Wreck – Season 1 Episode 1 “Ship of Dreams” Recap & Review

Ship of Dreams

Episode 1 of Wreck begins with Pippa in the changing room, telling Danny to leave. She blasts him with a hairdryer, shrugging off his pleas that he just wants to be there for her. Danny continues to message even after their absence but it’s clear that Pippa is not alone. Someone in a duck costume stalks her around the ship.

Pippa is on The Sacramentum and unfortunately there’s only so many places one can hide when out at sea. She doesn’t make it far though, as our killer brandishes a knife and heads to the back of the ship. Holding on and prepared to plunge to the bottom, Pippa looks up and tells the killer “You can’t have me,” before flipping the bird and jumping into the icy water below.

We then skip forward three months. Velorum is preparing for another voyage and The Sacramentum is their crown jewel voyage. Karen (aka. Aunt Lydia) shows the new recruits around, which includes a shy guy called Cormac and hard-headed Vivian. The man in charge of the Cruise Ship happens to be Mr A, who’s the Director of the ship.

There are plenty of secrets onboard though as it turns out Cormac isn’t being completely forthright. Cormac is actually an alias as his real name is Jamie and he paid off the real Cormac to take his identity and make it onboard the ship. Unfortunately, that immediately hits a snag when the real Cormac smuggles himself onboard somehow and ends up sharing a cabin with Jamie.

Jamie’s real purpose here is to find out what happened to his sister, Pippa. The management claim she commit suicide but he’s not so sure. Jamie immediately starts asking around but he doesn’t really get anywhere. He does strike up a friendship with Vivian though, who’s similarly searching for something onboard the ship.

Vivian is trying to get away from her parents and make a new life for herself. Could she find that onboard the Sacramentum? Before we dive too deeply into this, Jamie begins searching around Danny’s cabin, noticing he’s dealing drugs and a strange black bag in the bathroom that could hold some clues. He also finds Pippa’s phone too, which he takes with him up onto the deck. Jamie is caught between his hunt for Pippa and appeasing Cormac, who’s desperate to find out what his ex, Rosie, is up to.

When the pair wrestle in the cabin, Cormac opens the door and Vivian happens to be there. Jamie decides to open up and tell her the truth about why he’s really onboard, including how close Pippa and him were. He admired her tenacity and strength, and feels like he owes Pippa to get to the bottom of what happened. Vivian too hasn’t been completely honest here, as she admits she maxed out her dad’s credit card and she’s basically on the run.

Jamie is suddenly grabbed by a bunch of kids wearing those familiar duck masks, taken into a dark room and forced into a rite of passage including kissing a fish. Danny is part of this group and after it’s done, he introduces Jamie into the party atmosphere. Jamie’s not exactly in the mood to drink and dance the night away though.

He does meet a guy called Olly there, someone he bumped into earlier in the episode, and he seems like the most down-to-earth here.

Back in the cabin, Danny ends up sleeping with one of the workers but after the deed, she laments that he keeps calling her Pippa. After asking her to leave, Danny notices a guy in a duck costume on the other side of the room.

The killer listens to Danny ranting and raving before smashing him in the head with a weight. Staggering down the hallway, our killer eventually stabs Danny multiple times. As he starts bleeding out, our killer opens up a hidden compartment and takes him inside.

The Episode Review

Wreck gets off to a decent start here, with a distinctly colourful and vibrant episode. There’s a recurring motif of ducks too, and not just from the killer but also all over the ship. It’s lurking in the background, by the pool and even as a cardboard cutout in the main atrium.

These little inclusions are a nice nod toward the genre and a lovely little Easter Egg worth pointing out. The episode itself zips by at a decent pace and while the characters are a tad archetypal so far, the idea of a killer onboard a cruise ship is enough to entice you in, especially as the claustrophobic element of this will prevent anyone from running away or calling for help.

Quite who the killer is remains a mystery right now but I’m sure it wont take long before we get some more crucial clues to piece together the truth