Vigil: The eight big unanswered questions as nuke sub drama speeds towards finale

VIGIL heroine DCI Amy Silva had a nasty sinking feeling at the end of the submarine thriller’s penultimate episode.

After being knocked out by a Russian agent on the vessel, she regained consciousness inside a torpedo tube which was slowly filling with water.

And while the cop, played by Suranne Jones, was last week seen fighting for her life, Britain found itself on the brink of war.

With Ruskie ships circling above, the sub was scuppered by a nerve agent explosion which threatened to kill the entire crew.

It’s the mother of all cliffhangers – and on the eve of the series finale, TV Editor Rod Mcphee poses the eight questions we must have answered.

 The final episode of Vigil airs on BBC1 tomorrow at 9pm.

Will DCI Silva make it out alive?

WHILE most shows wouldn’t dream of killing off their central character, Vigil comes from the team behind Bodyguard and Line Of Duty.

Neither show has been afraid to bump off key figures if that is the best way of keeping audiences on the edge of their seats.

So saving DCI Silva is by no means a given, especially as no one on board HMS Vigil seems to have clocked she is trapped alone in a water-filled torpedo tube.

And the one man who knew exactly where she was intending to go was CPO Elliot Glover (Shaun Evans), who’s crippled in another part of the ship as he suffers from nerve agent poisoning.

Perhaps it will be her former nemesis, disgraced Commander Mark Prentice (Adam James), right, who rescues her and redeems himself in the process.

What's going on with her ex-lover?

CONFUSION reigned last week as DS Kirsten Longacre (Rose Leslie) visited Poppy, the young step-daughter of DCI Silva, to give her a present on her birthday.

It was only then that viewers discovered the two women had actually split up, despite the fact that their complicated love affair has been shown in flashback throughout the series.

Silva had met Longacre as they started working together in the police force after Silva’s boyfriend drowned when the car they were in careered off the road.

Throughout the show we assumed she and Longacre were together and pining for each other – one beneath the waves, the other ashore.

So what is the nature of their relationship now, and what bearing does it have on the plot?

It certainly doesn’t looks like tenacious Longacre is suddenly about to quit the case or give up on DCI Silva.

What is the traitor's motivation?

HE has been hovering in the background of the show from the start without attracting any suspicion.

But last week Lt Matthew Doward (Lorne MacFadyen) finally revealed himself as the plant put on board HMS Vigil, by the Russians presumably.

He is likely to have been the assassin who bumped off CPO Craig Burke (Martin Compston) and was surely behind the death of chef Jackie Hamilton (Anita Vettesse) as he probably gave her the nerve agent device to activate.

Eagle-eyed viewers will also recall it was his apparent “sloppy work” which saw Vigil narrowly avoid ploughing into a ship.

But since he has a British accent – Scottish, to be more precise – it isn’t immediately apparent why he would betray his country and why he is so ruthless when it comes to bumping off anyone who gets in his way.

Who's the real mastermind?

DOWARD is likely to be a ­puppet, but there are plenty of potential puppetmasters in the show.

It could be HMS Vigil’s own captain, ­Commander Neil Newsome (Paterson Joseph), who has already been revealed to have made some monumental mistakes in his past.

He was suspiciously described as “a man of many, many failings” by his deputy, ­Commander Prentice, but he has also shown himself to be dodgy. So could he also be the mastermind in question?

Alternatively, there is Rear Admiral Shaw (Stephen ­Dillane), centre, a figure with immense power embedded within the Navy back on dry land who seems to be calling all the shots.

Or maybe it’s a less obvious figure like Shaw’s sidekick Lt Cdr Erin Branning ­(Lolita Chakrabarti), near right, who was far from helpful when the police ­investigation led ­officers to the Naval base.

Is coxswain a dead man walking?

WE last saw CPO Glover wearing a protective suit as he ventured into the decks where the nerve agent had been ­dispersed.

But while DCI Silva ­emerged unscathed from the contamination, Glover’s suit was accidentally torn and he was infected with the deadly toxin.

After he got out of the contaminated area, he collapsed from the effects of the agent.

Can his illicit lover, medic Lt ­Tiffany Docherty, save him? And if he doesn’t die, might he be the one who comes to the rescue of DCI Silva in her hour of need?

Glover – Vigil’s coxswain – seemed shady in previous episodes, particularly as the married dad was hiding his affair with Docherty.

He also seemed to be at the heart of so many plot strands – but now he just appears fishy. Still, if he does die now, he will be a hero – but what secrets does he know that he could be taking to his watery grave?

Will they catch the detector?

RUSSIAN stooge Ben Oakley, who was embedded in the peace camp, seems to be the murderer of Burke’s girlfriend Jade.

In a cruel twist of fate, Oakley (Cal ­MacAninch) tricked her MSP father into helping him get diplomatic immunity in exchange for images showing there was a Russian agent on board HMS Vigil.

When DS Longacre arrived at his offices, he looked ­devastated at the news – but she looked almost as ­distraught ­realising the killer was getting away with murder.

As Oakley got to the steps of the Chinese Embassy he also seemed to be getting away with a batch of secrets which could compromise Britain in the ongoing Cold War.

Can Longacre and her ­colleague DS ­Porter (Reuben Joseph) catch him before it’s too late?

If they do, he could hold the key to solving multiple mysteries.

What are the Ruskies up to?

WITH HMS Vigil apparently scuppered, Russian ships already seem to be circling the vessel which ­carries part of Britain’s nuclear deterrent.

Is their aim to destroy this vital link in our defences? Or is it to somehow highlight to the world just how feeble they are?

After all, we have already learned that the ageing British subs are creaking at the seams and no longer fit for purpose.

Perhaps as part of the Cold War, they just need to make a great Western power appear weak and ready to topple.

Of course, it might not be Vigil the Russian – abetted by Red agent Peter Ingles (Sam ­Redford), right – are seeking.

We’ve already learned that an American sub has been shadowing the vessel, so that might be their real target.

And the exact purpose of the US following Vigil is an even bigger mystery that is likely key to how ­hostilities play out in the finale.

What will a second series look like?

THE BBC has already asked Vigil’s creator, World Productions, to look into making a second series of the thriller.

And with ratings that grew and grew throughout the series, making it the Beeb’s most-watched new drama of 2021, there is every reason for telly executives to commission Vigil II.

Actor Anjli Mohindra, who plays Lt Docherty, has said there is “stuff on the ­horizon” for the drama, and writer Tom Edge has hinted that another instalment is possible.

Even so, it probably wouldn’t be on a sub. Could it be on a ship, a plane or some other mode of transport next time?

Tom said: “Some of the ­characters that we have developed as we’ve made it, they feel like characters we’d love to burrow into.

“So if there’s a will to do it from everyone else, I would be up for it.”

Vigil fans certainly would be.