Doctor Scott is determined to find a way to spread the vaccine but with all the labs being destroyed, this is proving to be difficult. When she receives a message from her murdered friend that he has found a way to complete mass distribution by air, Rachel is determined to talk Tom into going to see if they can find any information at his lab. Tom is more concerned about the continuing threat that the submarine holds and is quick to nix Rachel's suggestions, believing that until the sub is dealt with that they won't get anywhere spreading the cure. Given that all the labs and samples have been destroyed, this once again makes Rachel the only scientist capable of mass producing the cure.
Sean and Ned continue to not only gather immunes, they continue to send Niels out to intentionally make people sick so that they can find more. This absolutely amounts to genocide and Niels, as the originator of this disaster is all to happy to go along. Things are not at all smooth between Sean and Ned though ultimately, they both want power. For Ned, it's clearly about changing his former station in life and having access to the things that he used to be denied. If the Nathan James is allowed to distribute the cure, then there special status as immunes will no longer have any great value and this is why Ned tries to push Sean away from collecting people who have immunity to focus his attention on sinking the Nathan James. Ned is adamant that they should be back on the sub and dealing with the threat that the Nathan James poses because otherwise, all of Sean's big plans will be for naught.
Sean however is all grand plan and epic cult. Sean gathers the immunes and talks to them about being special because of their DNA and suggests that they have been attacked by communities because of their DNA. If everyone around them has died, how can that last statement even be remotely true? The immunes are more than happy to sip the Kool Aid, clearly in search for someone to tell them what to do. Beyond amassing one massive cult, at this point, we still don't know Sean's end game. As Sean speaks to the American immunes, he gives the impression that he is ceding power to the president. It seems that Michener was part of the housing department and is the highest ranking governmental elected politician still alive - thus making him the president. It's already clear that Michener will be nothing more than a figure head in Sean's big plans. Because symbolism is so important to Americans, they are ready to wave the stars and stripes at the mere sight of Michener. It's clear that Michener will be used to help encourage the immunes to come together.
What Sean does not know is that Tom and Tex have infiltrated his group of immnunes. They recognize both him and Ned from a previous encounter. Just by being in the room, Tom and Tex get a bit of an earful about Sean's plans. The question is, now that they are on the inside and have managed to pass themselves off as immunes, what's their next step.
Now that Rachel is the super special one again, she's fast at work at turning the cure into a powder to make it easier to disseminate. Bacon, a chef on the Nathan James, brings her a plate of food that he's very clearly proud of, revealing that he used to cook for the President. Rachel doesn't even taste the food because she becomes inspired by a conversation about roux and plots a plan for the cure. Poor Bacon, just wanted her to taste his food and at least acknowledge how hard he worked. Yeah, I really felt for Bacon at that moment. Cracking the code however is still only part of the battle. Rachel will still have to convince Tom to spend time and resources developing and distributing her new version of the cure.
The Nathan James is busy trying to track the sub. In a naval battle, the sub absolutely has an advantage so Slattery is full steam ahead. They find a signal and prepare to fire but notice that the signal is stationary. Slattery is quick to figure out that floating in the water is a communications device and since they cannot listen in to what the sub is saying to their people on the land, Slattery decides to blow it up. I suppose this one for team good guys.
Earlier in the episode, Jeter questioned whether or not the sub was actually Tom's whale though he promised to continue to follow orders. Rachel and Tom both believe that they know what's best but they both have different specialties. Rachel only seems to give into Tom's position when she stands over the body of her dead friend, asking Tom to kill those responsible. As much as The Last Ship is sort of positioning this as an either or, I really don't understand why it cannot be seen as both and. Yes, the sub needs to be found and destroyed. Sean and Ned both need to be handled but the cure needs to be top priority. Each day they delay on spreading the cure, more and more people die. What's the point of stopping Sean and Ned, if there's no one left to save?
On a final note, can we please just kill off Niels already? The only thing I can agree with Ned on is that Niels is hella creepy. Considering that he is absolutely responsible for the virus, I hope that he gets his soon.
