The Last Frontier Episode 3 Review: Is Frank’s Heart Any Match for Sidney’s Chaos?

Apple TV+ dropping The Last Frontier weekly is the right call. This show is tense enough in single servings, and Episode 3 plays like a full-on movie. It digs into the Frank–Sidney–Havlock triangle, and by the end I was more locked in to their mess than ever.

Quick catch-up

If you skipped the premiere and Episode 2, you missed a lot of groundwork. We met Frank Remnick, an Alaska Marshal with a past that keeps boomeranging back, while CIA operative Sidney Scofield stepped into her own storm of internal politics, and Havlock kept moving pieces without showing his hand.

Why the slow burn works

Episode 3 trusts the audience. Instead of rushing reveals, it lets small choices land. The box Havlock leaves behind? It is not the gore you expect (no severed finger), but it still gets under Frank’s skin. The show keeps teasing motives and alliances rather than spelling them out, and it pays off.

Frank, the protector who might blow up the board

Frank softens in ways that actually matter. Watching him look after Caleb after the kid’s rescue — the hot chocolate, the calm reassurance — shows the human under all that armor. He is scarred up, inside and out, but still wired to protect. And then there is the flip side: he plays things close and takes risks that make you wonder if he is about to gamble away the whole case. That tension is the point.

Sidney’s fight stops being theoretical

Sidney is under fire from every direction: distrusted by the feds, side-eyed by colleagues, and shadowed by her history with Havlock. The big turn here is personal — she reveals she was married to him (he goes by Levi outside the shadows), and she considers herself his first victim. That reframes everything we have seen from her as less political maneuvering and more an attempt to take her life back. Her scene work with Jacque Bradford gets sharp too, right down to a nasty jab about disgracing her father’s memory. This is not just office beef; it is legacy and loyalty colliding.

Havlock keeps outplaying the room

Havlock’s escape game levels up: he hacks a CIA portal, turns inmates into assets on a tundra buggy, and stays about three moves ahead at all times. Cold, calculating, and maddeningly slippery.

The set pieces actually matter

Frank literally drops from a helicopter onto that tundra buggy, which is insane in the best way — not just spectacle, but a character move that shows how far he is willing to go. The fallout spirals into a crowd-control nightmare with inmates, tourists, and hostages colliding. It is messy and tense. Not everything lands, though: Sidney barging in to interrogate Sarah played tone-deaf; the poor woman needed a beat to breathe.

Episode 3 in a nutshell

• Frank shows unexpected warmth with Caleb post-rescue, even as his instincts remain reckless and secretive.
• Sidney admits she was married to Havlock (aka Levi) and frames herself as his first victim, complicating her standing with the agency.
• Jacque Bradford needles Sidney with a dig about her father’s memory, escalating internal pressure.
• Havlock hacks a CIA portal, manipulates inmates on a tundra buggy, and keeps control through chaos.
• Frank drops from a helicopter onto the buggy; a wild melee breaks out with inmates, tourists, and hostages.
• Sidney’s interrogation of Sarah oversteps, and it reads as a miscalculation.
• Climax: Havlock escapes by bailing off a cliff while a train car swings from a rope — ridiculous and effective.
• Frank goes home to a secret: a gun stashed in a hollowed-out book, stolen evidence that hints he is sitting on more than the badge.
• Frank proposes an uneasy alliance with Sidney to keep chasing Havlock.

Performances with actual texture

Jason Clarke’s Frank balances grit with real vulnerability; Haley Bennett wraps steel around pain as Sidney; and the show leans into the iciness of Havlock, who stays compelling by refusing to emote unless it is leverage.

So, is it worth your time?

Yes. Episode 3 does not spoon-feed anything, but it deepens the psychology without stalling the plot. You do have to track shifting loyalties and live with moral gray, which is the fun of it. I am curious where you land: backing Frank’s bull-in-a-china-shop approach, or rooting for Sidney to pull herself out from under Havlock’s shadow? Either way, the game Havlock is playing just got nastier.

The Last Frontier is streaming now on Apple TV+ (weekly episodes).