Originally aired: Jaunary 9, 1994
The synopsis informs us that the villain of the week (And we never see any of them again, I don't think.) is Colonel Steven Schraeder, an "intense environmentalist." Who writes this crap? He's a fictional character. He's not going to sue you if you call him an ecoterrorist. If real world ecoterrorists were going to be offended by the portrayal, I don't think the circumlocution is going to fool them. They'll still release all of Universal's captive monkeys, most of whom are actually human children they've kept locked underground since the Thirties and thus aren't really children anymore, but they've been stunted and deprived so badly that they make the cast of a reality show look well-adjusted.
Universal bump. Again. I was never inspired to say mean things about Universal until I had to watch their ad droppings twice before every episode of a forgettable and often poorly-written but sometimes well-acted mid-90s Trek ripoff.
We open on the same exterior shot of the seaQuest we always see. That's not totally fair, most scifi shows recycle this kind of footage a lot. A few months ago I read some commentary from Wil Wheaton where he pointed out that everybody liked one shot from the first season of a ship sitting alongside the Enterprise that they reused it every time they thought they could get away with it. Even an all-CGI ship like seaQuest or Babylon 5 tends to recycle that kind of footage. Anyway, the caption says we're in the South China Sea, west of the Philippines. So what, the Spratly Islands?
That might make for a good episode, but they would have to tell 85% of America all about them. And then explain how there are two Chinas involved. That would lead to teaching history and geopolitics that does not revolve around the American protagonist which is the impetus for all action by all actors everywhere. People would be confused, and no TV show is going to take that kind of risk.
We come into the boat to a voiceover of Hitchcock telling Ford that he needs to make a decision, because he's been offered his own submarine. Riker doesn't know if he wants to take it because he's getting so much out of serving under Picard, like tips on how to pick the right size of speedo and how to maintain the diverse ecosystem living in the thick forests of his chest hair. Not that I'm suggesting this whole subplot was ripped from TNG. Ford is nothing like Riker, after all. Riker's that creepy middle-aged guy who thinks he's a sex machine and drives around in a convertible wearing a Hawaiian shirt half-open. He pulls up next to girls barely out of high school and leers, "Hello...Ladies...." Ford's an idiot, but he doesn't watch reruns of Magnum, PI to learn pickup lines.
Ford opines that the ship isn't a real submarine. It's a sausage with a propeller. I think that means it's a male-only crew and Ford isn't ready to explore that side of himself yet. Hitchcock is selling the thing like a skeevy condominium salesman and anyway, since when are these two close enough that they discuss Ford's career? I don't recall it being established that they were anything other than coworkers? Is Hitchcock just inserting herself here to show that Stacy Haiduk managed to dredge some real fake enthusiasm out of herself for once. By the way, both are in their UEO khakis, which makes Ford look a bit barrel-chested.
Ford cites all the opportunities he gets on seaQuest. Bridger lets him be captain most of the time, which I think means Nathan spends a lot of time playing with his dolphin and making macaroni art. He only really comes out to do stuff about once a week and he's only on the bridge for five, ten minutes tops. That would make some sense, but wouldn't being a real captain count for more than playing pretend on seaQuest? Oh yeah, and when there's a crisis Ford is always the first one to arrive. That's a point I wouldn't make too loudly, Jonathan. People might notice and start wondering about why you always seem to be knocking back tequila and Cheetos with the guest stars right before they get it in their heads to flip out and shove a suppository down a volcano, kidnap a dolphin, lure Lucas away from Krieg's van, or hide all the women's wetsuits while "mysteriously" leaving behind slinky one-piece deals in their place.
Hitchcock is unimpressed, pointing out that she can leave her rattlesnakes in his bed at any time. So shall we hear the case for leaving then? Ford smiles and stares at her chest. He says it's his own command. He wouldn't have to listen to Bridger's swimwear and pubic hair shaving tips, which gets a bit awkward. Also, he can only smile insincerely at so much macaroni art.
The pair get paged to the bridge. Krieg is the only guy there, and he's in his khakis too. Bridger is on the phone. Ford reports that the experiment is ready to go and only seven are left on board. Ford promises he shall join Bridger on the aircraft carrier shortly. Bridger's in front of a big screen, two round lights, and a curtain of well-spaced Christmas tree lights. I guess in the future, the Navy shops the Boxing Day specials at Walmart. Ford suggests that maybe Bridger should help them spruce up the place, but Bridger whines about how nobody on the ship will even talk to him about the removal of body hair. Not even that one old guy with an enchanted forest sticking out of his t-shirt. Seriously, that thing's so hoary the magical gnomes have opened a Home Depot. There's a special on latex paint.
By the way, there's a science vessel or something that's lost rudder control and is calling for help. Could Ford pick them up, or torpedo them or something? Whatever it takes to shut them up, since their signal is bleeding over into the reserved frequencies for dolphin porn. All this screaming about starving and sinking and cannibal pirates attacking. A giant crocodile and aliens too. Anyway it's a downer. Ford says they'll get right on that, after they finish washing out their ears.
Bridger turns sideways towards the camera and changes the subject. He says that is Ford is leaving them, he's going out in style. He'll be the only man that got a chance to sink the seaQuest. Until Bridger does it in like eight episodes. Hitchcock is chuckling and I know she's supposed to look amused but the actress isn't selling me on it. It looks more like the director is holding up a goofy stuffed animal behind the camera.
Ford asks if Hitchcock can "maneuver this beast by herself." She's been waiting two years to try. She wanders off to polish her steering wheel and Ford glances at Krieg. There's an awkward silence and then Krieg says if Ford says, he shall not sign Krieg's officer review. I guess that means Krieg is fired? Reassigned? Just not promoted? Now I know in real militaries you can sometimes get away with passing up a promotion once, like Ford will do in the foregone conclusion to his subplot, but I think we need more exposition about what this really means to Ben. It's not clear. Apparently being reassigned is the main consequence. Ford maintains he has the right to choose his own staff...but wouldn't this actually be Bridger's thing? I don't know.
Ford says it's nothing personal, but Krieg asks how else he's supposed to take it. I don't exactly get this. They still haven't said if Krieg would just be passed over for promotion, reassigned, or if he would actually be kicked out of the navy. Krieg's such a generic character that I really think he would fit on any ship. He doesn't have the impression of having any roots on seaQuest. He definitely doesn't seem very invested in career advancement. So does he care because he's out a job?
Krieg says Ford can't fault his work, so it must be his style. Ford says it's about character, so yes. I wonder if Krieg will redeem himself in Ford's eyes by the end of the episode.
Hallway. Lucas is playing with the vocorder while Darwin sits in the tube. Lucas is wearing a red turtleneck and his red on black jersey. What is that thing made out of? Maybe it's just because it's in that hairy zone where it's too bright to work well with the cameras, but it halfway looks like the top of a red wetsuit on Brandis. Maybe the lighting is obscuring the real fit, or maybe the wardrobe people picked something a size and a half too small for him. Keeping the teenaged girls watching, or just bad color choice? I swear, the thing looks like it's half made of spandex or something. You can just see in profile where he must be shaving. Makeup is usually better at hiding it.
Ford wants to know why Lucas isn't in the launch bay with the others. Darwin rats out his plan to stay on the boat. Ford gets to exposition about how Lucas's staying could mess up Bridger's plan to sink the boat. They have these hull siphons to test. I guess they'll pump the ship out if it floods. And these ordinary bilge pumps need to be tested by sinking the flagship out in the middle of nowhere for what reason exactly? This is the biggest plot hole in the episode, I think. No one in their right mind would let Bridger potentially lose the flagship in the name of testing out a bilge pump. They keep old hulks in storage just for this kind of work.
Lucas says they're just flooding the passageways, so he can stay in his room with his porn collection and billions of dollars of valuable electronics that would be ruined if someone forgot to close a door tightly. Which is another reason they would have used an obsolete ship. Lucas says he can stay and record and- Hold it right there, bucko. Ford asks if Lucas was asked to stay.
"Actually [Bridger] didn't ask me for anything."
I think that's a trace of some writer's subplot that got cut. It doesn't seem like a likely thing for Lucas to just say out of nowhere. Was there supposed to be a neglect issue involved? For that matter, why does Lucas want to stay on the ship? If he avoiding something?
Ford segues into asking who figured out how to talk to Darwin. Lucas did. Lucas and Bridger. Ford gives Lucas a look and Lucas realizes that this kind of thing (reckless and stupid risk of the most advanced warship around) is what Bridger came back for. That somehow makes everything better. Lucas smiles and is in a good mood suddenly. That conversation made no sense. We don't know why Lucas wanted to stay around. We don't know why he changed his mind, unless the idea was that he just has to follow Bridger's orders even if they don't make sense at all. You know, that might have been the point. It wouldn't be the first time they looked like they were just trying to habituate Lucas to arbitrary authority for its own sake. Yes, Lucas, obedience must come before thought.
Lucas walks away and Ford opens one of the siphons, which looks nothing like a siphon and everything like a box with an old parallel cable (ok so it would have been new then) inside. He checks the connection and closes it up again.
Launch Bay. Krieg is going over a list and Lucas looks over his shoulder and points out something. Crocker phones Ford to let him know the scientists are safe. Ford wants them brought aboard and drowned in the hallways for the fun of it. Really, if they're already on a launch why would they need to change launches? Do the last seven people have so much baggage to load on yet that they had to send a different launch for the scientists? Ford plays with another siphon and says they're ready to go.
Schraeder climbs up out of the sub, puts his arm around Crocker, and tells him that everything is fine except for this pesky mercenary in black that's going to come up behind and knock you over the head. You know he's never watched the show, because there's nothing above his jawbone that Crocker regularly uses.He falls down some stairs as two more guys in black rush out. Total count of bad guys: 3 goons + Schraeder. Crocker manages to hit an alarm before they hit him again. Two more goons rush up. That's five.
Krieg and Lucas are only now noticing this, even as the goons are rushing over the controls and kicking people. The alarm must not have clued them in at all. Maybe Lucas was confused because he didn't have orders to cover this, but Krieg shoves him and a bag over to one side and tells him to bail. Can Lucas drive a sub? Two more goons rush in as Schraeder orders them to disable communications.
Two more goons, I think. Total nine. They show off their guns as they rush forward. One of the goons sticks some wires into some other wires, turns away, presses a button, and sparks shoot from a control panel. A goon, with sort of jowly cheeks and puckered lips, reports that communications are dead.
Cut to Ford and his phone. He's trying to call, but no one answers. Cut to Hitchcock on the bridge trying the same thing. When she gets no answer she closes the bridge doors and tries to call the surface. She's locking down all weapons starting with sea-to-air missiles.
Credits.
Close up of Lucas's bag. It has his name stenciled on it. Schraeder picks it up and reads the name for us. They really do assume we can't read a lot on this show. He gives the order for his mercenaries to find Lucas. I have to ask where Lucas is supposed to have gone. Krieg shoved him up a ladder that leads to a docking port or something, given all we've been led to believe about the makeup of the docking bay. So Lucas would be hiding in one of the launches?
Krieg is asked if others are loose and lies. So they do a deck-by-deck search. Schraeder tells his mercenaries that anyone who approaches the launch bay should be held for questioning, but no killing. We're supposed to think that makes him sympathetic? He moves out for the bridger with puckery-lipped mercenary behind him. Seriously, I know the actor is trying to look tough or mean or whatever but he's not helping himself by going around like he just ate a giant bowl of lemons.
Ford's in the moon pool telling Katie to rev the engines if she can hear him. Darwin tells Ford about the invaders and Ford hides his cap, grabs a can of air, and plunges into the water. I bet he wishes he'd listened to Bridger's swimwear advice now.
Hitchcock narrates her disabling of the ship for us as the invaders bring the jaws of life to use on the doors. We cut to Katie's POV and the doors are already at least a half-inch open despite the fact that the jaws of life are smoking. I know the doors are meant to be sealed, but they really dropped the ball there. If they wedge open at twenty seconds of the jaws of life, I don't think they'd meet much security scrutiny. Katie reports the bridge being compromised and stares at the doors.
Mercenaries run through the halls and behind them Darwin tows Ford along.
The bridge doors give way and Schraeder turns off the alarm. His guys move on the stations and point a gun at Katie. Lips advances menacingly on her and fondles his pistol. But the geek mercenary is already on it. Schraeder threatens Katie with torture, but she promises she'll lie. Geek tells everyone that they'll have a satellite in ten minutes. Close up on Hitchcock as Ford grabs her wrist. He's in the water. She says she'll be in the water in a second, but he wants her to stay with the bad guys. This is so he can control what they know. He assures this by telling her to always tell them the truth, even if classified. That makes perfect sense. Seriously, he's assuming they can't read the ship's screens?
Lips spots Ford and raises the alarm, pulling Hitchcock aside and shooting into the water. Ford's already gone. Schraeder stops him from shooting more and Katie identifies Ford on request. They check the computers.
"She told the truth!"
"For now."
Schraeder is already on to the winning trust game. He and Katie stare at each other.
Cut to a hallway outside Galley Supply. A sign tells us that we're there. It's guarded and inside are Krieg, two redshirts, and Crocker. One redshirt thinks he has a broken bone. Crocker tells Ben he's seeing double. Ben decides he's going to go out through the air ducts but the turbines would chop him to pieces. Ben says they rerouted the ducts so the turbines are not an issue.
Moon pool. Darwin scares a mercenary, but then the mercenary is charmed and tries to pet him. He reaches out over the water and Ford pulls him in and punches him three times.
Bridge. Geek tells Schraeder they have communications and the UEO computers think it's a legitimate contact. Then he and Lips put their heads together. Lips licks his earlobe a bit, blows in his ear, and tells S (I hate typing his name) that Hitchcock turned off all the controls. The bridge is useless, but S smells very nice. This show has a real problem with this. Every time someone leans in close, it's too close. And why are they pretending this is a secret anyway? Hitchcock knows and the only other people to overhear are their goons.
S comments on how this is all in the manual. But he wants to know if internal sensors are working. Hitchcock says they can run systems checks, yes.
Moon Pool. Ford hauls his victim out of the water. Both are dripping wet. He tells Darwin to watch the bad guys. Ford lugs the body into the isolation chamber and they're both suddenly dry. Soaking wet to dry in thirty seconds. He turns his butt to the camera as someone whispers for him.
It's Lucas down under the floor grating. He comes out and Brandis pulls off some good acting here. He's convincingly scared. Near tears, even. You know, like you would be if you were suffering a home invasion. Ford refuses to answer Lucas's questions and only cares about whether or not he can get ahold of Bridger. They run through some hallways and now Ford notices that Lucas is a wreck.
"Let the fear work for you."
"How?"
Ford gives a speech about the glories of fear. Lucas explains how he was having a panic attack, but he doesn't want to let Ford down. One of the mercenaries almost catches them and they bail, but he radios ahead to another on their path. They come down the stairs and Lucas says the mercenary is right on their tail. Ford has a plan. They hide in a room. This mystifies the goons. One of them wanders into the same room as Our Heroes.
He spots Lucas behind a model body. Ford drops down on him from behind and they fight, but the goon gets the gun on Ford until Lucas pounds him in the back. Instead of prompting him to pump bullets into Ford, this makes him drop his gun and turn on Lucas. Ford flips up and gets on top of the goon, pushing a scalpel to his throat.
We cut to the camera panning up the naked legs of the goon. He's down to boxers, socks, and an undershirt like a good cliche. His arms and legs are tied, and Lucas puts duct tape over his mouth. He's mumbling and Lucas smarts about it being too tight. He rips it off and puts it right back on again. We turn to Ford, who has just finished dressing himself in the goon's clothes.
Ok, there are a total of nine goons here. One is Lips, and he's on the bridge. Another is Geek, also on the bridge. Seven left. Ford and Lucas took out two of them. Down to five. One of those is guarding their captives. So we only have four free-roaming goons that we know of, six that the bad guys care about. Lips is concerned that his men are not reporting in. Imagine, two of them have gone silent.
But that's not my point. My point is that Ford is dressing up like them for what? They aren't so numerous that with the right clothes he can blend in. He doesn't need to strip a guy just to get the radio to listen in on. Aside a cliche, there's no point at all to the scene. I can only assume his thinking went like this:
Whenever we have a guest star on the boat, we make him change into our clothes. if he refuses, we point out that we have guns. This is enough to make most people happy to fly the seaQuest colors and also prevent us from having to deal with the stress of someone being trivially different. But now other people have guns and are in control of the boat. That must mean that I have to change into their clothes or they will shoot me. Yes!Or maybe the ship has some sort of conformity-inducing field. Lucas is extremely compliant for a person who feels out of place on the boat and who has no peers around, especially being there against his will. But maybe through his training, he has begun to internalize the seaQuest ethos of conformity. His two-shirt ensemble is almost like a uniform and he seems very reluctant to leave the boat until Ford reminds him that doing so would mean obeying the captain's wishes.
It's not that I can't buy that someone in Lucas's position would go native. I've seen enough military people in small groups out in the civilian world to recognize the little bubble they seem to erect around themselves sometimes. On the occasions I've had to interact with them, most were very aggressive about promoting the benefits of the military and trying to talk me into it. I'm not exactly a likely prospect, but it seemed like a reflexive thing on their part. I can believe that being surrounded by them, the Cult of seaQuest is creeping into his pores. Not that he's ever been much of a refusnik in the first place. It would help if they actually talked about this from time to time, though.
Lips goes hunting. Hitchcock demands to know what S is doing. This leads to S speechifying about pollution. Geek goon tells S that they have the codes for various polluters and are working on more.
Galley Supply. Krieg can't fit through the ductwork. Crocker is going in and out. Where are the redshirts?
Lucas's room. He's got a WHSKR set up to phone Bridger. Will they notice it on the bridge? Only if they're paying very close attention.
Bridge. S hauls Hitchcock over to ask her what that laser communication via WHSKR thingie is. Heh. She explains it.
Geek has lumber mills, etc. He's to trade the laser.
Lucas's room. Close up of Brandis's very dainty hands that pans over to the screen where Bridger comes up. Ford clues him in. Bridger says that if the bad guys get their hands on the ship's long-range weaponry... Ford nods. Lucas assures Bridger that he's ok. He's to stay in his room. Lucas also rigged a pager so Ford can use any screen he points it at to phone Bridger.
Lucas asks what Bridger trailed off about. Oh that? That's the fact that if they get the weapons on, the UEO will have to nuke them. Close up of Lucas turning away pensive as Ford goes to find the rest of the crew. Jonathan Brandis had a chicken pox scar or two on his temple, and a little bit of acne that makeup did a fair job hiding. I mean that, by the way. I've seen enough TV where teenaged actors had thick coats of varnish over their faces to notice these things.
Geek found the communication. He traced it to Lucas. Hitchcock pleads that he's just a boy, young and nubile. He looks good in a wetsuit and has the cutest chicken legs. He's very kissable and blonde. Good teeth. That settles it for S. He dispatches a goon to bring Lucas to them.
Galley Supply. The door opens and the crew trip Ford, but Crocker recognizes him. Good thing someone did before they ripped all his clothes off and tied him up like Ben always dreamed of doing. Ford hauls in another guard and tells Ben to take off the guard's clothes and tie him up. Again, why? At least not every mercenary on the ship had personally laid eyes on Ford, but Ben was there when they first came board. I think maybe Ford just likes stripping the clothes off unconscious men. I don't have any special objections to the practice itself, but I do think Ford should be asking first.
Ben and Ford exchange information. Then they phone Bridger. He finally explains the plot. They're using the ship to get security codes for industrial plants. Ford wants to sink the boat, which should scare the bad guys and get them making mistakes.
On the bridge, Geek goon tells S that they have the codes and he just needs to unscramble them. Hitchcock gets up, punches a goon, and hits some buttons. This somehow erases the computer's memory. That means they have to decrypt the codes manually. But the codes are still there. And everything else in the computer's memory. S tells Hitchcock she was stupid. Darwin gives him a dirty look.
In the Moon Pool, Ford tells the guys that they'll disable the siphons so they can't refloat the ship. It'll freak the mercenaries out. They are interrupted by Lucas's yelled protests. Apparently he lives right across the hall from the Moon Pool. That does explain why he's always there, but not why he spends all of season two in a wetsuit there. I mean, does he get up and get dressed just so he can walk over, get undressed in an unseen locker room, and swim with Darwin? Or does he keep his wetsuit in his room and change there, since it's so close? Come to think of it, would a guy in a wetsuit really raise eyebrows walking down the halls of the seaQuest? Maybe everyone has wetsuits in their rooms.
Lucas is taken away and Lips shoots up his room for no reason I can see. The second call to Bridger didn't come from there, so they have to know it's not anything Lucas has in his room in particular that arranged it.
Ben, Crocker, and Ford go into Lucas's shot up room. They're looking for a message from Lucas. Ford finds an LCD screen, looks at it, and goes to Bridger's room. Lucas left behind the serial number of the hologram, which gives Ben the willies. Ford hits his remote and Bridger comes on the screen. He tells us that Lucas left a message in the professor and they both ought to see it, since he's in the hands of the ecoterrorists now. Bridger seems rather unconcerned.
The Professor says Lucas fed him bridge images and searched through the database for matches. This leads to a match with Schraeder. He used to work for the UEO's environment police. By the way, Bridger found out that the codes are all for big polluters.
Crocker swoons, but refuses to be sent to the doctor. Ford sends him to mess up the wiring in the launch bay. Crocker leaves and Ford tells Ben that they shall not count on Crocker. Ben is to be a diversion for their real plan to screw up the siphons and open up the hatches to flood the ship.
Bridge. We see an outline of the seaQuest nowhere as nice as TNG's cutaways of the ship. I don't think it even has an airplane, a VW Beetle, or a single toilet marked on it. S wants to know where the signal was coming from. Hey, maybe the computers have a labeled cross-section of the ship you could use? Lucas looks up at the guy with the gun and lies badly that it's in the Science Section. Hitchcock says it's Bridger's room.
Lucas was visibly tied to the railing before, but now his arms are at his side and he's a foot or two further to the side over Hitchcock's other shoulder. He gapes at her, "Commander!" Nice of the mercenaries to untie him for his reaction shot. As usual, Brandis sells his character's distress and betrayal. He's throwing me off a bit though. He used the same expression a lot in The Neverending Story, Part Two. That was before his voice changed.
Hallway. Voices draw a goon into the captain's room. It's the hologram. The goon starts shooting it even though it's clearly projected on a curtain of smoke. These are supposed to be professional mercenaries? I don't see Blackwater employees even pausing in their various atrocities to fire a gun at a cloud of mist.
I just realized that the Professor also played that Hannibal Lecter-ish serial killer from two episodes of MacGuyver, which I was seeing a lot of about this time in reruns on USA. What bad actress will play Mac's damsel in distress this week? Is he the badass secret agent living on a house boat, or is this one of the episodes where he's a middle aged, single gay man that works for Greenpeace? Either way he never gets the girl, but will probably take Jack Dawson on for some pity sex. Seriously, in a genre where the action hero always gets the girl, Mac's pointed lack of interest in the girls of the week was a pleasant change. I don't think Richard Dean Anderson had a lot of romance subplots on Stargate either...but by then he really was middle-aged and had gone gray. I'd like to see more action heroes that don't have a romance tacked on, to be honest.
Where was I? Oh yeah, seaQuest. Ben waits until the goon turns around with his gun in hand before slamming the door and locking it.
Crocker groans in some ducts.
Bridger phones S. S orders he not be shown on the screen. Bridger asks if he's camera shy and calls him by name. Lucas gives S a smirk. Yeah, he got you. Then the threats begin. Nathan says S has ruined any credibility he had with the Green movement. He can't believe S got other environmentalists to go along. In the future, PETA will be forgotten. S admits to hiring mercenaries.
Bridger says he's cut off S's access to the UEO computers, but S already has the shut down codes he needs. Nathan mentions that they have regulations now. Polluters can be punished. S isn't buying it. He used to work that gig. I guess these shut down codes would disable plants for years and years. Ok, really? What do they do, trigger bombs built into every factory? Seriously, if these are just codes to shut off machinery then they could easily be changed. We change the codes for nuclear missile launches daily. It's all done by computer. Anything that destructive would have already been changed by the time Bridger told S they knew about it.
Nathan points out that cities without electricity, failed agriculture, and so on are going to kill lots of people. S supposedly has a problem with that. But now he doesn't because his motivations make no sense. He's just nuts, like the Regulator.
Crocker grunts in a duct. Ford plays with a siphon and dodges Lips. Crocker shocks himself.
Ford walks into a room full of 70s-era panels with blinking lights. Lips comes in right behind him but doesn't check behind the table so Ford gets away. He phones Bridger and updates him. This is filler. We already know it all.
Hitchcock points out that they're below the crush depth on S's sub. Where are they going to go? S says they'll get lost in the islands and the UEO's tracking subs are far away. Lucas is tied up next to Hitchcock and gives her a dirty look as she spills more information. S walks away and Lucas demands to know why she's spilling. She has orders, even if Ford might be dead. She must follow Ford's orders until she's sure Ford is dead. This is very impressive to Lucas. He's got some Kool-Aid in the bloodstream, all right.
Bridger phones to give S an update on environmental cleanup. S rants about what chemicals do to people. Nathan says they'll just rebuild on the ruins. Then S realizes that Nathan is stalling him and orders that they get moving. Bridger wants Hitchcock and Lucas to stay on the boat, but they're hostages.
Belly of the ship. Dark hallway. Ford walks up on a big valve. Ben comes up behind him and nearly shoots him. They have an argument about who gets to open the sea valve and Ben quotes regulations. Ben says Katie and Lucas need Ford to save them. Ben can't do it. Ford is convinced and they shake on it, then Ford spots a laser dot on the wall. A goon shoots at Ford and misses. Ford climbs up into the ceiling and loses his gun. He bails and tells Krieg to do the same. Instead Krieg opens the valve and the water washes him and Goon away despite Ford trying to get Ben's hand.
Water rushes through the sea tubes...which for some reason are only half-full despite having more water in the boat. Darwin reports the problem to Lucas. Hitchcock confirms that the ship is flooding and the siphons are not working. Lucas tells Darwin to split and everyone heads for the Launch Bay. They find Ford waiting.
Crocker tumbles out of a closet. S has his goons try to get ready for launch, but everything goes haywire. S gets his arm around Hitchcock and says he doesn't have time for this. He's about to threaten her when Lucas stamps on his foot, stays completely motionless, turns his head to the side, and screams for Hitchcock to run. Where? They're in the Launch Bay. That makes no sense at all. Where on the sinking ship does he want her to go? What would it achieve? Why is he utterly unmoved except for his tone of voice? I get the feeling I'm not the only one who thought that made no sense. Lucas has been reasonably frightened, but he hasn't spent all episode being the doe-eyed victim. He did not need to redeem himself.
Lucas is pulled away and the guy holding him is Ben, because none of the mercenaries would think it odd that a stranger is now amongst them. Ford calls Bridger and tells him that the boat is sinking and the bad guys can't get away. He suggests storming the boat. Bridger says he'll do just that with amphibious troops. Shouldn't they have just called them marines or something?
It will take at least an hour to get through the hatch in S's way. Ford says he'll let S go (even though he can't know how Crocker screwed up the wiring) if he gives up the hostages. Ford says ok, he'll take Hitchcock. No accounting for taste. S asks about the sweet, kissable boy. What about him? Turns out he's gone. To where? The ship is flooding. Ben let him go to his death?
S agrees to the trade and Geek starts complaining about the ethics of the situation. Now? Timely. S runs into his sub and clearly intends to leave his goons behind, but they don't catch on until he's already in his sub and locked up. Ford tells them to get out of the airlock before S drowns them by leaving.
Ford tells Ben to take Lucas and go turn siphons on.
Cut to S in his sub. Bridger phones to remind us that his sub is below its maximum depth. S asks Hitchcock if that's true. Hitchcock confirms it. S says it's the lie he was waiting for and his bad CGI sub leaves the boat. It hits a bump and then starts shaking and groaning. Steam jets from the roof and it smokes and sparks as S protests. Then it blows up.
Epliogue. Ward room. Ford sucks up about how the siphons worked out. Bridger brings up Ford's decision. Ford stays. He likes the boat and the people. Also he has a lot to learn about shaving his body, or maintaining chest hair or whatever. Then Nathan pulls up Krieg's review, which Ford signs of course. In the hallway Ben and Katie are waiting. Ford gives Ben a nod. Ben promises Ford will not regret it, but Katie tells him that Ford already regrets it.
One of the deleted scenes had a much, much better epilogue. Lucas is in the Moon Pool and talking to Westphalen. She brings up recent events and he starts to talk, then gets choked up and huts her instead. Ben has a simple professional problem. His career is in a rough patch. Lucas was really traumatized and that scene would have shown some of it. That could have been a great part of the episode, but instead of learning that Lucas is still dealing we learn that Ben's job is safe. Bad call.
Some of the scenes are clunkers and the plot has holes in it, but this is probably the second best so far, after Photon Bullet. Interestingly, both avoid using the full crew. It's not an original plot. It has some weird writing and bad acting. The villain is again simply nuts. But it succeeds at building some tension, and I think the key is Lucas. To every other cast member, this is an ordinary military situation. Ford is a commando. Katie is a hostage. Crocker is a joke. But Lucas's trauma sells this as something like a home invasion instead of an attack on a normal military target by a band of crazy extremists. It's weird how quickly he gets over it, which might be why the scene with him and Westphalen was cut, but they could have carried that as the character arc instead of Ben's career. For half the episode, it is the character arc. Then we're back to Ben who we don't care about because only his career is at risk.
Maybe some of this is my liking of Lucas. I do like Lucas a lot, when he's actually being a character and not a doe-eyed victim. The writers managed to avoid making him the damsel in distress this episode, but didn't quite seal the deal by getting distracted by Ben instead. I wonder what the script looked like before they decided Krieg's officer review was the selling point of the hour.
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