Courtesy of TNT
Warning: Spoiler Alert
Sean and Ned observe some Americans working outside of a large building. Declan does the math on 5% of the American population eager to join the cause. Ned fires back with this skepticism of the “chosen ones” act. Sean asserts that it isn’t an act. To which Ned rolls his eyes. There is a shift within the pairing. Ned wants to go after the Nathan James to ensure there is no outstanding cure. Sean believes it can wait while they tend to their sub. Ned wants to get the job done and enjoy the spoils back in England. He’s very much not a fan of our majestic country. Virus or no virus. Ned also dislikes Niels, but Sean sees him as the divine grim reaper. Used to bring out more immunes.
Dr. Scott as well as XO Slattery show some concerns with pursuing the Chosen sub. It’s a question of resources vs. the mission vs. getting these guys. In a matter of 4 seconds, Chandler goes from welcoming their council to almost angrily asking Dr. Scott what they should do instead. He begins rattling off labs that have been destroyed. He gets through about six before Dr. Scott fires back.
Dr. Scott: Captain, you don’t think I’m aware of this? I’ve spent the last twenty hours trying to figure out why this happened. How this could have happened? But we need to stay on course. Or millions more are going to die.
Chandler: That sub is the mission now. We’ll find the people who did this. And we’ll make them pay.
All over the ship, the crew is beginning to question why the change in priority. Not so much in their words but in their body language. Granderson has found a video message from her mentor (Dr. Hunter). He’s under attack mid message. He has put together a plan using a previous measles project to ‘help’ with the vaccine. The elder doctor is killed before the message concludes. His plan was to create a powdered delivery system for the cure. That could be essentially crop dusted over populated areas and the infected would simply breathe in the cure.
Leaving for the lab in Florida is not an idea Chandler is warming to. The medical part of this equation is not substantial enough for the risk that comes with it. Chandler then refers to the sub mission as “bigger fish to fry”. A comment Dr. Scott was not at all pleased to hear. Insinuating that taking out a sub with a few bad guys is more important than curing millions of infected people. Dr. Scott tries to reiterate the original mission, but even that seems to fall on deaf ears.
The sub’s crew is also exhibiting a little dissension among the ranks. However, their issue almost comes with the territory when a military vessel is crewed by people who are not all military.
Chandler, Wolf and the rest of the tact team (Dr. Scott included) venture inland. Inside Dr. Hunter’s lab, they find pretty much nothing but dead doctors. Dr. Hunter among them. Dr. Scott falls to her knees. “He was a giant”. She collects herself and moves to what they can use. CMC Jeter asks to speak freely. His request is granted and the rest of the team vacate quickly. Jeter also tries to appeal to Chandler about the larger mission at hand. Chandler’s almost reckless focus on the sub is not about the sub itself. Moreover, the extreme damage those men can cause. The belief is that they almost singlehandedly took out Europe. Chandler will not allow them to do the same the United States.
Chandler: We can’t keep looking over our shoulders for that sub. We take them out and Dr. Scott can finish her work. It’s all the same mission.
Jeter: Fair enough sir, but I can see it in your eyes sir. Your desire for vengeance. So I’m asking, as a man who is never more than 509 feet from his Captain, don’t let this sub become your white whale.
After their short conversation, Chandler divides the group. Two will escort Dr. Scott back to the Nathan James and the rest push forward tracking those who attacked this lab. Dr. Scott is taking pictures of what’s left of the lab when she can feel Chandler behind her. She asks only one thing pertaining to the ‘who did this’ portion of their visit. “When you find them…kill them”.
Chandler, Wolf, Tex, Green, Bevis and Burk roll up on another truck. The trial ends with two fan boats. Chandler calls in for a sweep of the area.
Niels returns to Sean and Ned inland almost jolly. He’s mingled with the locals and finds the ‘southern hospitality’ notion to be one founded in truth. This was not a spell of R and R, but part of the plan. Niels mingles with the locals and the locals gets sick. As they die, more immunes should present themselves. Out of the ashes and all. Ned snaps. He breaks his beer bottle against a house by a pier and fires into a rant about how Sean is afraid to lead. Comments that force Sean’s knife blade towards his brother’s face. Ned has a choice. Help without consequence or die. A Beyonce joke later, and it would seem all three are on the same page again.
The sweep finds only one heat signature. Not very large. A decent sized camp ground is the early assumption. The sun begins to set before they reach the target. The target appears to be a genuine pro-American safe zone. A flag waving, men tossing a baseball around, nothing that resembles anything like the men from the sub. Then Chandler hears chatter in a foreign language by men carrying military weaponry. He believes they are speaking to the sub.
Bacon drops in on Dr. Scott to offer her some food. Chicken and mushroom in a scratch rue. He mentions that he prepared it for the President, a nice feather for one’s cap. Then goes into greater detail on the nuance of a good rue. I’m not culinary expert, but I have definitely ruined quite a few rues in my day. As he describes the difference between a good one and a horrible one, the scientific analogy in Dr. Scott’s head gets her wheels turning. Once again it seems that Bacon might be saving their bacon. They need a food source to bind the medicine to.
Tex mingles with the camp. Every person he encountered are American, friendly, and show no signs of being hostiles. The group seems to be departing the area soon. In the hopes of not standing out, Chandler divides the team again. Green, Wolf, and Tex take to the truck while the rest plan to go radio silent in civilian clothes and ride among the campers. Slattery is very much against this plan but Chandler removes his coms before Slattery’s objection can be noted.
Chandler sits down on the bus next to a woman of comparable age. She starts talking about those she’s lost. Chandler, not shedding much of his ‘commander of men’ persona, engages in the conversation which quickly renders important intel about the leader of the chosen ones.
Meanwhile the Nathan James is zeroing in on the communication inland. Despite not knowing what is being said, the signal is strong enough. The bridge is able to create a vector and the accuracy needed for success in this area seems very solid. Upon further analysis, the contact is not a sub. Whatever it is, is on land. They don’t know what is being said, and it’s not the sub. The least Slattery can do is disable whatever it is. One shot (of whatever it was) and the radio communication is dead.
Inside what appears to be a hotel ballroom, Chandler and Burk meet at the coffee stand in the cafeteria. The leader of the what can only be described a cult of the religious variety sounds very familiar to Chandler. He is as certain as he needs to be that this is the voice from Dr. Hunter’s video message. These are the guys they’re looking for. Moments later, Chandler stands at the back of the room staring at Sean who speaks from the podium. Chandler and Burk share a look as Declan adds the tally of their numbers. North of seven thousand.
It’s not until Chandler spots Ned, that all the pieces seem to come together. The men in charge of the sub at the very least are in this room. Sean speaks to the crowd like a preacher. He rallies their response and eventually transitions into turning to a new leader. An American leader. The man in question just so happened to at one point, be the twelfth in the line of Presidential succession. Sean’s assertion is that this man, Jeffrey Mitchner, is in fact their President. Despite this claim, Jeffery Mitchner does not exactly seemed thrilled at the idea. Something is off. Chandler observes the crowd, blissful in their optimism and hope for this new American order, lead by non-Americans. The expression on his face reads only disgust.
