Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of man?
The North Water is a BBC Two five-part television series, based on Ian McGuire's novel of the same name, Starring Colin Farrell, Jack O'Connell and Stephan Graham, focusing on the voyage of a ill-fated whaling crew to the remote locations of the far north, and the personal struggles between two members of the crew diametrically opposed to each other. The series premiered on AMC+ on July 15, 2021.
In Hull, 1859, Patrick Sumner (O'Connell), a cashiered Irish army surgeon boards the whaling ship Volunteer as its ship's surgeon under Captain Brownlee (Graham) in search of better fortunes after his dishonourable discharge from the army following a disasterous campaign in India. Unknown to Sumner, There is a sinister plan afoot for this voyage between the captain and those who would seek greater profits than can be reaped from the whaling industry. Also on board is Henry Drax (Farrell), a murderous and psychopathic brute concerned only with sating his own desires and wants, without regard for the consequences of his actions, and whose intense savagery may doom the crew before they ever reach their destination...
This series contains examples of:
- Alone with the Psycho: Downplayed, as Sumner isn't truly alone with Drax aboard the Volunteer but the fact he's onboard a wooden sailing vessel with a murderous psychopath willing to kill him for riches— or because it happens to take his fancy— miles from civilisation still plays to this trope. It starts getting played increasingly straight as the Volunteer's misfortunes continue to mount and the body count rises with it, and is ironically fully played straight once Sumner returns to Hull and civilisation, being stalked throughout a darkened warehouse by Drax after Baxter tries to silence all loose ends.
- Artifact of Doom: The ring Sumner finds on the ill-fated treasure hunt his superior Corbyn sent him on turns out to be this, albeit understated in the story's context. Not soon after finding it, his squad is ambushed and killed to the last man, save Sumner himself, and he is instead framed for 'abandoning his post' and dishonourably discharged by Corbyn to cover up the fact he ordered the the mission in the first place, incidentally giving Sumner his Laudanum addiction to sooth his pain from the wounds he took as well as to intentionally addle his wits from the drug. Sumner's attempt to barter the ring to a young boy for water only ended up getting the child shot by his fellow soldiers coming to rescue him, and he kept the ring around with him in part for penance over being unable to protect him. The ring's presence motivates Drax and Cavendish to attempt to discreetly kill Sumner so they can pawn off the ring along with his possessions, resulting in Sumner almost dying, and anybody else who handles the ring but Sumner ends up dead. This eventually includes Drax himself, who presumably sold the ring for passage or drink thereafter, removing it from Sumner's life for good. It's implied that the only reason that Sumner isn't killed despite handling the ring is that he's Born Lucky, and even then, he certainly goes through hell throughout the story regardless.
- Characters Dropping Like Flies: The fates of the Volunteer's crew take a turn for the worse in episode 2 with the discovery of Joesph Hannah's body and it just keeps getting worse for the poor sods with every passing episode. By the end of episode 4 Drax and Sumner are each the Sole Survivor of the ill-fated voyage and by the story's end, of the named characters who've made an appearance, Sumner is the only one left breathing.
- Chekhov's Gun: When investigating his new doctor's quarters on board the Volunteer, Sumner finds a carved whalebone cane presumably kept in the room as a curiosity by the previous surgeon. When Sumner finally finds physical proof of Drax's guilt as the real rapist and murderer of Joseph Hannah in the same room, Drax impulsively grabs the cane and attacks Brownlee with it when he's calling for help, partially caving his skull in from the blow and eventually causing his painful demise thereafter.
- When investigating the body of Joseph Hannah Sumner finds that one of his teeth was recently knocked out in the struggle that killed him. The same tooth winds up inside a bite wound Hannah gave Drax before the latter killed him, serving as conclusive proof he's the killer.
- Dark Is Evil: Drax and Sumner share a subtle light/dark motif, made more overt by their hair colour and Drax's tendency to wear dark, shabby clothing. Drax is often depicted emerging from darkness, or sitting around in areas with poor lighting, and tends to blow out or snuff out sources of light both physical and metaphorical, from the candles in a lit room, to the two Inuit who were the survivors of the volunteer's sinking lifeline, leaving them with no way to replenish their food supply and trapped in an icy hell. In episode one, Drax and Sumner even briefly cross paths with each other around Hull, with Sumner hearing something moving in the shadows of a nearby alleyway before dismissing it, and it's not until he leaves that the viewer sees the smoke from Drax's pipe in the darkness. This reaches its zenith during episode 4's climax, wherein Sumner delirious from the cold and hunger, hallucinates the polar bear he's hunting in a snowstorm — and which, in turn, is hunting him— as Drax, with him appearing as nothing but an inky-black outline in the white blizzard surrounding them. This is an reflection of the state of Drax's soul and malignant personality.
- Light Is Good: Sumner, meanwhile, maintains a thematic connection to light, though always contrasted against deep darkness surrounding him, being shown as descending from the brightly-lit outside of the ship to the darkness of the ship's hold in his introduction, and often lighting candles or fires to give him adequate light to see with and do his job. His flashbacks to his Dark and Troubled Past in India are light by the harsh glare of the Indian sun, and he's often seen conversing with people in brightly-lit areas. His 'rebirth' and healing process with the Inuit even take place in highly-lit tundras of ice as he aids them in their hunting, and he becomes associated with the brightly- coloured Polar bear afterwards, contrasting with the metaphorical bear that Drax represents with his hulking frame and shaggy hairstyle. The contrast of his 'light' to the dark surroundings shows he is a good man being dragged into dark situations by the actions of others, and appropriately enough the final encounter between Drax and Sumner takes place in a pitch-black warehouse, lit only by the weak light shining through the windows as Sumner is stalked by the psychotic Drax in his element.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Brownlee might be complicit in an insurance scam to sink his ship and Cavendish might be on board with killing Sumner to get his hands on his valuable ring, but both of them express disgust and revulsion towards Drax for his rape and murder of the cabin boy and it's clear the magnitude of his crimes far outstrips their own. As Drax makes clear later on, he has no standards whatsoever, and is generally perplexed by Sumner's insistence on adhering to some sort of arbitrary morality to justify the world and it's violence around him.
- Fat Bastard: Farrell intentionally put on weight for the role of Drax, and this gets shown off in a decidedly un-sexy Shirtless Scene when Sumner searches Drax's body for sign of a struggle that would mark him as the killer of Joseph Hannah.
- Foreshadowing: In episode 3, Otto claims to have seen in a dream that the entire crew of the Volunteer is doomed to die on the expedition, either freezing to death, starving or drowning— all except Sumner, who will be 'eaten by a bear', and be reborn from it. He's entirely correct, except rather than be eaten by a still-living bear, Sumner shoots one dead in a blizzard, then hollows out the corpse's guts to make room for him inside its body as a makeshift shelter from the freezing temperatures, long enough to be rescued by passing Inuit.
- Karma Houdini: Corbyn, Sumner's superior in the British army, who framed him for 'abandoning his post' on a mission he has secretly ordered him on to find some valuable treasures from a nearby house, only to run into a small detachment of the enemy and get his entire squad massacred save Sumner himself. The story Lampshades this, with Sumner being advised by one of his few allies that he'll never be able to move past the shame of his disgrace unless he's 'a certain kind of man', and neither of them will ever be that, so it's better for him to seek his fortunes elsewhere, and Sumner fantasising about punching Corbyn in the midst of his Laudanum withdrawal, only for the hallucination to turn on him in what should have been a triumphant moment and easily smack Sumner to the ground, belittling him as a nobody the whole way, as well as taunting him that he knows that the Hastings was sunk in the storm, and the men's odds are slim to none. However, inspired by this, Sumner attempts to make sure the deaths and atrocities he witnesses onboard the Volunteer do not go unpunished, leading to the final confrontations with Drax and Baxter once he returns to Hull.
- Lack of Empathy: Drax has zero remorse or guilt for his crimes, no matter how heinous, shrugging them off by claiming 'I do as I must' and thinking nothing of adding more sins at a moment's notice if it'll benefit him— or just give him what he wants at the moment, even if it's not the smartest thing to do.
- Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: In episode 5, Drax, armed with a pistol and stalking Sumner throughout a darkened warehouse in Hull, taunts him to come out and face him like Baxter said he was determined to, even putting down the gun make it a 'fair fight' between them. This is a clear mockery towards Sumner, as Drax has about a foot on him in size and muscle mass, and is infinitely more experienced at killing with his bare hands than Sumner, whose only combat experience comes with using a rifle. It does, however, mean that Drax gets close enough for Sumner to surprise him with the Inuit knife he received as a gift straight to his jugular.
- Manipulative Bastard: Drax self-admits he doesn't tend to think his actions though most of the time, primarily acting on his wants and desires and not being too concerned with the consequences of them, or even really seeing the point in putting more emphasis on one action over the next, in his words. However, despite being The Brute in Baxter's plan, as well as illiterate and generally just a working-class thug, at best, he is not a total moron, and several times shows himself to be Smarter Than You Look, especially if he's planning something that benefits him. He's implied to have intentionally started the Bar Brawl that knocked Sumner unconscious in the chaos so he would an an opportunity to snoop though his personal belongings when dropping him back in his room, frames a fellow whaler for his rape and murder of Joseph Hannah simply though hearsay and abusing the fact that said whaler is eventually revealed to have had relations with other men before and attempts to intimidate Sumner into stopping his enquires into the death by insinuating he's aware of Sumner's dishonourable discharge from the army, and that attempting to drag Drax into a court of law would end up worse for Sumner than him, without any solid evidence to back up his suspicions. He's also revealed to be aware of the insurance scam being run between Baxter and Brownlee, despite not explicitly being told about it like Cavendish was, simply from observing that their route wasn't likely to bring them any profitable rewards from whaling, and the presence of the nearby Hastings, aiding Cavendish in sabotaging the Volunteer to ensure that she sinks and then using this knowledge to blackmail him into allowing him to escape his bonds afterwards, once he has a plan to safely escape.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Drax thinks nothing of killing whales and seals and humans alike— it's all the same to him, and often a suitable way for him to resolve any problems he's facing. He kills at least one person in every episode of the show.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: it's Downplayed but in episode 5, when Sumner is being Lured into a Trap by Baxter and his manservant Stevens, Drax, in the role of the ambusher, opens fire on the first person to enter the darkened warehouse where they planned to kill him, only to discover thereafter that he accidentally hit Stevens. The downplayed part comes from the fact that Stevens was ordered to kill Drax as soon as he'd successfully killed Sumner to tidy up loose ends, so Drax really just removed an armed and dangerous threat to himself and Sumner both, letting them settle their score between them. He also informs Sumner of Baxter's role in the Insurance scan that ultimately resulted in the deaths of all hands aboard the Volunteer and the Hastings, meaning that Sumner knows exactly who to go after next to finally resolve the whole sordid affair for good once Drax is finished off.
- Slashed Throat: Drax isn't picky about how he kills people, either resorting to a Tap on the Head or a Neck Snap to finish them, but due to the fact the's escaping from the armed Volunteer survivors, he needs to keep the noise to a minimum, so he commits his murder of the two inuit and Cavendish in episode 4 this way. It's also how Sumner finally puts an end to the murderous psychopath, stabbing him in the Jugular with a knife the Inuit gave him when he's on the verge of strangling him to death.
- Stout Strength: Drax is a portly man, but he's got a lot of muscle mass hidden underneath that fat and is deadly in a close-range fight, easily overpowering opponents whenever they attack him bare-handed and never once losing a single fist-fight in the entire show, nor even once seeming like he's in danger of being overpowered despite any numerical disadvantage.
