It’s never great when someone who thinks they have important information to share with a detective gets murdered. But it’s definitely worse when that person has romantic history with said detective’s boss, and that’s the situation we’re faced with here at the start of episode 4. Euro Cash gets to deliver the bad news to Jan’s wife and kids, Big Cheese pretends everything is ok, and the rest of the crew arrives at the scene and gets caught up as quickly as possible. Once they realize there isn’t much more to learn until the post mortem, Big Cheese confirms her suspicion that Euro Cash had Lauren tailed last episode. But instead of being mad about it, she’s pleased, probably because she obviously thinks Lauren’s come out of murder retirement to kill Jan. She orders her team to go interrogate the suspect first thing tomorrow, and then finally decides to come clean to the squad: Jan was her ex husband. Knowledge bomb dropped, Big Cheese hits the bricks to be sad in private.
Totally separately, Drunkie Howswer gets an update on the sword: it’s the murder weapon alright, and the only prints on it belong to Collector. First thing the next day, Hassell and Eddie go over to bring Collector in for questioning. Naturally, he denies everything, and goes after Drunkie Howswer in the process, making me dislike him even more than I already did. He basically claims he doesn’t have any friends or family (I buy it), never leaves the house, and doesn’t let anyone inside his house. He also admits to fighting with Yuppy Boyfriend over the sword, and the victim even threatened to out Collector for the dodgy ways he acquired his collection. Collector agrees to let them look at his security footage, but even so, Eddie’s sure he’s guilty. However, since there’s no connection to Jan, they cut him loose and keep an eye out.
Meanwhile, Euro Cash and Citra roll up to Lauren’s house. Citra’s weirdly worried about talking to Lauren, but they should be more worried about her husband, who shuts the door in their faces multiple times and is VERY angry that they’ve turned up on his doorstep. Euro Cash finally convinces him by threatening a big scene, and the detectives set up shop at Lauren’s breakfast table. After some pushing, the family reveals that Jan had tracked them down and knew where they live because he was watching Lauren, which, yes, was annoying. Euro Cash asks about the letter Lauren sent to Yuppy Boyfriend: did he track her down too? No, but Alt/Goth Guy did, and he told Yuppy Boyfriend. Talking to him is against the rules, but Lauren felt compelled to meet with him, something she hid from her handler. Lauren also claims she has no connection to the repatriation movement other than having met Yuppy Boyfriend.
Back at the office, Big Cheese is surprised to find out that Jan contacted Lauren. Sure, he had PTSD from that case, but he was coping! You think you know someone, huh? Euro Cash tells the crew to keep an eye on Alt/Goth Guy and Lauren’s husband as potential suspects, and Citra puts in that they could also be future victims, since people related to the old case seem to keep ending up dead. Meanwhile, results have come in on the CCTV footage from the murder scene, and while the video isn’t helpful, the neighbors have been: there’s a temporary renter in the building who’s worth talking to. But before Euro Cash can go do that, he’s called into Big Cheese’s office, where, you guessed it, Handler is waiting, and pissed. She yells at them both, but Euro Cash points out that she’s the one who messed up: a whole BUNCH of people have found Lauren! Handler is supposed report that! She says she did, and since everyone screwed up, they move on to debating the age old question: did Lauren actually commit those murders back in the day? Handler thinks not, and isn’t shy about it. She also isn’t willing to give our pals more info on Lauren’s husband, which seems fair. She tells them to stay away, and leaves.
Now, given that we know Euro Cash ALSO had his doubts about Lauren’s guilt, it’s no surprise when he drops off all the old forensics files for Drunkie Howser to look over. Well, no surprise to us: Drunkie Howser’s not expecting it. He gets over his consternation pretty fast, and starts digging into the files, finally landing on a charred hobby horse that was used to start the fire, which he begins to analyze.
Next stop? Euro Cash and Hassell head out to talk to Hippy Girlfriend’s neighbors. Apparently, the person staying in the other flat was only there for one night, but they decide to go look around anyway. That turns out to be a good idea: not only does the apartment have a window that would have allowed someone to sneak away from the scene undetected, they also spot Hippy Girlfriend and her coworker Curator stumbling back to Hippy Girlfriend’s place and kissing in the hallway. Now look: everyone grieves differently, but since there’s a murder on, this isn’t a great look.
Obviously the detectives pop right over to check that out, and hear that the relationship is new, and not something that Yuppy Boyfriend knew about. Hippy Girlfriend had been planning to tell him, and break up, but obviously won’t have to do that now. But she wasn’t the only one keeping secrets: Yuppy Boyfriend hadn’t told her that he’d tracked down Lauren. She’s surprised, but maybe shouldn’t be: it’s clear that he was never able to let go of the murder. He wasn’t a sensitive or nice guy, and he was a sadist. He enjoyed cruelty. But was that because of the crime he witnessed as a kid, or just his nature?
While we ponder the mysteries of human brain development, Citra and Eddie are probably wondering something similar about Alt/Goth Guy, who instead of being upset when they tell him he may be the next victim, thinks it’d be kinda fun. He could be in his own museum! He finally explains that he found Lauren because he wanted to meet a real murderer. Unfortunately for him, that visit didn’t go as he’d hoped, and Lauren and her husband had threatened him. Questions answered, for now, the kids head back to the office where Citra discovers a bunch of missing time on Collector’s security cam, and Eddie finds out that Lauren lied about not knowing anything about restitution: she’s a member of the RAA. They head right over to talk to RAA Activist, who confirms that Lauren is a helpful member of the group.
Meanwhile, Hassell and Euro Cash go back to Lauren’s house, both ignoring phone calls from Lena on the way. Inside, Lauren’s husband is still very angry about having to talk to the cops again, and is even angrier when Hassell pulls him aside for a chat while Euro Cash talks to Lauren solo. Lauren tells our boy that she joined the RAA because her ancestors had been plantation owners, and she wanted to make amends, but she still lied because she didn’t want RAA Activist pulled into this case. Unsurprisingly, Lauren believes in redemption: that it's never too late. Meanwhile, Lauren’s husband basically says that he’s protective because he wants his family to be happy, which is a fair point. They’d had a challenging courtship: Lauren kept trying to dump him, until she finally revealed her history. He got past it, and they’ve been happy… at least until all these people started tracking her down. Hassell’s starting to believe him when Eddie calls and tells her that Lauren’s husband has been lying about something.
Hassell gets Euro Cash to come inside for the update, and then they both turn their attention to Lauren’s husband… who also turns out to have been Yuppy Boyfriend’s counselor. He claims that he sought out Yuppy Boyfriend and offered to help him because he knew Yuppy Boyfriend had contacted Lauren, and he wanted to make sure the other man wasn’t a threat. His take? Yuppy Boyfriend might have been dangerous, and he didn’t regret reaching out. He’d do anything to protect Lauren…. Including murder? We’ll see.
Everyone heads to the bar to talk about the case. They touch on whether a person can move on from a massive loss (Citra mentions her backstory AND that she knows they all know), and come to the main questions: is Lauren guilty now, and was she guilty then? Euro Cash explains why he didn’t think she was guilty then: he thinks she had something called false confession syndrome, which can make people not only confess but also believe what they’ve said. If he’s right, though, there’s another important mystery to solve: who actually killed Lauren’s brothers?
And speaking of mysteries, here’s a big one: why the heck did Lena just roll up to this bar mid case?? Euro Cash gives her a polite brushoff, which she initially goes with, before finally coming back to apologize and ask him to let her explain what happened. Can they at least be friends? Euro Cash says no: his only friends are his coworkers. It’s pretty awkward, but then, what’s new?
Rather than talk about what just happened, Euro Cash takes Citra on a field trip to Alt/Goth Guy’s museum, where the man in question is holding a seance to try and contact Lauren’s brothers. Euro Cash dangles the option for Alt/Goth Guy to help them catch a murderer, which obviously piques his interest. So the next day, Alt/Goth Guy calls up Lauren to tell her that he seance-talked with her siblings, and asks her to meet. She agrees, and Euro Cash makes everyone hide while he goes to run an errand. On his way, Drunkie Howser calls with an update: he was able to pull the killer’s DNA off that hobbyhorse he unearthed earlier.
Back at the meetup, everyone’s getting very restless when finally a woman in a hooded coat sits down on the bench. Alt/Goth Guy has just said hello to Lauren when ACTUAL Lauren, escorted by Euro Cash, runs up and asks everyone to stop. But who’s in the hood? It’s Handler, who Euro Cash accuses of both previous murders and of trying to kill Alt/Goth Guy. Handler isn’t even pretending she isn’t guilty, and pulls out a gun, prompting Eddie to get into a tactical position in case he needs to snipe her. Lauren asks why Handler is doing this, but instead of answering, Handler takes her hostage first, leaving Euro Cash to fill us all in.
It turns out Handler never actually reported Lauren’s meeting with Yuppy Boyfriend. Jan found that out, which is why she killed him. All of Handler’s actions were because she felt that Lauren was wronged by the system, which was too similar to what had happened to Handler’s partner, who she claimed was falsely accused of a crime, which drove him to die by suicide. In a way, Handler was right: Lauren was innocent. The forensics say Yuppy Boyfriend killed Lauren’s brothers. This reveal just makes Handler even more convinced that what she’s done is right, and all of the cops circle, unable to get a clean shot. That is, until Lauren says she killed her brothers, and that the forensics were wrong. That shocks Handler enough to drop her charge and back away, giving the crew a chance to arrest her.
Later, when Euro Cash drops Lauren off, he calls her a hero: her lie saved the day. She says it doesn’t matter if her name is cleared: her brothers are still dead. She also tells him that she remembers him; that he was the only one who treated her fairly. And, that she hopes he’ll find happiness like she has. Euro Cash shakes hands with Lauren’s husband, and they all part on good terms. A satisfying conclusion to the case? Sure. But, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, there’s still important unfinished business: what’s going to happen with Lena? We’ll just have to tune in next week to find out!
