I've had acute withdrawal going for two weeks without any Left Behind posts on Slacktivist, but at last we get Part 6.
I see we have the same hideously mismatched dubbing. We begin completing Buck and Chloe's reconciliation. Chloe figures out that her father lied to her, but doesn't resent it.
Next morning the four are meeting at New Hope Church (lawn covered with trash, vagrants picking for scraps). Buck has Carpathia's approval to cover any story he wants in Israel. Pastor Bruce has misgivings. It seems odd to him that the Antichrist would approve a story that could expose him for what he is. (Uh, yes, that does seem strange). He also fears that Nicolae may have powers they can't even comprehend. But Buck assures him that he has convinced Nicolae it's all for world unity, Chloe will pray for him, and Rayford will be backing him up on the ground, so Pastor Bruce's doubts are overridden.
Meanwhile, Nicolae is, indeed, worried about the witnesses at the Wailing Wall, saying they will promote religious division. But he declines to arrest them, but merely increases the guards on the Wall. ("This isn't a dictatorship." I think the audience is supposed to react much as Republicans reacted when Obama said, "I'm not an ideologue.") Nicolae wants a one-world religion, "Tolerance, harmony and peace." To do this he wants Pastor Billings' video on the rapture off the air (how did it get on the air?) and Buck.
Next scene, Buck and Chloe, now happy together, play and joke around at an airport that is somewhat militarized but, alas, not so far from the norm these days. He even gives her a peck on the cheek before heading through security. She then says a tearful farewell to her father, who will be piloting the plane, and he gives her a fatherly peck on the cheek.
On board the plane, Rayford's copilot is not (I think) Chris, but he does tape pictures of his (presumably raptured) wife and two children to the wall. Rayford steps out of the cockpit, sneaks by Carpathia, Plank and Hattie discussing business (remember, this is furnished with all the comfort of a private plane), and starts rifling through the Antichrist's effects. Someone sneaks up on him, but relax, it's just Buck. Listening in on them from an unoccupied briefing room (that really reminds me of Star Trek), Rayford overhears them talking about revisions to Ben Judah's speech. (Remember Ben Judah? In the last segment Plank told Buck that Ben Judah is about to make an announcement that will be the most important, the biggest story of Buck's career). It is not clear, though, whether Buck has passed this information on to Rayford.
Either way, Ray opens an unoccupied laptop and finds (surprise!) that it is on, that, among several mundane looking items, is a revised version of Ben Judah's speech. When he pulls up the text, we don't see enough to see the speech at any length, but it includes the words "our Messiah" and "our Bible." He downloads it to a disk, hides the disk, and closes the laptop just in time not to be doing anything obviously incriminating when the door opens and the Antichrist steps in. Rayford says he was looking for Hattie to give her their ETA. (Apparently it is acceptable to lie to the Antichrist after all. It's not a very convincing lie, though. Even a jumbo jet serving as a private plane only has so many places to look, and Rayford had to get past the three of them meeting to get to the briefing room in the first place). Carpathia at least pretends to be fooled. He changes to topic to Hattie, asks probing questions, particularly whether their relationship extended beyond the workplace. (Is this a hint that his relationship with Hattie extends beyond the workplace? That was clearly the case in the book. In the movie there has been nothing up till now to suggest it). Ray lies to the Antichrist again and says that it did not extend beyond the workplace.
Then, just as Rayford turns to walk away and the tension seems to ebb, Nicolae says, "Captain, why don't you give me that." Rayford turns around and his face clearly telegraphs alarm. But Carpathia turns down the tension again; he was just asking for the ETA. Rayford, relieved, hands him the ETA. Carpathia takes his hand and suddenly his face turns into a hideous mask of evil. Rayford's face clearly gives away what he is seeing.
Presumably Rayford's RTC power allows him to see the Antichrist for what he is upon touching him. This raises an awkward question of why that didn't happen when Buck shook his hand earlier in the movie, but let that go as one of those annoying plot inconsistencies that never get explained. The Antichrist now presumably knows that Rayford is onto him, and presumably staged the whole scene at least in part because he suspected. That does, indeed, ratchet up the tension about what will happen next time.
Here is Fred Clark's take.
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