Just like its first season, back in 2023, The Rig season 2 also ends with a dramatic series of events, including the main characters going up against monumental odds but triumphing in the end. Although there has been no word from Amazon Prime Video about any follow-up third season, the show itself would definitely want to continue with their story, as made clear by the characters. In this brief article, we take a look at The Rig season 2’s ending and try to see if there might be possible hints for the 3rd season, if it is ever made.
Spoiler Alert
Does Rose come back to life from death?
In The Rig season 2 episode 5, an extremely tense situation gripped everyone at the Stac when the villainous Bremner went completely rogue and threatened to hurt Rose and Cameron if the latter did not hand over the data drive he had been hiding. At the end of the episode, Bremner took Harish hostage, and so Rose and Cameron had to hand over the data drive, but a scuffle broke out soon, and Rose accidentally got shot in the gut. The gunshot wound was very severe, especially because she had been shot from such a close distance, and the excessive blood loss made it almost certain that she would die. Even at the beginning of episode 6, Magnus tells Fulmer that there is really no chance to save Rose anymore, as her vitals seem to have dropped very quickly, and she stops breathing for a few moments.
However, something miraculous happens just then, as the bullet wound on her body starts to glow, resembling the glowing and iridescent nature of the Ancestor. This is when Fulmer realizes that his mocking advice for Rose during an argument earlier had been taken very seriously by the woman, and it is this decision that now saves her life. Some time earlier, there had been a severe argument between the two regarding Fulmer’s apparent decision to side with David Coake only so that he could get rid of, or at least control, the influence of the Ancestor on his body. Although Fulmer had been trying to get more information, which he would have handed over to Rose and Magnus, his girlfriend had questioned whether he had abandoned them. In this heated moment, Fulmer had told Rose to inject herself with samples of the Ancestor to get the millennia-old microorganism inside her body so that she could understand what it meant to be haunted by sudden visions.
Unbeknownst to him and everyone else, including the viewers, Rose had actually injected herself with an Ancestor sample after this fight, mostly out of frustration and grief, since Fulmer had broken up with her. But this very decision now helps her out after being shot, for the gunshot wound is miraculously healed in only a matter of seconds, as the Ancestor’s regenerative abilities kick in. Therefore, it is not that Rose is brought back from the dead, but she technically never dies, despite the visual signs, like her pulse and her breathing (or lack thereof), suggesting that she is no longer alive. At this very moment, the microorganism now present inside her body starts to undo the damage of the injury, and soon she wakes up, all fit and fine.
Not only does this experience save her life, but it also helps Rose learn the real nature of the Ancestor, as it communicates with her directly through visions. As the recovery process is ongoing, she sees a vision of a location under the Arctic Sea that is termed the Heart of the Ancestor. Through this vision, Rose understands that she had been wrong in her earlier presumption, when she had thought that the Ancestor had been responsible for the 5 extinction events on Earth and that it was bringing the 6th one as well. Instead, the Ancestor had been the being responsible for the rejuvenation of the planet after these extinction events, as it facilitated life and brought back life in all its diversity to the planet. In this sense, the Ancestor is the very nurturing quality that we associate with the planet Earth, and thus, Rose now realizes that the entity is completely harmless and has been desperately trying to warn humans about the imminent disaster. Instead of helping the Ancestor, though, human beings, mostly Pictor, have been busy trying to push the planet towards another extinction event while also eliminating the only being that would ensure that life would return someday in the future.
What does Cameron’s data drive contain?
The data drive that Cameron hides from everyone for the longest period of time in The Rig season 2 is actually from the first Rover vehicle that had met with an accident while on a mission on the seabed. Although it was officially stated that the rover had been sent to mine stones from the seabed, which contained rich deposits of rare minerals, their mission was actually completely different from the one stated. In his efforts to kill the Ancestor and eliminate it from the Earth’s oceans once and for all, David Coake had realized that he needed to destroy one of the biggest nodes connecting the entity to the seabed, which he named the Heart of the Ancestor. Thus, he designed a piece of technology to find the Heart of the Ancestor so that necessary steps could be taken and the main obstacle to Pictor’s flourishing business could be eliminated.
The first rover that was sent down on the seabed was not intended for any mining purpose as stated, but it was actually tasked with finding the Heart of the Ancestor and eliminating it. The operators on the Rover had found the location but could not carry out the next part of the plan as they were attacked by the Ancestor, which only wanted to defend itself. But the data drive on the Rover, which contained all the minute information about where the vehicle had gone and what exactly had happened during the mission, needed to be retrieved. When Coake sent the second Rover in search of the first, technically risking the lives of Easter and Cameron, he only wanted to find the missing vehicle so that its data drive could be retrieved later on. However, Cameron decided to retrieve it on this very mission, as he always knew why Coake had sent his team members out in the first place, and so he knew that the man would try to cover it all up.
The Rig season 2’s ending revealed that the data drive from the first Rover actually contained the exact coordinates of the Ancestor’s Heart, as the vehicle had located it. But more significantly, it also contained the codes to launch a Remotely Operated Vehicle, which had large amounts of poisonous material stored inside of it. This was actually the new and updated plan that Pictor had come up with to kill the Ancestor, and it was even named Project Cirein 2.0, in accordance with their earlier plan in season 1. The ROV would be sent to the Ancestor’s Heart, and the poison would be released, which would finally kill the entity. It is because the data drive contained both the location and also the codes that it became such a crucial object that both sides desired to get their hands on it.
Can Rose and Fulmer prove the Ancestor’s existence to the world?
In The Rig season 2’s ending, Rose realizes that the only way to stop Pictor’s devilish plans of killing the Ancestor and mining the seabed under the Arctic Sea would be to prove the entity’s existence to the rest of the world. Since the media had already extensively covered the horrific tsunami that rocked the Northern part of Europe and then also the fiasco surrounding Pictor, they would surely pick up on the existence of a previously unknown entity. Although Rose and her team had proof of the Ancestor’s presence, and they could reveal it to the media, most people would still question their intentions and claim that they were making it up to slander the image of Pictor. Thus, she feels that getting photographic evidence of the Ancestor’s Heart would surely convince everyone of its presence, and thus Rose decides to get the second Rover repaired, go out to the location of the Heart, and photograph it on the vehicle’s exterior cameras.
Although Fulmer had earlier sought to end their relationship, he quickly realized that he still loved Rose and wanted to help her in every way possible. Thus, Fulmer joins Rose on the rover, and they together go out towards the Heart, still not aware that Bremner has already launched the ROV and the poison to kill the Ancestor. They are informed of the same, but Rose still chooses to reach the Heart and help the Ancestor out, and she even steps out of the Rover to try and revive the entity. This works out well, as the poison concoction sprayed by Pictor once again turns out to be completely useless against the Ancestor, which further suggests that the oil corporation had not yet done enough research to understand the entity completely. As Rose touches the nodes of the entity, she reawakens it, as the Ancestor seemingly feels the presence of its own samples inside her body, and Rose’s emotional plea to let her help it out just as it had earlier helped her survive also seems to do the job.
Ultimately, the Ancestor wakes up and then also lights up all its various nodes and branches that are spread all over the oceans. In a remarkable sight, the seas and oceans of the Northern Hemisphere light up and glow brightly, almost resembling the Northern Lights, but under the water instead of in the sky. People from every corner of Europe and North America see the lights, and it is extensively shown by news channels all over the world as well. Rose and Fulmer know that they can now safely release information about the Ancestor, since the world will believe them because of visual evidence. They accept the fact that the power on the Rover has run out, meaning that they will die in each other’s arms after having saved the Ancestor from being killed. However, Magnus comes to the couple’s rescue, as he gets the entire Stac station to move closer to the broken-down Rover so that Rose and Fulmer can be saved.
What happens to Pictor and its employees?
The Rig Season 2 introduces the character of Morgan Lennox, the CEO of Pictor, who comes down to the Stac station somewhere near the North Pole at the beginning of the season to stop the situation from escalating further. However, by the end, she is heavily pressured by one of the most influential members of the board of directors, Darian York, who takes advantage of the fact that his father is one of the biggest funders of the oil corporation. York pushes Morgan out of the role of CEO and from the company as well, which finally makes her change her stance. It is suggested that the woman was already feeling guilty and responsible for the large number of victims displaced, injured and even killed by the tsunami, which was actually the doing of Pictor. When York decides to become the CEO of the company, she decides to come clean to the masses and records a statement of herself, which she then hands over to Cat to give to one of the reporters at the scene.
In this statement, Morgan admits that it was she and Pictor who had caused the tsunami first and then had hidden the truth about it. She also ensures that the patients being treated at the camp get better medication and aid by making use of her influence before she flies back to the Stac station to join Rose and Magnus in trying to save the Ancestor. The abhorrent capitalist, Darian York, takes over the role of CEO, and he responds to Morgan’s actions with a press conference of his own, in which he claims that it was the ex-CEO who had caused the tsunami and that she had been fired from the company once the board of directors found out about it. During all this, he keeps in contact with Bremner, his representative in the Arctic Sea, and orders him to fire the poison-filled ROV at the Heart. This is his desperate attempt to ensure that Pictor would get the solitary rights to mine the seabed in the Arctic region, as he keeps texting someone, seemingly from the government.
Despite his best efforts, though, Darian is unable to save Pictor in the end, as visuals of the glowing seas confirm the presence of the Ancestor to the world, which immediately gets the plans of launching mining missions under the Arctic Sea cancelled. Pictor’s share prices also plummet, as they are now considered the villains by everyone, and a government probe into their involvement in the tsunami is also launched. While this guarantees that Pictor will be under a lot of pressure and will also have to stop its operations for the time being, Morgan confirms that the corporation is run by some supremely powerful people, who will surely try to hit back at Rose’s team and the Ancestor at the earliest. Until then, Darian has to face legal consequences for the company’s actions, while Bremner also has to concede defeat after being shot by Magnus and then healed by the crew members at the Stac.
Does the last scene suggest a military attack on the Ancestor?
In The Rig season 2’s ending, the camera zooms out from the main deck of the Stac, where Rose and her team are jubilantly celebrating their significant win, and the same location is seen through satellite imagery. Along with these images, reports in various foreign languages, including Russian and Korean, are heard before there is a clear message in English to a military officer to approach the place with extreme caution. This ending seems to suggest that the Stac station near the North Pole, which is surely no longer supported by Pictor, will now have to deal with a military attack. The visuals of the glowing seas must have garnered the interests of some of the power-hungry nations in the world, like Russia and North Korea, who now want to control the Ancestor and use it to their advantage. Thus, in a way, Rose’s decision to prove the Ancestor’s existence to the world also begins an arms race, the exact details and consequences of which will only be seen when, and if, The Rig season 3 arrives.
