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The crew of the Colorado might go home today! Secretary of Defense Curry is on his way to the island to negotiate with Chaplin and Kendal face to face, which is kind of a big deal. At the same time, part of the sonar array that protects the island has a dead battery. So while the captain and the XO hang around to spar with the SecDef, Shepard leads a skeleton crew out to the underwater sensor, which she hopes Navy SEAL King can fix. When Curry shows up -- along with negotiator Amanda Straw and Shepard's father, Admiral Shepard -- he starts out with a tough position, threatening the whole crew with treason charges. But Chaplin is also tough, wanting nothing less than amnesty for his enlisted men and a public trial for himself and his senior officers. Obviously neither is going to accept the other's offer.
Meanwhile, with Prosser heckling her the whole way, Shepard delivers King to the sonar array and puts him to work, hoping he can finish the repair job before his noisy power drill calls the whole fleet down on them. Alas, it doesn't work that way and the Colorado has to leave King stranded there while it dives for safety. Kendal and Curry get slowly closer together as negotiations proceed, even as Chaplin's position continues to weaken while attack subs stalk the Colorado. It helps that he's also running a bluff, claiming he knows everything the Navy SEALs know. Curry finally goes with a divide-and-conquer strategy, offering Kendal a chance to be safely back with his wife in exchange for the sub. And what can Kendal do but roll over on his captain in the face of such an deal? It soon develops that this was exactly Chaplin's plan, sacrificing himself to protect his crew and his senior officers.
But when the fleet gets the Colorado in its sights, the offer is abruptly rescinded and the order given to sink the Colorado. Before it can be authenticated, Admiral Shepard grabs a gun, kills Straw and wounds Curry, giving Shepard the chance to not only get the Colorado out of danger, but rescue King alive, minutes after he's run out of air. And win Prosser's respect in the process.
Back in D.C., Kylie Sinclair finds herself on the outside looking in. So she approaches Christine Kendal for help. Christine has long since figured out that Sam's old buddy Paul Wells does not have her family's best interests at heart, but she is only too happy to agree to Kylie's plan, whatever it turns out to be.
The bad news is the negotiations are really over now, and Chaplin has to give Shepard some bad news about how her father's a murderer now. And they are so not going home today.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Chaplin and Kendal are really going at it hammer and tongs about the captain's recent actions while wearing their dress whites. No, it isn't slashfic; they're staging a little role playing with Kendal as Secretary of Defense Curry. No, it's still not slashfic. Kendal accuses Chaplin of holding 141 sailors against their will, half of whom signed a list wanting out (and ten of whom are already dead, according to my running tally). "Curry doesn't know that," Chaplin reminds Kendal. Apparently the SecDef is on his way to negotiate in person, which Chaplin figures is due to some Chinese saber-rattling. He advises Kendal to control his feelings with Curry, "Or I guarantee you he'll control them for you."
Kendal heads up to the roof of the station for some fresh air and ends up getting flirted with by Sophie, who's drinking some of the last of her coffee. Suddenly Kendal is called down into the monitoring station, where Sophie's employee (who thought they were already out of coffee) explains, with an assist from Sophie, that a big hole has opened up in the sonar array around their perimeter. Kendal gets on the horn to call battle stations, but they tell him it's just a dead battery. As for who fixes it? The U.S. Navy. "Should I get you their number?" Sophie's employee asks sarcastically.
Kendal goes and dispatches Shepard to take the Colorado out to deal with this, and to be ready for action in case it's not just a coincidental battery problem on the day of Curry's visit. He leaves her to it, and to some mocking from Prosser. Just when she was starting to feel important, too.
Shepard's stop is the bar, where she's looking for King to tell her which of his surviving fellow SEALs is the better deep diver. He makes a late entrance, wet and shirtless from the shower, and says he's the diver they need. "Thought you were done with these people, James," Tani monotones in disappointment, but King is off to gear up for the mission, leaving Shepard to tell Tani that a SEAL will do just about anything for a thrill. Except Tani, so far, judging by her reaction to that remark.
Down on the beach, Kendal, Chaplin, and a mess of Colorado sailors watch as a delegation comes in on launches from a destroyer riding at anchor some distance out. In addition to a bunch of MPs, there's Curry himself, negotiator Amanda Straw, and Admiral Shepard, the father of Chaplin's second officer. Chaplin figures they're bringing along an old friend to talk down the nut in the bell tower. Chaplin turns to his crew and orders them to show strength, resolve, and unity, and if they do that, they might all get to go home today. That would make for a very short series, so don't hold your breath. He makes himself scarce before the boats land moments later, and Curry's first words are actually to Chaplin's crew, offering to protect anyone who wants out now. Too late; they're all in. "Very well. So shall you hang," Curry says self-importantly. The admiral quietly asks Kendal where Chaplin is, but Kendal knows he's really more concerned about his daughter. Kendal says they weren't expecting him, but the admiral's disappointment is rather leavened by pride when he learns she's the one currently commanding the Colorado out at sea.
On board the sub, Prosser complains to Shepard about Sophie being on the conn while French and their limited crew, which means, "maybe we can run, maybe we can fight, but we sure as Shinola cannot run and fight." Seriously, this character is saltier than an empty bag of pretzels. Shepard tries to dismiss Prosser, but he doesn't dismiss too good. He finally leaves after some more bitching, and Shepard starts giving orders, telling Cahill he can call her either sir or ma'am when he slips and calls her the former. Galacticer and Galacticer.
The talks with Curry have moved to what may or may not be church some distance from the shore. On the one hand, it has a big stone cross standing outside, but on the other, the structure looks more like a picnic shelter on Gilligan's Island. Curry's going on and on to Chaplin about the untenability of his situation. Kendal asks if there's an offer or not, and they begin rehashing all the stuff they've been through the past four weeks. Curry angrily says a pair of chimpanzees could have done what they didn't and concludes, "My offer is treason." Straw backs him up on that with the formalities, saying all officers will face court-martial, and every member of the crew gets seven years. Curry reasonably says they'll skip the death penalty given the death of Chaplin's son, which is when Chaplin hurls aside the table between them and grabs Curry by the jacket, saying that if he wants to kill Chaplin, he had his shot and he missed. "If you say my son's name again, I swear I will crush the jelly from your eyes." This must be what he meant when he told Kendal to control his feelings. Kendal gets everyone in the hut, sailors and MPs, to lower their recently leveled weapons, and Chaplin marches right out of there. Straw advises Kendal that he still has a lot to live for. "Don't tie it all to a man with nothing to lose." Hey, at least Chaplin still has his Shakespeare.
Kendal catches up with Chaplin and reminds him of his own advice, but Chaplin unrepentantly says, "He pissed me off." Kendal yells at him and says he'd be willing to do five or six years if it means going home and no one else dies. Chaplin's not trying to hear that, but Kendal thinks it's what he can get. "That is the United States of America in there, and they do not apologize." Well, that depends on who you talk to.
Inside the airlock of the Colorado, Sophie is giving diving instructions to King, who says it's not his first rodeo. But we had to establish the importance of the tether tying King to the sub. This leads to a long digression from Prosser about rodeos and how French is the opposite of cowboy. Sophie tells him Robert Duvall is French. "You take that back," he spits. Shepard joins them and is horrified to see the big, fat noisy power drill King's going to have to use to open up the sensor. She'd rather he used a wrench, but he protests that he'll end up using his air too fast. "It's the job of the captain to review all the mission assets," Prosser reminds her. She says to use the drill, but fast, and following her back up the companionway, Prosser warns her that if she lets her ego drive the boat, "People will get dead." Stop poking it, then.
Back at the church, Admiral Shepard argues with Straw, having thought until now that his daughter would be exempt from prosecution. Straw tells him to get Chaplin to cave if that's what he wants, but he's running out of time because the Illinois has found the gap in the sonar array. Uh-oh.
But so has King, and with Sophie talking him through it over the radio, he gets right to work with that big, noisy drill. It can be heard all the way up in the sub, and for fifteen miles beyond, according to Cameron. Prosser yells at Shepard about how she's going to get them all killed, but fortunately King can be heard over the radio, defusing the tension by whistling the national anthem as he works.
Chaplin presents his counteroffer to Curry: a public trial in a civilian court and amnesty for his enlisted men. Curry cracks up at the absurdity of the demand, until Chaplin adds, "And only after you've agreed to those terms will we discuss the six Navy SEALs I picked up off the coast of Pakistan." That shuts Curry up, at least enough to break for lunch. Straw quietly tells Curry that the Illinois has breached the perimeter. It's always the Illinois, isn't it? And both of them blue states, too.
Out on the sub, Cameron reports that there are enemies inbound. Prosser tells Shepard to dive, but Sophie says King dies if they do that. After a tense moment, Shepard gives the emergency deep order. Sophie yells at King over the radio to cut the tether, but instead he's dragged off the sensor and toward the bottom of the ocean. Tani's not going to be very happy with Shepard at all.
After the ads, he's managed to cut himself loose and return to the array. Sophie wants to know if King's still attached, and Shepard tells her that if he is, here at a depth of 1,400 feet, he's dead. Shepard orders them to sit tight, and for once Prosser seems in agreement as sonar starts pinging from above in a classic search pattern. "We move now, we die."
On the island, Straw goes off on Kendal about her litany of international problems she's dealing with, plus eight-dollar gas. Kendal asks what she wants, and she talks about all Chaplin's already lost: a wife to cancer, a son to war, and another one who's out and incommunicado somewhere, leaving only his cause, at least until they cast someone good as Chaplin's estranged kid. "Is his cause still the same as yours?" she asks, warning Kendal that Chaplin only wants martyrdom. Well, if that were true, the big old cross is still right there.
Meanwhile, Admiral Shepard updates Chaplin on the political aftermath of the nuking of Pakistan, and how half the Joint Chiefs are waiting for Chaplin to be the guy who makes it possible for them to remove the president. Chaplin says he wants his people home, and the Admiral agrees regarding his daughter. "But I don't know what that home is becoming." Hey, that's not what Straw told him to say at all.
In D.C., Kylie is arguing with a maitre'd who gave away her usual table at her usual restaurant. When he goes to get the owner, Kylie spots her (ex) bed buddy Robert at another table, then goes over and loudly accuses him of sleeping with her and then stealing her hard drive, "That makes two times you screwed me, and I'm still not sure which one was more disappointing." After dismissing Robert's date by threatening to "erase you from every guest list in the city," she sits down across from Robert and says she stopped going along with everyone when she realized everyone was a backstabbing hypocrite. He reminds her that she used to be one too. "Gonna miss you," he smugs. And then she's ejected from the restaurant. Wow, is D.C. really this high school?
While being led out, she catches sight of another replay of Christine Kendal's meltdown on the TV news. That's a slick segue across town to Christine's place, where Kendal's old "friend" Paul Wells presents her with purported emails between Kendal and Chaplin, allegedly outline "their" plan to defect to China and sell the Colorado. Christine's not buying it, arguing more that Kendal would never do this rather than pointing out that two people who spend all their time together in a series of welded-together closets hardly need to take the idiotic risk of putting such a plan in writing, but she can't deny that Kendal was different after coming home from North Korea. Well, who wouldn't be?
Out on the beach, Chaplin again meets Curry, who has shed his jacket and tie and is now skipping stones into the surf. Curry's decided to try the good cop bit, saying he likes Chaplin and can even help him carve out his own little place here if that's what he wants. Chaplin's sticking to his guns, though, saying that with China moving on Taiwan, Curry must really be interested in freeing up his ships blockading the island, and all Chaplin wants to do so Curry can make that happen is tell the truth in court. "We are reshaping the face of this planet and you want to stand on a soapbox and plead for the truth?" Curry says, calling Chaplin a fool. "Because the truth is gonna be whatever we say it is." Chaplin asks Curry if he ever thinks about how history will judge what he did to Pakistan, causing Curry to change the subject yet again. Curry's not exactly coming off like the guy in favor of justice here, is he?
King is now back at the array, trying to repair it with a wrench instead of a drill, while another submarine, not the Colorado, drifts past. Good thing those don't have windows.
Chaplin is calmly meditating while Kendal asks him what his bottom line is, and Chaplin reiterates that he wants to go home. Just then the delegation returns, with Admiral Shepard arriving first and quietly fretting about all the radio chatter and his daughter being out on the Colorado when something's clearly going on. Curry and Straw follow, Curry with a new offer. But before he can present it, a sailor whispers in Chaplin's ear, so the captain gets up and walks off with Kendal to quietly tell him that attack subs are closing in on the Colorado ."If they'd found her, we'd already be dead," Chaplin reassures Kendal, and then pleasantly turns his attention back to Curry. So I guess they'll know when they do find her, right?
According to the clock on the conn, Sophie says King has nine minutes of air left, but the other officers are more worried about the Colorado getting killed by the other attack subs. Sophie tells Shepard she's not God, with the power to decide who lives and dies, but Shepard says she is on this ship, and anyone who has a problem with that is "more than welcome to step outside." After a moment she comes up with a plan that involves blowing the tanks and readying torpedoes, and telling Prosser to shut up when he protests. I especially like the last part.
Out in the middle of the ocean, King says to no one that the battery packs are going in now. "So, you know, you're welcome. I'll just be here waiting for my ride."
At Chez Kendal, Paul has scared up some dinner, which allows him to segue into a story about his ex-wife and how dependent on her he was. Of course he's trying to paint a picture that Christine could relate to. He offers to stay the night, then quickly adds that he means the guest room, but it's still a no, and he heads out.
Chaplin is back to arguing with Curry, which is a lot of posturing until Chaplin says he has all the evidence he needs. "From my new Navy SEAL pals." Not sure why he'd say something that would make Curry less likely to give him a public platform, but he adds, "You should have killed those SEALs when you had the chance." Curry makes another offer: amnesty for the crew and junior officers, while Chaplin and Kendal plead guilty and spend two years in protective custody. Kendal wants to talk it over with Chaplin, who shuts him down, even when Curry drops it to 18 months. Chaplin still insists on a public trial, and even threatens to try Curry and the president in absentia. He walks away from the table, dragging a reluctant Kendal, who accuses Chaplin of being willing to screw his crew for his truth. "My truth?" Chaplin spits. Curry turns his attention to Kendal, promising him zero prison time for himself and Shepard both, guaranteed safety in the country of Kendal's choice, "With your beautiful wife," in exchange for turning over the Colorado. Kendal and Chaplin look at each other, and Kendal says he has a deal. "You put that in writing, you got your sub back." Curry bugs out with his delegation, and Chaplin is left doing something unexpected: smiling.
King is still hanging on the sonar array when another sub drifts by while his air runs out. He hangs his dog tags on the frame, clearly figuring this will be his grave.
Shepard is on the Colorado's PA, giving her own stirring captain's speech about how she's betting on them in their upcoming engagement with the enemy, "because you sailors are a sure thing. Carry on." The subs are moving in, and Shepard gives the order to hit the gas and start rising. Other subs are approaching them and acquiring them as a target.
After the negotiation, Kendal realizes that Chaplin provoked Curry on purpose to get the best deal for his senior officers, knowing Curry was going to split them up. "I had to be sure your emotion would be read as real." Kendal says it was, which Chaplin knows. So he just sacrificed himself for his people. Curry returns with an official-looking executive order, reminding Kendal that the deal is off if he says a word to anyone. Curry tells Chaplin he'll be court-martialed, and agrees to let him address his crew first. Suddenly Straw tears up the order, saying it's expired. To Chaplin and Kendal's confusion, she leads Curry and Admiral Shepard out of the church saying they have the Colorado in sights. "Kill her. Kill her now," Curry orders. Straw starts to give the order, but suddenly the admiral grabs an MPs gun and shoots both her and Curry before getting tackled, and Straw's phone is left squawking in the dirt. On the Colorado, Cameron is reporting that the other boats are closing in, well within firing range, although they haven't yet. "Maybe they don't want to hit a girl," Prosser cracks. "How did you ever stay married?" the girl in question asks. "Stayed deployed," he answers. Shepard realizes someone bought them time, and orders that the torpedoes made good and ready.
On the beach, Curry's being dragged back to a boat, hollering vainly for a radio. By the time he gets one and the Illinois obeys his order to fire, the Colorado has already done so. Her torpedoes explode somewhere between the two subs, and Shepard sends them up through the resulting debris. Looks like they lost the Illinois and the torpedoes it launched at them, but at some point the Colorado is going to have to stop using up all its weapons in the service of not killing anyone. For now, Shepard gets on the phone to the other ships in the area and says there are four nukes spun up and aimed at D.C, and they should "kindly remove your forces from the 200-mile perimeter. Thank you for your cooperation." Prosser looks at her with actual admiration. The bad news? The clock on King's air just ran out.
Awakened by a noise in her house, Christine starts stalking the darkened rooms with the gun pulled from her side table drawer. But the weapon is not at all intimidating to her intruder: Kylie Sinclair. She introduces herself, and offers to prove that Kendal was set up by the government. Christine offers her some coffee. How trusting is the XO's wife, anyway?
The Colorado remains underwater, now searching the sonar array, even though King's air reserves are three and a half minutes in the red. Prosser shares with Shepard a story of an old drinking buddy he offered ten bucks to for every minute he kept his head underwater, only to end up fifty bucks poorer. He was a SEAL, of course. Just then Sophie and Cameron hear tapping, weakly, and they close in on the Morse code message in obvious relief. "What's he saying?" Shepard asks. "You don't want to know, ma'am," Cameron grins. King stops tapping, just as the Colorado appears behind him. Snap it up, chumps, unless you plan to beam him aboard.
Kylie is explaining to Christine about her prototype on the Colorado and how it magically records and transmits data to a drive that has since been "stolen by a secret cabal as part of a government cover-up." Christine believes her, and Kylie says she plans to flush them all out, but "my access is a bit limited at the moment." Thus she wants Christine needs to make some noise, which Kylie indicates by opening the shades on the news vans still camped outside. Kylie's all ready to launch into a persuasive speech, but Christine is already in. There's only one favor she wants in return, and it has to do with Paul Wells, who Christine says has been so great. "But he's a government agent, sent to spy on me and turn me against Sam." Aw, Christine, you rule. Kylie asks how she knows this, and Christine says "the other woman always knows." By which she means that Kendal's really married to his country and wouldn't betray it for anything. "Not for anything. Not even me." Even though it's kind of being a bitch lately?
With King safely back inside the airlock and sucking on oxygen, Shepard reports on the radio, "Mission accomplished. Ship and all hands in good condition." That's a first. When King comes around, Shepard asks him how he held his breath for six minutes, and he says he told his body she'd left him for dead. Shepard says it was a tough call and pats him on the leg, but he grabs her wrist and flirts, "How tough?" She stands up to leave, but Prosser hollers, "Ten-hut!" whereupon all the sailors in the companionway snap to attention and salute as he announces, "Officer on deck." Shepard leaves the area with a smile, because she loves a reference to A Few Good Men/
Out on the beach, Kendal asks Chaplin how they're going to respond to the break of the perimeter and the attempt to sink the Colorado. "We're not," Chaplin says mildly. He's getting a little too good at that. Kendal recaps that Straw's dead and the Secretary of Defense was shot, but Chaplin says Curry knows the rule, "Never admit to being attacked unless you're prepared to pay the price for your response." So officially it didn't happen, and they were never here. There's still the issue of what they're going to tell Shepard about her father the Admiral, now technically a murderer, which Kendal advises, "Straight up and quick."
Chaplin appears on the conn and he takes in Shepard's proud smile before dismissing the other sailors and telling her, "Grace, it's about your father." And here she was having such a good day.
King returns to bar and kisses Tani. She kisses back. As always, nearly dying is the best aphrodisiac.
On the roof of the station, Sophie gives Kendal one of her last cups of coffee, and a smoldering look. "Drink it while you can," she invites. She means the coffee, right?
Chaplin's back in his quarters on the Colorado, where, heartbreakingly, he begins to unpack, starting with the photos of his dead family members. Aw, he really did think he was going home today. I have to admit to sharing somewhat in his disappointment; three weecaps on Thursday nights is a bit taxing.
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.