Diksha Sundriyal
Apple TV+’s crime thriller series, ‘The Last Frontier,’ begins with a plane crash. Before the plane takes off, a hooded criminal bound in chains is brought on board, with several other prisoners already seated and on their way to be transported to the designated location. The masked criminal is tied to his chair, suggesting that he is much more dangerous than the others. The danger posed by him becomes clearer when the plane is struck by an explosion mid-flight. Unfazed by the bodies flying out of the broken side, the masked prisoner frees himself from his restraints and moves towards the cockpit, where the pilots try to land the plane safely. They fail, and the plane crashes in an icy land in the middle of nowhere. The criminals who survive the crash use it as an opportunity to escape, throwing the nearby Alaskan town into chaos. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Frank Remnick is Put In Charge of Catching Violent Criminals
US Marshal Frank Remnick has given his life to the job, but now, he wants to retire. He tells his wife, Sarah, that they have finally acquired the cabin they’d been trying to buy, and that that afternoon, they need to clear their schedules so that they can meet their real estate agent, finalize the deal, and move forward with their plan to open a bed and breakfast. Sarah, a nurse, is happy that her husband will finally leave behind a trying job and get to spend more time with the family. Frank, too, has no reservations about getting an early retirement because their town never really gets into any trouble. Unbeknownst to him, the plane crashes in the wilderness, and its smoke leads a resident to call 911. Soon after Frank arrives at the station, the call comes in, and he joins his friends and fellow officers, Donnie and Hutch, to examine the site.
They take a helicopter and find the crashed plane. There is no one around, which is unusual because, following the crash, we see everyone erupting into a fight, with one particularly menacing criminal emerging from the crash with barely a scratch. Since Frank and his team have no idea what they are up against, they don’t think about the missing convicts. But then, they find an injured US Marshal and a broken pair of handcuffs. As soon as the reality of the situation dawns on Frank, the injured man says “ambush,” and all the criminals who had been hiding come running out. Clearly, they are all gunning for the helicopter, which will get them anywhere they want. Frank and his team realize this, and they run back towards the helicopter, carrying the injured man.
Their efforts to save the Marshal are halted when they are forced to abandon him to save themselves. In the process, Donnie gets stabbed, and Frank is also almost killed, until another injured Marshal shows up and saves him. Eventually, Frank, his team, and the Marshal who saved Frank make it to the helicopter and leave the scene. The CIA responds immediately after learning about the crash. Their concern is about the hooded prisoner, called Havlock, who is their top priority. To catch him, Agent Sidney Scofield, who is drunk and depressed, is called into action. She is sent to Alaska with the express instructions of capturing Havlock. She is asked to gain the trust of the local law enforcement, particularly Frank, because without their help, she will never be able to navigate the town and retrieve her prisoner.
Frank Faces a Major Loss
Donnie is flown to the hospital while Frank talks to the injured Marshal, identified as Granger. It seems that his eyes were injured in the crash, so there is a blindfold on him. He tells Frank that they were made to make an unscheduled pit stop on the way, where they picked up the hooded prisoner named Havlock. Granger suspects that Havlock seemed smarter and more self-assured than any other prisoner on board, and there is a good possibility that he is behind the crash. When Frank pushes for more details, Granger says he doesn’t know anything more, and the conversation ends when he is taken to the hospital. With the threat of the escaped convicts being so close to town, an advisory is issued, especially at the school, where everyone is told to stay put, while the game for that day is canceled.
Unfortunately, Frank’s son Luke and his girlfriend miss the announcement as they sneak out and drive away. Sidney arrives on the scene and is bombarded with questions from Frank. She tries to avoid answering them by saying that the details are classified. But then, he mentions Havlock, and she realizes that she may not have the option to keep things from him. She also notes something peculiar about a dead inmate, but she is more concerned about finding her target. At the hospital, Frank receives news that Donnie’s condition is worsening. He arrives there and has a brief chat with Granger, who is under Sarah’s care. Before he can ask any more questions, Frank is drawn away by the crying sounds of Donnie’s wife and realizes that his friend is dead.
This information hits him hard, and it makes him even more determined to find out what really happened to the plane and what role Havlock played in it. Realizing that she cannot work with Frank while keeping information from him, Sidney reveals that Havlock is a former CIA agent who turned rogue. He was trained as part of the Atwater Protocol, designed to flush out moles and enemies of the agency. But ironically, he himself turned against them. She emphasizes that it is important to find him, and soon enough, they get a radio call. It is made by one of the lone men on an outpost. This man is under the captivity of Havlock, and, realizing the resources that he would receive at the place, Sidney confirms that it has to be their man.
The Search for Havlock Takes an Unexpected Turn
Frank and the team converge at the house, and after an altercation where Frank refuses to shoot the criminal, leading Sidney to throw the dogs at him, the situation is contained. The criminal dies, but the problem is that he is not identified as Havlock. By that time, the details about the passenger manifest start to arrive, and Sidney points out that one of the dead men in a criminal’s uniform is actually US Marshal Granger. This is when Frank realizes that the man he talked to is Havlock. He immediately calls Sarah, but by then, it is too late. When Frank arrives at the hospital, the criminal is gone, and so is Frank’s wife. Frank gets angry with Sidney because she kept the details about Havlock to herself. Meanwhile, she calls her boss, Bradford, who reveals that finding Havlock is important because he has access to Archive 6.
It is the blueprint of their workings, and it holds information about the Atwater Protocol and all the missions that have been executed under it. If the details of Archive 6 fall into the wrong hands, it would cripple the agency irreparably, possibly even leading to its demise. Meanwhile, Frank’s son, Luke, and his girlfriend are completely off-grid. While driving to the cabin, their car broke down, and with no phone signals, they have no way to reach anyone for help. The only upside is that they are at the cabin, where they have everything to keep them alive and well. It seems that Luke had planned a romantic getaway for him and his girlfriend, but now she is frustrated with his lack of proper planning, which has left them stranded in the middle of nowhere. Elsewhere, Frank tells his friend to pick up Luke from school, only to discover later that his son snuck out.
This leads him to assign another officer to the task of finding his son and keeping him safe. Havlock, meanwhile, starts executing his plan. He calls Bradford and tells her that he has put the archive on a countdown, at the end of which it will be sent to all the interested parties. This can only be prevented if he disables the program from executing, which needs to happen every 72 hours. Havlock also disables the phone lines throughout the town, knowing that it will make the task of catching him even more difficult. He also leaves a message for Frank, asking him to do his bidding to ensure Sarah’s safety. This puts the protagonist in a very precarious situation, but there is no way but to move forward. It is revealed that Havlock made the call from Frank’s house, where he left a tape for him. Sidney finds it and watches it herself before handing it over to Frank.
Havlock Makes an Offer to Frank
In the video, Havlock reveals that he is ready to trade Sarah for a prisoner who was on Seat 12A of the plane. Frank is against this trade, while Sidney encourages him to do it. Meanwhile, Frank decides to find the criminal and discover his connection with Havlock. It turns out that the criminal, Henry Sickler, surrendered himself earlier that day. He is found to be a money launderer, in addition to other things that he did for his criminal bosses, who tried to kill him when they found out he was stealing from them. When asked about his connection to Havlock, Sickler says he has never heard that name before. Later, it is revealed that Sickler had made a deal with the DOJ in exchange for witness protection, which is why he had surrendered in the first place. That still leaves the question of why Havlock wants him.
While the cops are busy with Havlock, other criminals find ways to survive. One of them holds a man and his young son at gunpoint. He is later joined by two other criminals. One criminal, who died of the cold, is brought to the station by the locals who think there will be a bounty on his head. Another criminal is found unconscious by Luke and his girlfriend, who have no idea that he is a criminal. They take him to the cabin and nurse him back to life. Fortunately, the officer Frank had sent to look for them finds them, but he reports that they won’t be able to come back until the next morning because the roads are snowed in. Meanwhile, Sarah makes an escape attempt, but Havlock gets the upper hand on her and chains her securely, leaving no room for error again.
Havlock’s True Intentions Behind the Exchange are Revealed
A flashback reveals that Sidney recruited Havlock after he demonstrated exceptional promise in breaking through complex security systems and firewalls. Now, he is planning something else, and Sidney knows that it’s nothing good. The problem is that she is believed to be complicit with him, and Bradford’s boss advised her to throw Sidney under the bus if that’s what it takes to protect herself and her superiors from the mess created by Havlock. Sidney knows what’s on the line if Havlock is not stopped. So, when Frank asks her to tell him something about the enemy, she tells him about Havlock being in possession of the archive and the damage he can inflict using it. Just then, they receive a package from Havlock. It is a radio device with which he intends to communicate with Frank during the exchange.
Frank is still conflicted about the exchange, so Hutch encourages him to improvise. Frank shows up at the rendezvous with Hutch posing as Sickler. But soon, they realize that Havlock never wanted Sickler. The exchange was a way for him to distract them and divert their resources, giving him the space to get to the recordings from the plane and take what he wanted. By the time Frank and the others arrive at the vehicle tasked with transporting the recordings to the station, Havlock has already done his job. The only thing he has left behind is a box for Frank. The US Marshal has a somber expression when he opens it, but it is not revealed what the box contains. Elsewhere, the man, who is under the captivity of three escaped criminals, encourages his son to run while their captors are not looking, giving him a much greater chance of getting help and surviving.
Read More: Who is Henry Sickler? What Happened to His Face and Hands? Who Plays Him?
