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We’ll Get There
We'll Get There
Season 1, Episode 4
Written by: Quinton Peeples
Directed by: Jack Bender
Running time: 42 minutes
Original airdate: July 13, 2014
Nielsen rating: 18-49 rating:
1.02
Viewers (million):
4.559
Previous:
Dead Reckoning
Next:
El Toro (Episode)

We'll Get There is the fourth episode of the first season of The Last Ship. "We'll Get There" refers to a phrase Captain Chandler keeps telling himself even though they have very hard odds against them.

Days after a trying series of events at Gitmo, Chandler and his crew are put under extreme duress when the ship’s propulsion system suffers a catastrophic event. With Dr. Scott in danger of losing all her research on the virus and a crew overworked, overtired and desperately low on drinking water, Chandler’s leadership and ingenuity are put to the test.

Summary[]

The episode beings with Captain Tom Chandler having a flashback to a sentimental moment with his family. He informs his wife and two kids that he will be radio silent for months in the arctic and will be unable to receive emails and phone calls. They give him gifts to remember them by. Specifically, his daughter gives him a bracelet.

The crew sets their course for Costa Rica, where there are some primates for Doctor Rachel Scott to test her vaccine on. Suddenly, the engine has a malfunction and the crew complains they don't have the necessary parts to fix the damage. A few minutes later Doctor Scott and Doctor Quincy Tophet get in an argument over Quincy refusing to help her find a cure, because his family probably ended up getting killed in the incident with the Russians. He lashes out at Rachel, saying she wouldn't understand because she has no personal life. Scott is infuriated and calls Quincy a coward and then storms out of the cell.

A moment later, the power to the Nathan James shuts down. A fire in the engine room leaves only one engine operational. However, it can only be used periodically since the cooling tanks were busted when the Nathan James’ hull brushed against a coral reef while escaping Guantanamo Bay. All remaining power is directed to Dr. Scott’s lab and the bridge to keep the primordial strain and other necessary equipment cool enough to survive.

Since the crew of the Nathan James can only run the engine every few hours, they set course for another small island on the Central American coast, because it has fresh water from lots of rainfall. The crew only has around 3,000 gallons of fresh water left, and for a crew of a couple hundred that is bad news. It will take six days for the Nathan James to get to reach the island. Captain Chandler disconcertingly explains that they only have enough water for four days and that after the second day of no water, people wil start dying.

XO Mike Slattery goes to convince Quincy to help Doctor Scott. His kindness towards the Doctor was ephemeral, Slattery informs Quincy that on United States Naval ships, “anything that does not serve a purpose is gone.” Doctor Tophet eventually gives in, but demands he gets occasional sunlight, and a good chess player. Slattery leaves the room looking very smug and has proven to be a shrewd negotiator.

Eventually the last circuit of a generator blows and there is no power anywhere in the ship, except for when the propeller is spinning. Doctor Scott states that her samples need to be below 41 degrees Fahrenheit in order to survive. Junior Grade Andy Chung comes up with an idea to submerge the samples inside a briefcase below 400 feet. The plan works and the samples are safe.

Chandler devises a plan to launch parachutes, attached to the ship, into the air - which will pull the ship and in turn, rotate the propeller, giving power to the generator, and more importantly, keeping Doctor Scott’s lab cool. Chandler is skeptical of his own plan until CMC Jeter gives a sermon of sorts, telling him to keep listening to his heart, head, or God speaking to him, because the crew believes in him and has put their full faith behind him.

Unfortunately the speed of the ship is going too slow. The crew runs out of water and they are all slowly becoming dehydrated. In an archetypal lost at sea scene, seagulls are seen off the bow of the ship, which of course indicates that land is near. The men on the bridge spots an island over the horizon and makes their way there. The ship anchors near a beach and the crew end up having a beach party. It is filled with campfires, signing songs, and the crew drinking abundant amounts water. There is a general mood of relaxation with the crew being able to set foot off the Nathan James.

For Quincy and another man named Bacon, he works in the galley and smells like pork apparently, there is no beach party. Instead Quincy gets his chess at the cost of Bacon’s displeasure. Doctor Scott visits Chandler to thank him for believing in her. She sincerely hopes she has found a vaccine, but will need to test it in order to truly know.

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