02x08 - Safe Zone

Episode transcripts for the TV show "The Last Ship". Aired: June 2014 to November 2018.*
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As a deadly virus rages through the world's population, the crew of a lone unaffected naval vessel tries to save humanity from total extinction. "The Last Ship" is based on the novel of the same name by William Brinkley.
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02x08 - Safe Zone

Post by bunniefuu »

This is ridiculous.

You can't hold me on this ship!

I recognize and respect your position, sir, but I am under orders.

This is an outrage. Where are you taking me?

Sir, please, this will be a lot easier if you don't resist.

Don't resist?

I'm the President of the United States, and this is treason!

Did he say "President of the United States"?

Rachel: Where is Niels?

Recovering in the medical bay.

He'll be in a medically induced coma for at least 24 hours.

How did he get to America?

How did he find his way to the immunes?

Don't know yet.

That's something I'll ask the President.

Who you believe is one of them?

He seems to think so.

We're gonna try and change that.

Senator: The Department of Housing and Urban Development is a relic from another time, and that the State should be charged with their own infrastructure...

Footage from the White House files.

...and the Federal Government no longer need have a role...

My apologies for interrupting you, Mr. Senator.

But since I already know what you're going to say, let me just cut to the heart of the matter.

It is a sadly misunderstood idea that we have somehow graduated from our obligations of developing this country's infrastructure.

We are 27th in homelessness, 36th in people living below the poverty line...


He's got strength.

19th in urban technological sophistication.

Now, I, for one, am not satisfied with that.

Are
you?

Reporter: With Florida reporting the first cases...

How much does the crew know?

They know we've got the President.

Some of them know he didn't quite come willingly.

And that he was with the immunes?

No. We'll have to turn him quickly to avoid that question.

Yeah, well, in my mind, if he doesn't walk out of that room committed to our cause by sunrise tomorrow, we'll never convince our crew he's worthy of being followed.

This is about more than just the crew.

The country needs a leader.

Yeah.

And if the first 200 people who come in contact with him think he's tainted, it's not gonna work.

We don't feel there's a need for panic right now.

The Last Ship
S02E08 Safe Zone


Burk: He doesn't want to eat, sir.

Well...

Wrap this up for later.

Why don't you have green relieve you? Go get yourself cleaned up.

Aye, sir.

[Door opens]

Commander Mike Slattery. I'm the Executive Officer of this ship.

I want to speak to the Captain.

Well, he's presently indisposed...

Wanted us to get acquainted till he gets here.

You are aware that kidnapping the President of the United States is a federal offense, punishable by death?

The Captain was under the impression he was rescuing you.

At gunpoint, against my will?

[Chuckles] Sir, I don't think you realize who the Ramseys are or what their goal is...

You don't need to tell me anything.

No, sir, I don't.

Unless you want to be fully informed.

I'd like to show you something, if I may.

This is from August.

She was second in succession... President then.

These were her orders to us.

President Geller: Morning, Commander.

I know... the last you heard, I was speaker of the house.

The President d*ed two months ago, the Vice President a week later.

What's left of the Federal Government is holed up 200 feet below the White House.


Can you get any tighter on his face?

I'll try to zoom in, sir.

Most of our population, along with our armed forces, is dying or dead.

We have no allies, we have no enemies...

Just a world of sick, desperate people.

If Dr. Scott has the makings of a cure, you must come home... now.


We came home.

Found things not quite as hospitable as we'd hoped.

No infrastructure...

No government, no orders.

So we went to the White House, and we were able to get our hands on many of the Presidential files and directives.

This is the secretary of the Navy.

I understand you... You knew him pretty well.

The U.S. Navy is currently on a mission to find the materials for a vaccine to combat the pandemic.

If you're viewing this video, you are part of the new network of facilities in the United States and certain foreign countries, which were chosen to produce and distribute the vaccine.

You'll be able to communicate with the civilian command with each other.

Hopefully, you'll then start producing and distributing the vaccine, and we can get to the task of rebuilding our great nation.

Godspeed.


[Click]

We have the cure, sir.

Dr. Scott was able to produce it right here on this ship.

Guess you wouldn't have any need for it yourself.

The rest of the world, the ones who aren't lucky enough to be naturally immune...

We got to Norfolk, we found pilots, we sent doses around the country and to Europe, as we were ordered to do.

The project to mass-produce the cure was well under way, and then we ran into some problems.

This is a recording made by one of our scientists.

He was trying to get a message through to Dr. Scott.

Rachel.

Oh, God, I pray this gets to you.

Listen, w-w-we're under att*ck, Rachel.

But it's important...

It's important that you learn this.

I've been working with the data you sent me about the cure, and I think I've found a way to help.


[g*nf*re]

I'm sending you the data now.

[g*nf*re continues]

I didn't... oh, God.

Oh, God.

Listen, it's all worked out.

All you have to do is...

I just somehow pray that this file gets to you, Rachel...


[man speaking indistinctly]

[Crash]

MacDowell: Come on, now. Take it all!

We need to find that server.

Okay, Doc. Stand up.

No, please. Please.


[Two g*nshots]

You might recognize that Irish accent.

Those were Sean Ramsey's people.

They gained access to our secret network, the location of all our labs, and they blew them up with their long-range missiles.

Destroyed our limited infrastructure, m*rder*d our scientists... All because they believe that they are the inheritors of the earth.

That's why Captain Chandler rescued you from the Ramseys.

I can only assume you knew nothing about this.

I mean, if you did...

This is a comprehensive look at Dr. Scott's protocols, experiments, and trials.

Complete Captain's logs, combat center records, including our attempt at a response to the Ramseys' as*ault on our labs.

It's not easy to listen to, but I think it'll be informative.

I'll let the Captain know that you've been briefed.

[Door opens]

Leaving him without a guard?

We need to see what he does when he's alone.

Hey.

Well done, Detective.

What's he doing?

Pacing, biting his fingernails.

He's eyeing the laptop.

Got to be curious after what I just dumped on him.

Here he goes.

What the hell is he...

What is that?

Nobody frisked him?

He was unarmed.

Can we get a better look at the monitor?

Alisha: I'll change angles, sir.

Can you zoom?

Sean: It isn't a question of what we've lost, it's a question of what we've been given...

That's Ramsey.

And that is a chance... A chance to start again.

A chance to renew the human spirit with our valiance, a chance to reclaim the world.

This is our calling, and if you are watching this, know that we are calling you.


[Exhales deeply]

Sean: And you must prepare yourself for the task ahead.

There will be doubters...


We have to figure out what else is on that drive.

We walk in there and ask him for it, he'll know we've been surveilling him.

He'll clam up completely.

When you're trying to break an Al-Qaeda operative, you don't let him keep messages from Bin Laden in his pocket.

We take away the computer.

We prevent him from accessing the messages.

Look at that man. He's a lost cause.

We don't know that, sir... Not yet.

Right, and while we're trying to figure that out, we're sitting here burning fuel, hiding behind this island, wondering what the sub is up to, what its plans are.

We have to find out how they communicate.

We have to find out how Ramsey sent those messages across the country all the way from Europe.

I appreciate what you're trying to do, sir, but getting intel out of this man has to be priority number one.

But you, Jeffrey, you were put on the earth for this,

[door opens]

To fight the forces of...

[beep]

Coffee?

I'm just fine. Thanks.

You wanted to talk.

Sending your X.O. In here first... that some kind of game?

I was in the combat center, monitoring Sean Ramsey's sub.

Well, I imagine they'll be coming from me.

Then what... they're gonna blow us out of the water if we don't release you?

Something like that.

So, they're in the habit of using their missiles?

You're talking about the labs.

The labs, our scientists...

Your X.O. Tried to sell me on that.

You think we manufactured that video?

You went to great lengths to bring me on this ship.

Doctoring a video would not be particularly difficult.

According to Sean, you're the chosen, right?

I would think a ship carrying the cure, labs trying to manufacture that cure, well...

...that would be the greatest thr*at possible to him.

We are strong because of our strength.

We don't need to destroy anyone else.

So, you believe we have the cure?

I believe you think you do.

And you've seen our instructions from the President, the Secretary of the Navy?

I've seen them. They're from months ago. They're obsolete.

Well, that leaves me in a bit of a bind.

We have standing orders from the previous administration...

Orders that are consistent with national protocols...

And then we have you, the new President, issuing orders that don't seem to be in the national interest at all.

The national interest is saving what's left of this country.

Sean Ramsey and our movement give the country the best chance at that.

Convince me.

Tell me how it all happened...

How you came to this point, why you're so sure of what you believe.

Is he trying to turn him or get the intel?

Come on, Mr. President.

You want off this ship, you're gonna have to convince me.

The outbreak had just started in Earnest, in the South.

'Course, that was before anyone knew how bad it would become.

The President sent me down to Tallahassee to create quarantine areas and organize safe zones.

It was only supposed to be for a week or so, but then...

Things started spiraling out of control very quickly.

It was untenable for me to leave the region.

Within a month, the entire country was enveloped.

I can't begin to imagine.

No. You can't.

And your family?

They were with me.

But not immune?

Safe zones were created to protect the people.

But there wasn't a reliable test for the virus, and early symptoms were very subtle. We couldn't stop it.

And how did you discover that you were immune?

We were in one of the safe zones I created...

Doak Stadium, where the Seminoles used to play?

Sure.

Well, when you look around and you see 20,000 people dead and only a handful alive, you start to get the feeling that maybe you're special, except not in any way you'd want to be...

Not when your children are bleeding out of their eyeballs.

And Sean?

How did you find your way to him?

I only wanted to die.

For three weeks, I walked around exposing myself to anyone who was sick.

I thought maybe that there was a different strain, maybe there was some other way that I could catch it.

One day, I stumbled upon a group of survivors.

Except they weren't acting like everybody else.

They didn't have that rabid look in their eyes...

The desperation, the loss.

They had a sense of purpose, unity...

Hope, even.

And I learned they were all immune and that I was one of them.

And I slept for the first time in weeks.

I held food down, and I started to see that there's more than loss and desperation...

That there's a future, a way to start again.

They showed me how the movement began in Europe...

That from the ashes, they were once again building a civilization.

And I realized, if I'm the surviving member of the Cabinet, if I'm the President, I can be a part of making it happen here.

Because one thing was clear...

Sean Ramsey may not be what we asked for, but he was what was given to us, and his vision is what's saving the world.

And what exactly is his vision?

Immunes remain together, united.

Create a new line of the human race, strong enough to withstand any plague.

A master race?

Yeah, well, that's a pretty antiquated view of it.

That's what it is.

I know it sounds cutthroat, but there's a deep logic to it.

And that is...?

Non-immunes will eventually bring down the rest of you if you co-mingle, if you procreate?

How many of you are even left on this planet?

How spread out are you? We have to protect ourselves...

The people strong enough to survive. That's Darwin. That's the Law of the Jungle.

That's biblical.

Some people around here feel that this is the Ark.

Because you have the cure?

How long do you think it will last before the virus mutates again?

The virus is stabilized.

Who do you think you're talking to?

I had access to the top government scientists.

I saw the virus mutate five, six times a month.

That was August.

It's stabilized now.

Says who?

Says our scientist.

Dr. Scott?

Most people think she's a quack.

She is not a quack.

Well...

Sean's scientists say something different.

I'm not sure why I should believe yours.

Even if they're right...

What makes you think you won't fall prey to the next strand?

Or the next polio or smallpox or swine flu?

Because they've tested our blood.

We have certain antibodies, proteins, coagulates that make us...

What?

Invincible?

Best equipped to carry the torch for humanity.

It's a responsibility, and we don't take it lightly.

Responsibility?

That's right... responsibility.

This is going off the rails.

I don't know, sir.

And if I were to let you go, send you back to the Ramseys, what would your game plan be then?

You already heard... I'm going to New Orleans.

I did hear that. What I don't know is why.

Okay, okay.

After Katrina, the government swore we'd never let it happen again.

It has the largest pumping station on the planet, plus a 2-mile wall that can seal off the channel, plus huge stores of food, medicine, an independent hydroelectric grid, lots of boats.

It's best place to start rebuilding the country.

And the people surviving there, the ones who aren't immune...

What will the Ramseys do with them?

"Do with them"?

I have to imagine it's pretty hard to start a master race of naturally immune demigods with all those pesky non-immune survivors hanging around.

We'll create our own societies.

Yours will die out on their own.

That what he said?

That's what will happen.

So no k*lling?

No... no k*lling, despite what you think you heard on that tape.

How do you know Sean won't go to New Orleans without you?

He wouldn't.

How do you know? You just met the guy three days ago.

Because we've been planning this for months. He came to America for me.

For months? How? How'd you communicate?

You don't really think I'm gonna tell you that?
I'm not against you, Mr. President. I'm just trying to figure out how all of this evolved.

American immunes need an American to lead them. That's how.

That's what he tells you, isn't it?

That's right. It's true.

Well, then, maybe you can tell me why our sonar operators are picking up Ramsey's sub heading West... To New Orleans... as we speak.

That's not... That's impossible.

When Sean knows we're hiding behind this island.

Why is that impossible, Mr. President?

Great bluff.

That's not what I said.

I think it was.


Why is it impossible?

You think you can manipulate me.

I'm just trying to talk to you, sir.

I'm sure even prisoners on this ship have a right to their own quarters.

You're not a prisoner.

Well...

Then I can go now?

That sub's got to be wounded from its dive down into the Canyon during our as*ault.

That's why Michener said it's impossible they were on the move.

They must be sitting off the Coast of Jacksonville trying to repair it, which is why they haven't been chasing us all this time.

So, what do we figure, from a dive like that?

Could be hull damage, sound matting, propellers.

Maybe it's beyond repair.

Maybe they'll be parked there for good.

Well, if they can't maneuver...

We don't know that, and we can't count on it.

We push them, figure out exactly what their damage is.

They'll be prepared now.

As likely to give me bullshit as the truth.

So we stay here behind the island or we poke our beaks out?

Bring us out at quiet one... South-Southeast, at least 20 miles between us and the coast.

Aye-aye.

Helm, steady course 1-7-0.

All engines, head 2/3 and 12 knots.

I took a cruise by the mess decks.

Pretty hot topic of conversation why the President hasn't made an appearance.

I said he was being briefed.

That story won't hold after morning.

Agreed, sir.

I think I blew it.

Trapping him like that.

Got the intel.

Might've lost the man.

The Ramseys offered a narrative that made his tragedy something he could live with.

You've got to gain his trust, sir.

Then you'll need a new narrative that's stronger than theirs.

I wasn't trying to manipulate you, but I did need to know where that sub was.

Now I know it's damaged and sitting on the coast.

Which means we have the advantage.

We'll be headed to New Orleans ourselves, and we're gonna get there ahead of your friends.

We'll lie in wait for them there, and we will take them out.

[Inhales deeply]

You should know, sir...

...I've given everything for my country...

...to serve a mission I didn't ask for.

And I'd be sitting safely in a cabin in the woods in Virginia with my family right now if I hadn't stayed with this ship. Instead...

...I lost my wife...

...to the virus.

Didn't even get a chance to hold her hand...

Or say goodbye.

My children did.

They watched her die...

...wondering where I was.

I found them in an extermination camp...

In a stadium, like the one you were in.

Had I shown up an hour later, they'd be dead.

An hour earlier, I might've been able to save my wife.

Now they're holed up in a ghost town with my father...

68 years old...

A heart condition.

If something happens to him and I'm out here in the middle of the ocean...

I understand why you'd be looking for meaning...

...wanting all of this to somehow be fate...

Or destiny...

For it all not to just be...

Terrible, tragic...

...and random.

[Sighs]

I do understand.

I held my son's hand.

Watched him slip away.

His breath so labored at the end...

The wheezing, his lungs...

He was in agony.

I thought there could be nothing worse.

And then...

My daughters...

My wife...

Knowing what was coming...

That was the most unbearable thing of all.

And he wouldn't even have been there if I...

If what?

If what, sir?

[Knock on door]

[Door opens]

Very sorry to disturb you, sir, but there's something you need to hear.

It's a looping message on a Major FM frequency.

[Static]

Woman: Attention, citizens of America.

This is a message for you from the underground.

The U.S. Naval Ship
Nathan James has been traveling up and down the East Coast, claiming to have a cure for the Red Flu.

No one knows exactly what they're giving people.

Some believe it's a new strain of the virus.

Others believe it's an experiment with an unproven vaccine.

But one thing is clear...

It doesn't work and it is not a cure.

We have all suspected for a long time...


Got to be the Ramseys.

Can you trace the source?

No, sir.

We're receiving the broadcast from multiple directions.

Should you come in contact with this ship, stay away or fight them.

We are tired of being lied to.


Michener: How the hell did this happen?

We were supposed to be safe!


Son: [Weakly] Sorry, dad.

[Voice breaking] I'm so sorry.

[Breathing heavily]

[Sniffles]

[Gasps]

Daughter: Daddy?! What are you doing?!

[Fists bang, echoes]

[Sobs]

[Muffled screaming]

[Sighs deeply]

_

_

How long has he been in there?

I don't know... Few minutes.

[Knocks] Mr. President?

Said he had to take a leak.

[Knocks] Mr. President?

Or maybe he's doing the other thing.

He's the President. What are you gonna do?

[Knocks]

Mr. President, open up now!

Jesus Christ!

Get Doc Rios! Now!

[Hurried footsteps]

God damn it! What have you done?!

[Monitor beeping]

Slattery: You can't still think you're gonna rehabilitate him?

Nobody besides the people in this room know this happened.

That's why I had him brought down here.

So you're gonna hide it form the crew?

We made that mistake once before, and it almost bit us in the ass.

Did you not hear those broadcasts?

The American people, the people we're here to help, are not gonna buy what we are selling.

Unless we have this guy? He's gonna save the day?

He's the President.

That's still gonna mean something to people.

He's a soldier.

He wants someone to salute to.

[Grunts]

That wasn't a very smart thing you did.

[Sighs]

But, then, I guess you've been trying to erase yourself for a long time...

Ever since the football stadium.

There was something you said about that.

You said you walked around trying to get infected...

To give yourself the disease.

I've been wondering...

If you really wanted to k*ll yourself, why not put a b*llet in your brain or jump off a building?

Why did you want to give yourself the most painful death imaginable if you'd just watched your entire family and 20,000 people die?

Stop it. Just stop it.

Will you stop it already?

Just leave me alone.

What am I even doing on this ship?

What the hell do you want from me?!

[Clank]

You blame yourself.

You think you could've done something differently.

Somehow, all those people would be alive... Your wife, your daughters?

What could you have done differently, Jeff?

Nothing. Nothing.

We're going to New Orleans.

And you're going to help us defeat whoever it is that twisted you all around, but we are never gonna get there until you face whatever it is you can't let go of.

There's nothing... Nothing to let go of!

It was your son, wasn't it?

He was in Michigan.

Summer Session at the university.

You had him brought down to Florida.

No.

Against CDC Protocols.

No.

There was no way to test him, but he seemed okay, and you let him in the stadium.

That's not... that's not what happened!

I have the records from the White House.

No, you're wrong!

Two days after you brought him to Florida, there was a massive outbreak in Ann Arbor.

No, please! Please! That's not what happened!

The security details... they were lax!

You couldn't have known.

He infected everyone in that stadium... it was hot!

They were careless with their masks!

Your wife, your daughters.

Please! No! No!

It was all on you.

That's not what happened! Stop it!

You were the one who was supposed to protect everybody.

Stop it.

And then you stumbled into the immunes, and they told you that it was all meant to be and that you were chosen and your children were not and that all of this was destiny.

And it was easy for you to believe because you needed to believe it...

Because it was the only way to go on.

There's another way now.

With us.

I k*lled my daughters.

I know.

No.

No.

You don't.

Then tell me.

It's just you and me... Nobody else.

Tell me.

After my son d*ed...

And my daughters started getting the symptoms...

My wife...

She begged me to put them out of their misery b-b-before it became...

And I did it.

[Voice breaking] With my own bare hands.

I smothered them in their sleep.

But Hollie...

She woke up.

A-and she struggled.

And that's the last thing she ever felt...

Was her father betraying her.

[Sniffles]

So...

What do you say about that?

Hmm?

How do I live with that?

I've k*lled people.

More than I can count now.

Some of them were firmly aligned against us with the worst of intentions.

Some of them were just caught up in the madness that all this has created and simply trying to survive.

We've all done things...

That are hard to live with.

[Sniffles]

So let this be your redemption, if it needs to be, because it might be mine.

The problem with the sub is the sound matting.

Last I heard, the divers were trying to fix it, but I don't know how much progress they're making.

In all likelihood, we'll be in New Orleans way ahead of them.

And the immunes' infrastructure, how organized are they?

How many you think there are in America?

Oh, thousands.

Tens of thousands... Maybe more.

Garnett: And their propaganda campaign against us...

How far has that gotten?

As far as I know, the ham radio broadcast you played me was the beginning.

I think it was in response to your taking me.

What else can you tell us about how they communicate?

I know they were working on a network...

Some way of connecting with other chapters...

But I hadn't heard the details and I'm not sure how it was accomplished, and I don't know how they were getting Sean's messages through from Europe.

I assumed that the missionaries were flying them over.

Uh...

We're gonna need to see that flash drive, Mr. President.

Oh. Sorry.

Here you go.

Ramsey's men were...

[Zipper opens]

...handing these out...

To the non-immunes.

There's a mechanism inside that releases the virus to infect people.

They were giving...

To children?

Mm.

Chandler: We captured one of their scientists...

Niels Sorensen.

But what we don't know is if anyone else in their camp is trained to replicate this idea.

If you saw anything or heard anything...?

No, I'm sorry.

I have no idea.

I wish that I could help.

I think we've got enough for now.

Welcome, Mr. President.

Mr. President.

Mr. President.

[Zipper closes]

[Door opens]

[Sighs]

To children.

Mr. President?

I need you to know something.

Everything you and I spoke about in Dr. Scott's lab...

And I mean everything...

Stays between us.

What matters now is the future and that you're here with us.

[Inhales deeply]

Let me show you to your new quarters.

Mr. President.

Mr. President.

Mr. President.

As you were.

Interior communications and closed circuit phone all set up, sir.

This room is now operationally capable.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Well done.

You can finish that up later.

Yes, sir.

Looks like our toner cartridges are fading a bit.

But it does the job, I think.

It does.

Brought a few of my shirts and pants for you.

On the bed there.

Yeah, this one fits pretty well.

And the sleeves are long enough.

We'll have you come out and officially meet the crew later today.

Just... Shake some hands, say hello.

Of course.

That would, uh...

That would be good.

Anything else we can do for you, sir?

I'm grateful to you, Captain.

I think just about anyone else would've given up on me.
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