Contributor: Henry T.
Written by Eileen Myers and Julie Siege
Directed by Billy Gierhart
Like the previous episode, the sudden end of the series facilitated a necessary flaw in the narrative structure that was very evident in this episode. “Cinderella Liberty” had a lot of plot being shown in a compressed amount of time. Here, some of the subplots had plausibility issues that weren’t as noticeable before. The events on Sainte Marina are fine, in fact they are the better parts of the episode, but the subplots involving King and Sam and the rescue of Christine skip a lot of steps to get from point A to point B.
It’s as if everyone saw the writing on the wall for the show and they either hoped no one would notice or that the viewership is so low that anyone left watching the series won’t care about narrative consistency. The show does embrace the geopolitical ramifications of Chaplin declaring Sainte Marina as his own private little country. He has to change the societal rules for the country on his own, both for potential allies and for the current residents as well. I think that if the show had gone on a bit longer, we would have seen this process occur in a more gradual way.
I imagine there is a lot of pressure put on Marcus Chaplin on a daily basis. Defying the orders of his country’s military for humanitarian purposes has squarely put a target on his back that he can’t seem to shake. He has no help coming because the US government is currently destabilized and untrustworthy. It’s natural to immediately think that salvation is coming in some small way when a peace envoy from China crosses the US blockade. They are there to negotiate for supplies and aid to come to Sainte Marina. Given how Pakistan took advantage of the relief ship last episode, Chaplin is correct in not trusting the motives of the Chinese envoy.
This is well-played out in the first scenes between Zheng and Chaplin, where Chaplin considers whether or not to take the aid Zheng offers from China. He is considering the pros and cons of each choice, and his face tells the pain of living with the consequences of accepting the Chinese aid. The US government will clearly see that he has become a puppet for the Chinese. We see immediately that the choice won’t make him popular with the natives or the military personnel left on the island. It’s also very late in the game, but it makes a lot of sense for the world’s other major superpower to make its entry. The situation is unstable and cries out for some kind of interjection from the Chinese.
What doesn’t help things is when Chaplin has to quell another crew mutiny, as some of his men attack Zheng without provocation. Chaplin responds by dropping the hammer on his crew: Instead of having the comforts of a jail or brig, which isn’t sustainable under current conditions on the island, the crew is to be summarily punished by old-time Navy corporal punishment tactics. Even the threat of seeing a lashing was stunning to me. The show doesn’t depict the lashing, but the crew morale is obviously going to go down after this incident.
The point Chaplin is trying to make with his crew is that he can no longer tolerate or maintain the disciplining of his crew while having to conduct negotiations to keep Sainte Marina from being bombed or attacked in some other way again. He has to establish rules to maintain his hold on the island, otherwise members of his crew will continue to undermine him. Sam isn’t by his side this time, and we see that Grace is not prepared for the responsibilities of the XO. It’s proven extremely difficult and I think they are one step away from full-blown chaos.
Away from the island, King and Sam somehow leave the island undetected in order to go to Manila and find Christine, last shown to have been kidnapped from the relief ship. The show just ignores how both of those men got to another country without being stopped by any form of authority. King could understandably slip by since he is an anonymous Navy SEAL, but Sam is one of the most well-known faces in the world as a result of the events depicted so far in the series so I doubt he could go anywhere without being stopped. We are even told that Sam has a substantial bounty on his head, which drives the rescue plot further into implausibility. The subplot proceeds quickly, though, as both men somehow find where Christine is being held and rescue her without significant injury.
There was the small sense that Wes set all of this up in order to get access to Christine, and that was confirmed when Sam and Christine are reunited, only to be quickly separated and a van blown up with Christine inside. From Sam’s point of view, she is dead, cruelly snatched away right after they get to see each other for the first time in a long time. But that isn’t true, and Christine looks like she’s once again involved in a plot where she will be held at ransom for something else. The abrupt end to the series necessitates this kind of rushing through the motions of a plot. There’s no time to enjoy any character moments or a sense that they are building towards something bigger than this. Even Hopper somehow gains entry back into the US to trade the helmet cam footage for Kylie’s money and again, that stretches the plausibility factor of the whole episode.
It becomes difficult to see where all of these events will lead up to, and with the end coming soon, the rushing through various plots will continue with no real stop. At least the show will have a definitive end. I just wish it didn’t have to skip some steps to get there.
Score: 7/10
