Episode Report Card M. Giant: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Lieutenant Grace Under Fire
By M. Giant | Season 1 | Episode 5 | Aired on 10.25.2012
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.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But when the fleet gets the Colorado in its sights, the offer is abruptly rescinded and the order given to sink the Colorado.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 next 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.