Environment and ecology-based narratives that challenge humanity’s egocentric perspective have always been my favorite kind of stories, which is why the basic premise of Amazon Prime’s thriller series, The Rig, grabbed my attention with ease. The first season of the series presented the territorial ancient bio-organism, the Ancestor, which seeks to punish and oppose humanity’s attempts at rampant exploitation—it was presented as nature’s antidote for the plague that was humanity. However, in the second season, that assumption was altered as the Ancestor turned out to be nature’s vitalizing power—and this revelation makes way for the series to take a new direction in the future. Although a third season has not been greenlit yet, the Ancestor’s raison d’etre and still-unknown origin can prove to be strong plot points for the series’ continuation.Â
Spoilers Ahead
The Ancestor As A Life-Sustaining Entity
From the initial interactions the Ancestor had with the crew of Kinloch Bravo, it appeared to be a destructive, aggressive force, determined to wipe out humanity to protect nature. Spreading through fog and ash via spores, the Ancestor infected human hosts and bonded with them and, to some extent, was able to influence the thoughts of its hosts. The Ancestor provided its hosts with exceptional regenerative abilities, as seen on a number of occasions, and in the second season it even brought Rose back from the dead. Just like how white blood cells attack any foreign organism to protect the body, the Ancestor acted like a vital part of nature’s immune system, which tried to get rid of human anomalies, and this is seen in how Ancestor-infected hosts rejected any artificial foreign bodies like implants, tattoos, etc. However, eventually it was revealed that the entity only ever attacked humans in self-defense, and mostly to stop them from triggering situations that could lead to global catastrophe and aggravate extinction events.
In the second season, Rose and co. become aware of the Ancestor’s true purpose from Askel’s research and learn that, contrary to their initial assumption of the bio-organism having caused the previous extinction events throughout the course of prehistory, it actually acted as a rejuvenating force to bring life to a barren earth. This explanation syncs well with the functions of the Ancestor, as it was also seen stimulating plant growth inside the Kinloch Bravo after taking over the rig. The Ancestor itself is spread across the seabed of the entire planet, as revealed in the final moments of the second season of The Rig, when it displays its interconnected nodes—and the entire world takes notice.
Ancestor Will Be Targeted by Many in Third Season
So far in the course of the first two seasons, it was mostly the Kinloch Bravo crew trying to protect the Ancestor from the dastardly plans of Pictor Energy, the company that triggered the mega tsunami in the North Sea by completely destroying the existing ecosystem in their efforts to exploit natural resources. Pictor wanted to eliminate the Ancestor once and for all by continuously trying to poison it, to no avail, and even though the company continues to exist at the end of the second season, it has faced heavy sanctions after getting exposed on the world stage. Whether or not Pictor will return in the continuation of the series remains in question, but the Ancestor has already made a target out of itself, as now different countries and conglomerates have set their sights on the bio-organism. Humanity’s greed has time and again proven to be the greatest cause of our ruin, and after learning that a natural, primeval force exists to put a stop to our overexploitation, that greed might lead different factions to join hands to eradicate the Ancestor. Alternatively, if the world becomes aware of the Ancestor’s life-saving abilities, it might result in humanity making an effort to exploit the organism—to profit from its unique powers by making life-saving drugs and whatnot.
Will the Kinloch Bravo Crew Be Able To Save the Ancestor?
I am not saying that Askel and the crew of Kinloch Bravo, who faced the Ancestor time and again and formed a sympathetic, understanding outlook towards it, are imbued with a higher purpose. But the truth remains that they are the only people who have come into contact with the entity and have been able to establish communication with it. Especially Rose, who has willingly accepted the organism into her system, shares a symbiotic connection with it, as shown in the final moments of the second season, as she was prepared to sacrifice her life to save the Ancestor. If the third season highlights the entity being targeted by global forces, the crew led by Rose, Fulmer, and Magnus will surely form a resistance of sorts to protect the ancient organism, acting as sort of eco-warriors. Given the way the Ancestor imbues its hosts with unique abilities, the upcoming season might amp up the supernatural elements by introducing enhanced hosts.
The Rig might lack narrative flair or the budget it needed to pull off the grand scope of the series, but I think there should be no arguments regarding how topical and relevant the narrative is in the present day, when world governments and seedy conglomerates are shamelessly destroying ecosystems and the privileged are turning a blind eye to it. Make no mistake: beyond artistic sensibility and everything else, stories like The Rig, which act as a warning against never-ending human follies, need to be told, and solely because of that I want the series to continue in the future.
