What does “Wreck” deal with? A ship carrying billionaires who are provided with the special service of hunting their chosen staff members for sport. “Wreck” is a wreck of an underwhelming pseudo-horror comedy. There is no comedy, and the horror takes the form of nothing more than a meager thriller with a predictable plot. Although starting with a sort of murder and moving forward at a proper pace as Jamie inches closer to the answer behind his sister’s mysterious death onboard the Sacramentum, there is a sudden change in the very tone of the show, and it becomes irritatingly ludicrous. This is a disappointment. The series gets coy about the things that make for a horror comedy, e.g., explicit gore. Overall, it seems confused as to where it belongs and thus gets lost in itself. As for the characters, here’s all that you need to know:
Spoilers Ahead
Jamie
The death of Jamie’s elder sister Pippa three months ago on the cruise ship Sacramentum is what brings him here. He wants to find the truth behind her death because he believes that, unlike what’s been reported, Pippa did kill herself. Jamie’s mother passed away when he was 10, and he has since been brought up by Pippa. Their father wasn’t there for them, so all they had was each other. What added to Jamie’s urge to board the ship is guilt because he is the one who persuaded Pippa to apply for the entertainment group (performers) of the Sacramentum. Had he not done that, Pippa would’ve been alive.
After Jamie boards The Sacramento as a member of the staff, he finds out that there are drug dealers onboard. The officers of the ship sell drugs to the guests, while the Filipinos, operating from the engine room, sell to the crew. When Jamie finds out from third officer Sam that Pippa had started to lose her mind after Sam told her that he was married (Sam had proposed to Pippa earlier), he finds it difficult to digest [Episode 4]. He was sure Pippa wasn’t someone who would take her own life, no matter what happened. It is only later [at the end of Episode 4] that Jamie finds out that Sam had a hand in Pippa’s death, as well as coming across a list of names he found on a piece of paper he recovered from the room where Pippa stayed. He also finds a map there. This is the map of the hidden passageway that the officers used to traverse the ship without the passengers finding out. Pippa was chased by Sam before she jumped ship.
When Sam is stabbed to death by cruise director Henry Allen in front of Jamie, who is held by Beaker, for a brief moment, the expression on Jamie’s face isn’t that of fright but of rage. We do not know if he feels this way or if that’s just something that we perceive, but it is definitely what we feel and perhaps want Jamie to feel as well. Sam was responsible for not only Pippa’s death but also for the deaths of Danny, Jerome, and many others (names on Pippa’s list). To see him die in that manner and that too at the hands of his own people seems to serve him right. But Sam’s death is futile, and Jamie knows it.
In the last episode, Jamie and Olly, after escaping from Beaker and another crew member, decide to fight the officers and the first-class passengers who had been killing staff members for sport. Realizing that they needed help, Jamie spoke to all the young staff members to convince them to join the fight. Here, the speech Jamie gives is, be it due to the way things have turned out, a vague explanation, or forceful acting, absolutely devoid of motivation. He doesn’t show any proof of what he is saying and wants everyone to literally take up arms against former military officers. Be that as it may, his words do their job, and all of them join him. Olly also brings in the Filipinos. Ultimately, the staff and the first-class passengers surrender.
Throughout the series, Jamie’s character isn’t really explored as much as the ship is. We know pretty much nothing about him, and all that we do know, we can deduce based on his behavior and actions. So, Jamie is a nice guy and doesn’t want to see people get hurt. Jamie’s reaction to Sam’s death, although it did bring out a bit of rage that was inside him, does show that he didn’t want Sam to die. He tried to reason with Karen (the staff captain) and Henry Allen, asking them to stop whatever they had been doing. At the end of the series, he comes out clean, although we would have loved to see him wielding a chainsaw, a bloodied knife, or at least drenched in blood. This is what would have added to his arc as the protagonist of a horror comedy. But it doesn’t. Jamie remains the nice guy, and we have to make do with what he brings to the table, which is close to nothing.
Vivian
Without Vivian, Jamie wouldn’t have accomplished anything on the Sacramentum. She offers to help him find out more about Danny [Episode 1], and ever since, she has been by his side. The series attempts to address her loneliness resulting from her parents’ refusal to allow her to see the world the way she wanted. So she escaped and came on board the Sacramentum. There is a conversation between her and Nile, the stepbrother of Lily [Vivian’s love interest], in which Nile tells her that she is desperate to be wanted. From what she has been through, it does seem that she falls for Lily at first sight, not just because she is attracted to her but also because Lily reciprocates. Vivian’s desperation to be wanted—something that her parents never really paid heed to—is taken care of by Lily. More importantly, it is probably the absence of affection in Vivian’s life that has made her the rough-and-tough girl that she is. It is this rough-and-tough nature that prevents her from reacting emotionally and allows her to think practically. She is the one who suggests Jamie and the others gather proof [pictures of Jerome’s body] so that they can pin the crimes on the officers. Without her, Jamie wouldn’t have found out the truth behind the Velorum cruise line. In episode 6, to have Lily (she pretended to be in love with Vivian, but all that she wanted was to kill her for sport) die at the hands of Vivian, after the buildup where it seemed as if Lily really loved her [Lilian started to untie her], and that Vivian had finally found the love of her life, was an effective choice on behalf of the makers. This fulfills the nature of the series, even if only in part.
Karen
The name “Karen” itself is enough to explain what kind of character she is. Karen is the staff captain and ensures that the passengers are taken care of in every way, including catching the “chosen” staff members. She is one of those harsh and rude captains who want to have everything in order. Her Scottish accent adds to her annoying nature. Harriet Webb has done a great job with the character. There are two instances where we see through her and realize that she may not be the person she seems to be. In Episode 6, we see her almost breaking and crying when Henry stabs and kills Sam. Then, we see Karen let Jamie go and save Vivian from Lily. So there is a possibility that whatever she was doing and how she was behaving was due to her past as a soldier. She is prone to taking orders and following them no matter what. This doesn’t mean that she is dead from the inside. We do not know what happens to her at the end, but we can assume that she either jumped ship and escaped or just waited to be arrested by the cops that Jamie and Vivian had called. Throughout the show, it is only Karen who proves worthy of being a character in a horror comedy, but no one character can pull off a horror comedy, so the character is wasted.
Pippa
At the very end of Episode 6, we see Pippa (Jamie’s elder sister) observing the Sacramentum from a distance on a small boat. So she survived the jump and probably decided to uncover the secrets of the Sacramentum, something that her brother did as well while searching for her. Meanwhile, Velorum continues to carry out its hunting services for its top-tier employees on other cruise ships across the world. This is why Jamie and Vivian decide to bring an end to Velorum, something that Pippa, too, must intend to do. She surely knows about the company and has been laying out her own plans to bring down the Velorum Empire. Season 2, if it happens, will bring Jamie and Vivian face-to-face with Pippa, and we will see them fight the forces of Velorum together.
