Wednesday 24 October 2012

Last Resort: Can Peace be Negotiated?

So far on Last Resort, Marcus Chaplin (Andre Braugher) and the crew of his submarine, the Colorado, have remained in a dangerously tense standoff with the U.S. government – and that’s when things are going well and Marcus isn’t being directly targeted for assassination. But this week will see the Colorado extended their first actual olive branch in the situation, with representatives from the U.S. coming to speak to them.

When I visited the Hawaii set of Last Resort last month, as this week’s episode, “Skeleton Crew”, was being filmed, Braugher told me, “The olive branch is really about, ‘Is my juice better than your juice?’ What I have is a big submarine with 17 nuclear missiles. I have the fact that something went wrong in Pakistan with these SEALs and that whatever it was it was so s**tty that killing the SEALs by blowing up the submarine was that important - that the whole targeting of Pakistan and the subsequent rationale were something that was pulled out of their ass and that the President’s in trouble. I know we have a unique opportunity, but it’s not begging for peace. It’s us negotiating and bargaining for peace, because I might outlast the President on this island. It’s really a question of, are the terms correct?”

On the same stretch of Oahu coast that the Lost crew used for six years as the survivor's camp, I watched them film the scene in which the representatives from the U.S. -- accompanied by a number of soldiers -- arrive on the island to speak to Marcus, including two familiar faces to Last Resort viewers: William Curry (Jay Karnes) and Admiral Arthur Shepard (Bruce Davison), marking the first time we’re seeing characters from the Washington, DC portion of the series come to the island.

Andre Braugher in Last Resort.

Braugher was in his pristine Navy white dress uniform filming his scenes on the beach with Davison and Karnes, and Scott Speedman -- who would be getting in a similar uniform shortly to film his coverage -- explained, “We’re getting ready for our big negotiations with the secretary of defense [Curry], who’s arriving. That’s the scene we’re shooting right now, that entourage arriving. We’re going to negotiate our terms. We’re going to try to get home today - that’s the goal.”

Speedman was particularly excited about this episode, explaining, “Obviously, a lot happens in the negotiations, but it feels almost West Wing-y. It’s very, very well written. This young writer, it’s his first episode of television, David Wiener. It’s an excellent, really well written episode. We’re finding stuff in the show that’s very exciting to do.”

Scott Speedman and Jay Karnes in Last Resort.

While Marcus and Sam are in the midst of negotiations, Daisy Betts revealed, with a laugh, that back on the sub, her character, Grace, “is in charge of everything, and I liked it!” Of course, one person no one would expect to be happy about that scenario is Prosser (Robert Patrick), who’s been going toe-to-toe with Grace since the show began. Patrick told me Prosser’s attitude about having Grace in charge is, “’Prove it to me. Let me see what you can do, Goldilocks. Show me what you got!’”

While Prosser is clearly old-fashioned and traditional in many ways, Patrick remarked, “I’m trying to treat her just like I’d treat a man. It’d be the same thing if this was a man. The only reason it becomes different is because she’s a woman. People have got to make it different because she’s a woman. ‘Oh, okay. So you’ve got to treat her like a woman.’ No, you’ve got to treat her like a person going for that job, and that’s what Prosser’s going to do.”

Betts remarked, “Grace has this great relationship with Prosser, and that’s a lot of fun to play as well. He’s really intimidating as an actor. He just has this look! I have to diffuse the situation. I constantly burst into laughter, you know, just saying, ‘He’s too intense! I can’t deal with it.’ We have a lot of stare-downs. A lot of people might expect that his presence would be strong, but hers is equally as strong, so they just stand their ground together. It’s a very love/hate relationship. I think he respects her, but he doesn’t agree with everything that’s going on. It creates a nice little conflict.”

Bruce Davison and Andre Braugher on the Oahu set of Last Resort.

Braugher said he was looking forward to Marcus, Curry and Admiral Shepard coming face-to-face in this episode, adding, “Ultimately all the players have to come to the island. If Kylie Sinclair doesn’t come to the island and Christine isn’t used as a pawn somehow to separate me from Sam, then we’ve got two different stories going on. They have to converge. That’s what will make it interesting. In this episode, the first person to make it to the island who we’ve seen a lot of is Bruce Davison’s character. We’ve seen a little bit of Curry, and Curry comes to the island too. What hasn’t been able to happen is, we haven’t been able to get the submariners anywhere else, because we’re on the island. But every pawn will eventually be played. That’s true of Christine, that’s true of Kylie, Admiral Shepard and Curry. They all have to come here.”

Last Resort: “Skeleton Crew” airs Thursday, October 25th at 8pm ET/PT on ABC.


Source : ign[dot]com

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