'South Pacific' Recap: 'Endless Blue'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

​Over the past few weeks, we’ve come to learn plenty about a unique area of our world, thanks to the BBC America documentary, South Pacific. For instance, this series has shown us that this chain of islands has in essence, defied the odds at every single turn, allowing for life to exist in a place where technically it should not due to its extreme isolation from the rest of the world. But, thanks to mankind’s desire to explore and expand, and nature’s ability to make the impossible, possible, life has found a foothold here, making the South Pacific a beautiful and majestic place.
 
However, while wonder and awe have been the central focus of this documentary early on, one can never forget, that there are no easy journeys in this world, and life in the South Pacific is as rough and tough as it is elsewhere in the globe, and last night’s episode of the series, ‘Endless Blue’, felt the need to explore a somewhat gritter aspect of this tropical paradise and it found a way to look at exactly how tough it is to survive in this place in the most unique way imaginable; with a brief history lesson that found a way to permeate the fabric of this entire episode, by way of the story of the crew of the Essex.
 
Now for those unfamiliar with this tale, the Essex was a whaling vessel that was sunk by a sperm whale in the South Pacific in 1820, and the survivors of that attack, had to survive for 90 plus days in this region and they were some of the first humans to learn just how tough it is to see another day in this place and their journey served as the gateway to explore how hard it is for every species out there to survive in this paradise and really, the first real visual that hammered this point home, was a place known as the ‘Desolate Region’, where the water is devoid of life thanks to a barrier well below the surface of the water and it was just incredible to know that such a place exists.
 
But, a ‘watery desert’ isn’t the only element that makes survival rough out here, the sheer size of the Pacific Ocean contributes to the trials and tribulations of wildlife since food is scarce. But as is always the case, life finds a way to make things work and many species have created a balanced food chain in order to see another sunrise and while all of this sounds bleak for a documentary, the darker parts of this tale merely served as the setup for far more wonderful moments since the show was kind enough to take us to the Oases that hide in the South Pacific, where survival is a little easier for the creatures of the seas.
 
Yet, while this one had some tougher moments to endure, it was still an amazing ride to say the least. In part because I was fascinated with how this episode integrated the story of the Essex into a modern day look at the South Pacific, but also because, it truly did end on a high note. Because, despite the tough stuff we had to sit through in this tale, when all is said and done, this story served as a fine reminder that life does go on, and there’s plenty of beauty out there to bookend the sad stuff, and well, you really can’t go wrong with a documentary that’s willing to give you the straight story and as is always the case with this series I’m hungry to learn more, and I’ll be counting down the minutes until next week’s episode. Until then. 

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