Vigil Episode Four Review

The fourth episode of Vigil brings in a new suspect and theory behind the death of Craig Burke and who’s behind the issues HMS Vigil has been suffering.

DS Longacre’s investigation takes her to look at an anti-Trident protest in Glasgow. It leads her to a suspect she believes to be an MI5 agent that had followed Jade and was one of the men who attacked her in Episode Two. On HMS Vigil DCI Silva is suffering from withdrawal symbols from her anti-depressants and reminisces about her relationship with Longacre. She is also having to deal with people on the sub that want to lock her away.

Episode Four introduces the Russians and their interests in HMS Vigil. This connection comes about when Longacre finds out a Russian spy was following Jade at the peace protest. It raises the question, was Burke or someone else on the sub a Russian agent, and was Jade unwittingly a part of a Russian spying network? It would be in Russia’s interests to have British nuclear secrets, but as the MI5 officer states, the Russians would encourage a whistleblower. If the whistleblower went to the press the Russians would still get the information and the British government would have been embarrassed.

In the previous episode, it was revealed that the Americans had sunk the trawler and had been monitoring HMS Vigil. Rear Admiral Shaw did question a counterpart in the US Navy and she stonewalled him because it was ‘classified.’ The police, the Navy, and MI5 are wondering what the Americans know about the double agent. This part of the story feels similar to Spooks because that show liked to show the Americans and CIA to be distrustful and willing to screw over their allies.

Due to this new information the British Government has to make an impossible decision: do they keep HMS Vigil at sea if there’s a Russian spy on it, or bring it back to port and lose Britain’s nuclear deterrent? The added complication was the upcoming vote to renew Trident.

On the sub there is added evidence that there is someone on the sub with nefarious intentions. A lock to some of the consoles that could affect the rector had been tampered with. A theory I saw online was the Russians or peace activists want to cause a nuclear incident which would result in public opinion turning against nuclear weapons. It’s the same villain plot in Octopussy. There is evidence for this theory. One of the engineers said there was an incident in Florida that could have led to another Fukushima. In Burke’s video he said a nuclear sub wasn’t as safe as the public was led to believe.

All this spy and military skulduggery reminded me of the work of Tom Clancy. I already made this point in my review of the first two episodes and the show is continuing this route. Clancy’s novel The Hunt For Red October and the subsequent film adaptation focus on a Soviet submarine captain planning to defect to America with the USSR’s advance new sub. There were similarities with Vigil – both The Hunt for Red October and Vigil had characters being murdered on their respective subs, a nuclear incident, and even had spies on the subs. Another similarity to Clancy’s work involved a peace activist who became a Soviet informer.

On of the sub, Silva had to continue dealing with the hostilities from the crew. During the opening sequence, the sub has a missile launch exercise Silva gets pushed into a pipe during the chaos. Silva’s allies on the sub, Glover, and Docherty have turned against her because she knows about their affair. They seek to isolate her and get Newsome on their side. Fortunately, she gets an unexpected ally during her confinement.

Silva’s investigation does lead to a new suspect, the sub’s cook. Silva discovers information about the cook’s son, which doesn’t make sense. It’s implied in the episode that the cook is either being blackmailed or someone has done her a favour and she has to reciprocate.

Vigil has not painted the Royal Navy in a good light. The crew of HMS Vigil has been shown to be ill-disciplined and, in this episode, there were shown to be incompetent. They somehow just missed a tanker and damaged their communication cable. I expect that the infiltrator could sabotage the cable, but it’s hard to believe a submarine with a highly trained crew could nearly hit another ship without some warning.

The final aspect of the episode was the relationship between Silva and Longacre. At the end of Episode Three Silva and Longacre were in bed together and were acting couplie. Through flashbacks, the episode showed how the relationship evolved. It started with Longacre trying to get help from Silva for her Inspector’s Exam, turns to flirting and drinking, and becomes a romance with them kissing each other. Silva says she isn’t gay but embraces a relationship. Silva was either bisexual or the relationship was just a reaction to her grief, depression, and loneliness and Longacre was the first person she let into her life after the car accident.

Vigil’s story does seem to be starting to creak, because of all the plot development. The story on sub has slowed down a lot. Luckily, Longacre’s story does keep Vigil going and Rose Leslie shows off her ability as an actress.