Returns

After the escape from the attacker, Chapman tells Lamb that his connection to Les Arbres cannot safely be discussed with the Park. His fear is not only of the man pursuing him. Revealing what he did for David would expose an operation that ordinary Service procedures cannot excuse. Lamb brings him back towards Slough House while managing Taverner’s questions about River. Chapman has information the investigation needs, but the organisation officially investigating the bombing is also one of the organisations he needs to avoid.

Harkness meets the representative of the foreign interests employing him. Westacres was meant to be a discreet assassination, not a spectacular bombing, and the failure has made him expendable. Threatened with torture and death, he argues that killing him now would leave dangerous witnesses able to reveal the connection. He buys time by promising to remove the people who know what happened. Back with Patrice, he insists that the work must be completed. The professional bargain outside his family becomes another demand for obedience inside it.

At Slough House, Chapman explains the French exchange. David sent him with a car carrying weapons, explosives, money and prepared identities. In return, Chapman brought a young woman back to Britain, where she subsequently escaped his supervision. The supplies connect the Service’s earlier conduct to the identities now appearing in the bombing investigation. Catherine also has to report David’s disappearance. His insistence on speaking to First Desk gives Lamb an idea: David may be heading to the old headquarters remembered from his working life rather than the Park as it operates now.

That building has become a hotel. Catherine and Chapman reach David before Flyte’s team can take him, and Chapman helps get him into Lamb’s taxi. At the current headquarters, Whelan confronts Taverner with Giti’s discovery of the Adam Lockhead identity. River’s use of the passport provides a route for the Dogs to track his return. Flyte goes to St Pancras, but River runs through the station and reaches the Underground before she can stop him. Harkness is also watching the arrivals, without announcing his presence to either side.

Chapman separates from Lamb’s group and goes back to his office to recover the money he needs to disappear. Patrice is already waiting. The refuge becomes a place of capture, leaving Chapman exposed to a man demanding David’s whereabouts. River reaches his grandfather’s house and searches through old possessions. A childhood card carries imagery resembling the painting at Les Arbres, making the French clues personally familiar. He conceals himself when the Dogs arrive and waits until they appear to have gone. Flyte has anticipated the move and stays behind. River emerges to find that this time his attempt to evade her has failed.