In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
Man, there's a lot going on with this show. Okay, here's the deal. Ships are surrounding the island, though Chaplin and the Colorado enforce his 200-mile perimeter pretty aggressively considering it's only one submarine. But no sooner have they gotten back to the island when they spot what looks like a 747 high overhead. Although it turns around the moment Sophie gets on the radio, Chaplin and Kendal figure that was no off-course passenger liner, but a secret mission to drop Delta Force soldiers onto the island. Kendal volunteers to take an away team to meet them -- and by "meet," he means "have a shootout with," while Chaplin basically works the phones. The mission will also include Cameron, Sophie as a guide, and two sailors loyal to the now-incarcerated Chief Prosser, who hints that he wants Shepard fragged in retribution for her killing of Stern. They also invite along King, the Navy SEAL, but he's staying out of it.
Chaplin, meanwhile, is busy trying to get the dogs called off by making threats on the phone to Curry, who's been promoted to Secretary of Defense in the meantime. Curry denies any knowledge of the incursion, and it turns out he's telling the truth: the invaders are in fact Russian. Which means they're not exactly open to Kendal's spur-of-the-moment decision to try calling a truce. From the listening post, Chaplin manages to orchestrate things so Curry overhears a Russian official confessing to the operation, which he's forced to immediately call off. Or he would, if not for the fact that the severely outgunned Kendal and Shepard manage to pull off a victory against the odds. With the help of King's sniper rifle at the last moment, that is.
There are also developments in Washington. Kylie Sinclair blackmails a friend into trying to find out who gave the order for the Illinois to fire on the Colorado, so she can then blackmail the government into not taking away her precious prototype. Said friend ends up in a vegetative state, but Kylie gets her order number and that's what matters. And Kendal's wife Christine is still in the clutches of the government spooks, who try to crack her loyalty to her husband by showing him a video in which he talks about men killed under his command while he was a POW -- none of which Christine ever knew about. That doesn't work, but parachuting in an old friend of Kendal's who's pretending to be here to help Christine just might. Or, more likely, it totally won't.
When most of the away team comes back to the village alive, and with prisoners no less, Chaplin stops the captured Russian from being shot in the street with a stirring speech. But Prosser's got a speech of his own to make. In front of every crew member in earshot, Prosser reveals some news that Chaplin's been otherwise keeping to himself: his son Jeffrey was killed two weeks ago. Obviously Prosser's aim is to make the other sailors question Chaplin's judgment and motivations, but it doesn't work, at least in the case of Kendal. And that might just be enough to get them all through the 24 hours.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!While the Colorado is underway, Kendal interrupts Chaplin, who's watching a video dispatch from his son in his quarters. As they join the scene on the conn, Cameron reports from the radar station that the 200-mile perimeter Chaplin laid out last week in his warning video is now being lined with American ships. They're also in touch with Shepard at the listening post, who confirms more ships closing in. Luckily the Colorado has that signature-concealing prototype Kylie Sinclair had installed, and it looks like they're getting ready to test it. Sophie, the station boss, is clearing out, telling her employee she won't be part of this. Back on the boat, Kendal reminds Chaplin that the prototype could bring down the whole ship if it goes down, and besides, they should be trying to fix things with Washington before it's too late. I'm thinking that boat's already left, but this is a weekly series, after all.
Chaplin responds to Kendal by addressing the whole crew through the mic about the twenty-odd warships closing in. "These are our brother in arms, sent now to kill us. There will be a time to talk, but right now, we show strength." Chaplin then gives the order to engage the Perseus prototype. It comes on, the lights briefly go out, and Shepard reports over the radio that the Colorado just dropped off their screen. Hooray for Perseus, which nobody ever said while watching Clash of the Titans. Cameron reports from the onboard radar station that their old buddies on the Illinois are weaving in and out of the perimeter, in a sort of naval version of the ever-popular sibling game "I'm Not Touching You." Chaplin, not playing, orders battle stations. Kendal reminds Chaplin there are 134 on board that ship, but then backs the captain. He's the guy with the nukes, after all.
On board the Illinois, that sub's captain learns from his radar guy that the Colorado just dropped from sight, which tells him that "Marcus has a new toy." He's about to initiate a game of cat-and-mouse when the Colorado take the initiative, launching a torpedo. The Illinois helplessly watches it come in on the sensors, but then it just breaks open on one of its tail fins. "Disabled warhead's a hit, sir," Cameron reports. The Illinois cuts and runs, Chaplin orders the torpedoes kept lock and armed this time, and they head back.
Back in DC, one of the government spooks babysitting Christine Kendal in that Matrix-like interrogation room tries to scare her with the mushroom cloud off the coast, which she points out is farther than the distance between Vegas and White Sands. Another guy says Sam and the rest of his crew are going to die, even though he's sure Sam just wants to do the right thing. Christine can't exactly argue with that second part, can she?
Back at the listening post, Shepard reports to Chaplin and Kendal that some sailors aren't reporting for their guard shifts, plus Brannan and Cortez are still missing. Oh, and Chief of the Boat Prosser is in what passes for the town jail. So she goes to visit Prosser in what amounts to an outdoor cage, guarded by some sailors who won't obey her orders and listen as Prosser taunts her. At least that's the dynamic until Chaplin shows up, when they open it right quick. Chaplin steps inside the cage, and Prosser yells at him about Shepard killing Stern and Chaplin's own refusal to follow the fire order that started all this trouble in the first place. Chaplin points out his reasons for doubt, which they agree is above the COB pay grade. But the Prosser says Chaplin's no longer the captain, either. So who is, then?
Kendal comes and finds Shepard, who's filled with doubt and asking to be relieved. Kendal's not about to do that. "They don't believe in you? You make them. Today." Like the way she showed them how to be strong yesterday? That worked out great. Then they notice the contrail of a jet high overhead, where it has absolutely no business being. "That's closer than 200 miles," Shepard obviouses.
Inside the station, Cameron's trying to ID the plane, the Eisenhower's getting ready to scramble intercept fighters, but Sophie (who I thought left on her high horse a while ago) grabs a headset and orders the pilot to turn around, in both English and French. It looks like it was just a passenger 747. Chaplin and Kendal head out on the roof to regard the now-curving contrail overhead as Kendal figures it got within 40 miles -- close enough for a Delta Force team to have jumped out and be here in six hours. Kendal decides to go try to intercept them with a team of his own. "Show strength, then talk," he says to Chaplin. Shepard volunteers on the spot to be Kendal's second. Sounds like a chance to make someone believe in her.
At the bar, the Navy SEAL named King wakes up from a hungover coma on the floor and, seeing the contrail in the sky, tells the owner to get herself off the island. "This whole place just became the biggest bulls-eye on the planet." She's not impressed by his hyperbole, given all the volcanic myths she and the other islanders have grown up with. Kendal and Shepard show up just in time to watch him vomit over the rail, then turn and greet them with a formal, "Gentlemen." He agrees with Kendal's Delta forecast, but that's about all they agree on, and Kendal ends up walking out on them. Shepard, however, follows King to the showers, and he lectures her on how a HALO jump strips away everything but the need to accomplish the mission -- even as he strips off his clothes. This King guy has a knack for symbolism, doesn't he? He not only refuses to help, he says that if it were up to him, he'd be with the invaders. So it's probably good that he's not helping.
Kendal's request for help is to Sophie, since he figures she knows the island better than anyone. Sophie's too disgusted about all the deaths in Pakistan to feel terribly helpful right now, and he hotly points out that he and his captain are the ones who didn't fire, so he wants her help protecting the island from the people who did. Shepard interrupts with weird that Kendal somehow has a phone call, even with the lines down. He steps into the other room and finds himself on the phone with his wife, who, after a few seconds of catching up, relays an offer of full amnesty, if only he gives up the sub...and Marcus. Kendal looks like he's considering it, even with Chaplin standing right behind him. Christine's about to add more, prompted by a nod from one of the spooks, but it turns to be, "Don't trust them! Whatever they say, whatever I say, don't trust them, just know that I love you." The line goes dead. From behind Kendal, where he's been this whole time, Chaplin tells him, "You knew this wouldn't just be bullets. They'll come at you where it hurts the most. You okay?" Kendal gets his mind back on his plan, which is to set up a kill zone for when the invaders show up. "Worst-case scenario, they get wise, they kill us all. Best case scenario, we send a complement of American body bags home. Either way this sucks." He hands Chaplin an envelope addressed to Christine, presumably in case he doesn't make it back. Chaplin reminds Kendal of the siege of Grozny in '94, when apparently thousands of Russians spent days killing each other, and for what? "Sometimes the enemy is just the man keeping you from getting home." Kendal looks at Chaplin, who maybe could have come up with a better way to put that, under the circumstances.
In D.C., Kylie Sinclair walks into a news bar (like sports bars, but in D.C.) and overhears some loudmouth predicting that the Colorado will be taken out in 24 hours. Kylie launches right into a stemwinder about how the Colorado's Tridents can be launched before a cruise missile can reach it, and then there's nothing anybody can do, "Because somebody kept my daddy from building Star Wars twenty years ago." And she's clearly still butt-hurt over it. A guy known to Kylie as her "favorite deep-cover mole in the Defense Department" (shocking him with both her indiscretion and clunky exposition) comes in and quietly reports to Kylie that Chaplin tested the Perseus prototype, and it works. Kylie wants champagne to celebrate, but Linus reminds her that the government is going to take it from her. Kylie figures she needs to figure out where the order for the Illinois to fire on the Colorado came from, and then she can do her thing to protect herself... i.e., some blackmail. Linus says he's out, until Kylie blackmails him into finding the order for her. This chick's a real prize.
Sophie and Shepard have a little moment when Sophie tells her she didn't have a choice when it came to killing Stern. Shepard isn't exactly moved.
Watching the away team load up a truck from inside his cage, Prosser whispers to his guards, "Shepard killed one of us. Sometimes in battle, these things have a way of working themselves out." The guards take the hint, and step away to join the group. Kendal tries to stop Cameron from joining, but Cameron insists. Just then King and the other SEAL head past, dressed in their civvies and on their way to nowhere much. He and Shepard exchange a few more taunts before he goes on his way. And Sophie hops up into the truck's cab with Kendal to show him where the only pass is. What if somebody else had called shotgun?
In the interrogation room, the spooks are running down the Patriot Act-violating charges Christine's now party to. That doesn't seem to wear her down, so they cue up a video of some debriefing where Sam was being grilled about men who had died under his command. That upsets her, since this is the first she's hearing of it..
The away team is now hiking to meet the Delta Force, with Kendal and Sophie on point. Well, physically -- verbally, they're debating the futility of war, which is not terribly on point at all. Kendal hints that he used to think there was another way like Sophie does, but when she asks why he changed his mind he goes on ahead, dismissing her from the scene. You know, before she gets caught up in one of those battles she deplores so much.
Before moving out, one of Prosser's loyalists asks Shepard to check his weapon for him. She takes it, checks it, then hands it back, not trusting the sailor but also not knowing quite what he just accomplished. Are people going to be dusting weapons for prints after this?
King's back at the bar, where he's hoping for another drink. Instead, the owner, Tani, treats him to some island lore and a mark she paints on his face as a demonstration of the kinds of makers of honor that are bestowed on those who make piece. "Do you deserve them?" she asks. Seems a little late to ask after she already daubed a big black "J" on his puss.
In the video Christine is being forced to watch, Kendal is relating a story of being a military prisoner, which included such perks as forced games of Russian Roulette in the wee hours of the morning. The male spook pauses the tape and tells Christine that Sam was a POW in North Korea for 17 days, until Chaplin somehow forced his release. Again, this is all news to Christine. Their point is that if Chaplin could get Kendal to lie to his wife, what else might he get him to do?
Chaplin is back on the phone with Deputy Secretary of Defense Curry. "It's Secretary now, Captain," Curry corrects unctuously. Okay, that can't be good, but Chaplin takes it in stride, saying he wants Curry's Deltas off his island. "We've got about 1.6 billion Muslims deeply pissed at us," Curry points out." We're trying to de-escalate the situation, not make it worse. There are no Delta on your island. Over." Which is what the conversation seems to be when Chaplin abruptly hags up on him. I'm starting to feel concerned about whether Marcus is ever going to get to collect his pension.
Holed up in an alcove overlooking his killing zone, Kendal tell the sailors with him not to let the Deltas make it to cover when the shooting starts. Shepard's at a sniper nest with those two goons of Prosser's, which is just a stellar allocation of resources, and not putting up with their shit. "We're gonna need every gun we have," she tells one of them. "So if you're gonna shoot me in the back, maybe you could wait until we're done here." She goes to meet Kendal out on the killing field, where he bucks her up until they hear a whistle and run back to cover. Via an earpiece he's wearing, Kendal checks back with Chaplin, who says he's on his own for now. The sailors draw a bead on approaching figures in camouflage as they emerge from the bush, while Chaplin pressures Curry over the speakerphone to admit he's got men on the island, but Curry's just irritated. There's also something on the radar screen that Sophie's underling is pretty worried about, but that's going to have to wait a moment. Sam tells his men to hold their fire -- almost for too long -- and when the invaders get close enough, he suddenly drops his gun and yells that he's coming out to talk, unarmed. Well, that wasn't in the plan. Kendal steps out into the open and yells at the men that they're surrounded, in a kill zone, and that he just wants to talk. "We are all Americans," he reminds them. But at the station, the radar technician has tracked a signal indicating communications between the guys Kendal's currently facing, and a boat just outside the perimeter -- the Tatarsky. Oops, that is so Russian. Looks like Curry was telling the truth about not having sent anyone, but that's not exactly good news, is it? Sure enough, Sam is telling the new people that none of them have to die today when Chaplin comes over his earpiece telling him they're Russian Spetznas. "Aw, hell," Sam says, remotely triggering a mine he luckly had the foresight to plant and running back to cover while his sailors and the Russians start exchanging fire. I know that no plan survives contact with the enemy, but a plan should at least have some understanding of who the enemy is.
When we rejoin the firefight after the ads, Kendal's losing men. He needs Shepard to take a hill, but she and her guys are pinned down and when she asks Hawkes for cover he runs for it instead. In the listening post, Chaplin orders the volume from the engagement turned down. Moments later, he's on the viewscreen with some Russian guy named Viktor, sitting in his Moscow home in his housecoat, who pretends to know nothing of what's going on. That is, until Chaplin threatens to not only sink the ship providing support for the incursion, but nuke the base where the Russian's sons are stationed. The Russian gets up out of his chair, because Chaplin also knows how to hit people where they hurt the most. Chaplin hears the communications between Kendal and Shepard in which Shepard can't take the hill, and learns the Russians are hailing him. "Put Curry back on the line," Chaplin orders. "Let him hear everything but mute that sonofabitch." Viktor comes back and says it's not easy with everything there asleep. Chaplin calmly says he has all the time in the world, even as his men are dying on the other side of the island.
Meanwhile, Kendal is telling his men to get ready to run for the truck. Shepard tries to get her one remaining wingman to join her in the charge for the hill, but he can't. Chaplin reminisces to Victor about a kid on Viktor's boat who freaked out under the ice. "You and I called off the Cold War for an hour so you could get him topside. That's called trust." Viktor offers to call off the invasion -- if Chaplin surrenders his submarine. Just then, Chaplin signals for Curry to be taken off mute, and the new SecDef starts yelling at Viktor to withdraw his men immediately, threatening World War III if Viktor doesn't comply. Hard to see how Chaplin could have played that better.
Sill under fire, Kendal daydreams about the time his wife figured out that although they dated two years and were married for one of them, they had only spent 124 days together. "Who are you, Sam Kendal?" she asked. Cameron busts him out of his reverie, saying he doesn't have to do this, but Kendal sends him on his way.
"Don't die. Not today, don't die," Shepard tells her self before breaking cover. She doesn't get far before taking a bullet in the leg and going down. She empties her sidearm into the shooter, only to be tackled by anther Russian who's ready to knife her, until an unseen shooter takes him down. And another Russian as well. "Yeaaaah! " Shepard roars, while up in the hills, King folds up his sniper rifle, somehow refraining from yelling back, "You're doing great, kid. Now let's blow this thing and go home." And thus Kendal, who was trying to heroically sacrifice himself to save his men by running out ad drawing fire, is left standing alone in the field with his dick in his hand and nobody to shoot at him. How embarrassing.
Back at the station, Chaplin raises Kendal, who reports that the Russians have fled, they lost five, and Shepard's wounded but expected to survive. Plus they even have two prisoners to bring back. I'm still not clear on how eight or ten guys were supposed to overpower a whole submarine crew of 150 in the first place. Even if it's now down to 130 (12 killed by the Illinois last week, plus Stern by Shepard, plus the five just now, plus the missing Brannan and Cortez). And yes, I do plan to keep track.
Back at the interrogation room, the spooks watch Christine through the one-way glass. A new guy comes in, confident he can break her where they haven't been able to. He goes into the room, feigning breathlessness, pretending that he's here to help. He says he's a friend of Sam's from college, and Christine is polite enough to pretend to remember him. He acts all mad about the government's actions toward her, and a moment later, Christine accepts his offer to take her home. Hers, I presume. I get that they're trying to trick her into helping them, but I don't know what help they expect her to be able to give. She's clearly not in all of Kendal's loops, as they've demonstrated to her themselves.
In the village, Sam watches the body bags holding his men being unloaded from the truck. As for the live Russian prisoners, Prosser's man Red is prepared to shoot them on the spot. Kendal's not able to talk him down, but fortunately Chaplin comes in to calm everyone with some understanding of their fear and bloodlust, and a stirring speech regarding same. "Vengeance might give you some satisfaction, but let me remind you who you are. You are the American crew of the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine Colorado. Your rank is what it says on your collar. You salute the sailor above you and you expect the same of the one below. And your final duty is to say how high when I say jump. Are we clear?" There's a general mumbling, and he bellows, "Are we clear?" That time he gets more of an answer, even if it isn't "So say we all." He says there's no debate about their POWs: "Lieutenant Shepard, secure the prisoners." Does that mean locking them up with Prosser? Speaking of whom, Shepard gets in his face and says, "I know what you did. Try it again, I'll still be here." Well, that'll certainly terrify him.
But Prosser's not done stirring up shit today; he hollers out at the passing captain for him to tell everyone what he told him when they were "still pals." Namely, that Chaplin's son Jeffrey was "killed by friendly fire two weeks ago in Afghanistan. These young people have followed you into a hell they'll never be able to climb back out of. For what? Because you wanted payback on the country that took your son away from you?" Everyone looks on in mingled horror and sympathy, but Chaplin just calmly says, "You know me, Joe. All of you. You know me." Exit the captain. It's probably just as well he didn't say "jump" on the way out.
King's back at the bar when a banged-up Shepard sits down to him. "One more for me, one for the lady with the... face," King orders. Shepard came to thank him and give him a list of the names of the people they lost. He pushes it back to her, saying he's got his own, much longer list. "One of these days you're going to have to decide what you believe in," she says, downing the drink he bought her. "What does it feel like?" King asks her. "It's a hell of a buzz, isn't it?" She leaves without responding. And Tani proudly tells King he became a peacemaker. "I just ran out of people to kill," King retorts. Same difference, right?
Kylie's still watching the news in the restaurant (apparently Congress has suddenly come over all supportive of the President now that there's shooting going on), waiting for a call. When he cell phone rings, she snaps into it, I did my part, how abou--" That can't be good.
Cut to Kylie walking into a hospital room, where her good buddy Linus is in a bed hooked up to machines. His wife is also there, explaining that Linus supposedly had some kind of allergic reaction, but his brain got no oxygen for ten minutes. "So how could that be an accident?" Good question. The wife accuses Kylie of getting Linus into this, and of being someone who's touched by nothing. Without saying a word, Kylie straight-up raids Linus's pants pocket right in front of his bereaved, furious wife and finds a slip of paper with "Order 998" scrawled on it. "I hope you die alone!" Mrs. Linus says. Kylie leaves the room, looking rather guilty but essentially untouched, because at least she got what she wanted.
Kendal finds Chaplin in his temporary quarters at the station, reports that the search is on for Brannan and Cortez, and sits down to reminisce about a past deployment with an inauspicious beginning, three weeks after Kendal's wedding. Kendal remembers Jeffrey being on the pier to watch the department. And there goes Chaplin. Are you happy now, Kendal? You made your captain cry. "Gimme your dumb hand sir," Kendal says, clasping it and saying he can't imagine Chaplin's going through. "But I am your friend, and I know who you are. I trust you. They find what hurts you the most and they try to break you with it. But that's where they miss. What hurts us the most, that's our strength. That's what gets us through." Red-eyed, Chaplin nods bravely, and hands back the letter Kendal gave him for Christine. They shake hands, and Kendal leaves the room. Chaplin dons his hat, with fresh purpose and resolve and a jaunty angle.
Cut to the video from Jeffrey, in which he promised to tell his dad stories on the other side. In Shepard's video message to her father, she says she hopes he never has to watch it, and how scared she is, but she's not going to run away. "That's not who I am." She, Kendal, and Chaplin stand under an American flag in the station's courtyard.
In the interrogation room, the tape of Kendal has come off pause so it can continue playing to an empty room. In it, he tells the debriefer that the reason he isn't planning to tell Christine any of this is that the thought of her kept him alive, and is the one good thing he has, and maybe this way he gets to keep it that way. On the other side of the world, the senior officers watch the flag wave, and the camera rises to get a look at the Colorado in the harbor in the background. Where it's starting to look like it belongs.
M. Giant is a Minneapolis-based writer with a wife, a son, and a number of cats that seems to have settled at around two. Learn waaaay too much about him at Velcrometer, follow him on Twitter , or just e-mail him at m.giant[at]gmail.com.