Warning: Spoiler Alert
We begin with a flashback, five months previous. A crewman on a different military ship succumbs to the virus. There appears to only be two healthy men left aboard. One of them is confident they’ll get home. The other healthy man is skeptical.
The crew of the Nathan James are back tending to their respective tasks. Dr. Scott records a video log, with added optimism. The next stops include Savannah and then onto Florida with a number of labs already set up around the world.
The “Solace” (namesake for the episode, I assume referenced in the cold open) is discovered to have left two weeks earlier set up as a mobile lab with only a skeleton crew including a mere 15 doctors. Chandler decides to reach out. This appears to be good news. Dr. Scott explains that a ship of this size with that level of equipment could manufacture tens of thousands of doses a day.
Lt. Green escorts a couple new faces. Introducing “Wolf” and “Ravit”. Burk and Tex speak up and are met with relatively cold responses. Down in hangar 2 a number of the crew work out. Burk can’t seem to keep his focus as it’s primarily on Ravit. Tex informs him that Wolf and Ravit are just friends. More like a brother/sister relationship. Plus the added advice that you never want to mess with the big brother.
The crew has a hard time getting any communication out to the Solace. Chandler quickly decides its in their best interest to go and find the Solace. In the meantime, Jeter hears their beacon as per regulations. The Solace is transmitting, but not moving. The concern is that the crew is already dead. Salvaging the lab becomes the new mission.
Jeter hails the hospital ship as the Nathan James approaches with no response. Chandler’s team boards the Solace. The labs appear to be in pristine condition. During a radio check after 5 minutes, all is well, but the communication is jumbled. Chandler and Green find a laptop streaming a video and a coffee mug that appears to still be warm. Tex finds a body that doesn’t appear to have met its end care of the virus. They find blood tracks leading away from the body. Following further pursuit, Tex’s team finds the bodies they were expecting to find. None of which appear to be infected. Just dead and bloody. As if executed. Chandler’s team finds a few healthy medics attempting to work in the dark.
Gonzalez: They’re still on the ship.
Amidst the communications problems, Slattery is able to hear “hostiles on board” which is enough for him to make a course correction. Officer Gonzalez debriefs Chandler with what he knows. About a dozen hostiles boarded their ship shooting first, in search of the ship under the assumption the Solace had the cure. Chandler mentions that they were after the wrong ship. Gonzalez infers that the Nathan James does have the cure.
Gonzalez: We held out as long as we could. I am so sorry.
Chandler: No sir…I’m sorry.
Slattery moves the Nathan James into position and searches for any nearby ships. Officer Gonzalez who clearly appears to have previous combat experience and a strong familiarity of the ship gladly joins the effort to flush out these hostiles. Foster can’t find any evidence of a ship nearby, she then decides to check beneath. A 360 sonar check.
As Chandler’s team begins to comb the ship they spot a man crossing their view. Chandler forcefully demands he toss out his weapon. From around the corner, the end of a very large weapon can be seen. Then the front end hinges, and shoots around the corner. Think the pharmacy scene from Wanted.
Elsewhere on the ship, Wolf prevents Miller from walking into the line of fire. Then Wolf and Miller (mostly Wolf) take out more than five hostiles.
Cruz orders the medics to cut the lights and not open the door for anyone who isn’t Navy personnel. Tex’s team finds the lab. Tex and Burk get into position. Ravit is not visible. Until she appears in a white lab coat offering to show them the cure. Then she unceremoniously shows them each the end of her sidearm. Burk is very impressed.
The three remaining hostiles, who appear to be British, taught the respective teams from the Nathan James. Insinuating that they can fight better, and a fight is exactly what they promise. As they move, one of the three decides to question the plan. It seems the brother of the loud mouth is the one in charge. Loud mouth decides it’s the best interest of this unit to kill everyone else. Too bad he’s not aware of just how bad of an idea that is.
Wolf and Miller are engaged from behind. Both parties exchange fire which Slattery can see from the bridge. Queue the promo’d line, “get me closer, and find me something to shoot!” Just then, Miller gets down flat and takes out the hostile with a single shot to the head from some distance. Wolf turns around with a grin that says he’s mildly impressed.
Wolf: Nice shooting Mill.
Miller: Thanks Wolfman.
Wolf: Wolfman…? I like it.
Green leads the advance and pulls up short, close fist raised. Green tells Chandler they are in position for an ambush. To which Chandler replies, “they don’t ambush us, we ambush them.” Green agrees. Chandler radios to Slattery who is itching for a target to shoot at. Chandler gives him the relative location on the flight deck where the ambush is waiting. “Light em up”. Chandler and Green advance unloading on the group forcing them to retreat toward the flight deck the Nathan James is locked onto. As they enter the flight deck, Foster picks the first one off from the Nathan James. The other two pull back dropping a smoke bomb (cartridge). She’s lost the other two in the smoke.
Tex, Burk and Ravit pursue, but before they see him a hostile takes a shot at Ravit. Burk sees it before she does and lunges into the path of the bullet. The vest absorbed the shot. After Burk has a moment to dust himself off, Ravit sees a charge set to what I must assume is C4. They plan to blow up the ship. Burk won’t accept that and based on Ravit’s expression, she may have experience with charges like these.
They begin to load the doctors and crew onto tender ships on the starboard side. Dr. Scott is at least pleased with the idea of gaining more doctors. In addition to what won’t be the easiest evacuation, the Nathan James thinks they may have found a sub contact. The signal was brief but it was there. Meanwhile, Burk stands over Ravit while she attempts to diffuse the bomb. After cutting the red wire, she finds that the yellow wire travels all the way to an oxygen take almost the size of one of the tender ships.
Mid evac, there is gunfire from the hostiles from an elevated vantage point. Gonzalez and Wolf appear to be hit, but Chandler gets one of the shooters. Wolf appears to be fine, but Gonzalez his spewing blood from his neck. Despite the lead doctor’s best efforts, Gonzalez dies regrettably but quickly.
Just as all 18 are loaded onto a tender ship Lt. Green takes fire. He eventually gets one of them. While on the Nathan James, Slattery oversees the killing of another from the deck. Chandler pursues Loud Mouth on foot. Ravit urges Tex and Burk to leave. The switch needs to be metal on metal or the bomb with detonate. Tex pushes her out-of-the-way. He has an idea that involved a knife.
Chandler announces himself to Loud Mouth who stops and turns. With his finger pressed against the detonator, he boastfully banters back to Chandler as if he has the upper hand. At the same time, Tex runs towards the side of the ship with his knife blade pressed against the bomb. Just as Loud Mouth reaches his peak of arrogant body language, Tex throws the bomb overboard and it explodes about ten feet away from the edge of the ship.
Loud Mouth jumps overboard. Chandler attempts to shoot him but apparently misses. The man never surfaces. There absolutely was something beneath. Whether it was one very well hidden sub or potentially a number of two-man subs is still unknown.
Dr. Milowsky (they never decide to name new characters Smith or Williams-thank goodness for “Dr. Scott”) observes his crew receiving the vaccine and reflects on what has been lost. He asks what happens next. Chandler and Dr. Scott explain that they would be content allowing them to return to Norfolk with vaccines in hand. Milowsky respectfully requests to stay. He has a specific skill set that would be beneficial to mass producing the cure. Naturally, Captain and Doctor gladly welcome the assistance.
Burk attempts again to engage Ravit in small talk. It’s not exactly effective but it does generate a small response. She chuckles and says, “I like you guys, you’re crazy” and walks away.
The man who Green shot in the last gunfire exchange, was effectively capture and is clinging to life. Jeter explains what before he passed out, the man seemed to be mumbling something that sounded like Spanish. Yet, Loud Mouth is clearly British.
Chandler: An international band of thieves…
Niels, the leader of these “Chosen Ones”, and an associate drive a small boat out into the middle of the water in the middle of the night. There is someone who would like to meet Niels. Especially since it appears that Niels may have set them up. Walked them right into a conflict with a US Navy warship. Niels contends that the warship is where the cure is, not the hospital ship. They ask Niels to stop talking and save his ‘belly-achin’ for the boss.
It was a sub. Maybe not a massive nuclear sub, but a significant in size nonetheless sub that surfaces right before Niels’ very eyes.
