Fiasco

The escaped members of Slough House come together to decide what they can do next. Struan remains compromised and Sid is in hospital. Lamb explains the danger of Taverner’s operation and the way his own department is being positioned to take responsibility for its failure. River arrives with something more useful than enthusiasm: he remembers where he has seen Alan Black before, and knows that there is a photograph connecting Black to Taverner.

The picture comes from River’s surveillance of Taverner during his training. It would undermine her claim that the kidnapping can be laid at Lamb’s door. The obstacle is its location: a copy is held inside Regent’s Park, in Webb’s possession. Lamb and River set out to recover it. Catherine takes charge of the colleagues left behind, who continue working on the missing hostage and the van used by the kidnappers.

Lamb arrives at the Park in deliberately conspicuous fashion, playing the Proclaimers loudly in the car and drawing security attention towards himself. He allows the confrontation to move inside, where Taverner offers him a route out of prosecution in exchange for accepting her version of events and losing his career. Lamb stretches the encounter by announcing that the vehicle he brought back has a bomb in its boot, forcing the security response to look elsewhere.

River uses the diversion to get into the building through the parking area and reach Webb’s office. He finds the photograph in a folder labelled Fiasco and confronts the colleague whose actions contributed to his exile. The personal grievance and the immediate mission briefly coincide. River retrieves the evidence and brings it to Taverner, converting a memory of an old assessment into leverage against the present attempt to frame the team.

Outside London, the kidnappers continue arguing over Hassan. Zeppo has obtained a gun and uses it to challenge Curly’s insistence on an execution. The men talk about reaching a boat and getting away, with Hassan suggesting that his wealthy uncle could pay for his release. Their van needs fuel. Because the captors are covered in blood, Hassan is forced to go out and fill the tank himself, moving through a public space without being able to turn it into an escape.

After the stop, Hassan performs jokes for the men in the car. For a moment, laughter changes the atmosphere and distracts them from their disagreements. It also gives Curly an opening. He takes the gun and shoots Zeppo, destroying the brief challenge to his authority. At the Park, the photograph has forced Taverner to stop pursuing the Slough House frame-up and concentrate on Hassan. In the van, the hostage has just lost the captor who had begun resisting Curly’s plan.