The Rig Series 2 Episode 1 Recap

As the second series of The Rig begins, David Coake (Mark Addy) has the crew members relocated. Fulmer Hamilton (Martin Compston) tries to find out where they’re going, but they’re not being told anything. He’s locked inside a room with Cat Braithwaite (Rochenda Sandall) before nearly collapsing. Rose (Emily Hampshire) and the others are locked in elsewhere. A newsreader (Susan Rae) reveals a state of emergency was declared following a powerful Scale 12 tsunami that hit a wide area of the North Sea coastline, including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. Lennox (Alice Krige) watches the report from a helicopter. Bremner (Phil McKee) and David Coake see her airplane. As they go outside, Bremner tells Coake that the girl is clear and the lover boy has passed the infectious stage. He still has doses of the blocker.

Lars Hutton (Owen Teale) tells the others they should’ve rushed them as soon as they came on board. Rose mentions the Ancestor. Lars blames it for the disaster. Easter Ayodeji (Abraham Popoola) asks him why he has to turn everything into a fight. Magnus (Iain Glen) argues that being there doesn’t make it their fault. He insists they need to stick together. Fulmer sees something before waking up. Cat tells him that he fainted. Fulmer is still seeing flashes that feel like rage. He believes Rose was right about everything. Cat says they all made a promise they’d get them back and they broke that promise. She’s not doing the same to Kacey. Easter speaks to Harish (Nikhil Parmar) about his family in London. Bremner and Coake enter moments later. Magnus asks Coake what they want. Coake says each contract is a ticket home and they’ll also get a $200,000 compensation package. If they stick with it, they’ll get additional payments every year.

Heather Shaw (Molly Vevers) asks what happens if they don’t sign. Coake says it’ll be a long, cold walk home. Rose and Magnus leave with Coake. He tells them they’re there because the company can’t afford for them not to be. As they wait for Lennox, Coake tells Rose and Magnus that the rest of the world thinks they’re still missing. Rose tells Magnus that she used to know Lennox. Coake asks Lennox if she’s sure about using the survivors for this. She says the truth only spreads if you let it. Lennox calls herself Pictor CEO when speaking to Magnus and Rose. She asks Coake what he’s told them. Lennox explains that the Stac is a mine. Mining the seabed has been discussed for decades, but the technology wouldn’t work until now. The Stac is the final testing facility before commercial deployment. They’re mining rare earth metals that they’ll need for renewable technology.

Lennox says there’s a whole dark continent down there waiting to be explored. Rose isn’t sure bulldozing the seafloor is a great step forward. Lennox argues they need what’s down there if they want to make the green transition really work. They watch a video of a crew struggling and encountering some kind of disruption in the water. They lose the connection to one of their survey teams. Coake explains they got caught up in an aftershock from the slide. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the largest undersea mountain range in the world. Currents push deposits against the ridge creating mineral-rich areas. The Stac sits on a natural shelf directly above one of those fields. The shelf bottoms out at 200 meters. After that, the seabed drops off steeply until it reaches the abyssal plain, four and a half thousand meters down. They’ve narrowed down the position of the survey team. The mining Rovers are connected to the Stac by umbilical tethers, but it snapped about four hours ago.

They’re running on emergency backup right now. Coake believes they have about two hours of oxygen left. Rose can’t believe Coake is asking for their help. In private, Lennox tells Rose she regrets not bringing her in earlier. Rose suspects they sent Lennox to ensure they don’t make a bad situation worse. Colin Murchison (Stuart McQuarrie) asks Lars if he has any ideas on how to get out of there. Bremner warns them they should be on these choppers because it’ll be a long time before the next icebreaker arrives. Colin warns everyone that they’ll have to lie to everyone if they sign the paper. He tells Heather she’ll be on Pictor’s team if she signs the paperwork. Colin says Pictor is running a corporate cover-up playbook. Lennox tells Rose that there’s a war being fought in Pictor and the industry. It’s about the future. She claims they’re following Rose’s plan to move full-speed into renewables and pivot the whole company.

Lennox says they’ll release everything they know about the Ancestor so it can be studied properly. They just can’t do it yet. Lennox worries she’ll be out as CEO if that comes out now and she will be replaced by someone unlike them. Rose wants Fulmer out of whatever cell he’s in. Once he’s released, Lennox says there’s more she needs to show them. Magnus returns and tells everyone that Rose is running the show now. They all take a lift down. Once they arrive, they check out one of the mining rovers. Rose tells Fulmer who Lennox put her in charge once before. Fulmer says he knows what she is capable of. He goes on to say she doesn’t have to deflect with him. Rose asks him to go to comms and make himself useful. Bremner says they’ll launch at full speed. They don’t have much time before the team runs out of air. Kyle Cameron (Ross Anderson) welcomes Heather and the others to the Stac. He tells Harish he thought he was dead.

Kyle reveals he’s a Sat diver and technician. He and Harish used to do training together or something like that. Heather looks around and finds vials hooked to wires. A young scientist tells her they’re creepy. This is their natural state. He says the organic phosphorescent compounds inside the cells make it glow. They’re called Luciferins. The scientist identifies himself as Askel and explains he’s the Research Lead for the Stac. He says the company is interested in polymetallic nodules. They’re rich in cobalt, nickel, manganese, and gold. Pictor is trying to mine them and ruining the last unexplored ecosystem on the planet. They have something that could change the world if they understood it. Heather tells him Coake isn’t running things anymore. Askel claims Coake is just the instrument and not the conductor. With barely an hour left, Fulmer says they’re ready to start prepping the launch. Magnus asks Colin to take a radio and check that the Med-Kits are ready.

He’ll put Cat on standby. Lennox tries to work out with a deal with Cat. She insists this is not the place for Cat right now. They can’t let her go if they don’t know what she’s going to tell people. Lennox thinks Rose will make sure the truth comes out, but it shouldn’t come out too soon. Cat points out that it says “no injuries sustained”. In private, Coake tells Lennox they’ve had some volunteers. He asks what happens when Magnus and Rose find out. Lennox tells him to let her worry about that. She reminds Coake they need the survey log. Coake is confident Cameron will get it. Kyle Cameron shows Harish the Pressure Equalizing Dive System. He goes through the risks of diving. Kyle admits he has to go after the crew because that’s his job. Magnus is told the rover can handle about 400 meters. There will be one crew member to drive and another to dive. Rose asks Easter if he can be the pilot. Kyle takes him to get dressed. Cat gives the paperwork to Lennox and says she just wants to get this done.

Lars comes over and says there’s nothing there for him anymore. He still has Dunlin’s letters. Lars thinks his family should have them since they’re not going to get the body. Kyle and Easter get ready to launch. Easter doesn’t think man is meant to be down there. Rose asks Colin to get on the umbilical station. Magnus asks Fulmer if he’s felt anything since they’ve been there. Fulmer says he’s had flashes but they’re not like before. Rose learns that Lennox is already leaving. She told Coake to give Rose access to everything on the Ancestor. That will be the focus once they get the research team back. Lennox explains why they have to build a case for protecting it first. Lars says goodbye to Magnus. Lennox tells Magnus they’ll still have to sign if they want to get back. The rover gets closer to the last-known position. Easter notices lights. Something appears on the sonar as well. Kyle notices debris floating around the other rover.

Kyle tells control that there is massive damage to the rover and the cockpit has been shattered. Kyle says they didn’t stand a chance. Magnus insists there’s nothing they could’ve done. Rose blames Coake for sending them out there and making her clean up the pieces. Fulmer goes after her. Kyle asks for permission to investigate the wreckage. Magnus denies permission. He tells Kyle to mark the site so they can plan a proper recovery. Coake argues they should recover the crew and check the crash site. Easter asks Kyle how long it’ll take. Kyle insists it won’t take long. Easter and Kyle agree to go and get them. Magnus and Coake continue arguing. Magnus learns Easter is ignoring his commands. He gives him ten minutes. Kyle exits the rover and approaches the wreckage. Rose finds out what is going on. Kyle has never seen damage like this before. He finds the bodies seconds later. Kyle begins securing the bodies for recovery. He also takes the survey log.

Moments later, Easter tells Fulmer that Cameron has made it back. Magnus warns Coake that they’ll find whatever he is hiding. Heather thinks Askel (Johannes Roaldsen Furst) should see this. Once she and Harish arrive, they find out that something is triggering the Ancestor. They rush to warn the others since it can’t be good for the rover. Kyle notices something big behind them. Easter points out that it’s all around them. He tries to push the rover through it. Easter says it doesn’t attack unless you threaten it based on what he’s heard. It begins hitting the rover. Kyle says they have a pressure warning. Rose says they need to get them back because it’s crushing them. Colin tries to reel them in on the umbilical but it breaks loose. Easter and Kyle watch as the glass in front of them begins shattering.

 

The Rig Review

The opening episode of The Rig’s second series was fairly interesting despite not being perfect. The story is obviously the highlight of the episode. Nothing has been fully explained at this point so the possibilities are endless. At the very least, that creates some excitement for future episodes.

Most of the performances are strong adding a sense of realism to likely unrealistic scenarios. The special effects and CGI aren’t perfect although they’re much better than what Nautilus tried to pull off a few months ago. In fact, this looks world’s better than Nautilus but it’s hard to compare to how bad those special effects were.

There are still some iffy moments in those scenes, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to bend reality to accept the scenes in question. It’s been two years since the last season was released so it’s impossible to remember any of those details. Watching series two anyway without refreshing those memories really didn’t create any issues because it’s almost like a story of its own.

We know that Pictor is trying to use rovers to mine valuable materials from the seabed to facilitate a transition to green energy. Something is trying to prevent that from happening and it may be associated with the Ancestor. Then, there are many personal dramas and lots of political scheming elsewhere.

It’s only six hours so it could be a breeze to get through. The episode was good, but we just need to see how much is sci-fi and how much is human-controlled. The episode scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of The Rig can be found here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. Join the discussion here.