FINAL CRUISE: The Last Season of The Last Ship

[The Wormhole]

Interesting they had a call back to The Last Ship novel (which aside from the ship's name has no similarity to the show) when explaining the origin of the name Nathan James.

So, are all the brass traveling aboard the Nathan James? Seems odd, with a carrier traveling right behind them you'd think they'd be there. Though, I guess this is one of those TV things where we just have to accept all the characters with speaking roles will congregate where the sets have been built.

The ensign guy who came up with the jamming device really is the Wesley Crusher of The Last Ship.

I had the exact same thought.

I'm hoping Slattery is the last man standing, and I'm hoping Captain Green is the last woman standing right beside him.

I can see this happening. Slattery goes aboard the carrier, with a newly promoted to full Captain Kara Green as his flag captain.

Who are all the nonwhite characters still alive?

Master Chief, that one from the Kenyan military, and the Asian TAO.

 

[Romulan_spy]

Series Finale is here! That beach landing was intense!

 

[Admiral2]

It was indeed! My favorite moment was when they managed to insert the Marine motto into the dialogue.

Before we get into dissecting the finale, I want to take a moment to thank TNT and the show's producers for managing to give us five highly entertaining seasons of television - warts and all - derived from some really dodgy source material. I couldn't get through the first chapter of the book, but now I've seen every episode of the series and I'm glad I did.

Nice job, ladies and gents.

 

[Kirby]

Agreed. Overall very entertaining, albeit wildly unbelievable; I enjoyed the hell out it, and I’m sad to see it wrap up.
I’m interested in the book, but the reviews on Amazon, and your comment are scaring me off. Probably just better to leave it with the show.

 

[Aragorn]

Jocko Sims (Burk) speaks out on the biggest deaths of the season being women and minorities (Burk, Granderson, Meylan, Garnett, Rios). He doesn't think the writers' room is racist, just lacking in imagination, and wonders what message the network thinks it's sending. He also feels like none of these deaths were impactful because the characters had very little character development compared to the ones who survived, that the audience was more sad to see Burk and Granderson get killed off simply because they had been on the show from the start rather than anything deeper, and that deaths from what he considers Group A (Chandler, Slattery, Danny, Kara, Miller, Wolf and Sasha) would've been more meaningful.

 

[Morpheus 02]

Jocko Sims (Burk) speaks out on the biggest deaths of the season being women and minorities (Burk, Granderson, Meylan, Garnett, Rios). He doesn't think the writers' room is racist, just lacking in imagination, and wonders what message the network thinks it's sending. He also feels like none of these deaths were impactful because the characters had very little character development compared to the ones who survived, that the audience was more sad to see Burk and Granderson get killed off simply because they had been on the show from the start rather than anything deeper, and that deaths from what he considers Group A (Chandler, Slattery, Danny, Kara, Miller, Wolf and Sasha) would've been more meaningful.

I would agree...unless those actors volunteered for it...it was obvious to me

 

[Romulan_spy]

Let me just say that The Last Ship has been one of my favorite TV shows. Thank you for all involved in making the show. Thank you for the great entertainment!

And I enjoyed the finale. The beach landing was fantastic! But I gotta nitpick the fight with the battleship. It was a disappointing to me that the NJ never even got a shot off on the battleship. I would have loved to see a more desperate back and forth fight with the battleship having the superior firepower but the NJ getting a few missiles off, desperately trying to take down the battleship before the NJ sinks. Instead we got the battleship take out the NJ on the opening salvo. Then, there were a few glaring plot holes. First, how the heck did the NJ never see the battleship until it was too late? Even if the NJ did not have its radar on, the battleship was close enough that Chandler found it visually with a pair of binoculars. The idea that a big honkin' battleship can get within visual range of the NJ without being detected is pretty silly. Heck, most naval combat now is beyond visual range. Ships detect each other on radar and fire off missiles way before either ship gets within visual range. Second, the battleship conveniently stops firing at the NJ to give the crew time for the dramatic "abandon ship" moment. Why didn't the battleship keep firing to finish the NJ off? Third, the captain said that all systems were down. It is stated that the ship had no weapons or radar or propulsion. So how the heck did Chandler hit a few keys on a console and arm the VLS missiles and turn the propellers back on? Last, it was mighty convenient that the battleship go so impossibly close, that a sinking NJ was still able to ram her before she moved out of the way.

 

[marillion]

Damn! What an ending!! But who were the names listed?

I have to admit I want more. A time jump. Somthing...

 

[Q2UnME]

Damn! What an ending!! But who were the names listed?

I have to admit I want more. A time jump. Something...

All the names listed were of the actual service men and women of the USN ships used during filming of the various seasons. Nice bit of "Thank You' to the crews, especially since the episode aired on Veterans Day.

 

[Romulan_spy]

I have to admit I want more. A time jump. Somthing...

Me too. It was an abrupt ending, just "they rescue Chandler, the end". A post credit scene or text telling us what happens to the crew would have been nice.

I also feel like I need to rewatch Chandler's dream sequence when he thinks he is dying. There was a lot of symbolism going on.

 

[Aragorn]

Who were all the other dead characters that got lines during Chandler's near death experience? I didn't recognize a single one of them outside of the obvious ones.

 

[Admiral2]

Let me just say that The Last Ship has been one of my favorite TV shows. Thank you for all involved in making the show. Thank you for the great entertainment!

And I enjoyed the finale. The beach landing was fantastic! But I gotta nitpick the fight with the battleship. It was a disappointing to me that the NJ never even got a shot off on the battleship. I would have loved to see a more desperate back and forth fight with the battleship having the superior firepower but the NJ getting a few missiles off, desperately trying to take down the battleship before the NJ sinks. Instead we got the battleship take out the NJ on the opening salvo. Then, there were a few glaring plot holes. First, how the heck did the NJ never see the battleship until it was too late? Even if the NJ did not have its radar on, the battleship was close enough that Chandler found it visually with a pair of binoculars. The idea that a big honkin' battleship can get within visual range of the NJ without being detected is pretty silly. Heck, most naval combat now is beyond visual range. Ships detect each other on radar and fire off missiles way before either ship gets within visual range. Second, the battleship conveniently stops firing at the NJ to give the crew time for the dramatic "abandon ship" moment. Why didn't the battleship keep firing to finish the NJ off? Third, the captain said that all systems were down. It is stated that the ship had no weapons or radar or propulsion. So how the heck did Chandler hit a few keys on a console and arm the VLS missiles and turn the propellers back on? Last, it was mighty convenient that the battleship go so impossibly close, that a sinking NJ was still able to ram her before she moved out of the way.

I'll say what I thought both times when the battleship attacked this season: Why didn't NJ go down immediately?

A battleship's main guns are built to batter other battleships until they go down. NJ is not a battleship. One good 16-inch hit at the waterline and they wouldn't have time to converse about stuff and have wistful looks around the ship. One sixteen inch in the engines or fuel tanks and NJ is kindling. I get you want to make the NJ face impossible odds, but if the bad guy BB acts like the Japanese battleships at Leyte Gulf (Oh no! Detroyers! Ruuuuun!) Chandler's final heroic victory doesn't look all that heroic.

 

[Romulan_spy]

A battleship's main guns are built to batter other battleships until they go down. NJ is not a battleship. One good 16-inch hit at the waterline and they wouldn't have time to converse about stuff and have wistful looks around the ship. One sixteen inch in the engines or fuel tanks and NJ is kindling. I get you want to make the NJ face impossible odds, but if the bad guy BB acts like the Japanese battleships at Leyte Gulf (Oh no! Detroyers! Ruuuuun!) Chandler's final heroic victory doesn't look all that heroic.

Good point. I still think the Nathan James can win if it is able to engage the battleship with its missiles beyond the range of the battleship's big guns.

 

[Admiral2]

Good point. I still think the Nathan James can win if it is able to engage the battleship with its missiles beyond the range of the battleship's big guns.

Of course it could. Its missiles give it the advantage of range. The problem is the writers were more interested in giving Chandler a fake sacrifice moment than getting the NAVAL KOMBAAAT right.

And now that I'm on that subject, I gotta get something off my chest that's been killing me all season. The crew of NJ in these situations kept talking about launching torpedoes and Harpoon missiles. Hey, guys? You know NJ is a FlightIIA Arleigh Burke, right? The version with the hangars? You know what that version doesn't have? TORPEDO TUBES AND HARPOON MISSILE LAUNCHERS, because those weapons were mounted topside on the original ships that didn't have hangars, and they had to lose them to put the hangars in the design!

Taking a deep breath...and exhale.

Yep, warts and all...

 

[The Wormhole]

Well, an entertaining episode, and satisfactory ending to the series, though there was a lot that could have been handled differently. I see I was wrong in my prediction all season that Tavo's wife was the real power behind the throne. But also, they never really addressed why Tavo had such an intense hatred of Chandler. Was it just a complex about taking down America's living legend/god figure, or did Chandler make a mess of a bathroom at Disney Land that Tavo had to clean up?

Chandler's near death dream was an interesting sequence, mostly at how many they brought back for a cameo, and it was nice to see Tex again. That guy makes me smile every time he shows up. Although, Dr. Scott only being seen from behind and hurrying through corridors basically just screams "we couldn't get Rhona Mitra. Sorry." I am going to echo the statement made above that I did not recognize half the people who stood up during the "we have the watch!" scene. And I'm guessing the dog's presence in the dream is meant to indicate he's dead?

Okay, seriously, just how tough is Wolf anyway? He kept getting shot and stabbed repeatedly during his last stand and doesn't slow down until all the bad guys are taken care of?

And though I was right in my prediction Nathan James would go down, it seems Chandler didn't go down with his ship. I don't know, having him killed would have been the perfect ending to his arc. Arguably this show is about Tom Chandler and the Nathan James, so it's only fitting that the series end with both of them gone.

All things considered, this show has been a hell of a ride. I was in a pretty bleak mood the first half of 2014, but watching the first season that summer helped get me out of my funk. And since each season has been a highlight to me year. It hasn't always been a perfect show, but it is usually a damn fine show, and that's okay. I'm going to miss it.

I couldn't get through the first chapter of the book,

The novel's a damn chore to get through, that's for damn sure. And I have read the whole thing.

 

[Aragorn]

They didn't try to get Rhona Mitra because of how angry she was about getting written off the show.

 

[J.T.B.]

I’m interested in the book, but the reviews on Amazon, and your comment are scaring me off. Probably just better to leave it with the show.

It's a good book. In fact it might be a great book. It was very well-reviewed when it came out. It's an '80s nuclear war story and quite grim in that The Day After/Threads/Testament kind of way. It isn't action-oriented but has some pretty gripping and memorable sequences. If you like Conrad novels or Moby Dick you will probably like it. Brinkley's Don't Go Near The Water and The Ninety and Nine are really good naval books, too.

 

[The Wormhole]

They didn't try to get Rhona Mitra because of how angry she was about getting written off the show.

Oh, I didn't realize. Though I suspected there was something going on with her going when the season 2 finale was filmed. I remember seeing a behind the scenes video on YouTube of that scene where the Nathan James crew meets the civilian crowd and spreads the cure to them. Everyone from the show's main and supporting cast is interviewed except her.

 

[Admiral2]

They didn't try to get Rhona Mitra because of how angry she was about getting written off the show.

I thought it was because she was busy chewing scenery in the waste of airtime that is Supergirl, season 4.

 

[Morpheus 02]

I only saw parts of it...but we missed a non-white Character in our predictions -- Stinger died.

And of course Wolf the white guy with an accent, lives.

And i third or fourth the nomination to have some kind of post credits coda