Somehow, reader, we’re on to the last case of the season (and we still don’t have an update on the most important case yet: Hendrik’s self-diagnosed throat cancer). Speaking of which: our episode kicks off with Piet and Hendrik chilling by a fire while Piet tries to talk Hendrik into getting a second opinion.
Hendrik: I’m a medical examiner, pal. I’ve got the lust for death of a Victorian maiden and a medical degree on my side. I know when I’m beat.
Piet: What you’ve GOT is a bad attitude. You could be wrong, you know.
Hendrik: Oh I’VE got a bad attitude? You’re a grumpy, blunt, stubborn jerk and I learned it from watching YOU. This is my life and my decision to make.
Piet: Fair enough. But what about the people who care about you?
Hendrik: None of my many ex-wives will mourn me.
Piet: Funny enough, I wasn’t talking about them. No man is an island, bro.
Hendrik: You are!
Look, I definitely want Hendrik to get that second opinion, but it’s also very reasonable for him to call Piet out on ALL of this. And anyway, we have a case to worry about: a man named Alix finishes editing a video rather ominously called The Judas Kiss before sending it off via email. Once done, he says goodbye to his sleeping partner and bikes across town to knock on the door of a man named Ray.
Alix: I figured it out!
Ray: How are you going to protect her?Alix: Don’t worry, I have a plan. We have a moral obligation to the world to release this info. I’ll be ok: I’m bomb-proof.
Famous last words. The two men hug, both clearly very afraid, and then Alix heads to a club. There, he confirms that the video went through to club owner Jurgen, and in the process reveals that HE isn’t Alix; that’s his partner’s name. He pretended to be her when he sent that video! Across town, Ray’s son finds his father in a somber mood, which prompts the son to send a text to the real Alix. A text which reads “night x.” Back at the club, a woman named Inge approaches the man we knew as Alix and says she knows who he is, and that he works for Big Pharma. What is he up to? He brushes her off and leaves, but not without catching the notice of a menacing woman in a leather jacket, who chases after him, beats him up, and asks where “it” is. On being told she’ll never find it, she unceremoniously snaps his neck and throws him off the roof to his death.
The next morning, the squad assembles to investigate his murder. First up, we find out that his name was Tycho, and that Eddie knows the approximate speed of a falling body. It’s not immediately clear that Tycho was pushed, except that he texted the police emergency number right before he died: “if they get to me, tell Alix I love her.” Hendrik also finds a bunch of tiny circular bruises on his arms: tiny circular bruises left by fingers when mystery lady pushed Tycho off the roof.
Inside, Hassell interviews Jurgen, who explains that Alix and Tycho used to come to the club together. Tycho had been on edge, and had a little argument with a lady with pink hair. Jurgen also says his club doesn’t have CCTV, which isn’t ideal for our pals. Hassell leaves him with her card, and takes Piet to tell Alix her partner is dead. Alix… does not take this well. There are thrown vases involved. Once Alix stops breaking things, Piet leaves to go poke around the house, finding Tycho’s locked computer and chemistry notes. Alix, who’s much more calm now, explains that Tycho worked in medical research, with a focus on gene editing. Alix explains that this type of research can help cure diseases. Specifically, cancer.
Hassell: Can you think of any reason Tycho would think he was in danger?Alix: I have no idea he did!
Hassell passes on the message Tycho had texted the police, and then asks why Tycho would have gone to Alix’s film screening when she didn’t. Could he have been cheating, possibly with pink hair lady? Alix insists that would be impossible: Tycho lived for his work. And she doesn’t know any woman with pink hair. Piet asks about Alix’s film, which turns out to have been about parasites (inspired by Tycho’s work on cancer). And as they’re about to wrap up the interview, the answering machine picks up a message from Ray, who’s called to check on Tycho. Piet picks up the phone and introduces himself.
Ray: Is Tycho ok?
Piet: No.
Ray: Where can we meet?
Hassell and Piet head off to chat with Ray. While they wait for him, Hassell says that if Hendrik doesn’t want to go to the doctor, he doesn’t have to. Piet’s insistent, but Hassell correctly points out that Hendrik is just like Piet, so… good luck forcing him to do anything. Ray approaches, followed on foot by the woman from the club, Inge (who in daylight has very noticeably pink hair). But something is wrong: a motorcyclist is driving the wrong way down the sidewalk toward Ray! Everyone runs to stop her, but they’re not fast enough. She shoots Ray, wings Hassell, and drives off. Inge also runs, but since she’s on foot, Eddie catches up to her. Unfortunately for him, Inge’s not about to go without a fight, and knees him in the groin before escaping. Just a bad day for our squad all around.
Back at the office, Hendrik explains that based on the pattern of shots and the fact that she was on a speeding motorcycle, they can assume the killer was experienced. She’d also snapped Tycho’s neck before she threw him off the roof. So: probably a professional. Eddie chimes in with an interesting tidbit: Alix had told Piet that Tycho worked primarily at the science library. But when Eddie spoke to them, they said they’d never seen Tycho. Where was he working? And why lie? Another interesting fact: Ray used to work for a Richard Branson/Elon Musk type called Freddie Klink (hilarious) as his Chief Science Officer. Clearly they need to talk to Freddie Klink, but, being a billionaire, he’ll be hard to schedule. Fortunately for them, he’s meeting the King that afternoon for a clean water thing, and their department is doing the security. Or more accurately, Piet’s evil ex Kalie is. Piet heads off to chat with Ray’s son, who’s here to identify his father’s body, and on the way, tells Dahlman he might need her help with a Hendrik thing.
Downstairs, Ray’s son Ruben makes a positive identification of his father’s body. Ruben tells Piet that someone visited his father around ten the night before, and it might have been Tycho. But Ruben doesn’t know why Tycho would have come over: Tycho had been Ray’s research assistant back in the day, but that was a long time ago. Ruben has no idea why his father would be targeted, and suggests that Ray’s role with Freddie Klink’s company had been an honorary position, offered only because Ray and Klink had a history. Upstairs, Hassell finds out that Ruben himself has a shady past (drugs and antisocial behavior) and immediately brings that info to Piet so they can ask Ruben about it. He tells them he’s been clean for years and has moved on.
Ruben is obviously going to be under surveillance, which means the next step is to try and talk to Klink. But Eddie has, predictably, had zero luck setting up a meeting. Enter Kalie, who offers her help, only to be rebuffed by Piet. Thankfully, she takes pity on Hassell and Eddie, and tells them where they can find their absurdly wealthy target later. As she leaves, Hassell finds Inge via news coverage. It turns out that Inge is a conspiracy theorist who thinks Klink is a shape-shifting lizard. She’ll be giving a speech on aliens that morning; a perfect opportunity to corner her for questioning.
While our pals prepare to interrogate Inge and Klink, Jurgen asks Alix about Tycho. Was everything ok? Why was he so stressed about work lately? And why did she put a bunch of weird images in her film? Before she can reply to that last part, her doorbell rings: Ruben is outside.
Ruben: I wanted to see you. I’m sorry about Tycho.
Alix: You need to leave.
Ruben: Fine. I just thought you’d want to know my dad is dead too. Bye.
Not great! Also not great? Dahlman’s reaction to Piet’s apparently extremely harebrained scheme to kidnap Hendrik (presumably to force him to get tested by a living people doctor). She’s not at all amused, and shuts Piet down completely. Meanwhile, Hassell corners Inge at her alien speech and makes her talk. Inge explains that she’d learned that Ray and Tycho both used to work for Klink, but had a falling out. She was trying to find out why. She followed Ray because she thought there was a connection between him and Tycho’s death. She also thinks Klink silenced both scientists, and while Inga IS a conspiracy theorist with some wacky ideas, this one might hold water, in my humble opinion. The majority of Klink’s money comes from pharmaceuticals: it’d be logical for him to shut down any possible cures for disease!
Inge: I don’t actually think he’s a reptile, you know. That rumor was spread to discredit me because I was criticizing him. He’s a bad guy; you don’t become a billionaire if you’re not.
Hassell: Aren’t you worried you could be a target too?
Inge: LMAO. No? If you kill a conspiracy theorist it validates their ideas. Killing me would only make them look guiltier.
Against her better judgment, Hassell is compelled by both this argument, and by Inge herself. While she ponders conspiracy, Piet takes Eddie to intercept Freddie Klink.
Eddie: Don’t touch him, by the way. He hates that.
Piet, of course, immediately pats Klink on the shoulder whilst mispronouncing his name. Klink’s extremely unamused, but too bad: they’ve cornered him. Klink tells Piet that Ray had been a good guy: he’d helped Klink in the early days, so when the money came in, Ray had been hired in an advisory capacity. He oversaw research, but like Ruben, Klink suggests that Ray’s role was in name only. He bristles when Piet suggests that Ray was killed by a professional, and claims no knowledge of Tycho. Sick of talking to our pals, Klink gets into his waiting car, and immediately makes a call asking for more information.
At Alix’s home, Hassell arrives to ask about Freddie Klink. Alix seems surprised: why would Tycho or Ray mention Klink? Alix claims she didn’t know Ray all that well; she certainly didn’t know he used to work for Klink. She also didn’t know a lot about Tycho’s research. She’s shocked and baffled at the revelation that Tycho had never been to the science library. Why would he lie? Alix does share that Tycho had been extra obsessed with work lately, and finally, she shows Hassell the video Tycho had sent to Jurgen. Alix has no idea what any of the added images mean, unfortunately, but at least it’s a start!
Hassell naturally brings the video footage back with her, and when the group heads to Cliff’s bar later, she and Piet fob it off on Hendrik (who, after all, has already finished his part of the job). While Hendrik drinks and puzzles, Inge figures something out. And at the club, the leather jacket assassin pretends to be a police officer so that she can question Jurgen. He initially seems to buy it, but then asks if she was at the club the night before. She claims she was there in the morning with her colleagues, but it’s not totally convincing. Perhaps that’s why Jurgen doesn’t tell her about the video. Instead, he calls Hassell and tells her about mystery lady… or starts to. She stops him at gunpoint, hanging up the phone, and then resuming her questioning. Hassell and Piet immediately head to the club to follow that up just as Inge arrives at the bar, so they leave her with Eddie and Hendrik.
Inge: I found something on the dark web: Ray and Tycho had a patent. I think Klink bought it and sat on whatever Ray found.
Promising! Also promising? Tech just informed Hendrik that they were able to track Tycho’s movements via his phone, including the address he visited every day. Hendrik immediately heads out to investigate, followed by Eddie, who leaves Inge with Cliff.
At the club, scary leather assassin lady makes Jurgen sit at the piano and put his hands on the keys. She tells him she will slam the lid down on his fingers unless he tells the truth, and then asks for more info on Tycho. Terrified, Jurgen tells her that Tycho usually came in with his girlfriend, the one who did the videos. He tells her that Tycho had sent in Alix’s last video, and he didn’t understand why. Outside, Hassell and Piet divvy up the various entrances to the club. But they’re too late: scary leather jacket assassin lady shoots Jurgen in the head. Piet pursues, but it seems like she’ll get away: she even opens the alley door into Hassell, knocking our friend down and taking her gun. Piet arrives, making this a standoff, which goes pretty much as you’d expect: Piet can’t take a chance that the assassin kills Hassell, and puts his gun down. She runs away, and while they’re both shaken, they now know that scary assassin lady is for sure a professional. It’s serious enough that Piet even suggests calling in Kalie to protect Alix.
Across town, Hendrik and Eddie find themselves in a busy lab. A busy lab being supervised by… Ray’s son Ruben? Ruben explains that Tycho was the brains of the operation, and also very secretive: he kept certain information completely hidden from the workers. But why hide all this? Ruben explains that their funding source was top secret: it had been Ray. See, Ray had made a breakthrough, but it needed more work. Inge was right: Klink had bought out the patent. Ray had to take the money to get Ruben out of trouble; Klink had basically blackmailed Ray with Ruben’s drug issues and debt. Once Ruben cleaned up, Ray had used the remaining money to pay Tycho to continue the work… behind Klink’s back. Sounds like motive to me!
Did Klink knowingly pay mystery assassin lady, or was that someone on his team? How much does Alix really know? What do the symbols mean? And will this breakthrough solve Hendrik’s problem? Answers (hopefully) in next week’s season finale!
