‘The North Water’ Recap: ‘To Live Is To Suffer’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the finale of ‘The North Water’.
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Stories that feature redemption, tend to follow quite the baseline formula. One that revolves around a broken person that goes through utter hell in order to learn a valuable lesson so they can become strong and overcome their demons and well, that formula exists because it is inspirational in nature and allows for the viewer or reader to walk away from the story with wonder and awe in their eyes. But while that particular formula is quite lovely and cuddly in nature, and popular to boot, it really is something of a fantasy scenario. Because not everyone gets redemption in this world and sometimes their resolution to the journey is sour in nature.

Which is why you have to celebrate stories that focus upon that darker side, because they offer up a raw and visceral journey, one that gives us pause and reminds us that redemption takes work and not luck and that’s precisely why the finale of The North Water is of note. For ‘To Live Is To Suffer’ saw Patrick Sumner take some time to rest and recuperate in the hut that he was brought to at the end of the last episode and while he rested and learned about indigenous ways and religion from the missionary that saved him, his attitude toward life changed considerably. For he came to realize that he found no meaning in what happened, just sorrow and strife and the best way to deal with it was to move on.

That motivated him to return to London when the time was right and try to do just that. By collecting his wages and hopefully helping the police to keep an eye out for Henry Drax so that some justice would come from this and that… only brought forth more strife. For Drax was alive and well, and in the care of the boat’s owner, Mister Baxter and well… the possibility of having Drax and the insurance plans exposed was enough to have Baxter send the beastly man to kill Sumner, a move that went poorly for this predator. For Sumner was ready and waiting to teach him a lesson and when the chips were down, Patrick did the unthinkable and took Drax's life in order to survive and realizing that Baxter was likely behind this attack, motivated Patrick to do something quite bold.

In that, he went back to Baxter’s in the middle of the night and forced him to gush about his plans for Sumner and the insurance scheme at gunpoint. And when faced with the fact that a civilized man of stature, one that Patrick wanted to be so badly at one point, was capable of plotting murder and using human beings as pawns for his financial gain, he opted instead to do whatever he wanted, and he promptly robbed Baxter and killed him and went into hiding for the rest of life. For there was no point in being anything more than a thief and murderer that did not want to be found, not when his perception of the world was bleak and hopeless and well… that’s how Patrick’s story ends. With nothing more than him hiding away from a world he could no longer stand.

Which is a supremely bleak way to bring a bleak tale to an end and the show deserves a round of applause for going this route. For that is incredibly realistic in nature, since redemption doesn’t come for all and sometimes people get lost to the world and the horrors that it can send our way and well, that’s really all there is say about this episode and this story. Aside from the fact that it really was quite the impressive ride, because it is rare in this day and age to find stories that embrace hopelessness and anger and darkness in this manner, but they are necessary for certain. Since they serve as cautionary tales, the kind that show us what we can become when we let go and let the world wash over us and hopefully, this bleak journey helps others to learn to fight and stand tall, so they don’t become the shell that is Patrick Sumner.  

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