Just when it seemed like things couldn’t get worse for the crew of the Nathan James on The Last Ship Season 3, the danger escalated from Captain Slattery and his team being taken prisoner to the entire ship being threatened by an expansive minefield.
With Captain Chandler in charge, he attempts to lead his ship and crew to safety. BuddyTV caught up with Eric Dane on the phone to talk about The Last Ship Season 3 Episode 5 and the ongoing world conflict. “Minefield” will keep you on the edge of your seat as the crew faces their greatest danger yet.
BuddyTV: This week’s episode is very intense. It seems like the stakes are higher than they have ever been.
Dane: Well, yeah, look, I think for the first couple seasons Chandler was more or less challenged, but it was non-stop from the second that they realized what was going on until they went up the Mississippi to St. Louis. It was very reactive. Everything was very linear. Then there was this great moment of respite. Dr. Scott died, the President took over the Presidency and Chandler was getting back to life as he knew it. He was trying to create some sense of normalcy.
And then this whole thing breaks out again with the crew of the Nathan James being held hostage. It’s almost like back into the fray once again and once you’ve done it once and you don’t know what to expect it’s not half as bad as when you know what to expect and you have to electively jump back into the melee.
For Chandler to get back into “Captain Mode” and fly to China and try to find Slattery and the crew and deal with the outbreak in China and Asia and the possible mutation, he’s kinda been to the dance already, so he knows what this whole thing is about and I think he kinda let his guard down. … I think it was a little more daunting.
I know this season has been challenging in the sense that the weight of the world is literally on his shoulders this season because everyone is watching. The country’s watching, the world’s watching. In Season 1, they were the only ones out there as far as they knew. Now there is some infrastructure built, there’s government’s forming, there’s new types of governments that are forming and other threats. The stakes are super high because it’s global now. This is a global effort. It’s not just about the United States of America, but about the entire world.
At the end of the last episode, the Nathan James got caught in the minefield. How dire is that situation?
There are two things that are destructive and terrifying for a ship: submarines and mines. When you are sub-surface, you are depending on sonar and various types of equipment like sonar and it’s essentially up to the operator to determine where the threat is and what the threat is.
Mines, you can’t see, you can’t hear, you kind of hit one before you know that you hit one. That’s how we find out. One of them goes off in front of us. As you find out, that this minefield is enormous and there’s seemingly no way out of it. We’re kind of stuck right in the middle of it.
What approach will Chandler and the crew take to the overcome the minefield?
Logically, we try to disarm them. First of all, you go and send a dive team out to investigate what kind of mines they are and then you try and disarm them. We find out that these are mines that no one has ever seen before. It becomes the mine itself — the individual mine — is terrifying. And when you hundreds of them, you can imagine it’s exponentially terrifying. The single mine and what that mine’s capable of doing is pretty scary.
After the confrontation between Chandler and Peng, would you say there’s a peace between the two leaders? Are they are the same side or does Chandler still see Peng as an enemy at the moment?
Absolutely. They are not on the same side. Peng is a thug. He’s a common criminal who took over in China and strong-armed his way to the top in China. Chandler knows exactly who he is and has dealt with him before. As far as them being allies re: Takehaya, that was just his way out of there. Chandler is not going to do anything for Peng and he’s going to investigate Takehaya on his own in his own way. I think you’ll be surprised what you find when it’s all said and done.
Part of the discord between Peng and the United States revolves around his belief that the US gave them bad cure. It’s been set-up that this could be a misunderstanding and absolutely that there’s more to the story than Peng not giving the cure or the cure not working. How much does that thread throughout the season.
There’s more to the story. The whole entire season.
As the truth is revealed, will it come out in unexpected ways?
I think there’s some expected sources and there’s a couple very unexpected sources. Everyone is going to have their theories along the way and somebody’s gotta be right. There’s a lot of players involved and there’s a lot of misdirection. And there’s a lot of evidence which points at certain individuals and some are more innocent than you would think and some aren’t so innocent. You really have to watch every single episode to put together the dots. Pay attention because there’s a lot going on.
Is Chandler’s number one goal right now to save Slattery and his men?
Chandler’s number one goal is to get to his crew. And then he’s going to continue to investigate the outbreak in China. To tease it a little bit, the two are somewhat related.
On a different note, how does Sasha fit into Chandler’s world right now? Does he see her as an adviser, a confidante, or more?
She is a confidante. Chandler knows Sasha intimately. They’ve know each other for a very, very long time. I think she may have even broken his heart at one point. He sees her as what her position is in this whole thing. When she’s on the ship, she’s a Naval Intelligence Officer. She does a lot of things, she speaks a bunch of languages and stuff. There’s a chain of command and she’s not at the top of it.
On “Minefield”
This is probably one of the best episodes we have ever produced.
I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.
It’s like that. It tracks from the second it starts until the second it ends. You don’t really take a breath. I want to implore everyone to watch. You’re not going to want to miss this one. This is a special episode. The season is special, but this episode is particularly special.
The Last Ship airs Sundays at 9pm ET on TNT.
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Contributing Editor and Writer for Collider, BuddyTV, TV Fanatic, CliqueClack, and other publications. TV criticism, reviews, interviews with actors and producers, and other related content. Founder of TV Diehard.
