It’s Criminal:
The Mystery of theBlack Orchid
A Trinity Scott & Gio Rossi True Crime Production
Episode 1: “Between Scylla and Charybdis”
Runtime: 52 mins.
Opening Sequence—Visual + Music
A pearlescent dawn bleeds over the Aegean Sea. We hear the faint and haunting cries of seabirds. A melancholic choral score begins—a female voice, idioglossic vocals evocative of an ancient hymn sung in a long-forgotten language. The sound swells as a BBC drone with a camera ascends in the sky.
Archival Footage—BBC Drone—Santorini Caldera—September 2019
A bird’s-eye view shows a woman’s body floating face down in the water. Her hair fans around her head as she undulates gently on the surge and ebb of the swells. The rising sun glints off tiny emerald-green sequins sewn into her evening gown. Her arms loll limply at her sides. She forms the shape of a cross.
The drone climbs higher. The aerial view widens. We see more bodies floating among debris in the sea—water bottles; a straw hat; running shoes; partially submerged suitcases; a life ring; broken deck chairs; cushions; part of a lounger; plastic tables.
The bodies and flotsam drift and bob slowly toward a pebbled cove at the base of sheer volcanic cliffs. The camera rises.
The jagged cliffs and surrounding islands come into starker view—a scorched rim of volcanic rock that shapes the maw of a caldera formed over three thousand years ago by an ancient Minoan eruption—a cataclysmic event that birthed the Santorini archipelago.
A whitewashed church with a blue dome clings to rocks above the pebbled cove. Fuchsia bougainvillea froths over a stone wall. High above the church a trio of long-haired feral goats observes the strange scene unfolding in the caldera below. One goat chews ancient thyme leaves from a plant that sprouts from the cliff crevices. The goats turn suddenly—someone’s coming.
A man on a donkey appears. He’s bent, browned, and weathered by sun, sea, and time. He clucks his tongue, kicking his heels against the animal’s bony ribs, urging his mount faster down the twisting trail that snakes to the tiny cove below.
VO—Trinity Scott
“At 6:42 a.m. Santorini time, Manolis Karamidos, a local fisherman, noticed what appeared to be bodies floating toward the cove where his boat was beached. Manolis, his wife, and other villagers had gathered along the clifftops during the night to watch the lights and the drama of the sinking cruise ship and rescue efforts. By early dawn the sheer scale of the MSBlack Orchiddisaster was only just becoming clear.
“Manolis mounted his donkey and started a precipitous climb down to the cove, from which he might perhaps be able to offer help with his boat.”
CONT. BBC Drone Footage—Aerial Wide
The drone climbs even higher. A collapsible coffin from the ship’s morgue floats into view. A man clings to it. A sinking cargo crate drifts near. A woman with silver hair grips it tightly, sobbing. Other survivors clutch pallets, half-submerged mattresses, doors, or life buoys—anything that floats, even if only temporarily.
The MSBlack Orchid—shining white, sleek, majestic—rests on her side against jagged rocks. Herfunnel—indigo black with its orchid logo—nearly touches the water. On her exposed starboard flank, people scramble like ants, sliding and tumbling down to the surging waves. Some use ropes. Several orange lifeboats loaded with passengers and crew are stuck on the side of the hull, which lies almost horizontal to the water. On the submersed port side, the lifeboats are trapped under theOrchid’s listing weight. Three helicopters hover above. A plane circles.
The drone climbs higher. We see orange-and-white lifeboats bobbing at sea. Survivors flail and swim toward them. Others splash toward a motley of rescue vessels, including local fishing boats, speedboats, inflatable rescue jets, and kayaks that have been paddled across from Santorini Island by villagers and tourists attempting to help save the two thousand passengers and crew.
Oil and fuel pool dark stains into the turquoise Aegean water.
A second small plane begins to circle up high.
Music Fades—Live Sound Takes Over
We hear thewhump-whump-whumpof helicopter blades thudding in the air. The incessant beeping of Klaxon horns. Electronic alarms. Voices yelling commands, crying for help, calling out names of missing loved ones. Diesel engines roar and sputter as boats position and reverse alongside theOrchid. The ship’s hull—her entire body—creaks, groans, moans. Distant booms, thuds, explosions sound inside her. Waterbubbles and the sea sucks and surges as waves crash and push her harder up against the rocks.
Cut To Archived BBC Satellite Feed
A BBC correspondent stands on the cliffs at Fira. She faces the camera. Wind snaps her hair across her face. Behind her, dawn begins to burn orange over the caldera.
“It’s now going on seven a.m. on this Sunday, September twenty-second, and daylight is revealing the worst of what many feared during the night.”
She glances out to sea.
“From our position here on the iconic cliffs above Fira on the western side of Santorini, we are witnessing what is evolving into one of the most devastating maritime disasters in recent European memory. The MSBlack Orchid—brand new and hailed as one of the most luxurious ships ever constructed—is sinking as we watch.”
