Last time we visited Amsterdam, we met a scary mystery assassin, a doofy billionaire, and a conspiracy theorist (and only one of them walked into a bar). And speaking of which, we kick off this week’s episode in Cliff’s bar, where the team uses security footage of the club to start searching for our mystery assassin. Eddie and Hendrik also fill the goth besties in on what they learned re: Tycho’s secret lab/Klink sitting on Ray’s life-saving patent. Everyone agrees that the edited video Tycho played at the club MUST include some kind of encrypted data about his breakthrough, but they still can’t figure out what that would be. Assuming that Klink would also be looking for said info, Piet tells everyone that he’ll go bother the billionaire the next day. When he gets up to get another drink, Hassell follows.
Hassell: You good, dude? You’re acting weirder than normal.
Piet: I thought you might get killed earlier.
Hassell: But I didn’t.
Piet: Yeah, but our whole deal is that the two of us are crime solving buddies without other major relationships in our lives. Is that ok with you?
Hassell: I mean, yeah.
Piet: Same. Also, we promised Hendrik a party on my boat, so we better get cracking.
Reader, when I tell you this party is wilder than many I attended in college, I’m not kidding. Everyone crashes out on various soft surfaces, with the last to fall asleep being Hendrik, who really is unstoppable. Unfortunately for him, his friends were all just pretending to be hammered, and once he passes out, they load him into a shopping cart to wheel him over to an ambulance requisitioned by Dahlman so Lena can run tests on him. Unfortunately for them, he has a liver of steel, and he wakes up before they can finish, yells “I SAID NO,” and stagger runs away. Well, they tried?
The next morning, Piet saunters into Klink’s house (being as rude as possible) to ask some questions. But it turns out you don’t become a billionaire just by enjoying soft turtlenecks and ill-fitting suits: Klink’s done his homework, and gently threatens Piet with the classic “I know where you live” stuff. Piet pretends to be unbothered, and then carries a fresh croissant around the place dropping buttery crumbs while he asks about the patent. Klink denies everything, and then tells Piet he would never sit on a cancer cure. See, there’s one thing Klink loves more than money: being considered better than everyone else. He claims that being the person who solved one of humanity’s biggest problems would be too good to pass up, and honestly this is kind of believable. But it still doesn’t explain the mystery assassin, so I continue to distrust him, as does Piet.
While Piet messes with Klink, Hassell gets a tip that Ruben and Alix are having a fairly public fight, and heads over to investigate. The gist? Alix and Ruben have been friends for a long time, and she supported him when he was dealing with his addiction/money troubles. It seems that Ruben has always carried a bit of a torch for her, and so when she started seeing Tycho, things got weird. Alix admits that she may have led her friend on a bit, lonely while Tycho was working so much, but she doesn’t feel bad: all of the men she was close with had lied to her about the secret lab. She also reveals that Ruben and Ray had a tough relationship: Ruben was desperate for his dad’s approval. While they talk, Kalie checks on Alix’s apartment, which has been trashed. Obviously Alix shouldn’t go back there, so Hassell sends her to stay with her mother, and meets up with Piet so they can talk to Ruben.
At Ruben’s, the goth besties get no answer when they ring the bell. While they wander around looking for a way in, Piet brings up a good point: if Tycho was about to cure cancer, why kill him? Sure, it’d stop him from publishing, but as far as the killers knew, Tycho was still in the middle of research. This question never gets answered, because they find a door ajar, which is worrisome. Investigating, they come upon a very relapsed Ruben on the couch. Thankfully, he’s not dead, but he’s in a bad way when they resuscitate him.
Meanwhile, at the bar, Hendrik pounds espressos and tries to solve the video puzzle, having forgiven Cliff for aiding and abetting Piet’s kidnapping plot earlier. While Hendrik puzzles, the goth besties meet up with Kalie at Alix’s trashed apartment so that Piet and Kalie can bicker whilst Hassell tries to find clues. Returning to the office, Eddie adds another question to the list: how did Tycho know someone was after him? He, after all, knew to set up emergency texting so he could contact the cops. Before they can revisit said emergency text message, however, Hendrik storms in yelling “schnapps!” Why? Because he’s actually yelling CHNOPS, which refers to the constituent parts of a chemical formula: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur. All medical formulae follow this order, so if Tycho actually found something, it’ll be mapped on to that acronym. All they have to do is figure out how the images are connected to the elements!
Yes, they’re a step closer, but still not done, so Piet sends Hendrik back to puzzle jail at the bar. In the meantime, Eddie has found a picture of Klink that just happens to have mystery assassin (who Klink claimed to not know) in the background. Next step? See if our favorite conspiracy theorist Inge knows who the mystery assassin is. Why? Because so far she’s been right about everything. They send Eddie out to talk to Inge, who unfortunately hasn’t seen the mystery assassin but does offer to help with the investigation. While Eddie fends off Inge, the goth besties set out to bother Klink. He pretty quickly caves and says he recognizes the mystery assassin, a woman named Nettie who used to work for him, now that they’ve shown him this new picture of her. Nettie had been Klink’s bodyguard, but she moved on two years ago. He claims not to know where she went. The squad also susses out that Klink and Nettie had a romantic relationship, which Piet proceeds to tease the billionaire about. This… might not have been a great idea, because it prompts Klink to reference Piet’s wife Arlette, who we only know about from horrifying flashbacks of her death.
Very creepy! They head back to the office, where Hendrik has turned into this meme and still has no answers:
What he DOES know is that Kalie has arrived, and is waiting to ask how she can assist. Piet, surprisingly cool about this, asks what she knows about Nettie. This was a good idea: it turns out that Kalie and Nettie trained together back in the day, which means that Kallie knows Nettie pretty well. Our mystery assassin is hard core; Kallie even says that if Nettie had wanted to kill Hassell last episode, she wouldn’t have hesitated to do it. Kallie also points out that Nettie isn’t interested in money or status; it doesn’t make sense for her to work for Klink.
Kallie: She was so intense. One time a guy cheated on her and she ended it that night.
Hassell: What if the same thing happened with Klink? We assumed she was helping him… what if she was working against him?
We might be about to find out. Nettie calls up Klink and asks him to come meet her… by himself. Eddie, who’s casually tailing Klink while reading up on conspiracy theories, calls in to tell everyone Klink is on the move. He also forwards the exact message Tycho sent the emergency line: “If they get me, tell Alix I love her. Ciao Bella.” Having gotten Klink’s new location from Eddie, Piet, Hassell, and Kallie arrive on the scene in Piet’s car. They all split up, quickly zeroing in on Nettie. Surrounding her, they tell her to put her hands up. But she can’t, because Nettie is dead.
Eddie: So, Klink did this, right? He’s probably still nearby, and someone must have seen him. He’s famous!
Piet: It’s dark out though?
Everyone else disagrees, and anyway, it’s worth looking, so they all head out to try and find him. Alas, Piet turns out to have been right: no luck. But Hendrik, who’s arrived to examine Nettie’s body, does find an important clue: scissors that are specific to scientific labs, like the one that Tycho worked at. Which is only a couple of blocks away. Everyone rushes over there, which is good, because at the lab, Ruben has Klink cornered with a scalpel and is forcing him to sign a suicide note. Klink isn’t interested in playing nice, and chucks the pen away, but Ruben has already succeeded in getting Klink’s fingerprints all over the paper. All that’s left is to try and convince Klink to give up the formula, which Ruben insists is his by rights. Before Klink can say anything, the squad arrives, and a standoff ensues.
Ruben: Stay back!
Piet: You were mad at Tycho and your dad, and it had something to do with this guy. Let him talk!
Klink, no self preservation: We lied to you because you couldn’t be trusted. You’re all over the place, dude, you just killed Nettie!
Ruben: Like you care! She just wanted revenge on you so we teamed up. But she was going to kill you without getting the formula, and I couldn’t let that happen again!
Piet: Yeah, it was all personal for her. But here’s the problem, bud: Klink doesn’t have the formula either.
Klink: He’s right. I was just funding them. Ray’s work needed more development, so I set him up to do it; Tycho thought it was behind my back. It was better if he assumed I was the bad guy.
Piet: And they never told you, even when you cleaned up your act, Ruben. They were all off saving the world without you! How’d you find out?
Ruben: I heard dad talking to Klink. About Tycho. That guy took everything from me: my dad, my birthright… ALIX.
Piet: So you figured you’d steal the breakthrough and claim it for yourself? The prodigal?
Ruben: All I wanted was something good. But they just judged me.
Secrets told, Ruben is neutralized, and Piet is able to get the scalpel. While Ruben is led off in cuffs, Piet asks Klink, who turns out not to be totally evil, who would own that formula now.
Piet: I mean, Tycho left it for Alix. Technically.
Klink: What are you saying?
Piet: If we find it, I think she’d want to share it with you. But it’d be her call, and it wouldn’t be about profit. It’d be about helping people.
Klink: I’d be fine with that.
Outside, Piet stalks off to talk to Alix, leaving Hassell an opening to ask Kallie what happened between the two of them.
Kallie: There was something specific… but I never got to tell him.
Ok?? WHAT WAS IT? No idea, because first we got to Alix’s place, where Piet asks about the “ciao bella” part of Tycho’s text. Alix explains that they started saying that to each other after their favorite holiday, prompting Piet to check the back of the photo from said holiday, where he finds the key to the puzzle, clear as can be. But rather than shout it from the rooftops, Piet heads to the bar to wind Hendrik up a bit before he finally shares the key. It works. It also gets Hendrik to tell everyone that the super annoying attempted kidnapping for testing thing has convinced him: he will go to the doctor. And THAT is how we end the season: with Hendrik walking into the doctor’s office as everyone else waits outside for him. Hopeful? Certainly. Uncertain? Yes. Answers? Possibly forthcoming in a future season, but that’s also uncertain. In the meantime, don’t miss our other fabulous dramas this season: Moonflower Murders, The Marlowe Murder Club, and a reprisal of Wolf Hall.
