'The Last Frontier' Episode 5 Recap And Ending Explained: What Causes The Massive Power Outage?

The 5th episode of AppleTV’s The Last Frontier is proof that a sideplot in a thriller where the central mystery hasn’t even been fully fleshed out yet can easily pack an hour worth of adrenaline. That’s not to say that a clinically insane domestic terrorist’s revenge story is the only thing that the episode’s got going for it. The overarching narrative watches Sidney’s world get steamrolled by the ever-so-powerful Bureau that’s too eager to play the part of fate in her life. It’s tragic, but being a victim is sadly one of the very few ways you can prove your innocence to the people pointing their fingers at you. Everything on Havlock’s side is still too vague for even an outline. But that doesn’t mean that he isn’t moving forward with whatever it is that he plans to do in Alaska. Sidney can’t be the only reason her husband is here.

Spoiler Alert

What’s Romero’s plan?

It always breaks your heart to see a beautiful animal die. But in Alaska, and especially to the Tanana people who live in community camps and rely majorly on the sustainable natural resources around them, reindeer hunting is a thing. You’ll soon see why as Cal’s snow machine plows through the tracks, carrying the magestic animal in the back. Kira’s somehow kept herself going so far, which must’ve been an especially daunting task when you think about the freezing cold and the fact that she’s got no layers on. She’s lucky that she falls in Cal’s path back to the camp. I don’t know if Kira knows Tanana. But even if she did, she’s in no state to utter a single word when Cal rescues her. She would’ve frozen to death if Cal didn’t hunt that reindeer. The only thing that can give Kira the warmth that she needs to survive the ride to the camp turns out to be the skin that Cal pulls off his kill. Luke’s heroic move to lure the convict away practically saves Kira’s life. But where’s Luke now? One thing’s for sure, the convict needs Luke because he can’t drive himself around. So the entire point was getting away from the guy, which is difficult for a kid with a conscience. The man knows Luke won’t pull the trigger on him. So once again, he’s the one weilding the weapon, and Luke is following orders. The good Samaritan who stops to check out the car Luke crashed is just terribly unlucky. But what’s even the plan for this guy? Is he just going to keep Luke around as he drives him through Alaska? That’s relatively normal. And normalcy isn’t something you should associate with any of these people. When the Tanana people alert the police and Frank gets to Kira, she identifies the freaky man who’s kidnapped her boyfriend. Cole doesn’t have anything reassuring to say about him. Turns out, Romero was a gifted Naval Academy graduate who was handpicked by DARPA for his unique skills as an engineer who made surveillance machines. Now, the fact that this guy later was tagged a nutty conspiracy theorist by his agency when he suspected that they’d been surveilling him kinda makes you wonder, you know? Is Romero the crazy guy his superiors at DARPA said he was when he protested the US government’s illegal surveillance stations? His dead neighbor and disemboweled dog would say so. But maybe he is someone who knew too much and was driven mad by his guilt, because, he played a part in creating the machines he now hates. But whatever his deal may be, you can only imagine how hard it must be for Frank and Sarah to face this fear again. They’ve lost a child already. So whether they like it or not, I think it’s good for them to be together in their search for Luke. Since Kira remembers having overheard Romero mention some ex he was still upset with, it makes sense for Frank to wonder if he’s going to see some woman. But Cole’s wasting time looking into that part of Romero’s life. He does have grievances that he’s like to express in violent ways. And he certainly has a place in mind when he points the gun at the man who stopped to help, hops in his truck, and makes Luke drive away. This would’ve been a gigantic obstruction in Frank and Sarah’s path to finding their son. But luckily for everyone involved, they stumble on the man stranded on the road after Romero stole his state-issued road salting truck. Very arctic. It’s still a bit of a blind drive in the general direction given by that man. But when a pretty important conflict that I’ll get to later frustrates Frank into stopping the car and getting out, he notices that there’s de-icing salt on the non-state road. This is the trail that Romero has inadvertently been leaving behind. But by now, Romero has already pulled off the first part of his plan. I bet he likes having Luke in the audience as he goes berserk on the circuit board at a power substation. He also makes the kid haul some big piece of machinery back to the truck for a “surprise.” If Frank and Sarah hadn’t passed by this power substation after a while, it would’ve taken the police a minute to connect the dots between Romero’s movement and the substation power failure. That minute might’ve made everything a whole lot worse. But for now, things are hopeful because Frank and Sarah are on the right track. It’s Sarah who figures out where Romero’s last stop might be. The substation he wrecked up powers the nearby US military research facility, HAARP. Luke’s got no clue what he’s talking about when Romero stands at the edge of the cliff overlooking HAARP and grinds his teeth in anticipation of fulfilling his life’s mission. He wants to destroy HAARP as a message to the government that he claims is a scam. In fact, he says that HAARP is not the research centre it claims to be. If we’re to believe Romero, he’s about to destroy a hub that the US government uses to steal private information about people. I’m not gonna put words in your mouth. But you know that a part of you thinks there was once some truth under the lunacy that now defines Romero. 

Why did Havlock give Frank the recording of the crash?

I like how Frank, Sidney, Hutch, and Cole don’t want to admit that they’re always multiple steps behind Havlock. They’re almost treating this like they’re superstitious. But what do they know so far? Let’s see. Havlock has been in touch with the Courier, Aka Vincent Thiago, who’s suspected to have brought Archive 6 in Alaska. But the plane that crashed and dropped Havlock from the sky had come to Alaska 24 hours after the Courier. So for now, Frank and co want to know if Havlock and the Courier brought down the plane together. But if you ask me, as I’ve maintained so far, I still haven’t found a single reason to believe that Havlock had any hand in the crash. Even if he could take a calculated risk in a situation like that of the Tundra Buggy and survive a fall that steep, I don’t think even Havlock is crazy enough feel safe in a plane crash. But no one says more about Havlock in The Last Frontier than the man himself. It also adds to the almost mystical sense of control that he seems to weild no matter the place or the circumstance. He’s never not in control. Even now, he’s the one who reaches out and talks to Frank from his motel room. It’s a mild exhibition of the leverage Havlock has over Frank when he demands to be taken off the speakerphone. He only wants Frank’s ear. So he reminds Frank of the secret that he keeps from everyone, maybe even Sarah. And Frank, without a better option at his disposal, gives Havlock what he wants right away. That’s got to make Hutch and Sidney suspicious, right? Why would Frank do what Havlock asked him to do if he had nothing to hide? But Havlock doesn’t want to get Frank in trouble. All he wants is for Frank to know that he’s been a nice guy so far, and that he keeps his words. It’s not that he doesn’t love Sidney. But right now, he’s a little too busy trying not to get caught by her. I wouldn’t claim to know the first thing about Havlock’s far reaching goals, though. What I do know is that he wanted his call to be traced back to the motel. Come on. This guy will never be traceable unless he wants to be. So it has to be by his design that the police, the Marshals, the State Troopers, and Sidney are in the motel room that Havlock called them from. He’s left the dog that he rescued from the two losers whose cabin he borrowed for a while. It’s like he knew that Sidney would like the dog. They’re married, after all. Is that why he can’t take his eyes off her from the crowd that’s gathered to see this operation? He’s right there! Staring at Sidney with the most love you’ve ever seen in a man’s eye. I think it’s because he can’t keep himself from her that he risks being caught and corners her at the bar for a conversation and an offer. An offer to run away and live with him on a beach in Goa. From where I am, they do say that that the Goa plans never work out. I don’t think Sidney’s going anywhere with him. Although the look on her face says that she’s bursting with the wish to say yes. Havlock isn’t wrong. As long as he has Archive 6, the Bureau can’t hurt them. But even Havlock knows that Sidney wouldn’t do it. And because Sidney can’t really go ahead and tell Hutch that she’s just back from a meeting with target of the manhunt, she can’t explain how she knows that the hard drive they’ve found in the apartment shouldn’t be sent to the FBI. So she tries to get to Hutch by name dropping Frank. She claims that he would’ve wanted to wait before handing over the supposed “Archive 6” that they found in the motel room. But Hutch is not the type of cop to break protocol on Sidney’s advice. If Frank asked him to hold on to it, he might’ve done so. But for now, he’s handing it over to the OSI and the FBI. There goes Sidney’s bargaining chip. Here’s the thing, though. Remember how there was something that Havlock gave to Sarah and she hid it from Frank? It’s been eating away at her to keep lying to her husband. The distance of secrecy is the opposite of what she wants for the family. So on the drive to find their son, Sarah shows him the memory chip that Havlock meant for her to hand over to Frank. But because she didn’t want her husband and, subsequently, her family to get sucked into another tragedy, she kept this from Frank. A man can only handle so many hidden pieces of evidence! Frank’s micro breakdown is fair. But Sarah isn’t wrong to want the best for her family. She can’t lose a child again. And she can’t come as close to losing Frank as she did when he was in Chicago. We’re totally in the dark about that part of their lives so far. But it was something that has shaken up someone as brave as Sarah. So Frank’s got to understand that she was only trying to protect him based on Sidney’s paranoia about Havlock and his manipulative tendencies. Havlock did mention Chicago on the call to Frank. If the need does arise, I think he will have a lot to use against Frank if he wants. For now, it doesn’t look like Havlock wants to hurt him. Frank’s heard what’s on the chip and shared it with Hutch. It’s the flight deck recording. This might be Havlock’s way to convince Frank that he had nothing to do with the explosion. And judging by Frank and Hutch’s conversation, I’d say that they believe Havlock. But this isn’t the only thing that’s making them reconsider everything they thought they knew about the case. Hutch’s got news about the hard drive he sent to the OSI. They haven’t broken through the encryption yet. But it’s not Archive 6. That much was clear when Havlock told Sidney that Archive 6 is “safe.” I think even Sidney knew that the box in Hutch’s hand didn’t contain state secrets. From what the people at the OSI have to say, it looks like the hard drive contains navigational prompts used in flying airplanes. So it’s bound to make Frank and Hutch jump to the conclusion that’s been staring them in the face from the start. It’s only now that they’re starting to think that the CIA, coupled with the Courier, had something to do with the plane crash that happen over at the Yukon Valley. Everything about the crash screams state coverup. 

What Causes The Massive Power Outage?

General Thatcher over at HAARP doesn’t really appreciate the extent of a threat that Isaac Romero can pose to their highly secured facility. He’s one little man. But the trouble is, he is a man who actually knows places like HAARP, which stands for High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program. As he tells a befuddled Luke, it’s a part of the old DARPA gig that he did. His problem was his conscience. And because he wasn’t okay with how he was required to invade people’s privacy–he calls himself a “watcher”–he’s lost his mind. The thing is, while I admit that he’s mad as a hatter, I don’t think Romero is lying about the job he had, even if he’s wrong about how HAARP is a facility where the government toys with new ways to surveil people. Or, I don’t know, he could be right. He needs Luke to record the historic moment where he admits his lunacy and crimes and boldly attacks Big Brother. Think about it, if he was lying about what he did for a living, how could he know about the reserve battery backup HAARP feels overly secure about? Cole has done his part and warned HAARP about Romero’s movements. But General Thatcher is confident that the backup is secure. Now, because Romero has made him haul that large machine all the way to HAARP, that has to have a part to play in his part to sabotage the facility. For the sake of the video, Romero even admits that he regrets the effects of the darkness that will follow once he does what he’s come here to do. We’ll get what he means later. But Luke isn’t cool with Romero being the reason behind any more people being hurt. He’s got his father’s values running through his veins after all. So Luke distracts Romero with the camera swung at his face and kicks in the machine that he brought here from the power substation. But Romero’s far too maniacal for a sweet kid like Luke to handle. And when he inevitably pins Luke down to the ground, he gives us a pretty scary look of the reason they say he’s clinically insane and dangerous. Look, some parts of his many fears are true, for sure. But he’s also a very disturbed guy who pulled out his own teeth. And now, it’s Luke’s palate expander that he wants to rip out because he’s scared and the kid’s a spy. That’s when Luke must’ve figured that he can easily trick a guy this insane. So when Kira’s tamagochi beeps in Luke’s pocket, he uses this as a diversion and tries to use Romero’s worst fear against him. He tells Romero that the tamagochi is a repeater that the bad guys, the guys who caused the plane crash, has made him wear. At least that gets him to take the pliers away from Luke’s mouth. Romero isn’t that dumb. But before he can hurt Luke, Frank and Sarah reach HAARP. It’s too dark, the place is too big, there are many spots where Romero can take cover, and he’s armed. So, yeah, the odds aren’t great for Frank. But he still tries to shoot Romero until he grabs his son and uses him as his cover. There’s nothing Frank can do when a crazy guy is holding a gun to his son’s head. But Romero doesn’t want to hurt Luke. He lets him go when Frank puts down the car. But Sarah has no patience for people who hurt the people she loves. So before Romero can cause any more pain to Luke and Frank, Sarah flies into him with Todd’s truck. Flung into the salt truck, Romero gets a quick death. This time, Sarah and Frank both save their kid from what can fairly be called a near-death experience. When’s this family going to get a break?

Family, community, and how there are times when a person must choose one of these two is a recurrent theme in this week’s episode of The Last Frontier. There’s this sense that Sidney has given a lot to the Bureau, just like her dad. What they have given her in return is a barrage of harassment. When Sidney gets a call from Molly, telling her that she’s about to move their move into a home because her mind can’t hold the memories in anymore, at first her mom’s delusions sound like the tragic symptoms of a terrible disease. But she’s figured out that the CIA have bugged the phone in her mom’s house, and they’ve even sent men. She’s alerted Molly. But that can only do so much. It’s a really raw moment for Sidney when Molly calls her, saying there are men in the house. It was only a matter of time. But because Sidney has integrity, it’s hard for her to believe that the organization that she and her father have given her life to can stoop as low as to harass her sister and her old, sick mother. So because she knows the Bureau enough to know they’re listening to her, she asks then to come at her instead of her family. This has got to be one of the most defining moment is Sidney’s character development. But the best thing is that Sidney knew that she was speaking in Sarah’s earshot. If she trusts Sarah enough to have a complete meltdown in front of her, this can be the start of a friendship, or a really effective partnership. Sarah understands the extreme lengths people need to go sometimes to protect their family. So standing outside the Mecca Bar with her face soaked in tears, Sidney is the most relatable person for Sarah. 

Mecca’s hosting the whole town for what Hutch says is a potlatch. The whole town has come together to celebrate the joy that Donnie represented in their lives. Like Hutch said. They’re not big on the Christian idea of a funeral. They instead do this wonderful thing where everyone chips in with however much or whatever they can afford so that they can help out the family of the deceased in their difficult time. And then, they drink beer, play the raffle, and to Jane’s relief, dance to get a break from the pain that’s engulfed them in the wake of their loss. Frank’s speech for Donnie is everything that a best friend could wish for. His family won’t have to worry about a thing as long as Frank’s around. But Sarah thinks it’s time Frank made a choice between who he wants to protect. His family, or the entirety of Alaska. I don’t get how Frank didn’t see this coming. Probably has something to do with how he’s not really been listening to what Sarah’s been telling him all this time. But for once, I get why this is a hard decision for Frank. It’s not just about abandoning his people. If he does what Sarah wants and leaves this job to be with his family, Alaska will be in terrible danger. Well, I don’t think Frank can make the decision now anyway. Cole’s filled him in on the research he’s done on Romero. The guy posted tons of conspiracy theory videos, and some of them are about HAARP. In one of the videos, Romero ridicules the failsafe protocol HAARP has put in place. There’s a switch that needs to send a signal to HAARP when it needs to go into battery backup mode. But if the switch isn’t there when HAARP comes back online, the network will be fed the combined powers of the backup battery and the main power source. If Cole just waited a couple minutes, he could actually match the moment his fear comes true. 

In The Last Frontier episode 5’s ending, the entirety of Fairbanks looses power just minutes after Cole figures out that this was Romero’s plan all along. You wanna know what I think? That large machine that Romero had Luke take out of the power substation and bring to HAARP was the switch. I don’t think Luke even needed to destroy it for Romero’s plan to work out. It was disconnected from the power source already. This is the darkness that Romero knew would wrap the town in a state of terror. Some federal convicts are still out there. How are people going to defend themselves in the dark? This has got to have an effect on Havlock’s plan as well. He’s been trying to spook the CIA with the dead man switch. But Jacque has allotted Junie all the resources that she needs to kill the switch, or at least find out something useful about Havlock. It’s really too bad for Havlock that Junie is great at her job. She has good news for Jacque within hours of being handed the assignment. An undersea surveillance project that Havlock has used to connect with someone has sent a signal to the CIA’s servers. Junie claims to be only 12 hours away from cracking the identity of the coder who built the switch. I think the man we see Havlock talk to on video call is the same person that he sent a message to. He’s trying to get this man to join his mission. But how’s Havlock going to run his operation in a total blackout? 

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