The Rig (2023) s01e02 Episode Script

Cat, I think he's waking up.
He's just coming round now.
I've just got to take his temperature.
Baz, it's Rose. Can you hear me?
Yeah, I can hear you.
Still waiting on that apology for
bumping me off the chopper though.
Maybe later.
Do you recognize where you are?
Yeah. Definitely not where I want to be.
You had an accident on the tower.
- When you were up there with Fulmer.
- Ah!
And then you went up on the helideck.
Do you remember, you said
"It's already started?"
I don't.
I don't remember nothing.
There was all this noise in my head.
I'm just gonna take
your bloods, mate, okay?
- Alright, we we were back on the tower.
- Yeah.
I'm just puttin' a strap
on to dilate the vein, yeah.
We'd just finished testing
the comms equipment.
And
- Then I looked out to sea
- Uh-huh.
And the fog
there was something out there
And then I heard this noise,
and now it's in my head
this this noise
and it keeps telling me to
Let go, Baz!
- Hey!
- Baz, let go!
- It's okay. Baz!
- It's alright, it's okay.
Let go. Baz. Shhh!
No! No, you're not listening!
There's something out there.
It's coming!
- Come on, come on.
- What is? What's out there?
What's coming?
A wave.
A wave is coming.
Hutton's locked in his bunk?
Yeah. I put Easter on the door.
How was he?
Angry. And he's not the only one.
Nothing new there.
So that's that?
It'll certainly do for now.
Are we going to talk
about the decommissioning?
The wave that Baz talked about.
There's no way that that could
actually be a risk, could it?
- Oh, not for this platform.
- Okay.
Our max wave height is above
anything ever recorded in this sector.
I'm more worried about him.
At least he's awake now.
Whatever you did worked.
That's just it.
I didn't do anything.
Those injuries, Rose it ain't right.
Bodies are remarkable things.
Well, keep an eye on him. And let
me know if his condition changes.
Okay.
I only just found out myself.
I would have told the crew
when the time was right.
We're not talking about the crew here.
My Jamie has just started uni.
Now, Liam wants to go, too.
They already think I'm ruining
their future by having this job.
They want to see how bad
it'll be if I don't have one.
It wasn't my decision.
And if it was, I wouldn't
have made it. Not this way.
I'm just saying
we can't all get jobs in hardware
stores and construction sites.
We built things out here
people thought were impossible.
So where's that spirit now?
And I hear that, but you have to admit
it's hardly been a great few
years for dollars-per-barrel.
Exploration's on hold. Renewable
prices only ever go down
and ours only ever go up
Which might not even
be such a bad thing,
unless you want to be doing this
when you're 65 and the sky is burning.
And we're the oldest
platform Pictor have got.
Where else would they start?
It's the "how," not the "where."
Twenty years we've
been at this together.
Shouldn't that mean a
bit of prior warning?
It means you should know how this works.
Where do you think it's coming from?
Icelandic volcano again?
Rose said it couldn't be. Too far.
She was sure?
She was.
What do you think happened to him?
I sat with Baz
for three hours in that Med-Bay,
listening to him
struggling to even breathe.
If you'd asked me then if I
thought he could get up again,
I would've said absolutely not.
And that doesn't scare you?
Well, if it did, do you think
anybody out here would tell you?
Ah, what now?
You see that?
It's the Stand-By Vessel.
Signal lights.
They're trying to talk to us.
If they stay on that
course, we're gonna lose 'em.
Leck
Get up top,
and keep a bead on them.
- Take a note of the messages.
- On it.
I'll tell Magnus.
Hey, does this mean
we're getting out of here?
Cheers, Leck. Hold tight.
This is it.
Leck said it keeps
repeating, over and over.
What does it say?
It's a PAN call.
Possible Assistance Needed.
Normally it means there's been
a breakdown in communications.
We can signal back with the deck lights.
Should we bring them
in? Prep for evacuation?
There's no immediate risk
to the platform at this time.
Protocols say we stay.
I thought you weren't
sure what was causing it.
And when you're not sure, you stay
put. This could still clear up.
Trying to put us back to work already?
Every hour we're not
producing, we're losing.
Is that right?
She is right.
At this point, we don't know if
we'd be any better off on the ship
than we are here.
Fulmer, put the Stand-By
Vessel in a holding position
- and find out what they know.
- Alright.
But that ain't gonna "clear up."
So you better hope they're
ready for the long haul.
Murch!
Murch!
Boss.
- Ya lookin' for a snack?
- Nah, I'm good.
Are you getting anything on this?
Nah, nothing but static.
These days some people might
see that as an improvement.
When was our last supply boat?
Last week.
Next one's due in three days.
You want to bet on if it's still coming?
Not right now.
Fish.
River Cobbler. Caught in
Vietnam. Processed. Frozen.
Shipped to Aberdeen then shipped
out here. Can you believe that?
What's wrong with ours, eh?
We caught them all.
You want me to start
cutting back, right?
I do.
But starting tomorrow.
Leave tonight as planned.
- People have enough on their plates.
- Aye, for now.
What's it about?
A collective failure of imagination.
Sounds familiar.
- How's it working out?
- Not good for us.
Earlier, at the lifeboats,
Leck was really struggling
with his survival suit.
He he was afraid.
You remember your chopper evac training?
Do I remember being strapped
into a model helicopter
and dumped upside down in a
freezing swimming pool in the dark?
Yeah. I do.
I nearly drowned.
And froze.
Well now imagine it wasn't training.
Imagine there was no swimming pool,
and there was no diver to
help you if you got stuck.
And you nearly drowned.
And froze.
And afterwards, all everyone kept
telling you was how lucky you were.
God.
He was in a crash?
When?
Two years ago.
But I bet it doesn't feel that to him.
Oh, for fuck's sake!
Hey, Easter.
I know the SBV's coming to get us.
You've gotta let me out sooner or later.
You're only making
this worse for yourself.
He ain't gonna leave me here.
Magnus ain't got it in him.
Oi! Knock it off. I'm coming in.
Alright, lads?
You can't keep me in here.
Not with the ship coming.
Yeah? Watch me. Here.
Ah, Magnus got you on
waitressing duty now, is he?
It's called looking after his crew.
You should be grateful,
because if it were me, and
we were getting on that SBV,
I might just skip over
your name on the evac list.
Responsible response there from
the Head of Safety, thank you.
No sauce?
Easter, no one gets
in without my say so.
See? What'd I tell you?
You see Heather?
Observe our Camp Boss.
When the going gets tough,
the coffee gets stronger.
Eh, decaf.
As long as there's plenty left.
I heard Magnus was
thinkin' about rationin'.
- You'll be down to six cups a day soon.
- Yeah, very good.
There used to be a guy on here
called Donald Burton. Remember?
He'd come off the day shift,
get his dinner, have a nap,
then come back for the
night shift breakfast.
Now that's rationing.
And I remember you never
joined him. Not even once.
I was on the Atkins.
Yeah. You caused a sector-wide
bacon shortage while you were at it.
Oi.
Slander. Total slander.
All good with the SBV?
Yeah. Should be in the
holding position soon.
Then it's Joe Strummer time.
"Should we stay or should we go?"
Leck's been out there long enough.
When you're finished up here,
someone go and swap with him.
- I can do it.
- No, no.
Age before inexperience.
I've got it.
Always fancied myself a lone watchman.
Are they talking upstairs about Baz?
What he said about a wave coming?
Rose says it's not possible.
Says there hasn't been a tsunami
in the North Sea in all of history.
Well, there's never been a wave
like that in written history,
Rose is right about that.
But before that, there
was: The Storegga Slide.
I thought that was a dance move.
"Storegga" means "Great Edge."
Eight thousand years
ago, a 180-mile chunk
of the Norwegian continental shelf
collapsed in a sub-sea landslide.
The displacement pushed a wall
of water out in all directions.
Waves that would make a
modern tsunami look like a
ripple in a paddling pool.
They, they rushed through the
water at a hundred miles an hour,
dragging chunks of sea bed
bigger than a tanker with them,
totally unstoppable until
It hit land and wiped
out everything in its way.
Bad day to walk down the beach.
You're still thinking too small.
This area used to be dry.
It was called Doggerland.
The best forests, the
best hunting grounds
and the biggest settlements in Europe.
The Storegga Slide sunk all of it.
In Scotland, they've found deposits
from the waves 20 miles inland.
And that's after
Doggerland slowed it down.
If it happened now, it would take
out the whole coast of the North Sea.
"The fountains of the
Great Deep burst apart
and the floodgates
of heaven broke open."
Genesis.
Nearly every major religion on the
planet has its own great flood myth.
That's no coincidence.
These things happen.
The way we're going,
we're probably overdue.
Yeah, one big wave
would still be nothing
to the damage we've done to this place.
Might wake a few people up, though.
- You going all green on us?
- It's not a joke.
Murch. Just cool it.
So, do they know what caused this slide?
Ah, most theories say it
was, uh an earthquake.
Or a rapid breakdown of methane
deposits. Nobody knows for sure.
I've heard that before.
Aye, well, what you don't
know can still kill you.
I've taken a sample of the ash.
Will it tell us what's causing all this?
I mean, maybe not all. But I
can do a geological analysis
and find out what it is
and where it came from.
And if you had to guess?
I don't. That's the
great thing about science.
But I think we should keep
everyone inside for now,
just to be on the safe side.
Agreed. I'll tell Dunlin
to lock down the Module.
Did you know about the decommissioning?
I knew it was being discussed.
That's why I wanted to go back.
- To stop it?
- To discuss it.
The SBV's begun its approach
to the holding position.
But no more information than we have.
They've been cut off just the same.
No radar, nothing.
And there's another problem.
Let me have it.
We're using the lights
to talk to the SBV, right?
But when the sun comes up, with
this fog, we'll both be blind again.
We won't be able to signal and
we won't be able to guide them in.
If they got their approach
wrong, they could hit us.
So if we want to evac
It has to be tonight.
We've been over this, Magnus.
Abandoning the asset without
good reason is breach of contract.
You don't think this is a good reason?
I don't think that we could
convince the board it is
if it turns out to be a one day thing.
And I don't know that I want
to be on that boat if it's not.
They're running blind too.
If we wait another day,
we could lose power again.
Or they could drift.
Once we're out of sight, there's
no guarantee they'd find us again.
Keep them coming in.
You've got until they get here
to find a reason not
to get on that boat.
If I can get my crew home safe,
that's what I'm going to do.
Magnus, it's Baz!
He's gone.
- He didn't go to the rec room?
- No.
- The canteen?
- No, I already checked.
He must be still in the module.
We'll start searching.
Bring in others if you
need to but keep it quiet.
Right.
You know where this
stuff's coming from yet?
- Still the sky, as far as I know.
- Yeah, I got that bit.
I'm working on it.
Yeah, but you've not
been standin' in it.
Weird shit.
Chopper's still not coming.
No getting out this way.
Baz
are you alright?
I don't know.
My head's just full of noise.
Thoughts that aren't my own.
Trying to show me something.
I should have died from that fall.
It's not right.
I shouldn't be here.
When this clears and we get back,
- they'll know how to help you.
- It isn't gonna clear, Alwyn.
This ain't normal.
Nothing about it is.
And we all know it but
we don't want to see it.
Well, I see it now.
See what?
There's something out there.
Something in the light.
Baz, what is it?
What, is there danger coming?
Cat?
You there?
Argh!
Every day, in every way,
I get better and better.
Aye, right.
What the fuck?
Rrrrah!
Ah!
Ah, fuck.
Fucking ghost ship.
Leck?
I saved you some dinner.
You in there?
Leck?
Oh, I'll just leave it
You okay?
I really hope you're shaving your legs.
Bunk deck.
This is Control. What's your emergency?
It's Leck. I was in his room and
I think he's dead.
What are you hiding?
Magnus needs you now.
Heather found him like this?
Aye.
Not something she'll
forget anytime soon.
Dunlin's taking her back to her cabin.
I'd like to speak to her later.
He was out on the helideck, in the ash.
He was meant to stay in the Obs Hut.
Alwyn, anything new from the SBV?
Not since the last one. Why?
We've got another light out there.
Well, they're still in holding.
It's not coming from them.
It's down by the bridge.
Looks like a torch.
There shouldn't be anybody down there.
You want me to check it?
We'll do it together.
You come down the outside.
I'll go out to the Wet
Change. I'll meet you there.
Alright, deal.
Exact cause of death is unclear.
Could be shock from the blood loss,
but as to what caused it
What could make his
tattoos run like that?
Could it be chemicals?
Beats me, but you'd make a
fortune with it in teenage regret.
I found these in Baz's cabin.
Fillings?
Something's very wrong here, Magnus.
The inorganic material in
their bodies is being rejected.
It's like an immune response.
An extreme one.
And Leck was hardly
the picture of health.
His body might not have
been able to take it.
Could the ash have triggered it?
I've only been testing it
for its geological properties,
but it could have a
biological element as well.
Like a carrier.
Find out.
Dunlin, make sure we don't
have anyone else outside.
Alright, Scully, not in the eyes.
Thought I'd lost ya.
Find anything?
Nothing.
Whoever it was isn't here now.
What would they even be doing out here?
Ah, some people just
don't like being cooped up.
If you wanna get off badly enough
We should check the lifeboats.
Make sure no one's trying to row home.
At least not without us.
Watch that railing.
Oh, this place is falling apart.
You think they'll go ahead
with the decommissioning?
Well, they will or they won't.
It's not us that can stop it.
Hey, watch it!
Hey, gotta bit of bite, I see.
Suits you.
Where are you going?
Somebody has gotta get us out of here.
How long will this take?
This isn't exactly my field.
Roughly?
I'm gonna expose the
samples to different stimuli,
and see if I can provoke a reaction.
Still no sign of Baz.
Or Fulmer, or Alwyn.
- They're outside?
- They must be.
They're definitely not here.
So who's doing the signals?
Dun, you get up to Control.
Find out what's going on.
- We'll go after Fulmer and Alwyn.
- Gotcha.
There's nothing in there.
Bastard!
Should've worn your gloves.
Thank you, Alwyn.
Ever transferred to an
SBV in the basket before?
No. You?
Oh, aye.
Not something I'd care to repeat.
You think we should stay?
No. I'm just sick of choosing
between two shades of shite.
Aye, aye.
Someone's playing your song.
That's an SOS.
It'll bring the boat in.
What the fuck?
It's locked.
The ash has stopped.
Well, that's one less
thing to worry about.
Aye, hopefully. Now
how are we gonna get in?
You stay here, try and
grab somebody's attention.
I'll head back up the outside,
and see if it's still open.
I'll let you in on the
way back down, alright?
Help! Hey!
Hey! Help!
If the ash was responsible for
Leck, we've got to find the trigger
or this could get out of control.
- More than it already has?
- Much more.
- Help!
- I'm trying, I'm trying!
Some one's jammed it!
Let go of your side!
- Who's out there?
- It's Fulmer.
Help!
What the fuck is going
on? Who locked us out?
It was Hutton who jammed it.
He is going up to Control.
He's changed the message.
He's bringing the SBV all the way in.
- Full speed.
- Bastard.
If he brings it in that fast in
this weather they're gonna hit us.
I should've locked him in a
lifeboat and pushed it off the side.
- Your hand.
- It's fine. It's just a cut.
Did you see the ash has stopped?
- What? Completely?
- Yeah.
Come on, we'd better get up there.
I should've put you in restraints.
You won't be happy until
you've got us all killed.
Fuck off! I'm the only one
trying to get us out of here!
Get off!
- Gimme the fuckin' key!
- Step back!
Hutton. The key.
You see, you always wanna
follow procedure, huh?
You wanna wait for
an order on the radio?
Well, it ain't comin'!
That boat is the only way out of here,
and we should be on it already.
You're done, Hutton!
NRB. Finished.
We're all finished mate.
Wake up!
- Wright.
- Yeah.
- Rodriguez.
- Aye.
- Hernandez.
- Yep.
- Ayodeji.
- Yeah!
- Shaw.
- Here.
- Garrow.
- Yeah.
There's no way I can crane
everyone down in this. It's crazy.
You said yourself, even
if we get out of here,
the company are gonna cut us loose,
- so what are we hanging around for.
- This is not the way.
- You never fucking learn.
- You never fucking think.
Give me the key. Now.
It's too late.
You can stay if you want.
Ah, now it's a party.
- The fuck's your problem?
- What's happenin', boss?
- Shut that thing up.
- Gladly.
Ah, he's just a headset,
a rich girl's distraction.
What?
- Well, now I'm gonna have
- Calm, all of you. Calm.
- He's gotta be dealt with, Magnus!
- And he will!
But right now, you can either be
another problem or you can help.
That's the choice.
Get downstairs and check your rosters.
I want everyone accounted for. Now.
You see, you and me, we
ain't finished with this.
- You've been finished for years.
- Come on.
Calling off the evac. We don't
want any more people out there.
I'll do it. You finish the tests.
I need eyes on the SBV to verify the
change of course I'm sending them.
Alwyn, he is still up in Obs?
Shit, he's still outside.
This is OIM to all crew.
Anyone outside, return
to the Module immediately.
Repeat, return to the Module.
Baz, is that you?
Repeat, return to the Module. OIM out.
Something in the light.
What the hell are they
playing at up there?
I've sent it. They should
start correcting course.
If they're watching. Dunlin, any luck?
I can't see him.
It's the fucking fog.
Wait. There.
That's down at the Spider Deck.
If the SBV doesn't change course
he'll be taken by the wash.
This is OIM to all crew:
Return to the Accommodation
Module. Alwyn, that means you too.
He won't hear it down
there. Not over the waves.
I'm going after him.
If he ends up in the water
without a survival suit on,
he won't last three minutes.
Wait, I'm gonna need more than
one pair of hands for this.
If we're going to guide them
in without 'em hitting us.
Look, a crew needs its captain. I'll go.
Okay. Take a suit and bring them back.
We're not losing anyone else tonight.
We'll be right behind you.
Baz, you there?
Come on, man. You don't
wanna to be out here.
Baz?
It's Alwyn.
Look, man, I I know you're scared.
But we can help.
Come back up with me.
I can't go back.
I need to see it.
See what?
What is that?
You know, don't you?
It's life.
From the water. That's how it starts.
Come on. The ship's coming in.
- We can't stay down here.
- I can't go back.
Look, if something
saved you from that fall,
it didn't do it so you
could die here instead!
You're comin' with me!
- Whatever it is, we can get it out of you.
- No!
I'm telling you, it's trying to warn us!
The wave is coming!
A wave's gonna be coming right
now if we don't move. Now come on!
I can't let you.
What's happenin'?
They're still coming, and
they haven't slowed down.
Is it gonna pass?
It's going to be close.
Baz let me go.
This is OIM. All crew
brace for collision.
Repeat. Brace for collision.
Get back!
Baz!
Baz!
Okay, Baz, stay there.
I can help.
It's passin'!
The Spider Deck's gonna get swamped.
Try and restore contact.
- Where are you going?
- Spider Deck.
Tell Cat to get there too.
Baz!
I think we just got dumped
by our Stand-By Vessel.
We're stuck here.
Are you alright? Are you alright?
I'm fine.
Give me a hand.
Oh, Jesus.
Come on.
Come on, man.
Come on, Alwyn. Come on, Alwyn.
It was Baz.
I saw it.
I'm not losin' him.
Alright.
Come on. Come on!
Okay, stop, Magnus. Stop, Magnus.
We're too late. He's
gone. He's gone. He's gone.
Come on, mate. Give her some room.
Has he been in the water?
They were fighting, and he just
put his hand on Alwyn's chest,
and he just went down.
Oh, aye.
What is it?
He drowned.
He never finished.
Dunlin, you did all you could.
Yeah.
It still wasn't good enough.
Two in one night. Fuck it!
He never should have been down there.
I'm sorry.
What about the SBV?
They're abandoning us.
Going to the Charlie.
Fulmer's trying to get in
contact but they're moving away,
I don't think they're looking back.
It's like we're a leper colony.
I need to show you something.
What am I looking at?
I introduced particles of the ash
to a sample of my blood, but
it's not ash.
Not completely, at least.
- What do you mean?
- These are living organisms.
The ash is just the
carrier, as Cat said.
- So it's a parasite?
- Something like that.
I mean, from what I can
tell from these samples,
the ash is partly made up of its spores.
They attach themselves
to organic substances,
then repair damage and
drive out any impurities.
Like Baz's fillings. Why?
Most likely, because
they want a healthy host.
If it isn't healthy, they get rejected.
Magnus, if this is a parasite, we
need to move fast and contain it.
Its driving impulse is to spread
and there's only one thing on here
- that it can spread through.
- Yeah. Us. I get it.
How long would it
take to infect someone?
It would vary depending
on the level of exposure.
Touching the ash wouldn't be enough,
but if you were exposed for a long time,
breathing it in. If you
had a cut or an injury
those are the people we need to watch.