This week's episode of White American man saves the world essentially is taken up in the search for Slattery, who is seperated from the team. Slattery wanders around, grasping the precious seeds tightly in his arms and badly injured. Not only is the crew of the Nathan James looking for him, so are Giorgio, Lucia and of course Omar. Nostos also deals with Tom's reunification with the naval officers of the Nathan James.
Reunited with his team, of course Tom immediately starts giving orders. Tom doesn't take kindly to being questioned by Fletcher as to his approach but he does give an explanation as to why he believes that his suggestion is the best course of action, before adding, "what do I know, I'm the new guy". Yeah, Tom's all up in his feelings about new people joining the Nathan James who have never interacted with him and therefore don't naturally fall in line. Green however feels no conflict at all and says that the only way to refer to Tom, is "captain".
In the meantime, the Nathan James itself is hiding in plain sight in order to be ready for the evac of the away crew. If the Nathan James were the only ship in the Mediterranean, they would have been just fine but another ship captained by Stavros Diomedes, is in the ocean and determined to do its part to ensure that the Americans don't end up with the seeds. When the Nathan James comes under fire after being forced to reveal it's position to stop a helicopter from being shot down, they manage to trick Diomedes's radar into showing two ships instead of one and escape a missile blast. This is rather underwhelming because we all know that no matter what naval vessel the Nathan James comes across, even one captained by a former Nato member and therefore aware of American military tactics, they cannot be defeated.
An injured Mike stumbles around is forced to take shelter in a home when Giorgio's men start to close in on him. A kindly woman treats Mike's wound but she drugs him for the pain. Yes, that drug. This causes Mike to begin to hallucinate about his family. This is the most humanisation Mike has gotten to date. We know that his family is dead because of the plague but he has never really spoken about them and has buried himself in the task of saving the world. We haven't even seen him mourn the loss of his wife and two kids. Mike is higher than a kite when Omar finds his hiding place but he has enough wits to sneak out of the house, leaving the kind woman who gave him shelter to face Omar alone. Naturally, Omar ends up killing her.
Mike stumbles around town having visions of his wife and children as the team continues to search for him. Mike breaks a mirror and use morse code sends a signal to the ship. It's amazing that Mike is aware enough to find a place to hide, even as he hallucinates laughing, playing and kissing his family. It's a good reminder that Mike is more than just and XO, he's someone who lost everything when the plague hit.
The team, Omar and Giogrio's men arrive at Mike's location and so of course a shoot out has to happen to see who will end up in custody of Mike. Giorgio decides to shoot Omar but doesn't actually kill him. I guess Giorgio missed Columbus's advice in Zombieland.
I wanted to scream at the television, dude the double tap. You know damn well that Omar being alive and betrayed by Giorgio is going to become a problem in the season. Also, how dumb is Giorgio exactly? Why is he even in charge of anything when it's clear that he can barely walk and tie his own damn shoes?
I guess it's a good thing that the person in charge isn't Giorgio but his father, whom we were introduced as the man who taped Tom's arms for the fight in Bread and Butter Circus. Dr. Paul Vellek is not impressed that Giorgio exposed him in this fashion and led Tom right into the heart of their operation. Naturally, Giorgio claims that he believed that Tom was just a fisherman. Dr. Paul has given a lot of responsibility to Giorgio and Lucia and so he is not impressed by their inability to recover the seeds. The seeds are needed because Dr. Paul is working on some kind of super food with his other son Heggen.
Of course, Mike is rescued and taken back to the Nathan James. On the helicopter ride back a still high Mike says he wants to go back but given that he's the only one who knows that he's hallucinating about his family, Tom and the rest have no idea what he's talking about and instead assure Mike that kept the seeds are safe.
Lucia is unable to shoot down the helicopter because she's unwilling to risk losing the seeds in the ocean. This doesn't give the family a real military option. Naturally, Giorgio cannot see that and starts to rant about taking down the Americans. It's Heggen who has another idea, and given that he's the one child who hasn't let him down yet, Dr. Paul is willing to listen.
I know that The Last Ship is all about an American white man will save the world but I found myself irritated by the way that Tom repeatedly tried to usurp control from Sasha. He trusted her enough to go and play fisherman on a Greek island but apparently, now that his sulking time is over, Sasha is expected to simply hand over the reigns to him as if nothing has happened. I'm glad that Sasha asserted herself and told Tom to back down but we all know that with Tom back on the Nathan James, whatever power she has is going to be greatly reduced as the crew falls lock stock and barrel in line behind Tom.
Speaking of Tom, is he ever going to remember that his children have been left on a tiny Greek island with no one to care for them? Is Cali just supposed to hang around and babysit his children until he remembers that they're alive and just might need him? What about the fact that Giorgio knows about his family? Is it ever going to occur to Tom that Giorgio could use Cali and the kids as leverage to get the seeds back?
Fletcher clearly felt out of sorts with the arrival of Tom. There's no good reason for Fletcher to simply take orders from Tom when he has no real idea of who Tom is. Yeah, yeah I know, everyone is supposed to acknowledge Tom as the saviour of the world. I think Fletcher's resistance to fall in line was good but quickly became wasted when it became about creating a triangle between Fletcher, Tom and Sasha. We don't have time for any kind of love triangle on this show.
