The North Water Episode 3 left Patrick Sumner and the whaler crew lost in the frosted Arctic in the middle of nowhere. The team voyaged towards Pond’s Bay in the hope of finding Hastings (ship) but quickly figured that the ship was wrecked in the storm. The North Water Episode 4 commenced with Patrick, Cavendish, Otto, Drax, and others surviving in the wild Arctic searching for a silver lining.
After the death of Captain Brownlee, the remaining men got delusional, and the spine-chilling weather crushed their arrogant demeanor. They started following the orders of the sanest man among them, Surgeon Patrick Sumner and did as he instructed. However, the men had little hope left and hence made no effort to survive the wilderness. Contrary, Patrick felt much stronger after he recovered from his withdrawal and the tyranny of his addiction. For him, it was a new life altogether. Only this new life also disclosed his demonic traits in the end.
As their ration was rapidly depleting, heaven sent two Inuit Eskimos for their aid. The Inuktitut-speaking wanderers traded a dead seal with the whaler crew. Patrick and Cavendish finally had a taste for luxury. Patrick suggested that they deal their guns with the Eskimos to survive the winter in return for hunted seals. The parties agreed, but Henry Drax had another sinister plan going at the back of his head.
Drax befriended the Eskimos and lured Cavendish into his nefarious schemes. He requested Cavendish to get his chains off to leave with the Eskimos the following day. In return for the kind gesture, Cavendish could keep his share of insurance money from Baxter for drowning the whaler ship. A no less sinister Cavendish implied his willingness to leave with Eskimos, and Drax had no other option but to comply. However, the following day, Drax savagely killed the Eskimos and Cavendish. He left the crew with the boat and a gun.
After Cavendish’s murder, the crew of 4 men got plagued with fear, doubt, and paranoia. Ship’s carpenter, Samuel Mckendrick, left the tent with another man. Otto and Patrick were now on their own with leftover ration and a long winter ahead.
‘The North Water’ Episode 4 ‘The Devils of the Earth’ Ending Explained
The North Water Episode 4 is titled The Devils of the Earth. After Drax’s betrayal and his audacity to kill his close friend, Cavendish, the crew accepted that Henry Drax was an incarnation of the devil on Earth. However, Otto, the wise man among the lot, denied such assumptions and suggested, “Drax’s a tormenting spirit, but he’s not the Devil.”
The reason for Otto’s justification to defend Drax was soon hinted in the episode when Patrick went out in the icy oblivion to hunt a bear. His act of slaughtering the bear, digging out its organs, and drinking its blood to warm himself all hinted to his savage resemblance with Drax. The wilderness and will to survive brought about brutality in Patrick. Otto understood the fact, and hence it could be concluded that if Drax was a devil, then Patrick was no less. It’s just Drax accepted his reality and flaunted it while Patrick was morally conscious of keeping his savageness in check.
In Episode 3, Otto had a weird dream that communicated that all the men would die in the Arctic, except Patrick. He would survive but later would be eaten by a bear. Patrick hunted the bear, sliced its belly, and took shelter inside the creature’s warm body to protect himself against the cold storm. In a symbolic sense, Patrick did get eaten by the bear, however, just not in the way, he imagined.
In the end, Partick was saved by a strange man. He took Patrick to his cabin room amid the icy arctic. The closing scene illustrated a white-beared Christian priest and an Eskimo standing beside him. Probably the priest might be an English man who got settled in the cold regions. If the strange man turned out to be a friendly ally, Patrick would live to see the future, as he had already outlived Otto’s death prophecy. For Otto, he was left behind and would have probably died.
What to Expect in ‘The North Water’ Episode 5 ‘To Live Is to Suffer’
Episode 5: ‘To Live Is to Suffer, the last episode of ‘The North Water’ can weave drama around Patrick and his ultimate adversary Drax.
The title underlines that If Partick survives the blow, he probably has to live with deeds like savagely killing a creature or maybe something eviler. Patrick has been a morally conscious man who overthinks his past actions. The incidents of the Indian Rebellion haunted him for years, and it is hard to speculate how many scars the happenings of the Arctic will leave on his morality. The upcoming turn of events will translate better.
The North Water is a 2021 Period Drama TV Mini-Series created by Andrew Haigh for BBC.
