“Footprints” has two endings to reach: escape from the people sent to kill the slow horses, and a decision about the evidence they recover. Survival comes through imperfect teamwork, then the quieter aftermath breaks relationships that the gunfire did not. Catherine and River each face an older person whose idea of protection leaves them with an increasingly difficult account of the past.
- Released
- 27 December 2023
- Runtime
- 44 minutes
- Source novel
- Real Tigers
- Director
- Saul Metzstein
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Watch and read
Open the official programme page or explore the source novel.
Detailed plot
Reveal episode spoilers
River survives the grenade blast, but the group remains under attack inside the archive. Ben is dead, and Louisa gives Donovan a weapon so that he can help keep the Chieftain men back. The document has been found; now somebody has to carry it out. Donovan is wounded during the escape attempt and stays behind to cover River and Louisa. He hands the file on, making the exposure of Alison’s death a task that must continue without him. The search that brought everyone into danger ends with him dying there.
At the family house, Lamb prepares traps against Hobbs and Sturges. Fire and concealed hazards slow them, turning ordinary domestic space into something the attackers cannot cross safely. Sarah is shot but fights Sturges and kills him; Lamb shoots Hobbs as he approaches Catherine. Roddy, having taken cover in a double-decker bus, gets it moving and drives it into the house. His spectacular arrival comes after the immediate threat has already been dealt with, adding a damaging burst of rescue theatre to a fight Lamb has won by less showy means.
Outside the archive, Marcus and Shirley fight to free the route for their colleagues. Shirley gets a better position, survives a jammed weapon and close pursuit, and reaches the escape hatch in time to help River and Louisa. The attackers guarding it are dealt with, and a grenade prevents the remaining men inside from following. Marcus is still facing Duffy. Their confrontation runs out of ammunition and becomes a fist fight. Duffy uses an apparent surrender to reach for a knife, but Louisa strikes him with a concrete block before he can kill Marcus.
The escape exposes the attack beyond MI5’s private control. Taverner has the result she wanted, but the team has paid for it in deaths and injuries. On the journey back, Catherine speaks approvingly of Charles Partner, believing her former boss would have understood the decision to help Donovan. Lamb tells her that Partner sold secrets to the Russians and valued her drinking because it kept her from seeing what he was doing. His account destroys the reassurance Catherine has drawn from that relationship. She quits rather than accept more of Lamb’s treatment.
River takes the file to David Cartwright, hoping the old spy will understand why it matters. David sees a threat to the Service and burns it, presenting the destruction as protection for his grandson. River, however, has already made a copy. The evidence survives the gesture of paternal authority and is leaked. Tearney is removed, Judd loses his position, and Taverner reaches First Desk. Lamb’s final conversation with her makes the promotion sound less like a reward than a warning: responsibility for the next disaster will now belong to her.
Turning points
Reveal turning points
Donovan’s last choice changes the ownership of his campaign. He began by coercing River through Catherine; he ends by relying on River to carry the evidence away. That does not remove the harm he has caused, but it gives his death a purpose beyond revenge. He has to trust the colleagues of the institution he believes murdered Alison.
The rescue is deliberately shared. River and Louisa cannot simply fight their way through every obstacle, and Marcus cannot finish the confrontation with Duffy alone. Shirley’s arrival and Louisa’s intervention show the practical value of colleagues who are not following a tidy hierarchy. They survive because different people act at the necessary moment, not because one officer suddenly becomes an invincible action hero.
Catherine’s resignation is a separate loss, not a minor detail after the gun battle. Lamb saves her from captors and then attacks the meaning she has given to her own history. His disclosure contains information she deserves to know, but the way he delivers it is cruel. She can reject that treatment without becoming ungrateful for the rescue. The scene refuses to make professional loyalty a licence for personal humiliation.
David’s fire presents River with another destructive version of care. His grandfather believes that loyalty to the Service should control what River does with the file. Making a copy allows River to preserve the relationship long enough to hear the advice without handing over the decision itself. The surviving evidence matters because he has stopped treating an older man’s certainty as a substitute for his own judgement.
Book vs show
Reveal book and television spoilers
In the climax of Real Tigers (2016), River stops Duffy with a metal pipe while saving Marcus. Television gives the decisive intervention to Louisa, who hits Duffy with a concrete block.
The novel’s closing political manoeuvre belongs to Lamb, who gives Taverner a folder with the evidence missing. On screen, River preserves a duplicate before David burns the document and takes responsibility for leaking it.
Judd sends the assassin Seb after Lamb at the end of the book, and Lamb shoots him. “Footprints” leaves out that final attack, closing its main confrontations with the recovered file and the ruptures around Catherine and River.
The documents also expose different scandals: Project Waterproof’s secret prisons in the novel become the failed Footprint technology and its cover-up on television.
Characters and actors
Catherine and River each leave the action with a difficult truth to confront. Louisa, Marcus and Shirley share the work of escaping the archive, while Lamb and Roddy complete the house rescue. Donovan’s final stand hands his campaign to the people he originally threatened.
Linked locations
The archive and the Dunn house provide parallel confrontations. David’s home then becomes the place where the recovered evidence is tested against an older loyalty. The final meeting between Lamb and Taverner moves the argument back into public space after the enclosed violence.
Trivia
Saskia Reeves told TheWrap that Catherine’s refusal of Lamb is especially forceful because she rarely swears. The performance turns a familiar stream of abuse from Lamb into a boundary Catherine finally states for herself.
Questions and answers
Does David destroy the only copy of the file?
No. River copies it before the visit, so the burning cannot prevent the evidence from being leaked.
Why does Catherine quit?
Lamb tells her that Charles Partner exploited her alcoholism while selling secrets. The revelation and his cruelty make her refuse to continue on his terms.
Who saves Marcus from Duffy?
Louisa intervenes when Duffy reaches for a knife during their fight. Her blow with the concrete block stops the attack.