Vigil, season 2, retains the name of the submarine from season 1, but everyone is above the water this season. Some time has passed between the two seasons. Long enough for Amy Silva (Suranne Jones) and Kirsten Longacre (Rose Leslie) to be living happily as a family with Poppy Silva (Orla Russell) in their care. Kirsten is 7 months pregnant. It wasn’t explicitly stated, but hints that Kirsten is carrying a baby from an egg supplied by Amy.
Vigil doesn’t stick with domestic bliss for long. This is a crime series at its heart. There’s a demonstration of military drone technology in Scotland. Something goes wrong and several soldiers are killed by a drone. The military was demonstrating its new drones to a leader from a fictional Middle Eastern country called Wudyan. The potential arms deal was worth billions.
Amy and Kirsten are assigned to the case. They stroll into the military base like they own the place. I love how the women in this series don’t bow down to men or consider anyone above their authority as investigators.
From there the case branches out with all sorts of octopus arms leading from suspect to suspect. The very first suspect in the deaths of the soldiers is Firas Zaman (Tommy Sim’aan). Interestingly, when he’s finally cleared of suspicion, he is the one who delivers the series zinger of truth at the trial and sentencing of the real villains.
Kirsten stays in Scotland because of her pregnancy. She works the case from there and is in constant contact with Amy, who heads for the Middle East.
At the base in the Middle East, Amy deals mostly with base commander Eliza Russell (Romola Garai) and Marcus Grainger (Dougray Scott), an air marshall. These two play a big part in what happens. Amy questions many soldiers assigned to various jobs such as drone pilot and IT specialist. The daughter of the former head of the base is around. Her dad was murdered by someone in a case that seems related so Amy and Kirsten investigate that too.
There are people the army thinks are responsible. Terrorists. Something about that theory doesn’t feel right to Amy. Every episode of the 6 episode series ends on a cliffhanger. Finally the investigations settle on the actual bad guys. My lips are sealed as to who they are.
Of course, our two favorite police investigators have all sorts of problems. They get kicked around, shot, kidnapped, and generally beat up a lot. Being separated as they are, there are many phone calls and worries about each other and the baby. The word “love” is mentioned a lot between them.
The plot of season 2 seems less plausible than season 1. But the tension and excitement are still there. Suranne Jones is fantastic in this, as she is in everything. I also thought Romola Garai did a great job.
The series is on Peacock. I’d prefer to see a series as good as this one on one of the bigger streamers, but Peacock is what we got. If you watch this series, I’d love to know what you thought of it.