The Last Ship Review: Sea Change (Season 3 Episode 8)
Everything’s starting to become clear on The Last Ship, and it isn’t pretty.
On “Sea Change,” the crew on The Nathan James finally discovers what has happened with the cure in Asia to prevent the cure from working. They set out to figure out why Peng wanted Takehaya to stay away from pirating ships marked with black dots, and on their journey, they see a city that’s been destroyed.
We’ve learned that Takehaya isn’t the real enemy here after all. His motives were always about saving his family, and he blamed the Americans for the problems with the cure.
Turns out, it’s Peng, who we never really trusted either, whose plans are truly evil.
A lottery ticket with a black dot (have you guys read “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson? This seems to be a nod to that short story…) leads the crew to a pleasure cruiser.
It’s not exactly what they were expecting, and you have to feel sorry for the poor guy driving that boat.
Just as it happens in “The Lottery,” that black dot symbolizes death. But here, the death is on a much, much grander scale.
Because the ships with the block dots are carrying missiles that release a green gas. That gas changes the virus in anyone it comes into contact with, therefore rendering the cure ineffective.
And who knows how many of these missiles exist.
We’ve gotten to know Takehaya and he’s become more and more human, and this episode just continues that as we see his face when he realizes why the cure didn’t work. It’s heartbreaking.
Everyone is also dealing with Michener’s suicide. Chandler feels responsible, yet again carrying a tragedy on his own shoulders, as he often does. Maybe that’s he flaw in Chandler, who I so often say is the perfect hero.
As Slattery explains, Chandler feels like he pushed Michener too hard because the country needed a president.
Maybe he did push him too hard. Michener was never really ready, and had even tried to kill himself before. But he tried to run the country. He gave it all he had — the pressure was just too much.
That means a new president is taking over, and immediately, I don’t trust him — especially when the new administration shuts out Kara.
All of the plans put in place when Michener become president are now being thrown out the window. Allison also proves that she isn’t someone we should trust, siding with the regional leaders and agreeing that Michener’s policies had been causing more harm than good.
Kara’s case for why that’s no true is a convincing one, but no one wants to hear it. And Chandler is on the other side of the world fighting his own battles.
It’s all pretty bleak, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few bright spots. One of my favorite moments in this episode is when Danny holds that baby. He resists at first, but Takehaya’s wife insists, and his face lights up in the best way.
I hope this is an indication of what it will be like when he is reunited with his own family.
What did you think of this episode of The Last Ship? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and don’t forget to give it your own rating!
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The Last Ship airs Sundays at 9/8c on TNT.
Ashley Bissette Sumerel
Ashley Bissette Sumerel is a television and film critic living in Wilmington, North Carolina. She is editor-in-chief of Tell-Tale TV as well as Eulalie Magazine. Ashley has also written for outlets such as Rolling Stone, Paste Magazine, and Insider. Ashley has been a member of the Critics Choice Association since 2017 and is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic. In addition to her work as an editor and critic, Ashley teaches Entertainment Journalism, Composition, and Literature at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.