Vigil has reached its conclusion after six episodes with a sadly underwhelming finale.
DCI Silva has discovered who the Russian mole on HMS Vigil is. Unfortunately, he got to her first and locked her in a torpedo tube. The situation for HMS Vigil is dire with it flooding with water and Russian vessels in the area. On land, DS Longacre races to intercept Ben Oakley before he reaches the Chinese consulate in Edinburgh.
The previous episode of Vigil did set up an exciting conclusion because of its two cliff-hangers. Silva was locked in a torpedo tube flooding with water and Longacre and the police needed to stop Oakley from seeking diplomatic immunity. The pieces were there and for 40 minutes the episode does attempt to keep a sense of tension. The submarine needed to surface but if they did it would end up in the hands of the Russians. Even worse a desperate maniac was running around with a knife. However, it was one man against a whole sub, he didn’t have a game plan.
The conclusion for the series was disappointing. Silva was unintentionally saved by two sailors who tell Doward to stop filling the torpedo tube, so it was just a matter of time before Silva was rescued. Longacre’s chase of Oakley was particularly lacklustre. Police officers were placed in front of Chinese consulate, and he made no attempt to run. The police had all the evidence against him, so the interview was quick.
Where Vigil faulters was with its resolution. There was no twist or big reveal which was unexpected considering World Productions’ other work, i.e. Line of Duty and Bodyguard. There was always a bigger scheme in the works. In Vigil Oakley said he only worked with the Russians because they want to disarm their nuclear weapons but need the British to disarm first. If Oakley honestly believed that then he would have been a massive idiot. Anyone with a basic knowledge of international affairs would know that Russia has no intentions of getting rid of their nuclear weapons. The series didn’t even give a reason for why Doward worked with the Russians: not even anything basic like being paid or blackmailed.
This poor resolution resulted in making reveals in the previous episodes seem redundant. The series made it seem like the Americans were going to play an important part in the story because they were tracking HMS Vigil and sunk the trawler. This ended up being pointless. The same with the reveal of the crew’s issues in Florida, the information about there being a nuclear incident in Florida, and Burke having compromising material on the crew members. Some of these were just red herrings, but others set up interesting story ideas that never got to flourish.
The ending of the series was more like The Bourne Identity and the Millennium series. The aim was to show events not being clear cut and have showed how some organisations would try to twist events in their favour.
After enjoying most of the series, Vigil does sadly fall on the last hurdle because it was an anti-climactic conclusion and left so many plotlines unsolved.
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