3 Burning Questions for The Last Ship S5 Ep6 – Air Drop

Daley Review

6 years ago

3 Big Questions…

That lead to more questions.

Last Week’s (and earlier) Questions Answered

Did anyone like last week’s time-jumpy editing? Yes. But not the majority of viewers. Some people have brought up that the episode might have been attempting to show viewers what it might be like inside the head of someone like Chandler, who possibly suffers from PTSD. Most people found the attempt unsuccessful.

Is Miller about to die? Not yet. He returned to comic relief this week.

Was I the only person to feel “ooked” out by the war bond scene? No, I wasn’t. Although war bonds have had some precedent in the US, many other viewers found the scene’s mere presence in last week’s episode at least out of place, if not distasteful.

Who will command the James? Kara, that’s who. Burk looks like he’s XO.

What’s Tavo’s beef with the US? He claims that the US deserves its comeuppance after a long history of interfering in Latin America. But then Hector said all that stuff about Disneyland…

How is Kelsie connected to Tavo’s movement? Still don’t know, but she got a text from Colombia just after Tavo declares he will start making his own luck.

The Last Ship – 506 – “Air Drop” Welcome to Cuba copyright 07/27/2017 image by Doug Hyun

This Week’s Questions

Chandler’s wound – could that turn into a big deal?

Might be nothing, but the admiral took shrapnel from the explosion or landed on something sharp, impaling his gut. He then used a series of fire-heated rocks to cauterize the wound. I’m not a medical professional, but those rocks may not have been sterile. Yes, I understand infections can be treated once we stop bleeding out. There’s a but coming. BUT Chandler is behind enemy lines. Did they pack antibiotics for these kinds of things? I don’t recall if the Navy corpsman made it or not, but he’d have the goods with him – maybe. If he didn’t and they’re stuck there a while, infection could limit Admiral Chandler’s combat effectiveness, decision-making, etc. You sure couldn’t tell in this episode, but the writers have used nagging injuries that span multiple episodes before.

Then again, it IS Chandler I’m talking about here. He fits more in the, “Ain’t got time to bleed,” mold.

What’s the deal with that battleship?

What do we know so far? Well, in the battleship’s first appearance, the radar listed it as Iowa class. This week, we saw presumably the same ship on radar listed as “Alpha”. What else? It DOES exist, but can play tricks on the James’ radar. Is that it? Pretty much. Something we can assume, but probably doesn’t matter – the ship patrols the coastline of Cuba. She sails close enough to the shore, in fact, that Chandler could see her, looking HUGE while he repaired his wounds. Here’s my bet on the ship’s identity: it’s the Russian admiral’s. When she sailed by, she sounded like an old refrigerator on its last legs. When I heard that, I thought, “I’ve heard that old refrigerator somewhere…” It sounds just like the Vyerni, that old, supposedly-sunk, Russian battleship from seasons ago. That tea-sipping comrade had a lot of unfinished business with Chandler and we didn’t ever actually see his dead body… Nor did we actually see her sink. We saw several explosions as the good guys raced back to the James, but I’m not so sure that’s a confirmed kill now.

The trick with the radar – not entirely sure how you hide a battleship. We have seen the James use a couple techniques to fool enemies’ radars in the past though. Earlier this season, the James used some kind of remote control torpedo or something to fake out the bad guys. So, I’m sure it’s just something like that. What do you think?

What’s Tavo’s Beef with the US?

I know, I’ve already asked this, but this week’s conversation between Hector and Tavo has renewed my interest in the subject. All this time, Tavo portrayed himself as a man of his people. Just another one of the common people with an idea on how to improve things for like-minded countrymen. More importantly, he represents himself as the right person to champion his cause against the interloping United States. It turns out, the great and mighty Tavo was probably born north of the Rio Grande. A phony, in other words. The comment about his weak Spanish almost guarantees that. Hector’s line about cleaning up at Disneyland just about got him killed, but told us something about Tavo. I need more details before casting aspersions, but I’m now looking at that Disneyland job and the circumstances around it as THE factor in his grudge against the United States.

My bet: Tavo was probably way over-qualified for his job at Disneyland but had to take it due to some kind of circumstance. You can extrapolate from there feelings of classism and other -isms that someone in that position might endure first-hand. I’m not saying it happened that way, just that Tavo perceived it that way. I think this kind of background story fits with his current rhetoric. Do you think Tavo’s days as a janitor at the House of Mouse soured him toward the US?