‘The North Water’ Recap: ‘Behold the Man’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the series premiere of ‘The North Water’.
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Sometimes, when our lives are in quite the quagmire, and we see no future in regard to our current situation… we quickly find ourselves motivated to do something quite drastic. Specifically, we’re inclined to the hit reset button and abandon our lives current lives and do what we must to start anew. Because the thought of a fresh start and a second chance is quite appealing since it would indeed free us of our current burdens. But more often than not, we brush off such thoughts since they are fleeting at best and we do what we can to fix our current problems so we can instead enjoy peace and growth and a sense of accomplishment, that we finally overcame adversity and hopefully we can pay that forward and guide others toward a better tomorrow with our story.

But for some, the draw of the second chance/fresh start is too powerful to ignore, and they are apt to partake in its benefits through and through and for a time… it will feel as though they made the proper choice, and they are finally free. But eventually they will come to learn that simply packing up and starting anew comes with quite the catch. In that, one’s problems are never just abandoned or left behind, they follow a person into their new lives, and they will eventually cause harm since they haven’t been dealt with and that darker side to the fresh start is top of mind today… simply because it is going to serve as the focus for a new AMC+ series, The North Water, and the series premiere of this new show, ‘Behold the Man’, sets up this examination by taking the time to introduce us to a man with quite the past.

For Patrick Sumner is a former British Army Medic that failed miserably at being a solider during a campaign in India and after leaving the service… he’s been eager to leave his embarrassing past behind and his quest to do so, has led him down quite the fascinating path. For he’s decided to take a position aboard a whaling vessel as the ship’s surgeon, a move that should indeed afford him a blank slate and a fresh start. For the high seas know little of the past and a crew he’s never met and has zero ties to, can help him in his quest to reinvent himself. But it doesn’t take long for Sumner to learn that trying to escape one’s past without reconciling it in the slightest is a woeful mistake. Because the memories of what happened in India haunt his dreams aboard the vessel and his standing in the army has the crew quite curious. Meaning it will only be a matter of time before Sumner's past takes the center stage and causes great harm. 

But to complicate matters further, his desire to leap before he looked has put him aboard a doomed voyage to the arctic. For the skipper of this ship, Captain Brownlee, received orders before the crew set out, to scuttle the vessel. Under the pretense that he would get a cut of a fat insurance check when the matter was settled on that end, and that kind of danger in the arctic can never bring about any good. Plus, what's worse, is that the vessel is also host to a dangerous monster. For a man named Henry Drax is part of this crew, and while he is a talented whaler and seal hunter… his skill set stems from his disregard for life and the rules that the rest of us live by, and when one considers that Drax has no problem with killing a man over a drink… it quickly becomes clear that Sumner is in more trouble than he will ever know and it is only a matter of time before he is put to the test in ways he never thought possible.

Which is quite the interesting twist to inject into the opening chapter of this story. Since it truly leaves the viewer wondering as to whether or not they’re going to be treated to a redemption story, wherein Sumner uses the wakeup call his situation with soon provide him with, to get his life together. Or if we are about to be privy to a grand tragedy, one that will see Sumner pay for his shortsightedness and arrogance. But while we wait to see which direction this story will take; we can bask in one solid premiere. For this one really does a fine job of immersing us into the 1800s and the acting is simply top notch. With a special shout out to Colin Farrell, since he basically loses himself in the role of Drax and becomes unrecognizable in the process and well, now that we’ve reached the end of the beginning… the time has come where all must wait with bated breath for next Thursday, when the next episode of The North Water makes its debut on AMC+.  

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