“Checkmate” is episode eighteen of season three of First Wave.
Cade is recording his journal, about how the Raven Nation was destroyed in the previous episode, “Requiem”. He says he believes they can still win the fight and tells Eddie to post it on the web. Then to get back at working out a way to get Mabus out of Jordan. Eddie has tried everything, even brought back the Nostradamus book, but got nothing. He thinks they are out of options, that they are worse off than when they started three years ago. Yes, maybe Eddie does want to quit. Then his alarms detect movement around his trailer and they are opened fire on. Cade is hit and armed people enter the trailer.
Cade is brought into Mabus’s chamber. Mabus refuses to let Eddie go. Mabus wants Cade’s death to have meaning to the Gua. Cade refuses to play Mabus’s game, so Mabus shocks him and tells him Cade will play whatever game Mabus wants.
Eddie is tied up in his trailer and the guard isn’t talking to him when someone else arrives. The guard is sent outside and the Gua, Sagon (William B. Davis), says he’s been looking forward to meeting Eddie. He knows Eddie has secrets to share. Sagon specialises in extracting info from alien lifeforms and he’s been successful every time.
Cade is being treated by a Gua doctor; Mabus nearly killed him. With the injuries healed, Mabus tells the Gua to leave. Mabus wants to prove to the Gua that Cade isn’t unbeatable.
Sagon is downloading Eddie’s files, but he needs Eddie’s encryption key. He retrieves some needles, that he says are made of a metal that causes indescribable pain. And if Eddie cooperates, it wouldn’t be any fun. After torturing the encryption key out of Eddie, Sagon demands to know the location of the Nostradamus book.
Cade is telling Mabus that Mabus will fail to break him. Mabus disagrees. To Mabus, pain means nothing. But to Jordan, it’s a different matter. Mabus holds Jordan’s hand over a fire and tells Cade that Jordan feels it, she’s screaming. Well, that means she’s still alive in there. Cade’s feelings for Jordan are a weakness. Jordan has been putting up walls against Mabus, but they are cracking. Mabus found the Raven Nation, found Cade. The walls will fall and Jordan will become nothing. Cade tells Mabus that Jordan would rather die than give in to Mabus. So, Mabus gives Cade a gun. Cade refuses to shoot, because Mabus wants him to. And the gun isn’t loaded, anyway.
Sagon now has the Nostradamus book and phones in to tell the Gua he has it. Mabus uses this against Cade, and tells him that Eddie is dead. They have already lost. Cade says that if that were true, they wouldn’t need the book. Mabus is a Harbinger, supposed to see the future, but he still needs the book, because he doesn’t know if the Gua are going to win. They still have a chance. Not any more, according to Mabus. Humans had the prophecies; the Gua had the predictions of the Harbingers. Now, Mabus has both. Checkmate.
Sagon is dousing Eddie’s trailer in petrol. He’s about to light it when he hears a noise from outside. The guard doesn’t answer when Sagon calls out. Because Joshua happened to him and now happens to Sagon.
Eddie and Joshua have to work together to try and rescue Cade. Which leads them into a discovery that comes as a surprise, and a shock, to both of them. Mabus hasn’t been telling the truth as to why he really wanted Cade. Breaking him might be a side-effect, but there’s something else that Mabus truly wants.