Last Resort -- Dazed And Disoriented

I can already see viewers complaining about this episode as being too hard to follow. A lot of viewers don't like it if a show isn't linear and easy to follow. This episode was anything but. The timeline jumped all over the place with no consistency. It's almost like the writers wanted to make viewers feel as dazed and confused as the characters.

The episode begins with Marcus and Sam trying to figure out what the SEALS know and why Curry got so worried whenever Marcus mentioned them. Hopper has improved, but he gets all self-righteous when Marcus offers him sanctuary on the island. Marcus and Sam come away from the meeting feeling the SEALS are hiding something.

Before all this happened a man named Jim McClure approached Julian and got him to poison the island's water with a chemical that would disorient everyone. McClure promised him if he did it, the island would be Julian's again.

The first signs that something is wrong is when Tani nearly walks off a cliff thinking she sees her mother. Thankfully, King is with her and he saves her. And Nigel, Sophie's co-worker, starts getting nasty with Sam. He even makes sure to show Sam a picture of Christine being hugged by Paul Hartman. Then he knocks over one of the computers so they can't communicate with the outside world.

The COB figured out what was going on by seeing how people were acting in the village. They need an injection of Epinephrine to counteract the affects of the chemical. Unfortunately, all the Epi is missing. Marcus takes Grace and The COB with him to move the sub, while leaving Sam in charge of the island.

Marcus thinks there's some epinephrine on the sub, but it's missing, too. While hiding the sub a fire breaks out on board, as the chemical begins to take affect on all the crew. Marcus has to cut off the oxygen so the fire won't spread. He leaves Grace to man the ship, as he goes to put out the fire.

On his way, Marcus sees his son Jeffrey as a little boy and goes chasing after him, getting side-tracked. The COB, whose wearing a gas mask, tells Marcus to put the oxygen back on. Instead, Marcus goes chasing after Jeffrey, again. He finally passes out as he imagines he's telling his son a bedtime story.

When Marcus wakes up a needle is sticking out of his chest. Someone gave him the antidote. The oxygen has been turned back on in the sub. And someone has taken Marcus' firing key so he can't fire any missiles.

Back on the island, Sam is being haunted of visions of Christine and Paul Hartman. She keeps taunting him about never coming back home and not trusting her because he kept things from her. He tells her he didn't want to take Marcus' desk job because he wants his own command.

He comes across McClure who cons him into thinking he's one of his men. McClure secretly injects Sophie with the antidote so he can wake her up to help him send a message from the island command center. When Sam spots blood on Sophie's arm where McClure injected her, he jumps McClure and ends up getting knocked out.

Sam meets up with King and they team up. They spy on McClure in the command center with Sophie and a tied up Hopper. McClure is demanding that Hopper tell him where it is. When Sophie is sent down to the basement to finish fixing the communication system, Sam takes out the guard that goes with her and he and King storm the communication room. King rescues Hopper while Sam takes care of McClure.

What Sam isn't aware of is one of the times he was imagining Christine and telling her he always comes back to her and was kissing Christine, he was actually kissing Sophie. She later watches it on tape and seems moved by the experience. Meanwhile King is asking Hopper why they killed the man they were sent to save. Hopper says he received new orders. Kind of like Marcus received orders to fire on the wrong channel. Only Hopper followed his orders, while Marcus questioned what he was being asked to do. It's the difference between blindly following orders and questioning the right and wrong of the orders you've been given.

Marcus and Sam meet up and Marcus tells Sam he believes there could be a mole on the crew. He thinks it was the mole who gave him the antidote while he was knocked out, put the oxygen back on and stole his firing key. He says they've got to find that key.

My question is could it be Sam that was the one who somehow got on the sub, gave Marcus the cure and stole the firing key. Could he have done it so he can get home to Christine? The timeline for Sam on the island was so jumbled it's possible he could have left the island, snuck aboard the sub and taken the firing key.

Another possibility is it could be The COB. Why was he wearing a mask when no one else was? He hasn't caused Marcus any trouble recently, but he caused plenty of it before that. The COB was never shown to be exhibiting any of the symptom of the chemical everyone got drugged with. He was also the one who realized everyone had been drugged.

It could even be Grace. After what happened to her father because of this mess, maybe she could have turned on Marcus. She acted like she was feeling the effects of the chemical, but she wasn't shown to be having hallucinations like everyone else.

We've got a real mystery on our hands where the only one we can say didn't do it when any certainty is Marcus. It really could be anyone.

Great episode, although it was a bit confusing the way the timeline jumped around so much. It's an episode you really need to rewatch and write down when each scene took place with the help from the titles on the screen of how many hours it was before or after the chemical drugging. The timeline on the ship is a bit more straight forward, but the timeline for Sam on the island is the one that you really need to be able to put in a concise order to see if it's possible he's the one who stole Marcus' firing key.