Violet recaps Season 1 Episode 4 of The Last Ship, titled We’ll Get There, where the ship has some mechanical issues, and the crew has to deal with not only saving Rachel’s work, but staying alive themselves. Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of The Last Ship, Season 1 Episode 4: We’ll Get There
The episode begins with a flashback to before the virus, back when Chandler is getting ready to ship out on this mission. He is at home saying his goodbyes to his wife and kids. Back to the present, Chandler is listening to distress calls over the radio. Slattery joins him in the comm room. Chandler had futilely hoped his wife was trying to reach him because it’s their anniversary. Slattery doubts his own wife would be looking for him.
The next goal is Costa Rica so that Dr. Scott can test the vaccine on some primates at a monkey reserve. Meanwhile, the ship is having some mechanical issues, and Danny and Kara don’t seem to be on speaking terms.
Rachel convinces Chandler to let Quincy back in the lab because she needs his help analyzing data. However, when Rachel goes talk to Quincy in his guarded quarters, they get into an argument, and she asks Chandler to talk to him.
However, just then, the main power goes out on the ship. Down in the engine room, a fire breaks out. Chandler concludes that the corals must have knocked off the filters. Only one of the generators survived. Chandler orders all power to be redirected to the lab. They ration the remaining water, though it’s 100 degrees.
Slattery goes down to talk to Quincy, and tries to intimidate him into going back into the lab. Quincy says that he wants sunlight and someone good to play chess with. Then he returns to the lab to help out.
Chung reports to Chandler that it’s going to take a week to fix the ship and to fix the filter to make fresh water. He and the other officers try to figure out somewhere near to dock and get fresh water. They set a course for an island, which will take about 6 days to get to.
The crew distills all liquid on board, including dumping all the beer to turn it into water. Chandler orders the engines to be shut down so they can cool off. Meanwhile, Rachel and Quincy are hard at work in the lab.
Rachel greets Chandler with some organic booze and tells him the good news: she has a vaccine prototype that she’s ready to test.
Unfortunately, the last breaker overheats, causing the last generator to go bust. That means the experimental vaccine and all of Rachel’s work are in jeopardy. Chung comes up with an idea: throw all the samples overboard into the water, where it should be cool enough at the bottom, though the surface is around 80 degrees. Meanwhile, Slattery reminds Chandler that the crew could start dying from lack of fresh water if they waste too much time here. Luckily, they are able to get the samples deep enough in the water to keep the samples cool enough.
The next day seems to be a windless day, and Chandler starts to despair. However, Jeter shares his personal story of having been responsible for a car accident that killed his wife and kid, and has had time to reflect that there must be a purpose that his own life was spared that day. He inspires Chandler to have faith, and that he is confident that their journey does not end here.
Jeter leads a prayer circle, and lo and behold, the wind starts picking up. They fire off parachutes to act as sails and get the ship moving. The turbines start moving and power is restored.
Two days pass without water, and the comm team continues to try to hail for help. Most of the crew is down from the lack of water. Everyone looks very weak. They all start to think they’re not going to make it. However, Alisha spots some seagulls with her binoculars, and then they spot the island that they were heading for.
The crew goes to the beach and has a party. Chandler brings down some food to Chung in the engine room. Chandler praises him for saving the virus vaccine, though Chung is ready for the Chief Engineer to be back on his feet.
On the beach, Danny sees Kara sitting alone, but then another crew member brings her a drink, so he decides to walk away, and she sees him do so. The crew builds a bonfire and Alisha sings while another crewmember accompanies her on guitar.
Quincy doesn’t get to go to the island, but he is sent someone to play chess with, though that guy isn’t very happy about it.
Slattery sits on deck, while Chandler sits in the comm room and listens to the radio. Rachel joins Chandler and thanks him for having faith in her. She points out that he could have docked in Norfolk and gone back to his family, but he just says “We’ll get there.”
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 4 of The Last Ship: We’ll Get There
Well, it was a nice change of scenery that we started the episode off in a nice green area of land in Chandler’s flashback with his family. Anytime we get off that ship is a good thing. I’m starting to get tired of it. So I’m also glad that the crew got to go onto the beach and have a bonfire.
All the crises that were going on aboard the ship, however, seemed so artificial. It was like, okay they already went to Gitmo, they already had a run in with the Russians, it’s unlikely that they’ll encounter anyone else for awhile, we have to give them some sort of other crisis that comes up. So they did. And there was a lot of technical jargon thrown around. I’m still not really sure what the exact problem was with the ship, because I kind of start to zone out when they start throwing around all this repair talk. Yeah, I don’t care about engineering, this stuff pretty much just goes over my head. Maybe people more technically inclined would have enjoyed it, but not me.
Tex is the only comic relief we have on this show. I’m glad they found him and brought him aboard.
Danny and Kara need to get over themselves and make up. I don’t really care for this avoiding each other brooding thing they both have going on.
The show seems to be suggesting that Rachel and Chandler might have some sort of romantic interest that’ll eventually come up. But at the same time, the show is also pushing Chandler’s dedication to his family and his wife. In that sense, it feels like the only way that Rachel and Chandler would get together is if Chandler’s wife dies. Would the show do that though? The show also seems to suggest that he will eventually get back to his family, especially considering Chandler’s comment which is also the title of this episode: “We’ll get there.” So, not sure what’s going on with those two.
I’m still not really into this show yet. I could stop watching it now and not really care. But for the sake of the site, I suppose I’ll keep watching it. There’s not much new TV on during the summer anyway.
Josh’s Thoughts: The Last Ship, Season 1 Episode 4: We’ll Get There
This was probably my least favorite episode of The Last Ship so far. Since there was no human nemesis really present in the episode, I felt it was hard to keep my interest. The nemesis this episode seemed to be mechanical failure. While I understand the devastating effects of the ship being dead in the water, and the importance of getting things up and running again for the survivability of the crew, I really had a hard time with the heroic sense the episode tried to give it. Whenever there was a hint of success, the music played such a uplifting song, but I just wasn’t really buying it.
It seems like Dr. Scott is making some pretty substantial progress towards a cure. I am curious to see how quickly the show decides to allow the cure to be made. Will the show turn into a rescue mission, curing various communities they are able to get to? This could be interesting, and allow for a lot more interaction with various groups of people. Firstly of course the cure has to be invented, and then methods to mass produce the cure have to be achieved. It is probably a long road before the cure is ready for mass production.
I am also curious to see when we will have our next Russian conflict. This time around, the Russian admiral is likely to not be as kind. I also wonder when we will start seeing families visited, since we know quite a few crew members have family on land. This will have to become a plot point eventually.
Scenes from The Last Ship, Season 1 Episode 5: El Toro
Here are scenes from next week’s The Last Ship episode titled El Toro:
Josh makes a good point the overwrought heroic sense in this episode, but I still think that Last Ship is good show–given what’s on TV right now.