I agree that some form of what you have written is probably how it will all go down, but IMO it will have been a wasted opportunity do something bold to at least attempt to salvage the season.
In one of my favorite movies of all time, "Twelve O'Clock High" with Gregory Peck, his character, General Savage, laments the fact that the pilots are not responding to his methods to get them to work together and get with the program by uttering this quote "I'm choppin', but no chips are flyin'". I imagine that's how Coop feels about now.