The Rig – Season 1 Episode 3 Recap & Review

The Thing

Episode 3 of The Rig starts with Baz continuing to spiral out of control, pleading with whatever this force is controlling him and asking what it wants with him.

The mood around Kinloch is not good. The crew are angry and on-edge, while Rose remains determined to stick with the company and decide to change the industry for the better. At the same time, she’s also tackling the medical side of things and deduces that they need to get a blood sample from everyone and see if the agent is reactive with them.

Hutton is back with the group now, hanging out in the cafeteria and continues to lash out at management, questioning how they’re going to get home. However, before things can escalate further, the fog inexplicably disappears. Unfortunately, it also reveals that the other rig, Charlie, is completely blanketed in choking black smoke.

Heather believes they should send lifeboats over to save them but Hutton sees it as a lost cause. At the same time, Fulmer notices Baz in the Med Bay, who admits he didn’t mean to kill Alwyn. He claims that “they need us” and eventually rushes off when Rose shows up. Rose notices Fulmer’s cut hand and tells him to come to the lab. As for Baz, he moves around the rig freely.

When Magnus finds out he despairs that Baz is nowhere to be found. If only there was some sort of camera system set up around the oil rig they could check to see where he is. Ah well. A scriptwriter can dream!

Magnus gathers the crew and briefs them on what’s happened. Without the SBV the only way back is through the choppers and they don’t know when they’re arriving. Magnus rallies them all and tells them they need to wash down the rig and get rid of this ash.

The other half of the crew are to head out and search everywhere, including the Production Module. Now, to be fair Magnus does mention that the cameras don’t extend everywhere so I’m guessing he’s going to send the men to the areas where the cameras aren’t.

Meanwhile, Baz continues to walk around the ship freely, dropping off a blood sample in the water. He also inexplicably reacts with the oil in the tanks, growing plant matter there. When Hutton and the others find it, a sudden vibrating causes the entire rig to begin shaking. They’re losing power everywhere.

Rose deduces that the ash samples are from 300 million years ago. The oil they’ve been pumping this whole time is actually Permian. Now, she also claims that the Great Dying is the “greatest murder mystery of all time” but that’s not exactly true. We do know from research that it was caused by massive volcanic eruptions that wiped out 95% of ocean life and subsequently 70% of land animals. Changes in the atmosphere caused this. Anyway, I digress!

Heather is the one who finds Baz, who points out that he needs to defend the rig. “It’s all dying.” He says. Going on to mention how this is the beginning and the end of all things. However, Baz isn’t alone. Garrow is also infected and shows up alongside him, determined to protect the rig.

Rose manages to get the power back on but there’s another problem. The ignition system isn’t responding and with chemicals being spewed into the air, the only solution is to do something not exactly health and safety compliant. They need to use a crane to get as close as possible to the stack and then shoot a flare through. Oh, and avoid being blown to pieces in the process. I certainly can’t see this going wrong, can you?

Fulmer volunteers himself to go, wanting to prove he’s one of the crew and not a waste of space and a liability. He takes one look back before heading over to the edge of the crane and firing the flare. However, the blast hits him and he ends up burning. Although they manage to put the fire out, he’s in a bad way… at least upon first glance. He’s got nasty burns but thankfully the suit has heat resistance so he’s shielded from the worst of it.

Baz and Garrow find what’s causing their distress and work to stop it… but it could cause huge ramifications for the entire rig.

The Episode Review

The third episode of The Rig moves us further into the field of alien species infecting the crew to protect something. This premise is almost beat for beat the same as those aforementioned shows I referred to in the last recap, Origin and Nightwalkers.

Alongside the narrative woes, we also see more of the bad CGI as well. I know aesthetics aren’t everything but with such an unoriginal premise, the graphics are just, well, bad. The outdoor scenes during the day are hideously lit and you can really tell they’ve been done on a soundstage. When you compare it to something like 1899, which was also filmed on a soundstage, it’s black and white how different the two productions are and how well the latter managed to disguise that fact.

Given this has been heralded as a “big budget” production, I’d be interested to know where that money has gone!