I openly admit, I have been a big fan of this show since its pilot, which did an amazing job at introducing many of the main characters and setting up the main premise of the show. I honestly couldn't care less if its 100% accurate in its portrayal of life on a Navy vessel as this is a TV show and being entertaining will always trump being 100% realistic. I think the show did a great job at balancing the realism with the need to keep things entertaining and easy enough to follow. One of my favorite aspects of this show has been the pacing. They could have easily stretched out the actual acquisition of the cure for at least a couple seasons, but this show moved at a breakneck pace in that regard and that has really helped keep the plot and stories for each episode varied and entertaining.
"Solace" is not only one of my single favorite episodes for this series to date, its also one of the best hours of TV out of any show that I have seen in some time. The pacing and overall tension for this episode are fantastic. The first 10 minutes sets up the episode as it explains where the missing lab from Norfolk has gone. It was moved offshore on a hospital ship called Solace. It doesn't take long for the crew to find the ship and from that point forward, the tension just increases more and more as each minute passes and once the action gets going, it really doesn't let up. This episode has some of the best action I have seen on TV since the early seasons of 24. Were also introduced to 2 new characters, Lt. Ravit Bivas & Wolf Taylor, and both are extremely likable and extremely capable and deadly. One scene with Wolf & Miller, in which they engage a handful of bad guys by rotating around each other as they move down a hallway, thus keeping continuous fire on the group, was one of best action scenes of the series to date. It ended with Wolf pulling off some serious hand to hand skills and killing 3 guys with extreme precision and without hesitation. That scene alone basically sets Wolf up as the new bad*s of the show and his relationship with Miller is really enjoyable. Again, its easily one of the best action scenes of the entire series.
Another aspect of this show that I like is how they have showed the various technology and weaponry that is used on a US destroyer. This was one of the best aspects of the pilot and its another great aspect of this episode. In particular, the use of the starboard "Mark 38" is a great sequence. The Mark 38 mod 2 is just an awesome piece of weaponry. Its basically a very large 25mm machine gun that is remotely controlled by a control system in the ship. Its capable of single shot, semi-automatic and full automatic modes. We only witness the single shot capability in this episode, but that is more than enough to demonstrate just how deadly this gun really is. Its likely the show cut back a bit on the gore factor as even tho the scene that shows a bad guys getting taken out by it is pretty brutal, it would likely be significantly worse in real life. Regardless, the scene more than adequately shows the power of this gun. For those interested in following the development of weapons, there is now a Mod 3 version of the Mark 38 that is currently being tested that raises the bar on this gun to even higher levels.
If there is one downside to this episode its that you really don't know any of the bad guys that get taken out in the episode, although the ending of the episode sets up the next episode as the one that will introduce you to the bad guys that will take center stage for the rest of the season. All in all its a small flaw in what is otherwise an absolutely amazing episode. This is as good as action gets on regular TV and I really have to give a thumbs up to the score/music of this episode as well, which really helped increase the tension as the episode progressed. In particular, there is a guitar riff that starts playing as soon as the crew of the Nathan James realize that there are hostile forces operating on Solace. It winds p being brilliant background music that really helps ramp up the tension once you reach that point in the episode.
For those that like to pick apart shows like this for being unrealistic in regards to its military practices or having characters with inaccurate accents, this will likely be an episode that evokes more criticism than praise. For those like myself that don't need a show to be 100% realistic in regards to its military aspects and couldn't care less if an accent here or there is a bit off, this will likely be one of the best hours of TV that you have seen in some time. This is an action oriented episode, one that is meant to give you a taste of just how ruthless the "chosen" (the bad guys for the rest of the season) really are and just how capable the crew of the Nathan James really is when push comes to shove. I have re-watched this episode 3 times and it was just as entertaining the 3rd time as it was the first time I watched it. This is just an amazing episode from start to finish. If your a fan of this show I have no doubt you will absolutely love this episode. I know I did!
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