Courtesy of TNT
Warning: Spoiler Alert
We begin tonight with Niels’ escorted onto the mysterious submarine. Dating back to the cold open of last week’s episode, the brothers in charge were really just the brothers that survived. This was the vessel that showed crew members dying off one by one. Except these two. The revelation being that it wasn’t due to luck, it was by design. They were chosen.
Slattery: Anything?
Chandler: Only one thing I hate more than seeing a submarine on sonar.
Slattery: What’s that?
Chandler: Not seeing one.
The brothers grill Niels about the ship (The Nathan James). They don’t seem to care much for the medical element of the ship, but instead, the military nature of the ship. Niels tries to articulate the type of man Chandler is. Even informs them that he defeated Ruscov, twice. Which this sub’s crew finds to be good news. Even suggesting that a destroyer such as the Nathan James is no match for a sub.
Slattery begins to interrogate their Spanish prisoner taken from the shootout on the Solace last week. The man is relatively forthcoming with what information he does have. There seems to be real fear and concern in his eyes. What happened on the Solace was not what this man signed up for. And joining the crew of the Nathan James would definitely be preferable to returning or dying.
Understaffed and using what Chandler refers to as the ‘second string’ manning sonar, they are less than optimistic of finding this sub. Just then one of the crew hears something. Its vague and far out there, but consistent. If it’s a sub, its small and prepared to not be detected. Around the same time as the Nathan James detects the sub, the sub detects the Nathan James. They’ve armed their torpedoes.
Chandler orders the bridge to make a slight course correction just to see if the sub is paying attention. Moments later, sonar picks up a similar course correction from the sub. They are most certainly paying attention. Foster’s primary concern is that based on what they think they know, the sub is already within torpedo range. The sub, having nothing of value to the Nathan James, opens up the strategic opportunity to strike first. First strike would reveal specific location though.
Ned and Declan argue over why pursue so cautiously. Ned believes Juan Carlos (the Spaniard) has not proven his loyalty. Older brother Declan believes it’s not a question of loyalty. The important detail is that Juan Carlos is a believer. The real question is, which version is the real Juan Carlos. Loyal believer or a good man put into a tough situation spilling whatever intel he has to Slattery. Or is he playing one side or both. Juan Carlos has made an official request. As a sailor he would prefer to not be handcuffed to a bunk below when whatever this is starts happening.
Slattery believes the sub’s motivation is to sink the Nathan James. Chandler describes a tactical scenario that would provide a few moments to navigate the Nathan James out of harm’s way. It’s a nice idea, but Slattery is in Foster’s camp of logic on this one. Bet on the Commander and fire first. Take their changes in a dog fight.
Chandler: Alert all hands. We’re going quiet too.
Jeter gets on the radio to relay the message to the crew. Going quiet. Not kill the engines and hope for the best quiet. But nothing moves, no sound kind of quiet. The maneuver works, the radar loses the Nathan James completely. Predictably Ned loses it in response to a missed opportunity to seek revenge for their fallen men. The sub changes its course to intercept the Nathan James around the far side of an island they aren’t headed for. Declan explains to Niels their plan to sink the Nathan James. With his man on-board, sinking the ship is the best decision. Their man will survive such an attack. Which is the goal. Securing Juan Carlos.
Slattery and Burk have escorted Juan Carlos on deck. He is still restrained and still compliant. Or so we think. They continue to play this game of ‘answers for water’. Eventually, he begins to violently throw up blood. Here comes the elephant in the room regarding being on deck. He has been holding his chest, throwing up blood and requested the deck because he carries with him a homing device of some sort. Going quiet means nothing if Juan Carlos is transmitting.
Inside the loading deck, Dr. Scott meets Slattery, Burk, our dying friend and a few of the medical staff. Slattery tells Dr. Scott they need her to open this man up. She is the only one resistant to the idea. Burk even suggests that if the man is not long for this earth, just tossing him overboard might be the easiest thing to do. Dr. Scott agrees to do the deed.
As the sub gets closer-maybe within 40 miles, the concern is that the beacon could have a range within 30 miles. Chandler orders the helo to get airborne. Chandler also orders the Nathan James to increase speed in almost random increments as they head north into open water.
The sub meanwhile, is experiencing a total breakdown in discipline until Declan yells out. They toss around options. At the risk of being detected, Declan decides to go with active sonar.
Instantly, Chandler jumps into action. Directing the crew for evasive maneuvers. Two fish in the water, now. Now we are engaged in an all out strategic fire fight. Multiple torpedoes from both vessels. The Nathan James is able to position itself to avoid the first three fish, but not by much.
The sub dives to avoid getting hit, but the Nathan James has heard nothing to indicate that it was hit or where it’s headed. They are so low that the sub is actually scraping the ocean floor, quite possibly doing significant damage. Meanwhile, Dr. Scott found the culprit of Juan Carlos’ bleeding. It was not a beacon or tracking device of any kind. It was a flash drive. I assume, the chaos from the assumption of a beacon might buy them time or force a mistake. Nonetheless, Granderson will try to retrieve the data.
While both vessels are safe for the moment, Niels does find something of some significant importance. The location of Dr. Hunter, Dr. Scott’s mentor. Find Dr. Hunter, find the locations of the labs and eventually find the Nathan James.
Granderson was able to decrypt the data on the flash drive. They are coordinates of all of the secure labs. Just as the crew is discovering the locations and deducing that Juan Carlos wanted to be on the deck to deliver the flash drive when the ship when down, is the same time radar identifies almost 20 missiles headed in a number of different directions. They’re firing on the labs. All of the labs.
With few options, Chandler decides to fire intercepts in the hopes of saving as many as possible. They were able to intercept 2. 2 of the 26 missiles fired from the Nathan James hit their desire target. Meaning 24 were wasted, fired when the target was already out of range.
Juan Carlos didn’t make it through post op, which raises more questions. Dr. Scott and XO Slattery are under the impression that perhaps the sub and its men already had the cure. Or at least the primordial strain, which wouldn’t make any sense. Dr. Scott figured it out quite quickly. There are more like Bertrice. Maybe as many as 1-5% of the world’s population could potentially be naturally immune. That’s how they took Europe. That’s why they don’t want anyone else to get the cure. They plan to cleanse the earth with the virus and stand behind the notion that they are the selected. The Chosen Ones.
