return! Two action packed episodes that did not disappoint.

The Last Ship airs Sunday nights at 9/8c on TNT.