Ah fall. The perfect season to return to Van Der Valk, everyone’s favorite cocktail of grumpy emo detectives, esoteric crimes, and the always gorgeous setting that is Amsterdam. We’ve got three delightful cases coming our way, and if you need a refresher on what happened previously, recaps for all the previous season are here.

The Case:

Two men hang out in empty but fancy digs, each guarded by one cop. Apparently, reader, important witnesses in Amsterdam get to stay in some VERY swanky safehouses. I would be jealous, except that both witnesses are clearly terrified (and given how this show usually goes down, they probably should be). Anyway, the city safe house elevator dings and then opens to reveal… grocery bags? Since nobody ordered anything, this is alarming, and causes city safehouse cop to call up country safehouse cop. Everything seems fine in the country, and as it happens, it’s also ok in the city safe house: the food was just brought by the witness’ lawyer, who’s scared of elevators.

JUST KIDDING: the witness in the countryside — Gregor — gets choked to death by an attacker hiding behind a shower curtain, a top fear of mine that I’m honestly a little pleased to see vindicated even by a tv show. ANYWAY, not good! And now our friends are involved. Let’s review who that is, shall we?

Piet Van Der Valk (aka, in my previous recaps, as Euro Cash): fearless loner leader of the team. We all hopefully remember Piet since this is, ya know, his show.
Lucienne Hassell: Piet’s BFF, total badass, wears a lot of cool leather jackets.
Julia Dahlman (aka Big Cheese): The boss, who alas has do deal with Piet’s nonsense.
Hendrik Davie (aka Drunkie Howser): The delightfully wacky medical examiner, who spends his off time (and sometimes case time) playing saxophone and partying.
Eddie Suleman: The new kid from last season. An accomplished sniper, and yet, compared to everyone else, almost normal.

Eddie’s been dispatched to keep an eye on the city witness, whilst our favorite goth besties Piet and Hassell have headed out to the country. Hassell explains that Gregor was a whistleblower against a woman called BiBi Franken, who is apparently a drug kingpin (queenpin?). We also learn that the city whistleblower is BiBi’s son, which I have to assume will make for a weird family reunion no matter the outcome of the upcoming trial. And speaking of weird reunions… that cop who was watching Gregor? She and Piet know each other, and like many people who know Piet, she is NOT a fan. I’m guessing ex girlfriend, but we’ll see!

Inside, Piet takes the opportunity to belittle the country safehouse cop (whose name is apparently Kalie) and ignore Hendrik, who has relevant info we’ll have to wait to learn due to Piet’s petty nonsense. Hendrik is annoyed, and honestly, I’m not charmed enough by either Piet OR Kalie to disagree with him on this, so it’s a bit of a relief when both cops stalk off in a huff. Outside, they go over what happened: the killer somehow murdered Gregor and snuck off in less than 20 minutes, and there’s no sign of where he went. That’s not a lot of time, and all the backup officers were looking for the murderer, so Piet doesn’t buy it. That, or he’s just REALLY eager to accuse Kalie of being the killer. Looking around, he has a brainwave: what if the killer hasn’t left the house yet?

Piet heads inside, grabs Hassell, and goes upstairs to check the attic. Of course, all the lights are off… which is how Piet, messing with a light switch, realizes there’s a hidden closet they haven’t searched. He’s about to look inside when the killer fires his gun through the door and then runs off. Piet gets a shot off, but misses, so the killer runs down into the bathroom, only to meet his match when Hendrik knocks him out with a mystery drug and then promptly heads back to the station like the absolute champion he is. Unfortunately, on his way out, Hendrik coughs a bunch of blood into a handkerchief. Reader, I’ll be real with you: if my absolute favorite weirdo on this show gets taken out by illness like a consumption-ridden lady in a period drama, I will be VERY put out.

Anywho, back upstairs the crew find a stash of stuff that tells us that the killer had been hiding in the safehouse the whole time, and intended to walk out in forensic gear after the murder. Hard to root for a drug queenpin, but I do have to give credit where it’s due: that’s a smart plan. Kalie’s gutted: this place was vetted and searched! What happened? And there’s another mystery: in Gregor’s wallet they find a news clipping about a woman who died mysteriously. Why? I’m sure we’ll find out, once Piet and Kalie stop glaring at each other.

Back in the city, BiBi’s disappointing traitor son Daan talks to his lawyer, who reassures him that no one will blame him if he wants to back down. But the son is adamant: he wants to stand up to his mom, finally! The lawyer and cop both back this play very nobly, which means that Eddie is stuck watching the apartment from a sniper hide all night. The next morning, Piet denies Eddie a breakfast delivery (harsh) and explains that Citra, who we met last season, is off with Europol, and presumably won’t be returning for season 4. Booo. On the plus side, Dahlman’s dog Sniffer IS back, and as adorable as ever. It’s a good thing Piet gets to see the dog too, because he’s just gotten some bad news: he’ll be assisting in the witness transfer to the secure compound where the trial will be held, and thus, in the crosshairs. It’s like he doesn’t know he’s got the ultimate plot armor of having a show named after him!

Anyway, we get more background on BiBi: apparently, she’s gotten away with her crimes in the past partly because she keeps buying off judges. And, Piet suggests, cops. Dalhman isn’t convinced, but they agree they need to check everything out. One hiccup? The guy guarding Daan actually isn’t a cop at all: he works for a private security firm. I don’t love that, given BiBi’s apparent penchant for bribery and/or blackmail, but our team is more worried about investigating the rest of the Franken family. She’s untouchable (hunkering down in a private compound) but her other son Xavi, who runs a vegan cafe and apparently isn’t involved in the family business, is fair game. Also fair game? Gregor’s killer, who the goth besties take into an interrogation room. Their plan to threaten him doesn’t work (hard to threaten a guy who works for a murderous drug queenpin) so the two head into the bullpen to have another tense conversation with Kalie, who’s here to debrief with Dalhman (and glower at Piet). Yeah, confirmed: they used to date, but it doesn’t matter, because Piet and Lena are in “a very good place.” Piet also doesn’t want to talk about Mandy, whoever that is. Instead, he and Hassell go over to chat with vegan cafe owner Xavi.

Xavi is, unsurprisingly, rather jumpy. He denies any connection to his mom or brother (bold, given that BiBi apparently bankrolls the cafes) and isn’t thrilled to be asked to call his mother. But he still does it. Next stop? Daan. When the goth besties arrive, they check in with Eddie, sending him to look at a mysterious van that’s parked across the street from the safehouse (and get a snack while he’s at it), while they head inside. Piet tells Daan’s security man that he’ll be going along to the hearing, which is not appreciated, but given that the other witness was murdered, Daan agrees. While they wait, Piet asks what Gregor was going to say at the trial. The whistleblowers’ lawyer doesn’t want to say, but when Hassell brings up Gregor’s pocket newspaper clipping, it becomes clear that Daan recognizes the dead woman’s name — Sophie. They also get a call from Xavi: BiBi wants to meet Piet. He declines in a typical Piet way (i.e. very rude) which I’m sure she’ll love!

Across the street, Eddie, cramming a pastry in his mouth, checks out the van. Unfortunately, he doesn’t check out his surroundings, and gets knocked out and shoved in the back of said van. Inside, Daan’s security man finally agrees to share his actual plan with Piet after a tense bro-off. Meanwhile, Hassell heads out to talk to Sophie’s mother. Apparently, Sophie had been hit by a car and killed while coming home from work. The case went unsolved due to a lack of evidence and witnesses, which is odd given the extremely public location where Sophie died. Sophie’s mom doesn’t know what her daughter had been doing for a living; they had become estranged over an argument despite being each others’ only family.

Meanwhile, BiBi rocks up to the bar where the squad hangs out (so she definitely has good intel on the team) and threatens the owner, Cliff, which takes her to the tippy top of my no-no list. I like Cliff! Cliff has done more for this squad than some of the actual cops! Back at the safehouse, Piet and the security team put on their bulletproof vests and take Daan and the lawyer into a waiting convoy. Piet makes a last call to Hassell, asking her to check on Eddie, and getting a suggestion in return that he ask Daan one more time about Sophie. In the car, he asks Daan why he betrayed his mom, especially when it seemed like he was about to take over. Daan, offended, says he was planning to take the business in a different direction: going legit. Next, Piet asks about Sophie. Before Daan can answer, Piet notices a few possible threats, which the security team seems to effectively neutralize. They pull into the compound, where everything should be safe, and run into an issue: the armed guards in front of the door won’t let Daan’s lawyer, who traveled in a separate car, through the barricade. Daan’s security and Piet both get out of the car to help, telling Daan to stay behind. They walk the lawyer inside, and then signal the car to pull up. As it nears, Piet notices a suspicious light underneath the car, and orders Daan to get out NOW. But he can’t: the child locks are on. The car explodes, sending Piet and the security team flying. While Piet tries to get his bearings, he gets a call from BiBi who rather ominously tells him he should have met with her earlier.

Later, the team debriefs. Eddie is still missing, and Daan is, unsurprisingly, dead. The Daan’s security man has been sent to the hospital, badly injured. They can’t figure out how Eddie would have been captured: was it the van, or is there a mole inside the force? Piet’s thinking the latter, possibly because he reallllly wants to blame Kalie for all this, but Dahlman isn’t convinced. He also tells everyone about the threatening phonecall from BiBi, which Hassell points out is an admission of guilt. Unfortunately, it isn’t enough to haul her in. Dahlman is willing to let the goth besties do what they do best (weird stuff that isn’t quite by the book) but they need to keep her looped in, and Piet has to stay away from BiBi unless he has backup. And Hassell. They agree to her terms, and while Hendrik gets to work examining the new bodies, the dynamic duo head off to talk to the lawyer. He insists that he didn’t have anything to do with the murders of both witnesses (for what it’s worth, I believe him) and is saved further interrogation by Hassell getting new info: Sophie, rather predictably, had worked for the Franken family before her death. Given that both Gregor and Daan knew her, it’s safe to say that they had something to do with it. Piet asks the lawyer one last question: BiBi said to meet her. Where would she be? The chilling answer? Wherever would mess with him the most. And where would that be? We’ll just have to come back next week to find out!