In ‘The Rig’, David Coake surprises the crew of Kinloch Bravo when he shows up in a lifeboat alive, but instead of providing information on their situation, he starts working on his own secret mission.
Kinloch Bravo lost Fulmer to the bacteria, and Captain Magnus broke down trying to figure out what is right for his crew. With Magnus sent to take some rest, Rose picks up the leadership role for the time being.
A new sign of hope came in the form of searchlights that started showing up in front of the rig. The crew starts believing that their message got through and that a rescue team is coming to save them.
Turns out, it’s not a ship; it’s a lifeboat that has made its way to Bravo from Charlie. David Coake from Pictor’s Research & Development Department comes out and introduces himself.
The surviving members of Kinloch Charlie follow Coake out, who immediately asks for the control room.
Rose tries her best to have him spill what he is doing here and what went down at Charlie, but that backfires for her when he reveals that she is leading the decommissioning task force.
With that, Dunlin and the rest of the crew turn their backs on their leader.
Coake’s botched plan
When Rose finally figures out that this bacteria is trying to start another mass extinction event, Coake quickly asks for a team to kill it right away.
Though Magnus doesn’t allow him to do that, Dunlin, Hutton, and Murch join Coake, looking for a change in leadership.
Coake convinces them to execute a plan involving his new equipment installed on the rig. This plan will help them rescue Baz, Garrow, and Fulmer and, at the same time, get rid of the bacteria in the production module.
The group trusts Coake, who promises them that everyone will get out safe and sound.
Coake asked them to use the shipment of compressed CO2 gas that is on board and feed it into the fire suppression system.
The gas turned out to be something else altogether. It started killing not only the bacteria but also the people inside the production module.
Coake shuts the doors once the gas starts doing its thing. Dunlin and Garrow end up dying inside the production module. The bacteria keep Baz and Fulmer alive. Rose makes it in time to save Fulmer. She brings him out of the production module.
Rose, Magnus, and Fulmer then realize that they really need to figure out whose side Coake really is on.
Coake’s motives
Heather, Easter, and Harish, the surviving crew member of Charlie, investigate who Coake really is. Harish shared how Coake’s new equipment turned things around for Charlie.
The equipment was never meant for drawing up oil from the well. It was for sending something down.
Heather searched for Coake’s name on Kinloch Charlie’s roster. She failed to find anyone going by that name. Harish recognized the name of a person he doesn’t know on the roster and asked Heather to see who that is.
This name carried a message from Pictor. The message confirmed the existence of the bacteria and requested an update on Project Cirein.
Magnus interrogates Harish and learns how Coake caused an explosion at Charlie and made the crew stay and wipe out everything related to the experiment they just did.
Coake even left people behind the moment he got on the lifeboat, though there were 20 more seats empty.
Magnus then invited Coake into his office. For the very first time, Coake opened up and revealed that Pictor knew about this organism. It has opened up all the way across the North Sea.
The organism converts the oil back into organic matter. Magnus assumes that the Pictor is trying to kill it to secure their business and their money, but Coake corrects him and calls this a way to survive.
Does Coake survive the tsunami?
Toward the end, the group opts to talk and collaborate with the organism, the Ancestor, rather than going with Coake’s plan to kill it. The group ultimately fails to convince it. A tsunami triggered by the same bacteria makes its way to the rig.
Coake tells Harish about two helicopters that are coming for him. He blackmails Harish to do his bidding with the fact that he was also not planning to save his fellow crewmates from Kinloch Charlie when the explosion began.
Harish turns on Coake and alerts everyone on the rig. Hutton makes sure that Coake doesn’t escape the rig alone.
While the first helicopter takes all the members of Kinloch Bravo away, the second comes to rescue Hutton, Heather, Cat, Easter, Harish, Magnus, Rose, Fulmer, and Coake.
After destroying the rigs, the tsunami heads toward the cities. Coake then reveals that they are no longer going back home; they are heading somewhere else altogether.
He reminds them that they should’ve listened to him if they really wanted to go back home to their loved ones.
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