As the first episode of The Rising begins, we see Neve Kelly (Clara Rugaard) underwater. Once she wakes up, she rapidly swims to the surface gasping for air. When Neve swims to shore, she hears something in the trees nearby so she screams for help. She finds herself running through the trees with crows and eerie noises closely following her. Neve makes it to a road that she begins running down. When Daniel Sands (Alex Lanipekun) makes it home from his run, he finds Maria Kelly (Emily Taaffe) starting a new painting because she needed a distraction. While he knows she tossed and turned all night, he believes Neve will be fine. Daniel wipes paint on her nose so she warns him to sleep with one eye open.

They check the chickens only to find that they have not laid any eggs meaning something has spooked them. Daniel says he’ll check the cams to see what he can find. A large group of crows flies overhead before they go back inside. When Max Sands (Cameron Howitt) wakes up, a crow crashes into the skylight above him. He wakes Kate (Robyn Cara) who had too much to drink to show her the dead crow. She wants nothing to do with it. Katie instructs him to go shove it in Neve’s face. Marie enters and finds Max with the crow.  They realize that Neve is still missing leading them to believe she is still at the party. Maria asks Daniel about Neve, but he doesn’t think she would’ve gotten up this early.

Maria tries to call her daughter, but nobody answers. As Neve continues walking, she passes by a sign for the Abbington MX Championships. It leads to a flashback of her racing in a dirt bike competition. She remembers her mother running down to the border and yelling her name. She continues walking until she encounters a barking dog. Neve screams loudly enough to send the dog in the other direction. Maria asks Katie whether she knows where Neve is. She also reminds her that they were supposed to come home together. Katie doesn’t know where she is. Daniel tries calling Joe, but his phone goes straight to voicemail. Daniel and Maria complain to Kate when she comes downstairs.

She knows that Neve had a few drinks and she thought she’d gone to sleep it off. Katie might be able to help since she has Neve’s phone saved on her tracking app. She checks it and says Neve is still down there so she could be crashing in someone’s tent. Daniel agrees to go down there and find her. He arrives and asks Nicky (Oliver Huntingdon) whether he has seen Neve, but he hasn’t since last night. Daniel continues searching for her. Instead of finding Neve, he finds her cellphone. He calls Maria to tell her there is no sign of Neve although her phone was on the ground by the woods. Daniel wonders if she might’ve visited her dad’s house, but Maria doesn’t think so. She agrees to call Tom just in case while Daniel continues looking around.

When Neve gets home, she sees Max outside burying the crow and taking pictures of it. She walks in to talk to her mother who ignores her. Neve listens as her mother calls the police to report her missing. She begins panicking while her mother tells the police more about her daughter and her disappearance. Nothing Neve does is going to get her mother’s attention. She goes to Katie who doesn’t see or hear her either. Neve checks around her neck and finds a red mark that looks like she has been choked. In the bathroom, she finds more wounds on her body and head. Daniel finds Tom Rees (Matthew McNulty) sleeping in his car after a heavy night of drinking. He tells Tom about Neve and finding her phone by the woods.

Tom suggests she is probably just crashing in someone else’s tent. When he admits he wasn’t watching the clock at the party, Daniel says his daughter must not be his top priority. Daniel says he’ll keep looking while Tom will call William who can ask the motocross boys to help. Neve leaves a message saying “I’m still here” on the bathroom mirror. She picks up a picture of herself with her boyfriend and has a flashback of the motocross race again. She jokes with her boyfriend, Joseph Wyatt (Solly McLeod), about his time while Nicky watches them from nearby.

He gives her advice and encouragement by saying she has this. Maria visits Joseph who says he last saw her around 11 or 11:30. He tried calling and thought she had gone home so he left her. Joseph insists she seemed normal and fine. He agrees to get his father and meet them down at the field. Katie tells Max they need to go because their dad wants them to help search for Neve. He claims it is happening again, but Katie doesn’t want him talking like that. In the hallway, Neve approaches Max to tell him she is there. Even though she touches his cheek, Max doesn’t notice her. Once Max leaves with his sister, Neve remembers dancing with Joseph at the party. Although Neve rides away on her dirt bike, it is still in the garage.

While she drives the road, she remembers being in the motocross race with her mother cheering her on from the side. Tom and others are there as Neve speeds into third place. She takes second before we return to the present. Maria arrives at the field where she learns from Daniel that they’ve found nothing. When Michael Wyatt (William Ash), and Joseph arrive, William tells them that he is handling it. William asks Joseph whether he saw her go off with anyone, but Joseph doesn’t know where she is. William sends them up to the group nearby to comb the woods while promising Joseph that they’ll find her. He tells Daniel he pulled the whole club out of bed and another group is searching the farms. Fritzy’s is checking out the train station.

Michael agrees to check the motel even though he lives next door and could’ve already checked it. Max asks whether they’re looking for a body. Daniel insists they’re not. Maria reassures them that they’ll find them. Daniel asks them to wait by the car since they have plenty of people searching. Katie is told to call her nan and get her to take them back to the house. Once they leave, Daniel confesses he shouldn’t have brought them. Maria intends to give her daughter a bollocking when she finally gets home. As Neve arrives on her dirt bike, nobody seems to see her. She remembers several boys at the party and one of them telling her this is wild. Katie walks over to her to tell her she loves her and she is a great sister.

Neve asks if she is okay as she sees Tom drinking a beer nearby. Joseph walks over and begins making out with her. He tells Neve he loves her. She sees another girl get a bucket of water dumped over her head. Neve tells Joseph that she is in the lake. She goes on to say they’re looking in the wrong place because she is in the lake. While everyone continues searching for Neve, Tom tells Maria she’ll be off with her mates somewhere. Maria doubts it since her mates are out here searching for her. Tom hardly ever sees their daughter so he wouldn’t know where she would be. Maria argues that isn’t her fault, but Tom never said it was. He spoke to her last night for about five minutes although that is the most they’ve spoken in ages.

Although she seemed okay, she looked sad. He asked Neve if she was okay, but she wouldn’t tell him. He believes Neve would’ve told Maria though. Maria reveals that they had a fight last night. Tom won’t pretend to know anything about Neve’s life, but he knows that she loved her mother. Christine Wyatt (Ann Ogbomo) interrupts to say William tipped her off and she thought she’d help out before uniformed police arrive. She would be tearing her hair out if it was Alex so she won’t ask if Maria is okay. Maria agrees that she and Daniel can talk to them. Neve arrives in time to see her mother and Daniel being questioned by Christine. Her dog, Rebel, comes over and lets her rub him. He knows she is there.

Christine urges them not to disturb any evidence until police officers arrive. Rebel leaves with Neve while Daniel can’t get it to return to him. Maria tells him not to lose the dog for God’s sake, but Daniel believes she might’ve picked up a scent. Christine screams for everyone not to touch anything that they might find. Neve uses Rebel to lead everyone down to the lake. Neve tells them she is here so they should come find her. Crows begin flying overhead. Nicky reveals his nan used to tell him to follow the birds. Christine screams that they need to do this correctly while the others begin swimming into the water to find Neve.

Neve apologizes and tells her mother that she loves her. Her body is carried onto shore moments later. Tom comes over and tries to get his daughter to wake up. William walks over to tell Tom it is too late. The police begin working on the case while Michael decides to take Joseph home to make sure he won’t be alone. Daniel urges Maria to come home. When she says she doesn’t want to leave her, Daniel says they’ll look after her. DS Diana Aird (Rebecca Root) tells Christine they’ve found something up ahead. They go over there and find a burned boat so Christine asks her to get forensics to work on it. Neve is surprised to find that her father Tom can see her.

Tom tries to tell himself that she isn’t real. Michael and Joseph walk over to check on him since he is talking to himself. Tom claims he thought he saw someone. When they offer to take him home, he says he wants to be alone. Tom begins running from Neve while telling her to leave him alone and blaming the guilt. Once he drives away in his car, Neve follows him on her dirt bike. He continues telling her to leave him alone because she is dead. She parks her bike in front of him and begins pleading with him to stop, but he doesn’t. He crashes into her before getting out and rushing over to check on her. Neve says she is still here and needs his help.

 

The Rising Review

The opening episode of The Rising did an okay job of setting up the story and developing some of the main characters. The premise isn’t groundbreaking, but it could still be interesting if the story is delivered with enough pizzazz and emotions. Some of the casting choices are questionable like the team needed to tick the right boxes, but Clara Rugaard and Matthew McNulty did great.

The episode didn’t pack enough punch to justify binge watching all night, but it was interesting enough that I at least want to know what happened. It is still early so we’ll just have to wait and let the story unfold. The opening episode scores a 6 out of 10. On another note, the glass on Tom’s windshield was shattered, but repaired when he got out of the vehicle at the end. I thought that was funny.

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