The Last Ship Season 3 (TNT) (1 Viewer)

[Doug Wallen]

Nice Civics lesson, Adam.

 

[NeilO]

So, no news on the suicide, but the president's former inner circle has grown smaller. Someone there must be working with Peng - getting information out.

Meanwhile, they finally discover the green mist and we know why the cure isn't working, but they don't have a way to counter the effects of the green mist yet. It seems all out war with Peng is coming soon.

I guess TNT is taking a break next Sunday for the Olympics?

Edit: Checked the schedule and it looks like they are repeating this week's episode next Sunday. Presumably they don't want to put up original programming against the Olympics.

 

[Doug Wallen]

Due to the closing of the ranks, it does seem like there might be a conspiracy or at the least, a mole. Wonder if the President was assainated???

 

[Dheiner]

I've assumed that blondie is a spy for someone since the first time I saw her. Don't ask me why, but, there it is.

 

[ChristopherG]

I've assumed that blondie is a spy for someone since the first time I saw her. Don't ask me why, but, there it is.

The show has been basically telegraphing that message every scene she is in.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Renewed for a fourth season, to air next summer

Regarding Sunday's episode.

The arrival of "President" Oliver reminded me of a speech Tony Kushner put into the mouth of America's 16th president in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln:

"I decided that the Constitution gives me war powers, but no one knows just exactly what those powers are. Some say they don't exist. I don't know. I decided I needed them to exist to uphold my oath to protect the Constitution, which I decided meant that I could take the rebel's slaves from them as property confiscated in war. That might recommend to suspicion that I agree with the rebs that their slaves are property in the first place. Of course I don't, never have, I'm glad to see any man free, and if calling a man property, or war contraband, does the trick... Why I caught at the opportunity. Now here's where it gets truly slippery. I use the law allowing for the seizure of property in a war knowing it applies only to the property of governments and citizens of belligerent nations. But the South ain't a nation, that's why I can't negotiate with'em. If in fact the Negroes are property according to law, have I the right to take the rebels' property from 'em, if I insist they're rebels only, and not citizens of a belligerent country? And slipperier still: I maintain it ain't our actual Southern states in rebellion but only the rebels living in those states, the laws of which states remain in force. The laws of which states remain in force. That means, that since it's states' laws that determine whether Negroes can be sold as slaves, as property - the Federal government doesn't have a say in that, least not yet then Negroes in those states are slaves, hence property, hence my war powers allow me to confiscate'em as such. So I confiscated 'em. But if I'm a respecter of states' laws, how then can I legally free'em with my Proclamation, as I done, unless I'm cancelling states' laws? I felt the war demanded it; my oath demanded it; I felt right with myself; and I hoped it was legal to do it, I'm hoping still."​

Under the U.S. system of government, you become president if you're elected to that office, or ascend to that office if you're the vice president and the president dies, resigns or is removed from office. Those are the only two options. You become vice president if you're elected on a ticket with the president (either through a majority of the electoral college or, failing that, by the U.S. Senate), or -- if a vacancy should arise -- you're nominated by the sitting president and confirmed by both house of Congress. Again, there are only two options. If both offices are vacant, Congress provides for who shall act as president.

Under that scheme, and under the terms Congress set out in 1947, Michener was empowered to act as president. He had the weight of history and the law underpinning his claim. He evidently chose to interpret that mandate to not just act as president, but actually assume the presidency. The text of the Constitution would argue against that interpretation, but this situation has never been tested. Much like John Tyler in 1841, his interpretation carried the day because no effective opposition stymied his interpretation.

Having been accepted as president rather than acting president, he apparently nominated Mr. Oliver, the mayor of St. Louis during the outbreak, as his vice president. To be confirmed, he should have received a majority vote in both houses of Congress. And to conduct business, a quorum must be present in each house. But in this case, most of Congress is dead. According to current practice, vacant seats don't count when calculating a quorum. Taken to the extreme conclusion, if 99 of the 100 seats in the U.S. Senate are vacant, the remaining surviving Senator qualifies as a quorum. Presumably one or more representatives also survived to establish a quorum in the House. This is all highly irregular, and would be subject to a legal challenge. But again, given the extreme circumstances, the theory carries the day because no one has put a stop to it.

The regional leaders have no constitutional basis for their power whatsoever. They filled a power vacuum and made their regions function. Michener accepted their authority as legitimate because, in the absence of functioning state governments, they were partners he could work with to implement his agenda and get America back on the road to recovery.

Now Michener is dead, of an apparent suicide. That leaves us with a potentially illegal vice president who has assumed the presidency, a chief of staff and foreign affairs adviser with equally dubious claims to their positions, and a half-dozen unelected leaders with no basis for their power except that nobody has stopped them.

When Kara opposed their agenda, they froze her out. But what's the basis for her authority? She is an American hero, part of the crew of the famed Nathan James that brought the cure to America. Across the country, families are safe because of what that ship did. If they make the American people choose between them and her, they might not like how they fare.

Even more so for Chandler. Second perhaps only to Dr. Scott, he's the face of the Cure. He's Washington, Grant and Eisenhower all rolled into one. President Oliver is the commander-in-chief because Chandler as the de facto head of the American military recognizes him as such. But if Oliver gives Chandler a command he cannot or will not obey, then Oliver ceases to be the commander-in-chief because nobody's listening to him. Likewise with the devolution of the National Guard into regional militias under the command of the regional leaders. If those militia members are forced to choose between listening to the regional leader or listening to Chandler, my guess is that they're going to side with the man who brought them the cure.

All of which is a long way of saying that the current government has gotten a long way through chutzpah and sheer force of will. But their authority is built on a house of cards, and they've neglected to pay sufficient attention to the other players around the table with better hands.

So, no news on the suicide, but the president's former inner circle has grown smaller. Someone there must be working with Peng - getting information out.

One thing that frustrated me with Sunday's episode is that Takehaya was able to get his hostage video stateside in flawless high definition. Given that he is now invested in the Nathan James's success, it seems like they would have asked him how he evaded the signal interference that is plaguing the American government. Perhaps he had the footage manually recorded onto physical media and manually delivered to the United States by boat or plane. But if so, they needed a line of dialog to explain why he can't solve their video problem.

Meanwhile, they finally discover the green mist and we know why the cure isn't working, but they don't have a way to counter the effects of the green mist yet. It seems all out war with Peng is coming soon.

I was really gratified that: a) we finally understand the stakes of the international conflict; b) the virus hasn't mutated, but the Chinese green mist can prevent the cure from working on people who haven't already been vaccinated; and c) people who've already been vaccinated aren't susceptible to the green mist. It means that all of the progress they've made so far isn't for nothing; the green mist is just an (admittedly massive) obstacle in the way of spreading the cure to the populations that it hasn't already reached. As a viewer, I really needed the progress of the first two seasons not to have been invalidated.

I guess TNT is taking a break next Sunday for the Olympics?

Edit: Checked the schedule and it looks like they are repeating this week's episode next Sunday. Presumably they don't want to put up original programming against the Olympics.

Given that USA Network is an NBC Universal channel, I figured they'd be broadcasting Olympics coverage. But their schedule shows a Law & Order: SVU marathon, so I'm guessing you're right.

Due to the closing of the ranks, it does seem like there might be a conspiracy or at the least, a mole. Wonder if the President was assainated???

I definitely think he was assassinated. The show making such a show of dredging up his past instability feels like a red herring to make the reveal shocking. Given the stakes, I just don't see him throwing in the towel like that. And given the regional leaders' increasing unhappiness with him, it sure seems like they used the vulnerability exposed by the revelation of his screw up in Florida to make their move.

The show has been basically telegraphing that message every scene she is in.

Absolutely. Either Elisabeth Rohm is a worse actress than I thought, or her character is supposed to ooze insincerity.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/com...-ship-season-3-tnt.346848/page-3#post-4403719

The staggering endgame to this episode brought to mind another quote from a historical film, this one Tora! Tora! Tora!:

"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."
​

The sentiment is commonly attributed to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in the aftermath of his successful sneak attack on the United States navel base at Pearl Harbor on December 7 1941. The strike, which was meant to be decisive, instead served to awaken the full might of the United States and its armed forces, ultimately leading to the firebombing of Tokyo and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Over the course of this season, we've seen the regional leaders boldness increase as Michener's fortunes declined with the escalation of troubles in Asia. Now, with the complete destruction of one of the United States's three remaining warships and the catastrophic damage to the second, they believe they have handed Chandler a defeat humiliating enough to neutralize his popularity as the hero who brought home the cure. With Chandler neutralized, they no longer felt constrained to continue respecting the pretense of a democratic national government that Chandler and the Nathan James secured.

So they've laid their cards on the table, taking out the few opposition figures in the St. Louis administration, isolating the figurehead president and even admitting that they assassinated Michener. They've taken direct control of the apparatus that Michener painstakingly constructed over the past several months of peace and relative prosperity. They laid their cards on the table, because they thought they'd already won. Chandler is licking his wounds in Asia; doubtless they'll see if he'll heel to the new order, and if he doesn't, they're confident they can neutralize him. After all, the survivors of the USS Heyward think their ship and their sister ship went down on Chandler's orders, and their first experience with the legend is a complete disaster.

Domestically, they think they have neutralized all dissent. Doubtless, they think Kara is locked inside the St. Louis White House. Once they discover she escaped, they will probably pay her little to no attention. After all, how easily she was manipulated this whole time. What possible threat could she pose?

Our protagonists are at a definite low point, much like when the Ramsays took out all of the labs across the globe and started spreading their propaganda in America. But their enemies have made the mistake of believing that their success when they were the only ones holding all of the cards means that they're the smartest players on the board. Colluding in a plot to kidnap a dozen of your own country's sailors is a very high risk move. Siding with a genocidal dictator to blow up a potential political rival's plane is a very high risk move. Continuing to aid and abet that genocidal dictator by leaking all of your navy's positions, stymied only when the flagship would go radio silent for long stretches of time, is a very high risk move. Assassinating the lawful president of the United States, the last one we've got, is a very high risk move.

Most of the moves, certainly the last two, are treason. The punishment for treason is death. The six regional leaders are very public figures. The president's chief of staff is a very public figure. They've painted very large targets on their backs, and they don't care because they don't think there's anybody left to pull the trigger. They would be wrong in that assumption. Even if the conspiracy has Navy people in play among the survivors of the Chinese ambush, the heads of the conspiracy are thousands of miles away. The one ship that weathered the attack well enough to remain operational and seaworthy is the Nathan James, whose crew has seen that the legends about Chandler are true. The captain of the Nathan James is Mike Slattery, Chandler's long-time XO and a loyal officer. The odds of a successful mutiny are slim, and with the cessation of communication to St. Louis they will no longer be able to provide Peng with intel. Best case scenario for the conspirators is that Chandler prioritizes preventing genocide in Asia to racing home and addressing the obvious crisis stateside.

On the domestic front, Kara has seen first hand that there is, at the very least, a high level conspiracy that has neutralized top figures in the administration. She knows that the domestic agenda changed jarringly following Michener's assassination. She will likely try to find a way to get her knowledge to the Nathan James and what's left of the fledgling Pacific fleet. And then she will likely start gathering together people with guns who know how to fire them.

So everything the conspiracy has planned has led to this moment. Something tells me that they are unprepared for the counter moves to come. And something tells me that Peng is suddenly reconsidering his choice of allies.

 

[Stan]

Renewed for a fourth season, to air next summer

Regarding Sunday's episode.

The arrival of "President" Oliver reminded me of a speech Tony Kushner put into the mouth of America's 16th president in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln:

"I decided that the Constitution gives me war powers, but no one knows just exactly what those powers are. Some say they don't exist. I don't know. I decided I needed them to exist to uphold my oath to protect the Constitution, which I decided meant that I could take the rebel's slaves from them as property confiscated in war. That might recommend to suspicion that I agree with the rebs that their slaves are property in the first place. Of course I don't, never have, I'm glad to see any man free, and if calling a man property, or war contraband, does the trick... Why I caught at the opportunity. Now here's where it gets truly slippery. I use the law allowing for the seizure of property in a war knowing it applies only to the property of governments and citizens of belligerent nations. But the South ain't a nation, that's why I can't negotiate with'em. If in fact the Negroes are property according to law, have I the right to take the rebels' property from 'em, if I insist they're rebels only, and not citizens of a belligerent country? And slipperier still: I maintain it ain't our actual Southern states in rebellion but only the rebels living in those states, the laws of which states remain in force. The laws of which states remain in force. That means, that since it's states' laws that determine whether Negroes can be sold as slaves, as property - the Federal government doesn't have a say in that, least not yet then Negroes in those states are slaves, hence property, hence my war powers allow me to confiscate'em as such. So I confiscated 'em. But if I'm a respecter of states' laws, how then can I legally free'em with my Proclamation, as I done, unless I'm cancelling states' laws? I felt the war demanded it; my oath demanded it; I felt right with myself; and I hoped it was legal to do it, I'm hoping still."​

Under the U.S. system of government, you become president if you're elected to that office, or ascend to that office if you're the vice president and the president dies, resigns or is removed from office. Those are the only two options. You become vice president if you're elected on a ticket with the president (either through a majority of the electoral college or, failing that, by the U.S. Senate), or -- if a vacancy should arise -- you're nominated by the sitting president and confirmed by both house of Congress. Again, there are only two options. If both offices are vacant, Congress provides for who shall act as president.

Under that scheme, and under the terms Congress set out in 1947, Michener was empowered to act as president. He had the weight of history and the law underpinning his claim. He evidently chose to interpret that mandate to not just act as president, but actually assume the presidency. The text of the Constitution would argue against that interpretation, but this situation has never been tested. Much like John Tyler in 1841, his interpretation carried the day because no effective opposition stymied his interpretation.

Having been accepted as president rather than acting president, he apparently nominated Mr. Oliver, the mayor of St. Louis during the outbreak, as his vice president. To be confirmed, he should have received a majority vote in both houses of Congress. And to conduct business, a quorum must be present in each house. But in this case, most of Congress is dead. According to current practice, vacant seats don't count when calculating a quorum. Taken to the extreme conclusion, if 99 of the 100 seats in the U.S. Senate are vacant, the remaining surviving Senator qualifies as a quorum. Presumably one or more representatives also survived to establish a quorum in the House. This is all highly irregular, and would be subject to a legal challenge. But again, given the extreme circumstances, the theory carries the day because no one has put a stop to it.

The regional leaders have no constitutional basis for their power whatsoever. They filled a power vacuum and made their regions function. Michener accepted their authority as legitimate because, in the absence of functioning state governments, they were partners he could work with to implement his agenda and get America back on the road to recovery.

Now Michener is dead, of an apparent suicide. That leaves us with a potentially illegal vice president who has assumed the presidency, a chief of staff and foreign affairs adviser with equally dubious claims to their positions, and a half-dozen unelected leaders with no basis for their power except that nobody has stopped them.

When Kara opposed their agenda, they froze her out. But what's the basis for her authority? She is an American hero, part of the crew of the famed Nathan James that brought the cure to America. Across the country, families are safe because of what that ship did. If they make the American people choose between them and her, they might not like how they fare.

Even more so for Chandler. Second perhaps only to Dr. Scott, he's the face of the Cure. He's Washington, Grant and Eisenhower all rolled into one. President Oliver is the commander-in-chief because Chandler as the de facto head of the American military recognizes him as such. But if Oliver gives Chandler a command he cannot or will not obey, then Oliver ceases to be the commander-in-chief because nobody's listening to him. Likewise with the devolution of the National Guard into regional militias under the command of the regional leaders. If those militia members are forced to choose between listening to the regional leader or listening to Chandler, my guess is that they're going to side with the man who brought them the cure.

All of which is a long way of saying that the current government has gotten a long way through chutzpah and sheer force of will. But their authority is built on a house of cards, and they've neglected to pay sufficient attention to the other players around the table with better hands.


One thing that frustrated me with Sunday's episode is that Takehaya was able to get his hostage video stateside in flawless high definition. Given that he is now invested in the Nathan James's success, it seems like they would have asked him how he evaded the signal interference that is plaguing the American government. Perhaps he had the footage manually recorded onto physical media and manually delivered to the United States by boat or plane. But if so, they needed a line of dialog to explain why he can't solve their video problem.


I was really gratified that: a) we finally understand the stakes of the international conflict; b) the virus hasn't mutated, but the Chinese green mist can prevent the cure from working on people who haven't already been vaccinated; and c) people who've already been vaccinated aren't susceptible to the green mist. It means that all of the progress they've made so far isn't for nothing; the green mist is just an (admittedly massive) obstacle in the way of spreading the cure to the populations that it hasn't already reached. As a viewer, I really needed the progress of the first two seasons not to have been invalidated.


Given that USA Network is an NBC Universal channel, I figured they'd be broadcasting Olympics coverage. But their schedule shows a Law & Order: SVU marathon, so I'm guessing you're right.



I definitely think he was assassinated. The show making such a show of dredging up his past instability feels like a red herring to make the reveal shocking. Given the stakes, I just don't see him throwing in the towel like that. And given the regional leaders' increasing unhappiness with him, it sure seems like they used the vulnerability exposed by the revelation of his screw up in Florida to make their move.



Absolutely. Either Elisabeth Rohm is a worse actress than I thought, or her character is supposed to ooze insincerity.

Glad it's been renewed.

On another note, put your two consecutive comments together and I think you've broken the record for the longest posts ever on HTF

Haven't even finished them yet, I'll come back tomorrow. Last three episodes on the DVR, I was going to catch up tomorrow, but don't know if there will be enough time in the day to read your posts and watch the shows

 

[Dheiner]

"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."

I do DEARLY love that quote, and I think it is very appropriate here, as the insurrectionists have no clue how big of a bite they have taken of this crap sandwich.

 

[Dheiner]

And then she will likely start gathering together people with guns who know how to fire them.

TEX!!!!!!!

 

[NeilO]

No sign of the reporter this episode, I wonder how he will play a role in the upcoming developments.

The big question in the recent episodes is why Rivera was playing so cagey. Did he think he was helping Kara by locking her out?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

No sign of the reporter this episode, I wonder how he will play a role in the upcoming developments.

I was wondering that too. Was he intentionally undermining the president as part of the conspiracy, or was the president being undermined just the consequence of his tenacious journalism? If the later is true, he might prove to be an ally in the battle to shut down the conspiracy.

The big question in the recent episodes is why Rivera was playing so cagey. Did he think he was helping Kara by locking her out?

I was frustrated by this as well, since his efforts to freeze her out of the new inner circle went a long way toward establishing him as the probable traitor. If it's just meant to be accepted as a red herring, that will be disappointing. A line of dialogue where he thought she was in on the conspiracy or something would have gone a long way toward clarifying his actions.

 

[Doug Wallen]

I was frustrated by this as well, since his efforts to freeze her out of the new inner circle went a long way toward establishing him as the probable traitor. If it's just meant to be accepted as a red herring, that will be disappointing. A line of dialogue where he thought she was in on the conspiracy or something would have gone a long way toward clarifying his actions.

I thought when he was in her office he was trying to let her know that he was on her side (at least that passed through my head) in a very roundabout way.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

This week's movie quote is from Crimson Tide, to which this episode owes a large debt:

"We're here to preserve democracy, not practice it."​

This episode did a good job of portraying Captain Meylan as an honorable, principled officer who endeavored to do his job to the best of his ability. In the old world, with a fully staffed military and a properly functioning chain of command, he was probably an excellent officer. The problem is that he is cut from a different cloth than Chandler and Slattery. The post-apocalypse demands leaders like them, not like him. If he had been captain of the Nathan James during its arctic mission, the world never would have gotten the cure. He is reticent by nature, in a time that demands boldness. He was fully justified in taking the actions he did based on the information he had available. But had he been successful, he almost certainly would have gotten everybody on board the ship killed.

I'm hoping that the regional leaders' cabal overplays their hand soon, and confirms Chandler's suspicions in a way that will be conclusive for the entire ship to see. It's not a good place to be for a third or more of the ship to think the people in charge are committing treason. Depending on how all this shakes out, Meylan may be remembered as a Benedict Arnold who tried to arrest contemporary America's General Washington. Given what we know, that's not entirely fair. But you also have to know what you're risking when you try to arrest contemporary America's General Washington, no matter how justified you think you are in doing so.

It was gratifying to see that the brawl in the mess was really a diversion in aid of the mutiny against Meylan. I was happy to see that O'Connor's time away from the Nathan James hadn't distorted his perspective.

I was really pleased to see that Kara thought of Chandler's family and knew to get his father, daughter and son to safety along with her own mother and infant son. As Shaw made clear, the cabal is not above leveraging the lives of people's families to force their desired outcomes. Every time I thought the show was having her do something uncharacteristically stupid, she had a smarter plan in place. Testing Shaw's loyalty like that was simple but effective. Her plan to use the journalist to get evidence against the cabal was a good one, if they'd gotten there a bit sooner. Speaking of the journalist, after seeing him undermine the president (and thereby unwittingly strengthen the cabal), it was gratifying to see him risk his life to do the damn job. He also demonstrated the intelligence that someone with his background should have. Given that Kara has been in civilian mode this entire season so far, it was gratifying to see her take out the secret service agent with the shotgun that had been carefully introduced earlier in the episode.

The final shot of Kara and the journalist driving across the border from Missouri into Arkansas as the military assembles a concrete wall along the state (now territorial) lines has me more convinced than ever that the regional leaders have drastically overplayed their hand. Everything has been about enacting their myopic domestic objectives, at the expense of everything else: Attempting to arrest Chandler was a drastic play. Putting the publicly recognized President of the United States under house arrest and threatening his family was a drastic play. Building physical walls to reinforce the current political status quo is a drastic play. In each case, the unnecessary risks are greater than the rewards.

They would have been better off keeping Chandler occupied in Asia hunting Peng, unaware that anything is amiss back home until they had secured their position. They've already caused the destruction of two-thirds of America's Pacific fleet, with plans to destroy the remaining ship just to eliminate one man. What good will their fiefdoms be if their territories are left wide open to invasion. Peng is already systematically exterminating all of his Asian neighbors. Why are they so sure he won't continue his campaign across the Pacific once his other adversaries have been wiped out?

From what we could tell, Oliver already seemed poised to adopt substantial planks of the regional leaders' domestic priorities. Why institute a coup and make an enemy when you were getting what you wanted already through less coercive means?

And building the concrete barriers along the territorial borders is a bold announcement to the entire country that the regional leaders have no investment whatsoever in a United States of America. Again, if you're achieving your priorities through soft power, why broadcast your ill intentions to everyone who might oppose you?

I thought when he was in her office he was trying to let her know that he was on her side (at least that passed through my head) in a very roundabout way.

I definitely think you're right. The frustrating thing is that he first started freezing her out and limiting her influence when she spoke out in favor of Michener's agenda in front of the president and the regional leaders. Now he might have been doing that to protect her, but it would have been nice for the show to find a way of clarifying that.

 

[Dheiner]

Remember, Adam, The regional "Leaders" have been at this for a while. The whole reason they sent the NJ, and the CNO to China was for Peng to kill him, and they DID kill the President, I suspect because his family was already dead, and thus not as malleable as they needed.

This complete separation has been underway for a while already.

 

[NeilO]

I was glad that the reporter was brought right into it. I was a bit disappointed that he didn't try to use his resources to get some word out before he was named a fugitive at the end. Of course, things were going by quickly.

It looks like things will be more tense in the coming weeks.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Remember, Adam, The regional "Leaders" have been at this for a while. The whole reason they sent the NJ, and the CNO to China was for Peng to kill him, and they DID kill the President, I suspect because his family was already dead, and thus not as malleable as they needed.

Yeah, they've definitely been playing a long game for months now. Their problem is that they haven't reacted well when things didn't go according to plan. When Chandler didn't die in the plane explosion, things started to go off course for them. Instead of considering other means to neutralize him, they stuck to their original plan of killing him, with increasingly brazen methods that resulted in increasingly unacceptable collateral damage. Taking out Chandler's plane made a ruthless sort of sense. Sacrificing the entire Pacific fleet to take out Chandler was always going to be a pyrrhic victory for them at best, with any benefits gained by taking out the popularly beloved adversary far outweighed by the loss of an effective means to defend the western ocean border.

Speaking of the western ocean border: The map showed the five regions (and the new federal district surrounding St. Louis) carved out of the contiguous United States, but not Alaska or Hawaii. Certain dialog has made it clear that the naval base at Pearl Harbor is still operational and still in American control, so presumably Hawaii is part of the Union, but what about Alaska? Is it part of the Northwest region, or is its own entity now?

Good point about Michener not being as malleable because everyone in his life that they could have used as leverage was already dead. I suspect that Michener was always targeted for assassination, though; as the constitutionally legitimate president publicly supported by Chandler, the savior of humanity, with months to build his own network of supporters in St. Louis, he was always going to be too hard to control and too much a symbol of the order and renewal represented by the federal government as it distributed the cure. If the endgame is to break the country up into warlord-controlled regions, they needed to be able to make the argument that the federal government was non-functioning and chaotic. As long as Michener was alive, that would have been too heavy of a lift.

I was glad that the reporter was brought right into it. I was a bit disappointed that he didn't try to use his resources to get some word out before he was named a fugitive at the end. Of course, things were going by quickly.

Yes, the fast pacing of the last couple episodes is the pacing the first two seasons set, which I always found to be one of the strengths of the show. The two-part season premiere covered a ton of plot in an exciting and satisfying way, but then episodes 3 through 8 dragged as it took forever to reach and rescue the hostages and then reestablish contact with St. Louis. It does look like we're in for a sprint to the finish, though.

 

[Dheiner]

One other thing struck me. .

Who was giving information to the reporter?

And, could the reporter still be a part of that group??

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

This week's quote comes not from the silver screen, but from the dugout. An essential Yogiism:

"It ain't over 'til it's over."​

The staggering thing is the effectiveness with which the cabal could turn evolving events in their favor. The rescue of Howard Oliver seemed like a necessary and patriotic step, preserving the man who embodies the last vestige of republican government in the United States of America; indeed, the last vestige of the United States government itself. But the absence of a president provides a compelling justification for the dissolution of the federal government, since all of the figures at the head of that government have been taken off of the board.

True, there were slip ups that will be hard to explain away: Jacob Barnes put the right questions in the minds of the American people, and Shaw's speech would seem to validate the suspicions those questions raised. Oliver seemed on the verge of endorsing the regional leaders' coup, before Barnes forced him to find his courage. Before the broadcast cut out, the American people would have seen the president being forcibly hauled away by his own security detail. Again, this raises difficult to answer questions. And despite Shaw's rhetoric, the military takeover was not a peaceful transition. The boots on the ground will look for their senior leadership, and they will grow suspicious when a large number of that leadership has disappeared.

Most crucially, Meylan's takeover of the Nathan James did not succeed. And as a result of the seizure of the CNS Henan, sufficient evidence was discovered to clear Chandler, validate his conspiracy and implicate the regional leaders. The remaining Navy personnel, who had been divided as a result of the arrest warrant order, are again united behind Chandler. And because they know their domestic enemy is responsible for the destruction of the Shackleton and the Heyward, they are extremely motivated.

And they've openly placed themselves in opposition to the most beloved man in America, on the cusp of forcibly instituting some staggeringly unpopular policies. Sooner or later, it's going to come down to people having to choose who to believe. And, given the choice between the man who brought home the cure and the unelected despots that are making your lives miserable, most people are going to side with the former. By pinning the conspiracy on Chandler, they've made it more essential than ever before that he dies before he can tell his side of the story.

A question for someone with Navy expertise: Is the Kunming class Chinese destroyer really as much of a clone of the Arleigh Burke-class American destroyer as this episode made it out to be? If not, Slattery's little maneuver could have gone very wrong, very quickly. But if yes, then the seized Henan might make a valuable decoy as they approach a hostile San Diego.

It was a joy to have Tex back. It's easy to forget how much he adds to the show, until you see him bring it to the table again. And his teenage daughter's no slouch either.

The biggest "oh, come on!" moment of the episode was Kara's decision to spare Shaw's life. Sure, she didn't pose an immediate physical threat to Kara or her compatriots. But you don't let an avowed traitor to your country, at the heart of a terrible conspiracy, continue to breath more lies. You rob the usurpers of any legitimizing faces you can. If one of the regional leaders had given that speech instead of Shaw, it would have been a whole lot less convincing.

 

[Dheiner]

My DVR failed to record. I'm PISSED!!!