The Rig
Episode 208 (#18) - November 6 1996
As a favor to his friend, a captain in the Coast Guard, Simon sends Jim and Blair out to a Cyclops Oil drilling rig to investigate the death of Jack Buchanan, a rig diver.
Getting to the rig just ahead of a storm front, Jim and Blair find the atmosphere on the rig just as cold and uninviting as the weather. No one seems to know how Buchanan died, who found the body, or who called the Coast Guard to report the crime.
Jim becomes even more suspicious of the crew when a diver’s ready room catches fire, a radio antenna injures Blair when the guy wires are cut, and Jim himself is pushed into a vat of oil. Jim also finds the body of the other rig diver, Lacey. Jim thinks Lacey died from some kind of chemical exposure and postulates that the divers found a cache of chemical weapons on the sea floor.
Maggie Brice finds out Jim has discovered the truth about the deaths. She and her partners in crime, crew boss Ben Crilly, and five other member of the rig team, capture Ellison and Sandburg along with the rest of the roustabouts. They plan to blow up the rig, and escape with the chemical weapons recovered from a ship that went down in 1971 on its way to Viet Nam.
Ellison and Sandburg manage to escape. Ellison swims to the ship Brice and Crilly rendezvous with to sell the chemicals while Blair tries to raise the Coast Guard. Jim overhears the plan to blow up the rig and radio’s Blair with a warning. Blair finds the bomb and disarms it with one second left on the timer. Jim takes control of the ship just in time for Simon and the Coast Guard to come to the rescue.
Canon Tidbits:
- Official name and location of the rig: Cyclops Oil Northstar 5 Rig 18 40mi off the coast of Washington
- Some of the Ellison House Rules are defined
- Color coded left-overs: Jim’s in blue, Blair’s in red
- No toilet flushing after 10:00pm
- No music played from Blair’s room that can be heard by Jim in the living area
- Maggie gives Jim and Blair the names Beefstick and Lambchop
- Jim has a fear of open water
Main Cast:
- Detective Jim Ellison: Richard Burgi
- Blair Sandburg: Garett Maggart
- Captain Simon Banks: Bruce A. Young
Guest Stars:
- Ben Crilly: Tim Thomerson
- Maggie Brice: Stephanie Niznik
- Truck Brower: Bo Jackson
- Jack Buchanan: Carlo Rota
- Lacey: Laurier Debeau
- Weaver: Nathaniel Deveaux
- Ridley: Dean Wray
- Captain: Dmitri Boudrine
