The Last Ship premieres tonight on TNT with an episode at 9PM EST called “Phase Six”. On tonight’s episode, the crew of a lone naval ship try to save humanity when they discover a deadly virus has wiped out most of the population in the series premiere of this drama. Executive producers include Michael Bay.
For those of you who don’t know about the show, The Last Ship opens with a global catastrophe that nearly decimates the world’s population. Because of its positioning, the Navy destroyer U.S.S. Nathan James avoids falling victim to the devastating tragedy. But now, Captain Tom Chandler (Dane) and his crew must confront the reality of their new existence in a world where they may be among the few remaining survivors.
On tonight’s episode Captain Tom Chandler and the crew of the USS Nathan James set out for the Arctic with two civilian virologists, Dr. Rachel Scott and Dr. Quincy Tophet, who claim to be studying birds. When they come under attack by a renegade team of Russian forces, Chandler learns these virologists are actually collecting samples of the source of a deadly virus that has wiped out over half the human population while they’ve been at sea. As they head home on the orders of the remaining U.S. government, Chandler and his crew realize that home is a shadow of what they left, and the safest place to develop a vaccine for this deadly disease is out at sea on their ship.
Tonight’s premiere of The Last Ship is going to be great. You’re not going to want to miss a minute of the action and we’ll be recapping it live for you as well. While you’re waiting for the episode to begin hit up the comments and tell us your thoughts about the show. In the meantime, enjoy a sneak peek preview of tonight’s episode below.
RECAP:
In Egypt, there is an American military chopper escort asking for permission to enter airspace. Permission is given. Dr Rachel Scott is on board. They land near a refugee camp and she hops out in full HEPA gear. There are thousands quarantined and hundreds dead. The local doctor says once the spots show up, they are dead in two days and thought she was bringing more doctors.
She pops open her case that says CDC and takes a blood sample from a victim that’s in bad shape. She tells him she’s sorry and leaves. She rushes back to the chopper. Looks like no more doctors are coming. They take off.
At the naval station in Norfolk, the USS Nathan James is prepping to leave. XO Mike Slattery tells them they need to load up faster. There is an argument over whether a service dog can come along. CMC Jeter of the Mountain Unit says the dog has to come.
Commander Chandler shows up and finds Dr Scott giving orders on where her equipment can go. She’s taken over the helicopter bay for her lab and he asks if there is something to be concerned about since he sees the HEPA gear. Quincy, Rachel’s assistant says that they just have the HAZMAT gear just so they don’t contaminate their research and she lies and says they are going to be studying birds.
She says they are virologists that chase microbes in hard to reach places and says it’s pretty dull. He welcomes her aboard but seems skeptical. She and Quincy exchange a look after he leaves and she looks at a bin of test mice. Four months later, they are on a top secret mission still in radio silence. Slattery comes in and says his face is frozen and he should have taken the desk job in Miami.
Rachel and Quincy work out on the tundra escorted by armed guards. Chandler and the crew are doing military exercises and they track a target a helo dropped. They score a hit and are pleased. Chandler radios the crew and says they just passed their final test and he’s asking the Pentagon today if they can break radio silence to get calls and emails.
Chandler tells the crew to get Dr Scott off the ice because the temps are dropping too low. She doesn’t respond and she says they are so close. She doesn’t want to leave. Quincy says they can try again tomorrow. She resists but they tell her they have orders. They are delivered back to the ship as ordered. She marches angrily to Chandler and says he had no right to pull her from her work.
She says those men are here to support her and that she finally found what she’s looking for. He cuts her off and he says her attitude is less charming than it was months ago. He tells her to be quiet and says he’s been more of a gracious host and tells her to wrap it up and says their mission is done and they’re heading back.
Benzo tells Charlie to get his head out of the book. Danny and Kara step into a small space and kiss. The two LTs make out and she stalls him saying they’ll be home soon enough. In the lab, Rachel and Quicny work with the mice injecting them with something. Rachel radios for the National Security Advisor and says her mission is being interfered with.
Chandler is told that their mission has been extended and that they are to stay put on radio silence until further notice. Two days later, Chandler stares at the dots that represent Rachel and Quicy and wonders what the hell she’s doing. They dig in the ice and retrieve samples. Rachel tells Quincy she thinks they have it.
The dog and the mountain boys lurk nearby and complain that they should already be on the way home. Kara notices aircraft coming in. They alert Chandler that there are unidentified aircraft moving in. Rachel and Quincy hear them and the mountain boys say that they’re Russian birds. They go into high alert. The chopper opens fire on the snowmobiles and Rachel says they have to save the samples.
Quincy tells her to leave it. The chopper is firing aggressively at the snowmobiles and then is firing on the scientists as they pack up. A missile takes out one of the choppers. Rachel grabs her work case and staggers along with it. She barely avoids being shot. Men plunge from the choppers and try to approach her but the ground troops take them out and then another chopper goes up in flames.
On the ship, they raise a call to battle stations and prepare to engage the helos. A Russian has Rachel in his sights when the dog takes him out and then the others disarm him so they can take him alive. A launch takes off to help and the shop fires on the helos that are left when they refuse to identify themselves. The helos fire on the ship and they take some damage.
Chandler calls for bigger guns and they blow the last one out of the sky. The dog barks and the guys on the ground calls that it’s all clear. The chopper brings the scientists back and they tell Chandler she’s banged up pretty good. Chandler interrogates the Russian trooper and he said he wants the cure.
[8:32:27 PM] Rachel Rowan: Chandler says to break radio silence and get him SECDEF. Rachel says she wants her samples and Chandler has her case and demands to know what’s going on. She says he has no authority. He tells her he will throw the case overboard if she doesn’t give answers.
She tells him there was an outbreak outside Cairo seven months ago killing everyone that was infected. She says it mutated and spread and the CDC and WHO sent her to get a virus to create a vaccine. She says nothing worked and it was her idea to find the primordial strain in the arctic. She has the evidence but won’t know until she gets back to the lab.
Rachel says the virus is spreading and he says that they were radio silent. She says that he was, not her and says he doesn’t understand. She says when they left the virus was at stage two limited to Asia and Africa. She says we are at phase six – global pandemic. She says 80% of the world’s population is infected. He says the whole world is dying and they sent two people to save it and she says it took weeks to convince them to let her do this mission. She says what’s in that case may be the only hope they have.
Chandler is told the President is on the video com. Rachel says she’s sorry he had to find out that way and asks for her samples. He hands them over and stalks out. On the video is a woman and she tells Chandler he knows her as the Speaker of the House but says the President died two weeks ago and the federal government is holed up. She asks if Dr Scott is able to make a vaccine. She says they need to go to a secret lab off of North Carolina’s coast.
He says they were attacked by Russians and she says Russia has no existing government. She says they have no more allies or enemies, just sick desperate people. She says if Dr Scott has the makings of a cure they have to come home now. They make sail and Chandler and Slattery watch the news. It’s insanity and chaos with rumors that the US government is hoarding a cure.
Slattery says they kept them in the dark about what was happening back home. There’s a fuel stop off the coast of France they have to try for but they don’t know if there will be enough fuel there to get them home. Chandler says he’s going to tell the crew everything. The crew is assembled on deck for Chandler to address.
He tells them that he has news from home. Mason tries to raise another station and gets only static. Chandler tries to call home and gets a system failure notice. We see his wife and kids as he stares at a photo. They are alone on the seas. Chandler comes back onto the bridge. Granderson tells him that she couldn’t reach home and only four people could get through and the news wasn’t good.
She says she keeps thinking about her girlfriend and he says that’s the stuff that matters. Slattery comes to the bride and says his son is gone and that his wife and daughters are okay for now. Granderson says they have a fire order but aren’t sure about the target. The coordinates don’t make sense and the message is garbled.
A ballistic missile has been fired – a nuclear weapon is in the air and they have no chance to do anything. The missile overshot and is headed for land. There’s 12 seconds to detonation. They are told to shield their eyes. The blast goes off and the ship is rocked. Power flickers from the EMP. They are on emergency lights. Chandler comes down and asks about engine status.
The EMP blew the grid. They have no propulsion. Chandler says they have to get as far away from the blast as they can. They try a hail Mary and blow a fuse and they have only one fuse left with a cloud of radiation about to drop on them. Chandler hangs on to the fuse while they reset it and it blows him t the side but works.
Rachel is in a panic because her research materials need to stay cold. Granderson says they’re going to run dry in six hours. They spot a ship and Chandler says to calculate a course to intercept. It’s a cruise ship. It looks like an Italian cruise ship. Chandler radios the ship. He asks them to identify themselves. Radio silence.
They prepare a launch to go get food and fuel for the ship and then get out. Rachel tells them the virus is airborne and highly contagious. She tells them to keep their helmets on at all time. They board the ship, Rachel with them. They run the fuel line to get the gas they need first and open the valves. The rest go inside, guns out to look for supplies. In the kitchen, they find their first body.
They tell Chander that there’s no one alive on board and they raid the kitchen. In the freezer they find plastic wrapped bodies by the dozen. The large ballroom is littered with row after row of corpses and was obviously serving as a hospital. They find one guy speaking and alive. Rahcel kneels by him to take a blood sample.
Chandler says he’s asking for help and Rachel says the only thing that can help him now is morphine. She administers a dose and tells him to let go. He dies. The soldiers are rapidly exploring when one trips and his helmet comes off. It’s too late for him. He’s got blood on him from one of the sick people. Frankie yells at his partner to get away from him and leave him.
They’ve got all the fuel and Danny tries to drag him along. Chandler and Rachel come up and Frankie tells Rachel to tell him. Frankie says he can’t risk it and pulls out his gun. He says he won’t die the way these other people went out. Chandler tells him to stand down but he puts a bullet in his head. Next day they hold a funeral for Frankie on deck.
Rachel works in her lab tirelessly. Danny steps forward to accept the flag for his fallen comrade. They do a 21 gun salute (waste of ammo BTWs) while Rachel and Quincy watch the equipment work with the latest sample. Chandler is on deck when Rachel finds him. He says these people depend on him and he’s in uncharted territory. She says she has a lead. The blood from the Italian shows an extra gene and it was either weaponized or was tampered with in a lab.
Rachel says it no longer needs to mutate which makes it stable and easier to defeat with a vaccine. He asks why no one else did it and she says they are the only ones with the primordial sample. Chandler gets an alert from comms. It’s five days old from POTUS. They can’t raise the Pentagon and Chandler says to try the presidential bunker. The NC lab is compromised.
There’s another message the same time as the one from POTUS. It’s an MPEG. They play it. It’s Chandler’s wife. She says they are at his dad’s cabin and that his contacts at the Pentagon will try to send it. She says they are all healthy and they got out early and have been up on the mountain for a couple of months but haven’t heard from his brother or sister. She says her sister is gone.
She calls the kids over so he can see them. One of the kids asks where he is and says he misses them. His wife says they love and miss him and ask him to get there when they can. They are now heading for Florida per the latest orders. They detect no radiation which means at least the East Coast of the US wasn’t nuked.
Rachel and Quincy work in the lab when Chandler comes in. He asks if she can make the vaccine on the ship. She says the lab wasn’t built for that and he asks if she could if she had to. Slattery talks to the crew and says they will proceed with caution and will not engage unless engaged. They are sending in a small landing party to see what’s what.
Chandler says there is still nothing from POTUS. Slattery says they’ll know more when they get boots on the ground but Chandler says they aren’t going on. He says the lab is 200 miles inland and there are too many variables. He says Dr Scott says she can make the vaccine in the lab. Slattery says they don’t have enough fuel or food and Chandler says that with no other orders, he’s in charge.
Slattery says people want to go home and Chandler reminds him there are only 80 bio-hazard suits and more than 200 people. Slattery says he’s playing God and Chandler tells him to fall in line. Chandler goes back to the bridge. He tells them to go left rudder, all engines ahead. Granderson questions his command and then says aye aye and repeats the order. They head away from the coast.
Chandler addresses the crew on the comms system. He tells them that they have no contact with home and he has good reason to believe the government is not functioning. He says their duty is now to the entire world and on this ship is the hope for their futures, families and all of humanity. He says they have to protect it and their mission it to do what it takes to stay alive at sea until the cure is found.
He says they are headed to an unmanned food and fuel station off Guantanamo Bay and says that’s their first stop. He says they will come through this together and will prevail. He tells them to carry on and ends the announcement. Stony gazes surround him on the deck and they turn and salute Chandler who salutes them in return.
In the lab, someone comes in wearing a hazmat suit as Quincy is on the phone. He’s speaking Russian and says he doesn’t know what to do because the ship is turning away from America.
