Amy Granderson was Alisha Granderson's mother who acted as the main villain of the season 1 finale, the last two books of the motion book series, and the start of season 2.
Motion Book
Amy first appeared discussing with Admiral Ron and Secretary of Defense Marcus the growing pandemic and the Nathan James' mission to the Arctic. Amy suggests transferring her daughter onto the ship and both men agree. When the virus spreads to America a month after the Nathan James leaves, Amy is holed up in the White House with the President and his staff. She is appointed Acting Secretary of Defense when Marcus resigns over the phone and dies in his car. Amy briefs the President on the protocols to try and contain the virus and save the people.
When the President orders everyone into the Bunker, Amy refused and left the President with his staff while she went to Baltimore to try and help maintain the safe zone established there. She is introduced to Detective 1st Grade Andrew Thorwald, who is in charge of the Avocet Center. He informs her that only a handful of local cops, state troopers and national guardsmen are there to maintain order and are establishing labs to try and fight the virus. Amy discussed with Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Jeffrey Michener on how they were maintaining order in their respective regions and Amy declared the government was gone.
When Avocet is starting to overflow with civilians and losing the officers to protect it, Amy decides to turn Olympia into a camp to invite these people. But instead of curing them, they will kill them and use their bodies as fuel to produce electricity while keeping a select few safe to restore the government and the human race altogether. She recruited Dr. Hamada to help run this facility while Lieutenant Pete Norris of the State Troopers was entrusted with its protection as Detective Thorwald would have a problem with it. President Kelly Geller eventually invited her with the rest of the surviving civilian and military personnel to the presidential bunker after decontaminating it. Amy declines this offer and advises her against this because of what happened to the previous president that suggested that.
Thorwald eventually figures out what is going on and confronts Amy, who tells him he needs to accept this is for the best or leave. Thorwald tries to overthrow Amy with his cop friends but Norris and his state troopers stop him and Thorwald escapes with his cops. Norris suggests going after him but Amy decides against it, thinking he won't be able to survive on the outside. A few weeks later, Amy hears Thorwald is turning people away from Avocet and Amy decides that instead of fighting them, she will have them branded as "Warlords" to destroy their credibility and just a minute later she hears the Nathan James hailing them.
Events of The Last Ship
Season 1
Amy contacts the Nathan James via Video Communication and introduces herself and apologizes for transferring her daughter onto his ship without his knowledge but Chandler simply replies that Alisha has been an asset to his team. She brings Commander Chandler up to speed on the status of the US Government and tells him how she survived. Chandler tells them they will arrive in a matter of hours and leaves to let Amy and Alisha catch up. She later greets Chandler and other crew members in a port in Baltimore and brings the executive crew to her headquarters. There, she tells them about the "Warlords" and implies they are thieves and murderers while giving them a tour. Amy then asks Chandler if he has the vaccine and when they say they instead have a cure, Amy shows him and Dr. Rachel Scott the facilities sufficient for mass-producing the cure.
Chandler requests using her radio room to search for his family and Amy allows it while she works on getting everyone on his ship to Avocet. When Chandler makes contact with his father, Jed, he tells him he is at a tire shop heading for Olympia with his family, worrying Amy. Chandler goes out to find them with Amy sending some of her troopers with him to keep an eye on him. After a shootout between her and Chandler's men over heading to Olympia she tells Alisha it is too dangerous to look for her girlfriend Sarah. After Amy asks Alisha if Chandler will still follow orders, Alisha asks Amy what is going on and she tells her everything.
Amy realizes Chandler will most likely rebel and orders Norris and his troopers to secure the ship by force. When Dr. Scott realizes that the formula she claims extends people's lives actually kills them she confronts Amy. Amy recalls the Black Death and how many "important" people like artists, scientists, and thinkers were wiped out and sank Europe into deeper chaos as a result before reestablishing social order a hundred years later. She's trying to prevent it from happening again by preserving the elite few in Avocet while drawing in the sick to Olympia to be killed and use their bodies as fuel for her base's power plant; and using lethal force to maintain control. Alisha is caught trying to flee and is brought to Amy's office where she and Dr. Scott tell Amy Chandler will stop her, with Amy replying she will "handle Captain Chandler" while taking both women into custody. (“No Place Like Home”)
Season 2
After her forces secure the Nathan James, she attempts to convince Dr. Scott to give her the cure, and help her get the lab up and running. Dr. Scott condemns her actions, which Amy rebukes by naming the more brutal things she's seen from the survivors. She allows Dr. Scott to give the cure to some survivors if she will help get the lab running. Amy then tells her to cooperate and tell her friends to and she can help end this pointless bloodshed. Dr. Scott asks Amy for her to use the cure on those already sick and while Amy thinks it is a waste of time, agrees to her conditions.
She take an armed escort outside and informs her that Dr. Quincy Tophet took his own life to hide the location of the primordial sample. Amy attempts to make Alisha get her friends to stop, but Alisha instead asks for her surrender. Amy refuses on account of her perceived control of the situation and head back inside. Dr. Hamada later contacts Amy over the radio and tells her they can get the cure from Lt. Kara Foster's unborn child. Amy gives Hamada permission to harvest the baby's stem cells to recreate the cure. (“Unreal City”)
After Chandler and his allies cripple the power plant, Amy radios the power plant to ask what happened and is surprised to hear Lt. Danny Green taunting her. In response, Amy orders forces from the compound and the ship to secure and reactivate it, thus enabling the crew of the Nathan James to retake their ship, and leaving her compound vulnerable. In the midst of the power outage, Alisha escapes, and Granderson orders her head of security, Lt. Landau, to secure her.
When Landau returns she reports that enemy forces have infiltrated the Avocet building, Hamada is dead, and Dr. Scott, Lt. Foster and Alisha are missing. When more shots are fired, Amy orders her forces to secure the compound, and that no one gets in or out and tasks Landau with finding her daughter. Amy later hears on the radio that it was the Navy and Thorwald's forces that are attacking and got in through the basement. One of her guards suggests radioing the chopper to pick them up, but Amy stands her ground. After her forces reactivate the power plant, she "warns" her people to be wary of anyone in a Navy uniform, claiming them to be rogue forces. Despite her attempts to urge the civilians of Avocet to fight the "invaders", the majority of them attempt to escape. She orders them kept in the building, not wanting to "make it easy for Chandler." Her order is stopped after Tex kills the guard she dispatched, and everyone escapes.
Thorwald eventually finds her but she has Sgt. Crawford shoot him and she makes her way to the roof of the Avocet building, to be extracted by helicopter. Amy later overhears a radio transmission stating the Nathan James is back under the control of her crew and demand her surrender, which she ignores. Chandler confronts her on the roof and gives her a choice: a trial or a funeral. She orders her men to shoot him but they refuse and lower their weapons. Chandler rebukes her for her actions, including her order which led to her own daughter being shot and his children nearly murdered for fuel. She says that she stood firm while everyone else fled and is the reason they survived this long. Tom points out that she didn't stop killing even when she had the cure. At Tom's demand, she orders her operations at Olympia to stop, orders her forces to surrender, and recalls her escape helicopter.
As her operation collapses around her, she claims that she is not a monster. She claims that Hamada assured her that the chemical compound used at Olympia would lead to a quick and painless death, something she insisted on. She proceeds to use the compound on herself, committing suicide and ending the nightmare of Baltimore. (“Fight the Ship”)
Legacy
Her actions left thousands dead, including those killed at Olympia, eight members of the Nathan James' crew, Dr. Quincy Tophet, and Andrew Thorwald. Her troopers killed Dr. Tophet, Seaman Ford, Lt. Comm. Murphy, PO3 Foster (not Lt. Kara Foster), and Master-at-Arms Lopez to take over the ship on her orders. Lt. Comm. Barker and three naval officers were later killed when they retook the ship. During the assault on Avocet she had Thorwald ambushed and killed by a trooper named Crawford. They also left many survivors, including her daughter, Alisha, emotionally scarred. Despite her final claim, her choice to kill thousands of innocents for a few hundred by definition made her a monster, in addition to almost harvesting Kara's unborn baby to get the cure.