On the Homefront:
Stella dropped in on Clay. She keeps popping in. Are they getting back together at some point?
I think it’s mostly because she’s the only person Clay’s spoken to, in any depth, about his relationship with his father. She’s the only character on the canvas that could get Clay to talk to Ash.
Ash is a former SEAL with a national audience, thanks to his book and a national platform, thanks to his show.
The conversation is about as contentious as all of their conversations are. I was disappointed that we didn’t get an answer to Clay’s question during the episode.
Mission: Bravo Team Searches for Ray
They managed to sum up my problem with Shaw quite nicely. Ray’s chute doesn’t deploy, and Shaw, the bleep, blames Jason’s poor leadership. Seriously?
Thank you, Blackburn for pointing out that it was bad luck and not anything Jason did.
Jason, meanwhile, does what he’s supposed to do. He forces the team to focus on the mission. No matter what, the mission comes first.
From my perspective, Shaw is right. Bad luck has been plaguing Bravo Team for months, because, to my eye, Jason’s mission decisions have always been solid mission decisions.
He is completely freaking out about Ray. He urges Jason to abandon the mission and go after Ray.
I liked the moment between Sonny and Jason. I didn’t expect Jason to acknowledge his mistakes in dealing (or not dealing) with Ray.
It was another nice apology, but is it time for him to stop doing things he has to apologize for?
Jason has spent the season repeatedly making the same mistakes in his personal relationships. Is he beginning to become a case study in the usefulness of therapy; something that would help him change these patterns?
His apologies are awesome, but, at this point, he seems to be apologizing for the same thing all the time. Given Blackburn’s words in last week’s episode, I wonder if we’ll see Jason in therapy when the series returns in the fall.
What sucks is that it makes me agree with Shaw about something. Yuck.
That said, I loved Jason finding the solid tactical logic he could use to get official permission to go find Ray.
Unfortunately, when it rains it pours…Trent steps on a landmine; Ray finds shelter only to have a woman walk in on him.
I’m still blaming Blackburn for jinxing the mission by pointing out that “nothing can go wrong on this one”.
The moment when they found Ray was awesome.
Mission: Ray Fights to Survive in Enemy Territory
Ray’s alone on the wrong side of the mountains and being surrounded by bad guys. More and more with each moment.
But he is well trained. Most of the guys coming at him die. He is able to find shelter in a storage shack of some kind.
Killing her isn’t a decision he can easily live with. Six months ago it would have been easy; tie her up, run, and trust his survival to The Lord.
But without Him there, letting her live is a death sentence for Ray, but he does not want to kill an innocent woman.
When the woman begins to pray, Ray angrily assures her there’s no one up there listening to her.
When Ray met Miller in Manila, I expected his epiphany to come during their conversations. If I’m honest, I was expecting Ray to wake up next to her, have it all click together, and he’d regain his faith and lose his family in one moment. It would have been solid soap opera resolution to his story.
Instead, we got a something that felt like a real crisis of conscience for a soldier trying to be the kind of man he can live with.
When the woman tries to escape, Ray stops her. He finally admits to himself that the only way he can let her go is if he allows himself to trust in God’s will again.
He fights until he’s out of ammo and unable to run any farther. But, when he realizes he’s about to die, at least he’s able to seek peace in his faith and begins to pray.
His prayer is interrupted by Jason telling him to get down. God’s will is done.
Mission: Mandy Must Find a Way to Rescue Bravo Team
Most of the action thriller novels I read paint the CIA as an adversary of the military. On this show, the CIA is part of the team. Mandy’s become a part of Bravo team and fights for them fiercely.
First she manages to convince her contact from the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency of India) to provide surveillance data to help them locate Ray.
When she realizes that US Military forces cannot get Bravo Team out of enemy territory, she puts her career on the line.
Go Mandy! It looks like Bravo Team’s fate won’t be the only think up in the air at the end of the season.
I’m expecting the accusation of some form of “getting too close to Bravo Team” to be tossed around.
Random Thoughts:
How the h-e-double-toothpicks can Sonny be okay with dangling from a helicopter by a rope but the ocean freaks him out? LOL
I forgot what altitude they were operating at, but all of Bravo Team was panting.
Was Ray near fall real, and they just decided to leave it in the scene?
That final image was amazing!
Awesome episode. What did you guys think?
