Well, that didn't take long.

Circumstances got the Nathan James band back together on The Last Ship Season 4 Episode 3.

And that even seemed to happen organically, rather than be forced.

That's not to say that everything went smoothly. What fun would that be?

In this situation, the crew of the Nathan James played the role of the cops, trying to solve a mystery working with scant clues.

They've figured out that the family of Mahmoud, the thief/entrepreneur killed off by Omar in The Last Ship Season 4 Episode 2, lived in the Oran, Algeria, region.

So the battered ship headed south, with the away team choppering ahead, trying to beat Omar there.

They employed the age-old shoe leather (boot leather?) technique, canvassing the streets and looking for Mahmoud's people. It was amusing to watch Green and Burk, who screamed "American," trying to get information from the locals, without even the benefit of speaking the language.

Still, equally unlikely, Sasha and Azima, who spoke Arabic, were able to browbeat information out of a shopkeeper, if only so they would leave. Hijab or no hijab, they were badass.

(So was Mahmoud's grandmother, even though she paid for her toughness in the end.)

Thus far in The Last Ship Season 4, Sasha is proving to be the crew's strongest fighter, with newcomer Azima a close second. It's a nice twist to have Sasha's beau James on the sidelines, fearing for her safety.

Of course, despite their lengthy delay at the Rock of Gibraltar last episode, the away team found the right address in Oran just a little too late.

Being concerned with collateral damage allowed Omar and his men to escape. It was realistic that in a cluttered street scene, they wouldn't be able to get a clean shot.

So it fell to Sasha to once again risk life and limb to plant a tracker on Omar's chopper. I'm not sure when she essentially became field leader, but hey, it seems to work.

This gave the Nathan James an electronic path to follow to Sardinia. Tom took a more roundabout route, as best I could tell leaving his destiny to fate.

That's not to say that he didn't have something of a plan: seduce Lucia and steal her necklace to get into Giorgio's office to snoop around. All that yielded was a bunch of scientific papers that he looked blankly at.

And of course, he was able to slip his large frame back out of there and smoothly slip the necklace back onto Lucia's neck easy peasy.

Why wasn't Giorgio more suspicious of this hulking American, who has every reason to mean him harm? I mean, he killed off Tom's friend and largely took away his livelihood. Is Giorgio's ego so large that he doesn't fear anyone around him? Probably.

A sidenote: even without the internet, wouldn't a photo of the biggest military hero in the world have circulated?

Anyway, Tom, who is pretty much Giorgio's bodyguard now, got where he needed to be just by taking a leisurely ride on a luxury yacht. Nice work if you can get it.

I'm beginning to think that Lucia is the brains of the outfit (other than, of course, bedding the spy in their midst). I'm thinking Giorgio is just her obnoxious beard.

And, as I predicted in The Last Ship Season 4 preview, it took three episodes to get the Nathan James crew back together.

I loved the looks on Sasha and Slattery's faces as they spied Tom in the ring. The rest of the away team seemed pretty unfazed by the happenstance (a couple of them came on after he departed).

I had wondered how Tom and Sasha had parted when he left the ship. Apparently not well, from the look on her face, as she used her naval intelligence instincts to make the connection between Tom and Lucia.

Having Tom and Slattery waltz around in the ring was the perfect way for them to compare notes. Then came the obligatory firefight, with eight sailors overcoming two armies.

Poor Slattery. First Tom beat him in the ring, then Lucia stabbed him (I know, where could she hide that knife?). You would think after working with a number of top-notch female sailors, he would have known enough to pat her down first rather than just assume she was harmless.

So now he's injured, unarmed and alone, carrying the prize that everyone else wants: the seeds.

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One key figure got introduced this episode: Dr. Paul Vellek, the trainer who waxed philosophically while wrapping Tom's hands. He's the bio-scientist who will be working with the seeds. Whether he's the boss or an employee of the boss is yet to be revealed.

To see if you can figure that out, watch The Last Ship online.

Are you glad Tom's separation is over? Will Slattery survive? How soon can Giorgio and Omar, two weak villains, be gone? Comment below.

Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on X.