The Rig season two

The first season of The Rig was a curious series that ended up a long way from what you might expect with an ecological thread and ambitious staging far exceeding expectations. When you think of recent series cancelled by streamers, despite creating a big buzz and seeming popular, it seems odd that The Rig has sneaked though to a sophomore year. I liked the first season but I hadn’t realised it must have done well enough to pass the mysterious criteria streamers have for renewal. Yet survive it has and two years on we have season two.

Episode One
The first season did end on a cliffhanger though this is somewhat sidestepped in episode one. The tsunami we saw headed for the coast at the end of season one has happened overnight when we drop into the first episode with the survivor of the Kinloch Bravo helicoptered away to the Arctic. Here, Pictor have an even larger rig called The Stac, that turns out to be for more than drilling oil. It is here, while drilling to find rare minerals, that what now seems to be called `The Ancestor` was first located and there is even a lab with samples of its structure in it. As the cameras take us around this gleaming futuristic facility it gives off some strong sci fi vibes more so than the utilitarian look of the first season. This more than matches the first season’s ability to build impressive sets which have a realism about them even with metallic consoles and sturdy walkways. Plus, as the unfolding plot will require, its full of useful hiding places. Inevitably the background effects are not quite as convincingly in the Arctic as the North Sea one last time though they work better in longer perspective shots.

The episode takes a while to get going with so many characters and squabbling over whether they should sign the non- disclosure agreements that Pictor are insisting on to release them. Rose ends up in charge halfway through the episode thanks to Pictor’s CEO Morgan Lennox played with poker face by Alice Krige. The stage direction certainly seems to suggest there is perhaps some familial connection between them though this doesn’t come to pass. Nonetheless Rose seems to have considerable faith that Lennix has everyone’s interests at heart. Mark Addy’s unpleasant Coake is still around and probably responsible for the increase in swear words in this season each episode of which is proceeded by a “foul language” warning. It’s a great role for the actor who brings his presence to bear in what is otherwise a low key episode for cast members from the first season.

Things finally coalesce when some of the Kinlock Bravo survivors are roped into helping a mission to find two missing crew members who did not return from an ocean bed survey, a  scenario leading to some real tension. For vague reasons Easter, who has never driven one of these craft before gets to go with the Stac’s diver Kyle Cameron. Mind you people do seem to have interchangeable jobs; though technically a diver, Cameron will be operating in the main control room by the end of the season. Though you can see what’s coming a mile off, the sequence where this vulnerable craft trundles along the sea bed with no time to spare, finds the survivors dead and is enveloped by the bubbly mass of the Ancestor packs a real climactic punch. Easter’s claim that the Ancestors won’t harm you if you don’t attack them suddenly looks hollow as some impressive direction and editing shows us the view from unusual angles before the glass window cracks…

Episode Two
This is the sort of series that is able to present different dilemmas to the standard drama. So, in this episode we have three characters out on the open Arctic ice planting charges that will be detonated to allow the Stac rig to move closer to the stranded crew beneath. Only the ice is prone to cracking and of course there is the question of the Ancestor underneath them. As long as you’re not the sort of person who asks how can they survive on Arctic ice with such relatively thin clothing and won’t the explosions just collapse the whole ice sheet you will enjoy the tension. I think this is the appeal of the series; it can do things no other drama can and also do them well. Regardless of the geographical logic this is a well staged set up with excellent integration of the giant rig which looks genuinely massive, the trio on the ice and the resultant explosions. We’ve already had a resolution to the cliffhanger in which our stranded duo about to be cracked open by the sizzling tentacles of the Ancestor come up with a clever way to repel the ancient being by using a super loud sonar pulse.

Having shown us that impressive sequence of the rig moving, the actual rescue and recovery of all concerned takes place off camera with the action switching to the internal politics. In a first for the series we also venture away from the rig itself to follow Cat and Hutton who along with those who signed the non-disclosure agreement are back ashore though it’s a different place that greets them. Another well staged sequence shows us the emergency camps set up for refugees from the cities devastated by the tidal wave, imagery that is sadly all too familiar from real life news. Cat is looking for her wife, her usual pragmatic self is transformed into an anxious relative. Of all the cast it is often Rochenda Sandall who brings a real human side of what is often a series dealing with mechanics and science. Her reaction to what seems like the size of the task is heartbreaking coming from a character who is normally so stoic. Owen Teale’s Hutton is changed too, wandering around the ccamp looking shell shocked, beaten down, his normal belligerence submerged beneath shock and awe. His haunted look as he wanders around the camp is a long way from the punchy character who raged against the company and fought for his crewmates in series one.

An interesting new character this season is the Norwegian scientist Askel whose already torn between loyalty to Pictor and the reality of what he has discovered. If his lab looks a little too sleekly like something you’d find in a pulp sci-fi show, his dialogue is more down to earth. Jonannes Roaldsen Furst plays him as a cowed though determined individual who you imagine has not always been listened to even though he makes more sense than anyone. We should always be rooting for characters that Coake doesn’t like! Askel brings some backstory to the research into the Ancestor which emphasises both it’s age and size making it sound formidable indeed. It’s a standout episode too for Mark Addy whom I remember being so likeable in Atlantis and now finds himself playing someone as unlikeable. For an actor a role like this must be great to play. Its not that Coake doesn’t have principles as such, they just don’t  align with some of the other characters. I feel that in a real scenario more people would be like him than the scientific coterie; he has no time for the subtleties of trying to understand the Ancestor and his speech about how long humans have been around compared to the planet’s existence is certainly a memorable statistic.

Episode Three
Hidden secrets run through this more thoughtful episode in which the contents of the Stac’s files reveal more ambitious plans than the company would admit. Their aim is to grab as much territory as possible for its untapped resources which is why they are so anxious to somehow destroy the Ancestor. It was serendipitous to watch this on the very day Trump talked about annexing Greenland as that territory is mentioned here. The incoming US administration has obviously not been informed about either Pictor’s plans or the Ancestor! Then there’s the weird noise that caused Fulmer to collapse at the end of part two and which is analysed this episode. This seems to be some kind of communication attempt or maybe a warning. Nobody really knows but during an intriguing scene Askel has some interesting theories. The push and pull between commercial expediency and scientific curiosity remains key as an encounter between Morghan Lennox and Darian York a major investor in Pictor shows though Lennox’ true aims remain oblique.

Alongside all this posturing and theorising the episode explodes at the end when Cameron and Coake end up in a fight which the latter loses brutally. We’d learned that Cameron held him responsible for the death of his brother but you can be sure none of the characters will miss Coake. Unlike Mark Addy who will be missed having been an asset to the series, the fact that we dislike the character so much is testament to his acting. Yet the episode’s most memorable moments occur on land as both Kat and Hutton continue to sift through the shock and grief apparent in the refugee camp. Kat’s personal search is finally put on hold when she realises she can be of practical help- again Rochenda Sandall excels in conveying the character’s feelings. Owen Teale’s Hutton is finally woken from his haze when he meets the mother of one of the victims; with minimal expression the actor shows that he will do something now he sees the wider picture.

Episode Four
This episode has so many components that it plays like a film as well as successfully expanding the mythology of the show. Up till now we’ve seen characters treat the Ancestor as a threat or some sort of experiment yet this episode for the first time creates a sense of wonder. The quiet but rather headstrong Askel takes himself out onto the ice when red patches appear on the glaciers, a dangerous mission in a blizzard. Heather, Magnus and March have to go and get him back and in a thrilling sequence find themselves being chased by cracking ice as they race their vehicle back to the rig. Only a wall of ice rises before them blocking their progress. Yet Askel’s idea is to play the creature’s signal back to it and this seems to work and it retreats. They have, he says, made a connection. The scene shifts from tense to calm as the lights under the ice twinkle and move away.

Elsewhere we have more corporate over up as Lennox is ordered by York to cover up Coake’s death and more than that she will be replaced as CEO. I’m still not sure we’ve seen all of Lennox’s agenda but Alice Krige plays the role as if she is keeping secrets. Cat and Hutton are also ready to spill the secrets of what really happened, however the practical difficulties in them doing hinge on them being believed. Again the show cleaves closely to real life scenarios however fantastical events are. This is underlined when Cat’s wife is finally brought in looking very badly injured but it’s a sweet reunion because I think Cat (and us too) have been expecting the worst. I can’t remember the last time a fictional reunion was so affecting.

The terrific episode ends with Rose and the newly released Cameron being threatened with a gun by Bremner, Coake’s shady assistant now looking after himself with similarly brutish attributes to his late boss. It’s a slightly easy option to allow what Cameron did to be glossed over. In a series that deals with some inconvenient consequences he has still got away with, if not murder, then manslaughter whoever the victim was. Yet the question we want the answer here is- what was Rose doing in the lab while Askel was away. Did she, as Fulmer suggested she should rather then relying on him, connect with the Ancestor? Well wee will find that out soon but in the meantime this episode penned by Meg Salter and directed by Alex Holmes is the best of the season so far.

Episode Five
The Rig is able to pivot from ecological debate to action to business debate to engineering problems yet not lose its identity. This episode is a case in point, somewhat different to part four whose ending we might have expected to be a one scene stand- off that would be swiftly resolved but which this episode leads to something much more involved. Stretched over this whole episode, with just occasional interjections from the on shore storyline, Bremner’s attempts to get the vial drive which holds the location of the Ancestor’s heart, end up in the rig’s power being cut, a cat and mouse game across its various floors and a shock at the end. Its built up really well using the infrastructure and mechanics of the place as the stakes continue to rise and we also get to have a good look round the impressive sets that have been made for the production.

If Bremner has seemed something of a hired thug for higher powers, he proves a wilier antagonist here. Phil McKee gives him a slippery quality matching brain and brawn as he stays one step ahead of the others. This scenario refuses to give its participants easy wins so like some sort of high level game every little victory is hard earned. The only slight thing is you do wonder why none of the other operatives aboard the Stac- and there are at least fifteen of them – never become involved in any of this sort of stuff. If I were Magnus after all this I’d be asking them why they didn’t lend a hand.

These sequences are intersected by scenes of Aksel and Heather testing out some theories and reckoning that the noises they have heard the Ancestor make are not threats but cries for help. This leans into the more mystical side of the story that we did see more of in the first season. We also see Lennox, now on her way out, finally make some recompense for what the company has done after being told in no uncertain terms by Hutton the full impact of hers and Pictor’s actions. Not only does she manage to get much needed medical supplies to the camp but she also gives Cat a USB drive which presumably contains plenty of incriminating knowledge. In a way this was something we may have predicted – and information on drives is something of an easy solution to plotlines in any drama - though any opportunity to show up her replacement, the arrogant Darian York, is sure to be popular. I’m sure everyone watching was cheered when Hutton simply pushes him aside!

Episode Six
It is easy for a series to divert the viewer on first watch so of course when Rose is seemingly fatally shot at the end of part five I was shocked having temporarily forgotten that she had likely absorbed some of that fizzy water in the lab which is part of the Ancestor. And of course we should know by now that the Ancestor can save people; it saved Fulmer and also Baz in season one. With more than one clock ticking, Rose and Fulmer undertake a risky venture out to try and warn the Ancestor that a pile of poison is on the way courtesy of Bremner who sends the information on the drive to York before being caught. 

They fail to reach the location in time and at first it seems as if the toxin has killed the being. This allows for a quiet scene reminding us that this is also a love story between Rose and Fulmer which both Emily Hampshire and Martin Compston have successfully conveyed despite everything else going on. You do have to smile at the resolution to this dilemma when Rose goes outside and helps the Ancestor's heart re-start. Just don’t ask how though there is a clue earlier on when some more information about the creature suggests that it has helped humankind through various climate crises rather than caused them. One amusing thing to note is that whoever is behind Pictor and even it’s CEO and is said by Lennox to be unrelentingly ruthless goes by the name of X. That sounds familiar

There is an epic feeling to this journey’s end with some excellent special effects emphasising both the beauty of nature- the fully resplendent heart of the ancestor is like an undersea woodland – and its sheer size. There’s a superb perspective shot that shows Rose as tiny as possible while the elemental phenomenon takes up the rest of the length and width of the screen. In a scene that lifts the soul, the glowing lights it sends reach around the world. I was pleased that the episode allows enough time for us to take this all in before jumping back into the human side of the story.

There's a lot packed into these episodes and plenty I've not mentioned, notably Iain Glenn whose determination to do right by his crew mates is at the centre of proceedings, Ross Anderson's conflicted Cameron plus the other supporting characters each of whom have their moment to shine. David Macpherson who created the whole thing deserves credit for something that is not easily pigeonholed. In many ways The Rig shouldn’t work; it’s a drama about tough people in a tough environment that is rooted in the everyday and often the less pleasant side of humanity. Yet it can offer such optimistic vistas, such glorious sights more befitting of a fantastical story rather than such a grounded one. while retaining an optimism simmering under the surface. Then again it is saying we are all connected to the planet, its just the way that happens that is up for debate. I rather like the notion that The Rig suggests of there being a natural creature far larger and complex that we can understand looking out for the plant whatever terrible things we do. Sometimes as you look at the latest news it feels like we actually need something like that for real.