Episode Report Card M. Giant: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Silent Cunning
By M. Giant | Season 1 | Episode 3 | Aired on 10.11.2012
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.There's a blockade closing in on the island, but if Chaplin wasn't going to give in before, he's not about to now, even though the government is refusing to bury his dead son until he does. For now, the captain has a more immediate concern: his missing crew members Cortez, Brannan and now Redman -- who we already know are hostages of the island's evil mayor, Julian Serrat. Chaplin releases Prosser in exchange for his help with the search, but it's Sophie who introduces Chaplin and Julian to each other. Without being an atom less obvious than he can get away with, Julian makes a deal: Chaplin's sailors back, if the Colorado will retrieve some contraband for Julian from a boat waiting outside the blockade.
Chaplin agrees to the deal, which allows him to use the Perseus prototype again, this time to duck under the navy blockade. Alas, it turns out the thing's no good for more than a couple hours, as it sucks power and fries circuits. As a result, getting back is a little hairier, with all the sub-movie tension and suspense and forced silence that implies. Fortunately, Sophie's back at the station to talk Kendal through guiding the sub back along a treacherous stretch, but their sultry voices over the radio connection hint that they may be about to enter dangerous waters of their own.
Meanwhile, Navy SEAL King explores a little more island culture with his new friend Tani, who has some past tragedy of her own, not that this subplot is at all interesting. And in D.C., Admiral Shepard convinces Kylie to start sticking her nose into the shadowy origins of that nuke order that started all the trouble. Which she does, carefully, asking her boyfriend to have his senator boss look into it for her. We don't find out how that turns out, because her boyfriend gets a late night visit from an intimidating fellow who is not unknown to Kylie. And she finds herself in deeper trouble when her one schematic of the Perseus prototype is stolen from right out of her safe.
The Colorado is a bit late getting back with Julian's goods, so he kills Redman. Although Chaplin isn't thrilled, he's not prepared to fight a war on two fronts just yet. But he promises Kendal the time will come and Kendal in turn promises that the time will come for Chaplin's son's actual funeral. I wonder in what order?
Think you've got game? Prove it! Check out Games Without Pity, our new area featuring trivia, puzzle, card, strategy, action and word games -- all free to play and guaranteed to help pass the time until your next show starts.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Kendal looks like he's out for a run, but he fires his sidearm into the air as he runs into the village square, where there's some kind of altercation going on between one of the sailors and a local over a shoplifted banana. Kendal orders the offender back to the boat and the other sailors to continue their search for the still-missing Brannan and Cortez, but the mutinous sailor refuses the order, throwing off his uniform tunic and telling his fellows, "Ask the COB." Who is watching smugly from his cage. "Without us, they have to surrender and we all go home." Why, that's so simple it'll never work. Kendal mocks him and orders him put in the brig, but that order is barely followed either.
At the station, Shepard reports to Captain Chaplin that a sailor named Redman -- one of COB's loyalists from last week, nicknamed Red -- has been missing since yesterday. I don't know what anybody expected of a guy whose name is practically Redshirt, but there's also still no sign of Brannan and Cortez. They both know the sailors aren't AWOL, but before Chaplin can elaborate he takes a phone call from his new negotiator, an Amanda Straw. Chaplin congratulates her on the new gig, and she threatens to impose a blockade by nightfall unless he surrenders. "That's a bit of a reach, isn't it, considering the 17 Tridents still in my control?" Chaplin says pleasantly, at which point Straw threatens to let Chaplin's dead son continue to rot in a Navy morgue until Marcus surrenders. Dick move, that. Chaplin hangs up and asks the newly arrived Kendal what's on his mind, as if there's nothing at all on Chaplin's.
Chaplin and Kendal visit Prosser and his shirtless new cage-mate to ask the COB about the missing sailors. Prosser lords over Chaplin's slipping control of the crew, and Chaplin says they both want the same thing: "Me in front of a court-martial where one of us will be proven right." That's not quite the same thing, but Chaplin asks for Prosser's help finding his people, offering to cut the COB loose in exchange for a promise to stop undermining him. They agree on it, but Kendal warns the COB he'll be watching.
From the bar, King looks up from his poker game with one of Julian Serrat's heavies long enough to witness the two sailors' release, but pays attention when he sees the watch his opponent just put on the table. He goes right to HQ and hands the watch to Shepard, who recognizes it as Cortez's. King says it came from a guy who works for Julian. "Friend of the French lady," he elaborates. I assume he means Sophie, but it's good to finally know her nationality. King leaves her to it, and when she tries to leave the room, Prosser comes in and lays down some intimidation. Or tries to, at least, topped off with a sardonic salute.