The Sinking is the fourth and final episode of the 2012 Miniseries Titanic. It aired in the UK and the US on April 15th, 2012; the 100th anniversary of the ship's sinking. Global aired it on April 11th, 2012. This episode follows the desperate plight of the passengers, in the gripping final installment, as the Titanic sinks into the icy waters.
Plot[]
Mr and Mrs. Rushton are left dining alone in the first-class dining saloon when the rest of their table goes to the À la Carte Restaurant. Jim and Mary talk about what happened with Lubov. At the bridge the ship's officers talk about the speed of the ship, where it is revealed that First Officer Murdoch feels they are travelling too fast. The ship hits the iceberg, and Batley, who was on deck when it hit, wakes his wife. Benjamin Guggenheim and his mistress, Madame Aubart, are interrupted by her lady's maid and his manservant who inform them that the ship is sinking. Watson is accidentally locked in the Mantons' cabin when an officer orders a steward to lock all first-class cabins to prevent people from stealing. Barnes comes to her aid and gets the steward back to open the door. When she is running for a lifeboat he gives her an envelope and tells her not to open it until she is safe. Lubov and Jim go in search of Theresa, Jim's daughter, but when Jim finds her, it is too late to escape. Paolo manages to get Lubov to help him free his brother and the other Italians from the cupboard. Lady Manton is finally persuaded to get into a lifeboat and, as it is being lowered, J. Bruce Ismay steps in. As Batley and his wife try to turn over the final lifeboat with the other passengers, water comes rushing over the bow of the ship, and they are all swept apart. Paolo and Mario jump into the water and try to swim to safety, but they are separated and, as Mario climbs on to the overturned lifeboat, he sees the ship break in half and sink beneath the ocean. He looks frantically for Paolo. Many other men climb aboard the lifeboat, including Lightoller. Jack Thayer is refused entry to the boat; but when one of the men dies, Jack is allowed to take his place. The Duff-Gordons persuade the crew of their near-empty lifeboat not to return to help people when Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon tells them he will give them each a fiver to stay where they are. Women in the other boats want to go and assist the people in the water and, as they discuss what to do, Batley floats by, clinging to the body of his wife. He is persuaded to let her go and is pulled aboard. It takes too long for them to create a pontoon from the boats and, by the time a lifeboat reaches the people in the water, most are dead. Only three are saved, two being Paolo, who died just as he was found, and Lord Manton, who is revived with brandy supplied by Dorothy Gibson. Mrs. Rushton gives Kitty to Madeleine Astor. Jack and his mother are reunited; however, Harry Elkins Widener, drowned. (According to his mother in Episode 1, he couldn't swim.) Watson reads the letter Barnes wrote her. It is his will, in which he leaves her a small house, which should be perfect for her father. The episode ends with the survivors being rowed towards the rescuing ship (RMS Carpathia), while remembering those they had lost.