As someone who’s been following this series with interest, I found this fourth episode of The Last Frontier to deliver a solid dose of suspense, character friction, and moment-to-moment urgency. At the same time, it didn’t entirely avoid some familiar beats and structural hiccups. All in all, it’s a worthwhile entry that builds momentum, even if it doesn’t quite soar in every scene.
From the opening minutes, the stakes feel real: the disappearance of the trooper acts as a catalyst, giving our hero Frank (played by Jason Clarke) something new to chase and forcing the broader community into motion. That missing trooper becomes a pivot around which the local town’s anxiety, Frank’s professional responsibility, and his personal life all converge. The fact that the locals pick up arms and join the manhunt adds texture; this isn’t just Frank’s job, it’s becoming the town’s crisis. The show does a good job of making the environment feel alive and dangerous without going overboard.
One of the strongest strands is how Sarah (Simone Kessell) is handled in this episode. Her concern for her son Luke (Tait Blum) is genuine and emotionally grounded. Rather than simply being a trophy wife or ancillary character, she begins to carry her own narrative weight: her fear, her helplessness, and the guilt that maybe Frank’s choices are putting her family at risk. That emotional undercurrent really elevates scenes that might otherwise be all about tactical maneuvers and search-and-rescue. The mix of the external manhunt and the internal family tension gives the episode more depth than some purely thriller-focused entries.
The pacing is taut for much of the runtime: we move from clue to confrontation, from question to danger, and there’s a sense of movement that keeps the viewer interested. The direction (credit to John Curran) uses the Alaskan terrain and the remote setting to good effect. The cold, open spaces feel more than a backdrop—they contribute to the sense of isolation and hazard. The cinematography deserves mention: shots of the terrain, the town, the snow, and darkening skies all stitch together a mood that supports the narrative rather than distracting from it. There are times when the composition speaks louder than the dialogue, and that’s a plus.
Performances continue to impress. Clarke brings a weathered toughness to Frank, someone who’s professional and competent but also vulnerable, and that vulnerability becomes more visible in this episode; he’s juggling duty and family, and the show allows us to see that conflict. Kessell’s Sarah conveys fear and frustration without tipping into melodrama. And though his screen time is less this week, the presence of the antagonist (Dominic Cooper as Havlock) remains in the background pressure, making the threat feel present even when he’s not directly onscreen.
Writing-wise, several scenes work very well: the way the search is framed, the conversations between Frank and his team, the community meeting of armed locals, and Sarah’s private reckonings all feel natural. I appreciate that the episode doesn’t pause every few minutes to remind us of the central premise; it leans on the situation and the characters rather than constant exposition. Also, the subtle ways the series has woven in backstory are still intact: you don’t need a full flashback at every turn, yet you feel the weight of what’s happened before (the crash, escaped convicts, the hostage situation) bearing down on these characters.
That said, there are a few areas where the episode shows strain. The secondary characters—especially some of the locals who join the manhunt—feel a little underdeveloped. They serve the plot as manpower, as faces in the crowd, but the show doesn’t always provide enough individuality for them. When people get tagged as “armed locals,” it would help if one or two of them really stood out with distinctive motivations. Instead, several feel interchangeable, which slightly flattens the “town becomes involved” theme. It’s still effective in terms of momentum, but lacking in character texture.
Another minor frustration is that the episode occasionally leans into thriller-convention territory: the missing trooper, the sudden break-in clue, the big search party with citizens and professionals mixed together. None of these are inherently bad, far from it, but the show doesn’t always subvert or refresh those tropes. For viewers who’ve seen many manhunt thrillers, a few moments feel comfortably predictable: you sense where the tension is going to fall and when the character is going to step into that danger. It doesn’t ruin the experience, but it means the surprise factor is lower than I would have liked.
In particular, the payoff of some search sequences ends up being more procedural than emotionally explosive. The build-up works, but once the group is mobilised, the rhythm slows a little: dialogue becomes more about updates than character. I’d have liked a sharper moment of confrontation or revelation in the middle; the episode holds off and saves the larger reveal for later episodes, which is fair from a season-arc perspective, but in terms of standalone satisfaction, it leaves you wanting a touch more.
I also found that the show could have leaned further into the moral ambiguity of the situation. There is a community that’s turning into a militia-style search force, and the choices around vigilantism, law enforcement boundaries, and the emotional cost of taking up arms are all hinted at. But this episode only skirts those dilemmas rather than digging in deeply. There’s room for the writing to explore the ethics of community self-defence versus formal law-enforcement oversight, especially in a remote place like this. If the series neither embraces nor critiques that fully, then that’s a missed opportunity.
Still, American Dream ends on a strong note. You feel clearly that things have shifted: the missing trooper, the assembled locals, Sarah’s fears, Frank’s burden, all of these threads converge to raise the stakes. There’s an acceleration of tension that suggests the next instalment will push harder. The visual and tonal consistency holds firm, and the episode preserves the show’s sense of place and character without collapsing under its own ambition.
In terms of spectacle versus substance, this one leans slightly more toward substance than the previous entries: the emotional arcs feel more tangible and the union of the personal and professional is better calibrated. The direction keeps scenes lean, action elements don’t overrun, but serve the narrative, and the setting remains a character in itself. If I had to pick my favourite aspect of this episode, it would be the interplay between Frank’s need to lead the search and his fear for his family. The show has captured that tension effectively.
In summary, this fourth episode of The Last Frontier delivers in spades on atmosphere, performance, and rising tension. It gets most of the pieces moving in the right direction, and even if it doesn’t wildly reinvent the thriller wheel, it plays the game with competence and style. A few character arcs could be richer, a few sequences more daring, but those are modest complaints in a solid hour of television. If you’re invested in the season’s arc, and I am, this episode deepens the intrigue and leaves you wanting more.
Final Score- [7/10]