Whiskey on the Rocks Episode Rating Graph

It's October 1981, the height of the Cold War, where political tensions are high and the threat of nuclear war is never far. It's a cold night on Soviet submarine U-137, but the crew are keeping warm with a raucous party to celebrate a new father in their midst. One drink leads to another, and the submarine ends up running aground in neutral Sweden on the Karlskrona archipelago, only a stone's throw from the nations top-secret naval base." Whiskey on the Rocks" is a playful retelling of this unbelievable true story that explores the catastrophic fallout of this boozy mistake. Never before has the world been closer to a nuclear conflict, and all responsibility now rests on the shoulders of one man to de-escalate various warmongers ambitions, Sweden's Prime Minister Thorbjörn Fälldin.

Prime Minister Thorbjörn Fälldin hastens to Stockholm where he gathers representatives of the government and military. The Bolshevik-hating Commander-in-Chief, Börje Lagercrantz, argues that Sweden is under attack and that the only reasonable course of action is to counter-attack, but the Secretary of State, Ola Ullsten, advises caution, prompting Börje to leave the meeting in a fury. On the submarine, the situation for Captain Peskov and his crew becomes increasingly desperate. The submarine is firmly stuck and they are fearful of the punishment they will receive when (or if) they do get home. New orders come from the Kremlin that Captain Peskov must blow up the submarine if the Swedes try to board the vessel, an action that is a tempting solve to most of his problems.

In Karlskrona, Commander-in-Chief, Börje Lagercrantz, is planning his own initiative to approach the submarine in order to measure for the presence of nuclear weapons. Börje has put his best man, Captain Hammarberg, in charge of the unsanctioned operation and, under the cover of darkness, they approach the submarine. Things don't go according to plan when they are detected and the troika barely escape with their lives. In Moscow, Brezhnev finds out about the incident and flies into a rage, contacting the Russian ambassador in Stockholm, Aleksandra Kosygina, demanding she fixes the situation fast. On the submarine, Captain Peskov's psychological condition drastically worsens, and he starts to see no other way out than to blow the submarine to kingdom come.