As the 4th episode of Vigil begins, DCI Amy Silva (Suranne Jones) has a dream about a past argument with Kirsten (Rosie Leslie) because of their relationship and moving in together. She is awoken when the ships receive a firing order. She rushes through the hallway while Captain Newsome (Paterson Joseph) carries out his duties. She spots Adams (Tom Gill) and calls for him while he says they’re getting the boat to the launch depth. She tries to follow him but is soon pushed against the tank next to her. Amy crashes to the ground. Newsome says firing unit keys have been issued to the SMO. A cafeteria worker finds Amy and offers to help her get to the medic, but Amy has other ideas. She makes it to the control room before Newsome quickly demands her leave. Elliot Glover (Shaun Evans) tries to calm her and get her to exit the control room.

DCI Silva desperately tries to get Newsome not to fire the weapon, but Elliot takes her down and insists it is only a drill. Once things calm down, Elliot checks on Silva. She doesn’t answer and walks out of the room without saying anything. Next, Jay Kohli (Parth Thakerar) and Laura Michaels (Therese Bradley) begin questioning Kirsten about the Port Havers incident. They want to know who leaked the highly confidential information. They believe she might’ve told others about it since she met with Cruden not too long ago. She insists Patrick was trying to help her find Jade’s killer. While he suspects the navy covered up an incident in Florida, he doesn’t know why. They know about Jade and have been monitoring the Dunloch peace camp. Jay says the group sometimes got violent when it met with other activist groups.

Kirsten asks about the operatives MI5 in the camp before DSU Robertson (Gary Lewis) enters and interrupts. Robertson tells them to submit their other questions in writing while leading Kirsten out of the room. Outside, they discuss what Kirsten got out of the MI5 agents before she is taken home. Amy Silva works on her cut. A woman checks on her and Amy asks to talk to the Coxswain. In a flashback, Kirsten meets Amy for the first time and asks her to help prepare for the interview. Kirsten buys her a drink and tries to get tips from Amy. She doesn’t give up until Amy agrees to give her five minutes of her time. Elliot arrives and Amy asks why he didn’t tell her it was only a drill, but Elliot says they didn’t have time to do so since they’re supposed to complete the drill as quickly as possible.

She asks him to sit down before accusing him of having an affair with Tiffany Docherty (Anjli Mohindra). She wonders if Burke was blackmailing him with the pictures to get information about Port Havers. He doesn’t want to discuss it, so she suggests doing so in front of the captain. He admits Burke was blackmailing him. Elliot says there was no evidence or proof that it happened, and he might not have given it to him anyway. Amy wonders if Elliot made everything go away by making Burke go away. Elliot gets upset and says he had nothing to do with the death of Craig Burke (Martin Compston). He doesn’t think it matters anymore after the stunt Amy pulled in the control room today since everyone thinks she is deranged now. He was the only one who didn’t, but he warns Amy that she is on her own now.

Elliot leaves and tries to recollect himself. Kirsten returns to work and tells DS Porter (Reuben Joseph) that she hasn’t slept much. He has been watching CCTV footage of the roadway on the night of Jade’s murder, but Kirsten wants to focus on something else first. She wants to look into Jade’s claim that an MI5 agent was with her at the train station since a camera might’ve recorded the individual in question. She believes they should start with the August protest that got violent and they soon find out it took place in Glasgow. Kirsten tells Porter to check both ends of the line to see if he can spot Jade on the camera. In another flashback, Amy tells Kirsten that nobody gets it the first time. Amy instructs her not to be too nice since not everyone deserves it. Amy says a great detective shuts herself off and focuses on the work at the cost of everything else.

They talk about loneliness and not having a heart while at work. Back in the present, Amy gets a meal and spots Gary Walsh (Daniel Portman) next to her. She overhears the cafeteria worker saying he is getting out because there is new evidence. Tiffany approaches Amy to tell her she needs to check on her in the sickbay and it is the captain’s orders. They go to the sickbay for a check-up and Tiffany tries to find out why she hasn’t been taking her pain medications. Amy insists she is fine before Newsome enters and asks for Tiffany’s report. Newsome asks her about her medical condition and the fact Amy brought medication on board. Elliot learns as Tiffany explains the withdrawal symptoms of the medication. Newsome wonders if that caused Amy’s outburst, but Amy says she never told them about her medication.

Elliot believes she mentioned it. Amy quickly says no before Newsome argues they’re only trying to help. She begins complaining that they’re only trying to discredit her before she spills the beans about their affair. Newsome says Elliott has promised him that there has never been any inappropriate contract. She begins telling Newsome about Burke blackmailing Elliot and wanting to get information about Port Havers. When he asks if she has any evidence, she complains that he isn’t letting her get any. He says Port Havers is classified information and has no impact on the case, but Amy says that isn’t up to him to decide. Newsome says he can’t have Amy in questionable health making wild accusations. He wants to relieve her of her duties since she is unfit. She argues he doesn’t have the authorities, but Newsome says otherwise and orders Amy to say in his cabin for the rest of the day.

Amy is tasked with proving she is fit for duty. Otherwise, she’ll be confined to her quarters for the rest of her stay. Porter finds a video of Jade outside of Central Station on the day of the protest. He shows Kirsten a video of a guy in an ice hockey jacket. They watch as Jade takes a photo of the man in question. Kirsten is worried they took Jade’s phone because she took a picture of them. They continue tracking the man and find a video of him getting into a vehicle. They get the address for the car based on its license plate number and quickly rush to the house of Peter Ingles. Once they arrive, Kirsten looks through his window and spots someone running around inside. They try to chase him down. Kirsten ends up taking him down and cranking his arm behind his back.

She notices red spots on his shirt, and they look like bloodstains. She immediately arrests him for the murder of Jade. Peter Ingles (Sam Redford) is taken to the station and questioned about Jade. He claims he didn’t know Jade. When Kirsten says Jade would recognize him, Peter says they should bring her in there so they can find out what this is all about. Kirsten asks about Peter’s shoulder. She believes they would find a wound there made by a pair of scissors about three days ago. She tells Peter he isn’t getting out of this one, so he asks to speak to his lawyer. Meanwhile, Tiffany encourages Amy to take antihistamines because coming off antidepressants can be bad. Amy asks Tiffany if it is hard for her to trust Elliot. Tiffany leaves and tells Elliot she isn’t doing good. She insists he could’ve told her he was going to speak to the captain.

Peter is asked about the partial SIM card they found outside of his flat and the fact it matches Jade’s. Before long, the MI5 agents return and tell Kirsten the man isn’t Peter Ingles. Instead, his name is Piter Vasiliev. He works for the Russian Embassy and has full diplomatic immunity. He is a GRU intelligence office. They can ask the Russians to drop his immunity but there is likely nothing they can do to Piter so he will properly leave today. Once he leaves, Jay complains this didn’t have to happen since they could’ve watched him if they knew. Jay goes on to say that this level of interference is basically unheard of. Porter finds something about an online thread about fishing that Peter has been posting on.

Since the images are from all around the world, he believes it could be some type of code. The last one was posted on August the 30th or the day before Vigil went out on patrol. Next, Vigil gets new orders, so they decide to head to the shipping lane. Newsome tells Elliot they need to take special measures to avoid detection and can no longer have close-quarters situations. Meanwhile, Amy hangs out and remembers spending a night out drinking with Kirsten. Kirsten says her whole face lights up when she is having a good time before they kiss. Kirsten apologizes and says she shouldn’t have done that. The night ends and we return to Amy in her cell. Kirsten briefs Shaw and the others. She says evidence collected shows that Ingles likely killed Jade and he was in contact with someone on the boat.

They’re worried that this means a Russian agent is on Vigil, but Shaw (Stephen Dillane) doesn’t want to believe it. They talk about Burke being a whistleblower and other things before Shaw is asked if they’re keeping anything to themselves. Shaw says there is nothing about Russians, but there are concerns about the trawler that went down at Barra Head. The peace camp believes it was dragged down by a submarine. Shaw confirms it is true and reveals it was dragged down by an American submarine. They’ve confirmed the Americans who haven’t denied it. They had been shadowing Vigil since it left port, but they won’t say why. They believe they’ll have to give them something now that they know about Peter Ingles. Shaw agrees to have a conversation with them about it. Back on Vigil, Walsh shows Hadlow (Connor Swindells) that the locks to the RCMS panel have been tampered with and someone could’ve used that to force a reactor shutdown.

Hadlow tells him to keep it to himself until he has time to speak to the captain. The cafeteria lady Jackie (Anita Vettesse) brings Amy some food and wakes her up in the process. They talk about the good news with Jackie’s son. Jackie admits her son did some teenage stuff, got into trouble, and spent time in prison. Jackie tells her she left her some extra pudding to cheer her up before leaving. She returns to the kitchen and reads a note in her pocket. Shaw tries to find out more from the Americans, but they’re not eager to say much. When he returns to the others, he says the Americans were concerned with Vigil and decided to shadow it. They didn’t want to risk their source and they have no idea what the Russians are planning. Branning (Lolita Chakrabarti) agrees to set up a meeting with Downing Street so they can tell them. Shaw says he’ll tell Newsome, but he isn’t sure what he can do about it.

They’ll need the name of the traitor. Back on Vigil, Newsome learns about the padlocks being tampered with. They believe the ship was sabotaged so they will investigate it without drawing attention to themselves. Mark Prentice (Adam James) goes to the captain’s room and is surprised to find Amy in there. He sits down before being asked about Jackie’s son. He says the boy is locked up in Indonesia on drugs charges. He has a ten-year sentence when they normally get death. Her son was in the process of an appeal, but it got turned down. Amy says it doesn’t make sense for him to be getting out after one year of a ten-year sentence. Kirsten is given the chance to talk to the secretary of state. She explains they believe Peter was sending messages to someone on Vigil. They stopped communicating the day before Vigil went on patrol and the messages from the pictures have something to do with the systems on Vigil.

One of them refers to the operation of the atmosphere management kit. The Secretary of State (Susannah Doyle) asks if someone on board is actively working to sabotage Vigil. They’re still working to decode the messages, but it could take weeks. They hope they could help identify the person in question. Robertson believes the two murder victims were killed because they uncovered what the Russians were doing. They won’t have a replacement for Vigil for a week and the Secretary doesn’t think they should remove the ship. It would look bad with the upcoming vote as to whether they should replace the nuclear warheads. Kirsten asks the minister if she’d be able to live with knowing she let something bad happen to the people on Vigil. She says it is a lot to consider and she’ll talk to the PM.

In another flashback, Kirsten finds out that Amy doesn’t like going home before she is invited out for a drink. Once again, something goes wrong on Vigil. Amy learns that they’ve lost all broadcasts. She searches one of the bunks and finds the material that was likely found on Burke. She takes the pillowcase while Shaw finishes a call with the minister. Shaw delivers the message that Vigil is set to return to port immediately. Newsome learns the comms wire is going to take a few hours to repair so they won’t be able to get messages until then. Amy goes to Newsome to show him what she found in Jackie’s bunk. She believes Jackie poisoned Craig Burke. She wants to talk to Jackie right away and says he will just have to trust her. Newsome pages Jackie immediately.

Elliot hears Jackie Hamilton being paged to the control room. Kirsten returns home to the kitty and remembers drinking with Amy. Although Amy said she wasn’t into men, she seems into Kirsten. She tells Amy to tell her that when she is sober, but Amy says she’ll have a headache although she will feel the same. She returns to reality when she gets a call from Robertson who says they’ve sent a message for Vigil to come back. They sent the message an hour ago and haven’t had a response. Newsome complains to his people before Amy tells him she is going to go look for Jackie. She finds Jackie out on the ground before she is attacked too.

 

Vigil Review

At this point, my interest level in Vigil has dropped to the bottom of the barrel and I don’t see this changing during the next few episodes. The show had everything it needed to be special, but it has been let down by poor writing, unlikeable characters, and a lack of heart. I love British dramas and prefer watching them over American shows, but Vigil doesn’t live up to my British standards.

There are so many great British shows, so I am confident Vigil could’ve and should’ve been much better. Then again, why should those involved strive for perfection when they’re given questionable reviews from The Guardian, The Independent, Empire, The Times, and Evening Standards? As long as this continues, low-quality shows like this will continue being produced more often and viewers will either tune out or stomach through them.

Vigil lacks compelling characters, honest emotions, and any real suspense. It is a bloated mess that hasn’t decided what it wants to be, and it only seems to be getting more annoying as the series continues. Unless you’re a massive fan of Rose Leslie or Suranne Jones, it is best to set sail on a different submarine. The show continues to erode with this episode just going through the motions. It scores a 6 out of 10. All Vigil recaps can be found on Reel Mockery here.