As the 5th episode of Vigil begins, Elliot Glover (Shaun Evans) leads DCI Amy Silva (Suranne Jones) to safety. He warns her there is an airborne hazard and she can’t let anyone through this door. She uses the phone nearby to send the message to move the ship to emergency stations for an airborne hazard. Elliot begins working to clear the deck swiftly. He clears the deck before returning to Amy and telling Matthew Doward (Lorne MacFadyen) to close the door. He uses the phone to send a message about the airborne hazard and the fact that Jackie is now dead. Once the phone call ends, Elliot tells Amy that Jackie got it sprayed on her and she started vomiting. He wants to talk to someone, but Amy warns him he could spread it to others. He’ll need to change his clothes and wash to avoid exposing others.

Doward is sent to get his bag so he can change clothes. Neil Newsome (Paterson Joseph) eagerly awaits the Coxswain’s report. Once Elliot changes his clothes, Doward is tasked with making sure nobody touches them and telling the medic to meet them at the shower block. Amy tries to get information from Glover while he insists he saved her and could’ve let her die if he wanted her dead. They run into Tiffany Docherty (Anjli Mohindra) who tells Amy she needs to decontaminate as well. Amy is given instructions for cleaning herself before Tiffany asks if it is a nerve agent like sarin. Silva doesn’t have an answer for her because it happened so quickly, but she thinks it is. After the intro, DS Kirsten Longacre (Rose Leslie) is awoken in the middle of the night, so she decides to relax in a nice bath.

We see a flashback of the detectives bathing together before Tiffany gives Elliot advice. He learns he’ll need atropine and pralidoxime if he gets sick due to a nerve agent, and they don’t have either. He uses the opportunity to apologize for being such a prick during the last few days. She checks his pupils and says they know that isn’t in good shape. She pulls down her mask, kisses him, and says that was the last time. In the morning, Kirsten calls DS Porter (Reuben Joseph) and wakes him up. She explains that the navy hasn’t done a good job looking for a traitor. She believes it is up to them to find out, but Porter says Ingles didn’t even leave them a phone number. She believes someone in Scotland knows who Peter’s assets were.

He was there for a long time and likely built networks. Some of those people still have to be out there. She wants to help because Amy is down there alone and she has no idea what is coming. On the fridge, we see a note about Poppy’s upcoming birthday. Kirsten promises to be in after she does something first. She tells Porter to get as many people as he needs, and he can’t have breakfast first. Meanwhile, Elliot tells Amy and Newsome how he found Jackie. When he got there, Jackie had the lid off a big tin and gas was pouring out of it. He isn’t sure whether Jackie might’ve opened the tin by accident. He goes on to say Jackie was said and she said, “Tell Sean I couldn’t.” By that point, Jackie started getting sick and vomiting so Elliot went for the gasmask. When he returned, Amy was there.

She died quickly and Amy believes she experienced symptoms similar to Craig Burke. They’re not sure if Jackie contained it so the gas is likely knocking out their comms wire and missile command. Plus, they aren’t going to be able to feed the crew. Amy wonders if she set off the attack there deliberately, but Tiffany doubts it since she was going to see her son again. Amy tells the captain she is fine since Tiffany gave her a substitute medication that will take the edge off her withdrawal. Kirsten delivers a birthday gift to Poppy (Orla Russell) from Amy. Mrs. and Mr. Torrens arrive and reprimand Poppy for opening the door to strangers. They invite Kirsten to have tea with them. Poppy loves the gift although Kirsten thinks Amy would’ve found something even better. Poppy wonders if Amy can come and visit her. Kirsten believes that would be possible.

Poppy admits she knew who Kirsten was because she had seen her pictures on Amy’s phone. While the Torrens say they chat with Amy from time to time, Poppy says she loves Amy. Poppy is sent to her room so the Torrens can learn more about the person they might be sharing joint custody with. Kirsten explains she knows nothing about joint custody before revealing they broke up. The Torrens didn’t know since Amy never mentioned it. They insist they only wanted Poppy to have stability after her father died until she got depressed and told her teacher they had taken her away from her mommy. They realize Kirsten doesn’t need to hear this since they’re no longer together. They make sure Kirsten says goodbye to Poppy before she goes. Kirsten apologizes it is her visiting and not Amy but promises Amy will see her as soon as she comes back. When Kirsten returns to her vehicle, she cries and remembers arguing with Amy about getting to meet Poppy.

Next, Shaw (Stephen Dillane) briefs the others and says there is evidence the Russians are mounting a move against Vigil. They have tried getting in touch with Newsome, but he hasn’t responded. He tasks the men with getting their boats out there and finding Vigil if it has surfaced. He wants to make sure the Russians know Vigil is still operational and orders the others to tell their respective crews it is only a drill. Newsome meets with Prentice (Adam James) and the others. He now believes Burke was killed with a nerve agent just like Jackie was. The captain explains Jackie was likely responsible for Burke’s murder and the latest attack. When she tried to set the device off, she was exposed to the nerve agent and killed. Amy theorizes that Jackie had a deal with influential people in Indonesia who could’ve got her son out of prison. Simon Hadlow (Connor Swindells) isn’t sure she would kill Craig Burke (Martin Compston), but Amy is.

Newsome wants to focus on the nerve agent which he describes as a nation-state attack. He wants to tell the other crew members as little as possible before admitting they cannot receive orders or fire. The enemy has succeeded in knocking out Britain’s nuclear deterrent and they’ll need to fight to get it back. Hadlow knows that bleach is used for basic decontamination of nerve agents and hypochlorite breaks it down and neutralizes it. He believes they can isolate the sprinklers, fill them with bleach, and vent it later. They’ll need to come up with a plan to get someone in there to work on the drive. Tiffany argues they’d have about 15 minutes when using the deep-sea suits. Hadlow agrees to rig something up so they can decontaminate the individual when they return. When the meeting ends, Elliot tries to take Amy to see Jackie’s crew, but she doesn’t want his help since he said she was mentally unfit. He asks if anyone told her about the RCMS and she clearly knows nothing about it.

He says it is a dial that overrides the reactor manually and Walsh found out that the padlock protecting it was covered in scratch marks. Elliot says it was sabotage because someone wants the ship to surface and they’re trying to do it again. Amy is told she is working on the why of things and they need her doing that. Elliot wants to help her with that. She relents and decides to accept his help. Meanwhile, Kirsten passes by a sign for the Braehead Arena which is home to The Glasgow Hurricanes. She goes to the arena in hopes of learning more about Peter Ingles. Kirsten soon finds out that Peter is on the arena’s ticket and marketing lists. He has been to numerous games over the past five years. Kirsten manages to get Peter’s phone number and quickly snaps a picture of it using her smartphone. She also finds out he took guests to some of the games and gets that information printed out although it is basic and doesn’t provide names.

They have CCTV for a week and the games are broadcast live. Plus, he used the same seat for every game so it should be easy to find footage of him and his guest. Kirsten steps into the hallway and calls Porter to tell him about the evidence she has collected. She thinks someone would’ve taken pictures or videos of them together. She also tells him to run Peter’s number while Amy questions one of Jackie’s cafeteria friends. He admits Jackie was out of the cafeteria when they started experiencing problems and she could’ve been gone for five minutes or so. Amy wonders if she would’ve had time to get to the RCMS and back. Elliot believes it is possible, but you’d have to run all the way. Jackie’s coworker is asked if she seemed different before the incident.

He says she was happy because of her kid getting out and all over the place. He admits it was one of the most unfair things he has ever heard of and wants to get a collection together for Jackie’s family. Elliot agrees to talk to him about it later before they leave, and Amy says she wants to see the scene. They go to Newsome to ask for the dry suits so they can collect the evidence and dispose of the device together. They talk to Newsome and Prentice in private about Jackie’s actions and the sabotage of the RCMS panels. Newsome isn’t sure they should send Silva until Glover vouches for her and explains he has been giving her a hard time to cover up his affair with a crew member. Amy explains there is a pattern of someone trying to get the ship to surface and she is worried what could come on the fourth attempt.

When she insists the lives of the crew could depend on it, Newsome tells her to be ready by the time Hadlow sets up his decontamination tent. They’re told they’ll have 15 minutes before they pass out and nobody is going to come save them. Newsome orders them to go after the hazmat suits and get the device off the ship first. Kirsten returns to the office and learns from Porter that an entire team and the MI5 are working to track down social media posts from the games. They got him once and also found him on Facebook from a game back in March. Kirsten looks at the picture and recognizes the man he is with as Ben Oakley (Cal MacAninch) who lives at the peace camp and was a friend of Jade’s. They storm the peace camp before a female member contacts Ben and tells him so he can stay away. Kirsten talks to the woman who was sending the message and encourages her to tell them where Ben is.

Porter finds a laptop that Cat (Aisha Toussaint) recognizes as Jade’s. She insists it means nothing since she used to borrow it regularly too. That means she knows the login details and Kirsten wants them so she can look at it in relation to Jade’s murder. Shaw learns that several Russian ships are moving into the patrol area so he wonders if they know where Vigil is. Amy thanks Elliot and learns he might be seeing more of his family as punishment for his affair with Tiffany. She learns she can only take items that can be washed down before they’re told they have five minutes and need to get into the suits. Amy writes a note about Poppy’s birthday and draws a little bird on the notebook paper while remembering their time together. Poppy asks why her grandma doesn’t like Amy. Silva tries to explain it away as grief. Back to the present, Amy tells the woman that she likes birds and Longacre should receive the note if she doesn’t make it back.

Branning (Lolita Chakrabarti) shows up and tries to get an update from Kirsten who promises she’ll tell her what she knows when they get something concrete. Kirsten learns the Russians have put several vessels on the patrol area. Branning is worried they’re hunting Vigil. Ben visits Patrick Cruden (Stephen McCole) to tell him he has something big. They go inside and Ben reveals the Russians have a spy in Dunloch. He has photographic evidence but needs to get somewhere they cannot get to him. Laura believes Ben might’ve deleted the photo after keeping a copy of it. He might’ve been protecting the person he was meeting and that person likely worked on Vigil. Porter learns Oakley made five calls to Cruden’s office in the last two hours while Ben tells Curden about Peter Ingles.

He shows them a picture of Ingles with someone from the Royal Navy. Ben explains he was approached by the Russian guy in the photo, and he kept tabs on him after that. He didn’t tell the police because he thinks they would bury it. They agree to release the photo before bringing the police in, but Ben says it shouldn’t happen here. He wants political asylum at a foreign consulate because the Russians will anyone to stop it from getting out there. Kirsten and Porter begin looking for Cruden and start by going to his house. Patrick says he’d like to acknowledge Jade and Ben agrees. Ben makes a video denouncing the nuclear deterrence since they’ve been infiltrated by a foreign power. He argues it is time to get the nukes out of Scotland and Britain before they lead to catastrophe.

Next, Hadlow gives Elliot and Amy instructions for their return. Ice is added to their suits, they put on helmets, and learn they have radios so they can talk to each other during the mission. They go inside and shut the door behind them. Kirsten and Ben learn that Patrick isn’t at home. Kirsten gets a call from Robertson (Gary Lewis) who says it has been nonstop with Mark Hill who has been calling consulates. They know Ben is trying to get political asylum with one of the consulates. Kirsten orders them to send people to the Russian consulate because he’ll be going there. Elliot goes for the hazmat suits while Amy stays and checks the scene around Jackie’s body. Eliot delivers the hazmat suits before heading back to Amy. Kirsten and Porter approach Cruden and asks him about Ben. He doesn’t help and instead says Ben is going to be the guy who got nukes out of Scotland. He is surprised to learn it wasn’t Ben’s photo and was actually taken by Jade.

Ben allegedly stole the photo and gave it to Russian agent Peter Ingles. Kirsten argues it was the photo that got Jade killed. Cruden doesn’t know who was in the photo but confirms Ben is at the Chinese consulate. While Amy collects evidence, Elliot begins working on the device. Amy finds a note on Jackie, and it says something about a little cat, Bali and not a done deal. Jackie was warned to leave it where she was instructed or she would join Craig Burke. Amy wonders if they weren’t on the boat so Jackie killed Burke so they could fly his replacement out there. Both suspect Matthew Doward. Then, they find out that Elliot’s suit has ripped so they need to get him out of there in a hurry. He crashes to the ground and gives her the device that needs to be flushed in the torpedo tube. Amy helps Elliot escape, but he is still struggling. She rushes to get rid of the device. Once she disposes of it, her helmet is removed and she begins to recover.

Doward takes the note from her and smacks her across the face. Tiffany goes to work on Elliot who has been exposed while Amy finds herself locked in one of the missile holds. Doward hits a button and her tube begins filling with water. The episode ends as Amy struggles to keep her head above water.

 

Vigil Review

Up until this point, I wasn’t impressed with Vigil and really felt it was a massive disappointment. The last few minutes were pretty intense and proved Vigil could’ve been much, much better. The show nearly ruined it by jumping back and forth between Amy and Kirsten. Why did this need to happen? The best ten minutes of Vigil were the intense moments Amy and Elliot ventured deep into the submarine in a last-ditch effort to collect evidence and get rid of the device.

I am not surprised that Matthew Doward is the one trying to sabotage Vigil since I suspected this from the moment he entered the sub with Amy Silva. I sincerely think Vigil would’ve been tremendously better had it only had 3 or 4 episodes. Six episodes gave them too much time to focus on things that didn’t matter in the long run. Combine this with the 60-minute episodes and there was just too much of nothing going on at any given time.

It is disappointing to see how nail-bitingly intense Vigil could’ve and should’ve been. Instead, viewers were given 5 episodes of dreary dullness on a submarine, unnecessary flashbacks, and an overloaded bag of cliches with 10 minutes of greatness toward the end. It feels a bit like two hyped fighters waiting until the last 30 seconds of the fight to finally start throwing punches. Although those last moments were great, it is hard to forget the suffering we were put through before things finally got moving. Still, the episode was better thanks to the last 10 minutes so it receives a 7 out of 10. All recaps of Vigil will be available on Reel Mockery here.