Contributor: Henry T.
Written by Karl Gajdusek
Directed by Kevin Hooks
While I appreciated that “Blue On Blue” ran with some of the hanging plot threads from “Captain”, it doesn’t feel like a complete episode to me. The parts seem to still be coalescing into something interesting, but it’s not quite there yet. Lines are being drawn amongst the crew of the USS Colorado and the grip Captain Chaplin has on the Sainte Marina island is tenuous at best. The episode contains a lot of talk about how difficult it’s going to be when brothers in arms who should be friendly are forced to shoot and kill each other, yet the show then takes an abrupt turn to another direction, and the conflict is then dropped. It’s very strange.
The copout should hopefully not be a regular occurrence on this show. There’s also a small disconnect between what’s happening on home soil versus what’s happening on the island. It’s part the distance between the two locations and the fact that we still don’t know what to make of the characters involved in the storylines in Washington. Like the previous episode, there’s a sense that something larger is going on, and that is being hidden from view right now so judgment has to be reserved for later.
There is still one reliable joy in watching this series, and that’s Andre Braugher as Captain Chaplin. He has firm command of the screen as Chaplin orders a couple of idle threats to repel any invaders who violate the no man’s land perimeter in the pilot episode. Just like the pilot with the launching of the nuclear missile, Chaplin doesn’t hesitate to fire a torpedo at another American submarine, even if it was not armed and unexpectedly clanks off the hull. The mysterious “Perseus” technology on the Colorado is used for the first time, and it becomes yet another weapon in Chaplin’s arsenal for use. The Perseus renders the Colorado invisible to all forms of detection, apparently. It’s got to do something else because if invisibility to radar is the only thing it does, that qualifies as a disappointment given the importance the Kylie character attaches to it.
The threats don’t stop coming, though, and I appreciate the show’s relentless quality in this manner. A plane flies close to the island (one of many reminders of “Lost” on this series in addition to the locations on the island) and it is suspected of dropping a Delta Force team to kill everyone loyal to Chaplin. So Kendal is tasked with defending the island from the invaders, which COB Prosser uses as the perfect opportunity for one of his loyalists to assassinate Lt. Shepard when they get the chance. The COB going against the Captain is one thing, but the explicit contempt for Lt. Shepard is too on-the-nose here. By the time Grace tells the men loyal to Prosser that shooting her is of no use in the situation that they’re in, I’m rolling my eyes along with her. If you’re going to shoot her, shoot her. Otherwise, build something else and work towards the goal later.
Kendal is tasked to come up with a way to take out the Delta Force, and that usually means asking the Navy SEALs on the island since sailors going against Delta Force is not going to end well. Aside from Navy SEAL King, the episode oddly ignores the other SEALs from the pilot episode. You just had to know King was going to figure into the episode’s lone action sequence, where Kendal’s fire team faces off against the invading Delta Force. Only, it turns out that they aren’t Delta Force. They’re Russian Special Forces troops presumably sent in by the Russian Minister of Defense, thus adding a layer of international flavor to things. I would have been fine with all of this if the action sequence were at least competently staged. It really was not so, and since I didn’t know Grace’s position relative to both Kendal and the Russians, there was no tension in the scene. Plus, there is the question of why the Russians are so interested in Chaplin’s island. As if the writers needed another question for them to come up with a convoluted answer for. I wouldn’t be surprised if the powers in Asia started trying to get to the island in some way.
The questionable mindset was what I had as the episode went through the subplots involving Christine and Kylie. Christine tells Kendal that he shouldn’t trust anything the US government tells them, which is sound advice going forward, but the episode presents an insidious twist that Kendal doesn’t tell his wife everything about his military career. That’s an understandable thing since she is a civilian, but the government agents interrogating Christine make it seem like there’s more to what Sam is or isn’t telling her than what is generally known.
It’s certainly more obtuse than what is done with Kylie’s plotline. Kylie is a character that I think still needs to have the rougher edges smoothed out. I don’t know if it’s the fact that the actress is playing her too perky and over-excited about everything (who would really just casually sit down at a bar and tell everyone within earshot what is sure to be classified information?), or if it’s intentional that the character be that way, but she is getting annoying with every passing episode. Her mole does provide her with the information that she’s after, though there feels like less mystery to me surrounding what “Order 998″ could be. That may figure into what’s happening on Sainte Marina later on, but for now, it feels too disconnected to mean anything but depriving the audience of information for the sake of continuing a mystery.
Whatever the case may be, I still find this show intriguing enough to follow with every episode that airs. The writers need to tighten up a few things with the overall plot and start emphasizing some character development over story, but it remains a very dynamic show. That should continue for some time.
Score: 7/10
