Martin Compston drama The Rig is full of eerie twists and turns

The Rig spoilers follow – including its ending.

Starring a bunch of Line of Duty stars as well as coming from one of the bosses behind Bodyguard, those tuning into The Rig might have been surprised to discover that it would be less of a gritty, albeit heightened, real-world drama and more of a supernatural mystery thriller.

Set on an oil rig off the coast of Scotland, the six-part Amazon series initially gave viewers (and the characters) the impression that a bout of spectacularly bad weather was keeping everyone from going home. But it soon transpired that there was something much more sinister going on.

Crew members were getting infected by spores floating around within the 'fog', with varying – and sometimes deadly – consequences. In an Alien-esque moment of horror, Rose worked out that spores in the ash could attach themselves to people as hosts. If the person was unhealthy it would cause them a horrid, gory death, whereas for others it would provide healing properties, while also presenting them with visions.

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Baz and Fulmer both fell under its spell, while Leck wasn't so lucky, ultimately getting killed (but not before he bled out from his tattoos) when the spores attempted to possess him.

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Thanks to some visions from Fulmer and Baz, the team made a discovery. It turned out that there was a thing called The Ancestor at the bottom of the ocean floor; an ancient life force that was seemingly behind everything.

The oil company Pictor actually already knew about The Ancestor, and had been trying to kill it (which explained why it was targeting those that worked on the oil rigs).

On top of all of this, it was spreading. A short moment of signal allowed Cat to get in touch with her wife, discovering that the coastline was also affected.

Deciding that attempting to kill it was out of the question, Rose, Magnus and Fulmer embarked on a mission to communicate with the Ancestor. But they had to race against time, as the rig's drilling had triggered a monumental Tsunami that was also on the way.

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Coake, one of the oil company bosses who'd fled another rig on a lifeboat, had been trying to secure a helicopter for himself to escape. Rose, Magnus and Fulmer had no choice but to ditch their efforts and join him. They ascended from the rig just in time, as the wave crashed over it.

Baz, who felt a particularly close connection to the Ancient, decided to stay behind, ultimately sacrificing himself.

In amongst the Lost-style monsters and supernatural elements, there's a clear thematic link to the climate crisis running through The Rig. This was a driving force for screenwriter David Macpherson, who wanted to approach the world-relevant topic in a more personal way.

"I wanted to tell that global story [of climate change]," he confirmed during an interview with Financial Times. "But one of the things that gets missed is the impact on everyday people in these facilities."

Actor Emily Hampshire (Schitt's Creek) opened up about her character, a geologist and representative for the big oil conglomerate, and the role that she played in the story.

"Rose has to explain the science in a way that is engaging and not a lecture, which I struggled with at first," Emily told FT. "Then I started reading a book about mass extinctions called The Ends of the World, and it just clicked. The line [in The Rig]: 'If you keep punching the Earth, it's going to punch back' made real sense."

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Co-star Iain Glen (Game of Thrones) added: "We're asking what happens when we excavate sea beds, releasing what nature has created... But also taking a step further back and looking at the source. It's only after horrible disasters that humanity tends to think, 'Maybe we shouldn't have been doing that.'"

Glen also argued that parts of the story are "horribly plausible", in an interview with Radio Times.

"So what we're doing is messing up the planet and we know that, and most people have owned up to that now in the age that we live. So this story tries to look at the idea of the planet biting back in a very real way – and in a way that's what the planet is doing when we have these awful floods and bushfires that destroy people's lives," he added.

As for what might happen to the surviving crew members should The Rig get a season two, your guess is as good as ours. But the world as they knew it is clearly not going to be the same. In the show's final moments, we saw Cat's wife watching on as an eerie shadow edged towards her window.

The Tsunami seemed to be heading for mainland Scotland, and we last saw that helicopter swooping off to an unknown location with much having been destroyed.

The Rig is available on Amazon Prime.

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Laura Jane Turner

TV Editor, Digital Spy Laura has been watching television for over 30 years and professionally writing about entertainment for almost 10 of those. Previously at LOOK and now heading up the TV desk at the UK's biggest TV and movies site Digital Spy, Laura has helped steer conversations around some of the most popular shows on the box. Laura has appeared on Channel 5 News and radio to talk viewing habits and TV recommendations. As well as putting her nerd-level Buffy knowledge to good use during an IRL meet with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Laura also once had afternoon tea with One Direction, has sat around the fire pit of the Love Island villa, spoken to Sir David Attenborough about the world's oceans and even interviewed Rylan from inside the Big Brother house (housemate status, forever pending).