Just bury it.

Rip might have thought he buried his past on SIX Season 1 Episode 3, but his current situation caused some painful memories to resurface.

A Rip-centric episode makes for a much more interesting hour of television.

Rip is still being held captive by Boku Haram, but instead of just sitting there waiting for his life to end, he's finally decided to do something about it.

Maybe it's Naomi that inspires him. Maybe it's the guy who lost his hand. More than likely, it's Esther who seems to have made some sort of impact on him. 

Maybe he sees something in her that reminds him of why he became a SEAL in the first place. Maybe he's finally found his humanity again.

Naomi is not thrilled with the idea of Esther helping Rip, but Esther decides to help him anyway which is the push Rip needs to get moving on his plan to escape. 

Everyone thinks he's going to leave them behind and he probably would have, but Naomi calls him out and he ends up taking everyone with him, even the injured guy.

Prisoner: Are you crazy? They'll kill us.
Rip: I'm worth ten million dollars. They'll kill you.

• Permalink: I'm worth ten million dollars. They'll kill you.

No man left behind.

Rip always wasn't a bastard. He used to be a good guy. He loved his team. He loved what he was doing. He was happy. He had a wife. Everything was perfect.

But war is not kind and doing the kind of killing he and his team did weighed on him more that perhaps he thought it would.

The flashback scenes were really great, especially the ones involving his wife. They were very short, but they were enough to show not only the disintegration of his marriage, but of his soul as well.

They were powerful scenes.  He went from a guy with great passion for his wife and life to a guy who let his job eat him alive.

It's not that he had a choice. The things he had to do on his missions made him pull away from Gloria. How could share those things with her that needed to be buried?

He certainly couldn't talk about any of his missions, and talking about killing wasn't something he could share either. She obviously knew what sort of things he might be doing, but not being the person he turned to when he needed help had to be hard.

Out of necessity he turned to his teammates and alcohol instead of turning to the woman who had once been the priority in his life..

The things he once thought "beautiful" turned ugly fairly quickly. It's cliche to say, but war is not pretty. For anyone.

Rip's flashbacks also gave us an insight into his relationship with Caulder, Bear, and Buddha. He and Caulder clashed from the very beginning, but not because of a dislike for each other. 

Rip was hard on him, and Caulder looked to him almost as a father figure. Rip wanted him to succeed. He wanted him to be a good soldier. He might have even have seen in Caulder a younger version of himself.

But as Rip spiraled downward, Caulder wasn't going to fall in line with the others. 

Rip shooting the American boy was the last straw for Caulder. Rip had become the very person he warned Caulder about. Every time they went on a mission, Rip lost a piece of himself until he was almost unrecognizable.

Who the fuck are you, man? Do you even remember what you said to me? About killing? The hardest lesson to learn is when not to pull the trigger. You said, "Watch out for the guy who can't tell the difference."

Caulder

• Permalink: Who the fuck are you, man? Do you even remember what you said to me? About killing? The...

It was sort of surprising that he asked Naomi about her life. It could have been because he was trying to manipulate her into doing what he wanted to do to get out of there.

But the fact that he actually acted instead of just letting them do what they wanted to him showed that something still lives inside.

He's still a soldier. Still a warrior.

And one with a soul.

He could have left them all to die when he jumped the fence. But when looked back and saw Esther something resonated with him. The look they gave each other was heart wrenching. She trusted him. He couldn't fail her now. 

What he saw in Esther was that unarmed boy he prevented Caulder from shooting in the beginning. An innocent child caught in the crosshairs.

We don't know at this point what the Boku Haram soldiers will do with any of them, but I'm sure Rip will do whatever he needs to save the Esther's and the others lives.

He's a changing man. He's changing back to the Rip that used to be. The one who used to give a damn.

What did you guys think of this hour? Did you like the focus on Rip? Hit the comments and share your thoughts! If you need to catch up, you can watch SIX online right here via TV Fanatic!