Boardroom Politics

River wakes restrained at the flying club. Chernitsky leaves for London, while Alex prepares to take the aircraft and Katinsky tells River that the Glasshouse is the intended target. The building links the apparent bomb threat to both Pashkin’s meeting and Peter Judd’s public appearance. River cannot stop the departure. His immediate task is to get anybody to hear him while bound on the floor, and he eventually manages to contact the Tropper family.

Duncan and Kelly arrive and release him, but they do not immediately accept that Alex is a Russian sleeper agent or that their guest is an MI5 officer. Her farewell note and abandoned wedding ring make denial harder. River explains the threat and calls it in as Code September. Taverner questions the certainty behind his report; he takes responsibility for it. The emergency response begins, and she removes Judd from the public gathering as the building is ordered to evacuate.

Lamb obtains access to Regent’s Park through Duffy and visits Molly Doran in the records department. Katinsky’s original account of himself is less convincing when Lamb considers it alongside the current operation. The supposed minor defector looks increasingly like somebody who hid his importance. The paperwork produces a more personal shock: Lamb’s name appears on the admission record, although he was away on a secret operation when the relevant action was taken. Someone inside the Service used his identity to endorse the man he is now investigating.

Catherine returns to Krymov and offers a contest rather than another request. If she loses their chess game, she will drink; if she wins, he must tell her what he knows. She wins, then has to apply further pressure when he attempts to withhold the promised information. The intermediary was dealing with Katinsky, not Pashkin, and involving Slough House was part of the arrangement. Catherine tells Lamb that the operation seems directed at him. The archive evidence gives her conclusion a foundation he cannot dismiss.

Louisa and Marcus meanwhile check the Russians and escort them to Webb’s meeting. Louisa is determined to scrutinise the details, but the apparent normality of the preparations conceals a gun. As the evacuation alarm sounds, Pashkin takes control instead of leaving. Louisa tells Webb that Nevsky is dead. Webb’s refusal to understand the changed situation ends when Pashkin shoots him. Marcus brings a concealed weapon into play and wounds Kyril, but the confrontation leaves the agents caught inside the building the emergency has emptied. The warning has reached London without making the people at its centre safe.