Yet more innocent victims were slain by the Brigada Serbilu in Baptiste’s bloody penultimate episode, after a shock betrayal left the French detective (Tchéky Karyo) with even fewer people to trust.
***Warning: major spoilers ahead for Baptiste episode five***
Martha (Barbara Sarafian) is now suspected of corruption, the reason behind Genevieve’s (Jessica Raine) obsession with Constantin (Alec Secareanu) was revealed, and the remainder of Edward’s (Tom Hollander) family was brutally murdered.
Here, we recap the events of Baptiste episode five and pose a few questions about what might be in store in the show’s finale…
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What we learned from Baptiste episode five
Genevieve wants to take down Constantin for hospitalising her undercover lover
Ever since Genevieve appeared on the scene, her determination to punish the Brigada Serbilu has seemed to exceed the realms of professionalism. Her desperation to take them down – as well as the link-chart devoted to Constantin in her apartment – has long suggested she’s had more of a personal connection to the case than she’s let on.
And sure enough, in episode five we found out why. In a tense conversation between Genevieve and Constantin when he lets himself into her car, we discovered that Genevieve was having an affair with Lucas (Marc De Hond) – the paralysed man she visits in hospital – while he was working undercover for her in the Brigada Serbilu.
Genevieve had embedded Lucas within the Romanian gang and it was her sexual affair with him that ultimately broke his cover and led to Constantin’s men hospitalising him.
Now, she is trying to avenge Lucas – and no doubt alleviate some of her own guilt – by bringing down Constantin and the Brigada.
The stolen money is now tied up in a boat in Constantin’s name
In order to trap Constantin and get him on-side, Baptiste and Genevieve joined forces and devised a plan to tie up the stolen €1 million in a luxury boat, purchased in cash in Constantin’s name.
This, they reasoned, would leave the Romanian thug with only two choices: a) help them bring down the Brigada Serbilu in exchange for legal immunity and a new identity, or b) find himself at the merciless hands of his superiors who, on discovery of the purchase, would assume he had stolen the money for himself.
Edward’s family are now all dead – as is Constantin
Everywhere the Brigada Serbilu goes, they leave a trail of corpses in their wake.
Having gone to the effort of stealing back the money and hiding his ex-wife Claire (Clare Calbraith) and her new partner Carl (David Michaels) away in a caravan somewhere in England, Edward returned from a trip to the shop to find the last surviving members of his family brutally murdered by the Brigada Serbilu.
Constantin’s colleague Nicolai (Zachary Baharov) was still in the caravan when Edward returned and somehow Edward managed to stab him.
Meanwhile, back in Amsterdam, having made the logical decision to help the police, Constantin was packing his bags to go and meet Baptiste and Genevieve, but didn’t get very far; moments later we saw him crash to the pavement, dead, seemingly flung from his balcony.
Questions we have for the Baptiste series finale
What happened to Cristina after her failed attempt to escape?
After being introduced to Natalie’s (Anna Próchniak) younger sister Cristina (Freya Kingsley) at the beginning of the series, we haven’t had many updates on her story – until now.
In episode five, we saw Cristina and her friend attempt to flee the sex trafficking ring holding them captive by stabbing one of their captors with a shard of glass from a broken window and running to hide.
Just as the men got close to finding them, Cristina’s friend called out to let them know where they were and then, to save herself, claimed the escape attempt was all Cristina’s idea.
What is going to happen to Cristina now? Will the gang punish her? And will she ever manage to escape?
What did Kim’s boyfriend find in the box?
Kim’s (Talisa Garcia) boyfriend Greg (Trystan Gravelle) was so consumed with grief that he almost missed a letter sent to him posthumously by Kim via her lawyer. In the note, she’d written that she wished she had had the courage to tell him the “truth behind the make-up”.
At first, it simply resurfaced all the fury Greg felt about being lied to, but then he realised that the letter was a clue. He found the hatch behind Kim’s make-up cabinet, in which she had hidden her hormone injections and a key to a storage unit – and before long he’d tracked down a single box filled with photos of Kim as a young boy, before she transitioned, and a brown envelope addressed to him.
What’s in the envelope and how will it link back to the rest of the story? Could it be information that leads to Cristina?
Is Martha really corrupt?
When Edward informed Baptiste that Claire and her partner were dead, the French detective racked his brains to figure out how the Brigada Serbilu could have possibly known where they were.
Then Baptiste had the sobering realisation that the only person who could have known where Edward and his family were hiding was Martha, as she had phoned him while he was there so she must have traced the call.
Back in episode two, Natalie had warned Baptiste that half the Amsterdam police force were corrupt and being paid off by the Brigada – could Martha be in cahoots with them? And if so, did she also snitch on Constantin for planning to help the police? It does seem to make sense…
Is Baptiste’s family in danger?
At the beginning of the episode, as Baptiste’s family prepared to move to another safe house, he told his wife Celia (Anastasia Hille) that he had discovered Niels (Boris Van Severen) is his son. Celia took the honesty and timing of this revelation as a sign that Baptiste was worried he might never see her again.
And then later, after Constantin was thrown off his balcony, Baptiste called his French friend who had been protecting his family to tell him to “be alert”.
Baptiste’s family has been in danger ever since the French detective took on the case in Amsterdam, with the Brigada Serbilu’s modus operandi being to target the loved ones of those they wish to blackmail. With a police leak resulting in the death of Edward’s family – and the Romanian gang on another murderous rampage – could Baptiste’s family be next on their list?
This article was originally published on 17 March 2019
from Radio Times http://bit.ly/2E0CMEV
