So This Is Home, The Last Ship “Unreal City” and “Fight the Ship” 

There’s an important lesson to be learned during the two-hour season premiere of The Last Ship. Do not underestimate the crew of the USS Nathan James.

The premiere begins with gunfire and chaos. The crew of the Nathan James is being held captive, and Dr. Tophet is fighting for his life. We’ve picked up where we left off with the Season 1 finale, as the crew has learned their world isn’t at all what they expected. Instead, it’s a world that plays by new rules and has developed all new communities.

Amy Granderson is the leader of Avocet, a community she has built while choosing which people should survive and which ones should be tricked into thinking they’ll be cured, when they’re actually being taken to their deaths.

But Granderson is convinced she’s doing the right thing. She believes that her leadership will make the world a better place. It’s her team that has taken over the ship and is holding Dr. Scott hostage.

Granderson: “I watched a grown man beat a twelve-year-old boy to death over a gas mask. I saw a woman stab her sister in the back for a can of beans. The apocalypse is here. It’s been here for a long time.”

Granderson says Dr. Scott has the power to end the bloodshed, if she’ll just cooperate. Dr. Scott, in an effort to be noble, makes a deal – she asks to be let out so she can give what’s left of the cure to people who need it. Unfortunately, she runs out just a little too soon, for one of the most heartbreaking scenes of the entire premiere. She’s about to administer the cure to a mother and her young son, when she realizes she only has enough left for one of them. The mother insists that the cure be given to her child, and we can only assume she will die soon – leaving her son an orphan.

Meanwhile, Chandler leaves his children in the care of their grandfather and the Master Chief (who, by the way, has been shot in the arm), then develops a plan with Burk and Green to get Dr. Scott back. They find a place to hide out, at least for a little while. Ashley worries over her father being gone, having only recently lost her mother. Then Sam gets sick.

So, is there a side effect to the cure? It’s not entirely clear, but he has a pretty terrible reaction. Master Chief manages to get antibiotics, when by the end of the second episode, seem to have worked. But, I’m getting ahead of myself here.

At the end of Season 1, I was very concerned that Tex decided to head off on his own, thinking we just may never see him again. Thankfully, he finds a reason to come back. He’s looking for a place to stay when he runs into a young kid who threatens him. It’s then that he learns what has really been going on at Olympia, and he sure isn’t going to stand by and just let those things happen.

Tex doesn’t have any problem posing as security and getting himself into Avocet, where he promptly ends up in an elevator with Dr. Scott in enough time to kill the security guard who has a hold of her.

But he isn’t the only one taking care of things from the inside. Green and Burke have also disguised themselves, driving a truck filled with dead bodies to the ovens, with Chandler laying amongst them. The smoke, and the site of the dead bodies being dumped into those ovens to be burned – it’s almost too much to bear.

From there, Chandler and his men start shooting, then make an unlikely ally as they run into the rebels, a.k.a the Warlords.

Remember those guys? They were the ones we thought would be the real enemies to begin with. Well, we were wrong. One of the Warlords brings Chandler to their leader, Andrew, and they make a plan to take down Avocet.

Back at the ship, the primordial is hidden, and Granderson’s men threaten Tophet’s family if he doesn’t tell them where it is. No matter how smart these guys are, they can’t reproduce the cure without the primordial. Tophet refuses, and instead sacrifices himself in hopes of keeping his family safe. It’s an awful, bloody scene that is equally heartbreaking as Tophet’s wife watches his bleed to death before her eyes.

Unfortunately, Granderson’s men come up with another plan when they find out that Lt. Foster is pregnant. Her baby could be a source for the cure. They strap her to a table and are just about insert a needle (while, the scientist in charge admits he kind of doesn’t know what he’s doing) when everything else comes together.

Chandler and his men work with the Warlords to cut out all the power at Avocet, leaving them completely vulnerable, and proving a life-saving pause for Foster in the process.

Still, the scientist in charge of trying to reproduce the cure wants to go through with the procedure, but amidst the distractions, Foster catches the eye of a woman working for them who clearly doesn’t approve of what’s going on. After a knowing nod, the woman unties Foster’s hand, leaving it free to stab the scientist in the chest with the needle. Again with the perfect timing, Tex busts in and shoots up the place, with Dr. Scott alongside him.

The crew continues working together. Even Slattery is able to help in an unexpected way, as he watches the crew through security cameras. While the crew of the Nathan James seems to be coming out victorious, there are still a few casualties.

And Alisha is shot. She ends up pulling through physically, but something tells me that she’ll never get over what’s happened. It’s her mother that has been trying to control the world in her twisted way, and it’s her mother’s people who shoot her and nearly kill her. Earlier, Alisha has a talk with her mother, but she’s not interested in what her mother has to offer. Alisha is staying loyal to her crew and to what she believes is right. She is even so bold as to tell her mother she is qualified to accept her surrender.

Let me go back to Slattery here for a moment. He’s got the crazy eyes, and it actually provides a tiny bit of comic relief as he watches his men, cheering them on like he might cheer on a favorite football time. Then, when one of Granderson’s men finds him and tries to kill him, he gets a hold of an axe and puts it right through the guy’s chest.

It’s pretty fabulous, if not a little bit disturbing. It also seems to be the moment of victory. We hear Slattery’s voice on the intercom, saying that the crew has taken back their ship.

Chandler then has the ultimate showdown with Granderson herself. Again, Granderson tries to defend her actions, truly believing that everything she’s done has been the right choice. She even insists that the cocktail she had the doctor make provided a quick, painless death.

With that, she injects herself with that very cocktail and dies.

Oh, but that’s not before also having the leader of the Warlords, who Chandler had been working with, shot dead.

There’s a bit of peace as the crew returns to their ship, getting settled in and cleaned up while reconnecting with one another.

It’s also a terrible irony, as they realize the home they were fighting to get back to, isn’t actually their home any more. Their home, their true home and place of solace now, is their ship.

Chandler: “So this is home.”

The Last Ship airs Sundays at 9/8c on TNT.