Van Der Valk Season 4 Episode 1 Review: Safe in Amsterdam: Part 1

On Van Der Valk Season 4 Episode 1, “Safe in Amsterdam: Part 1,” we return from a long hiatus to almost immediately launch our characters back into the lines of kidnapping, explosions, and more.

Two potential witnesses are being guarded in separate locations. One is soon killed, putting the agent sent to protect him under scrutiny. This is Kalie, and a couple tense conversations with Van Der Valk make it clear the two have history.

As details emerge about the case the witnesses were set to testify in, in which a young woman was killed, the second witness’s family comes into the forefront. The mother, Bebe, appears to be a sort of mafia head who would have her own children killed.

Soon enough, she just does that with a car bomb that also leaves Piet injured. She invites to him a meeting shortly after. Along the way, Eddie is kidnapped and Hendrik, shortly after helping Van Der Valk and Lucienne, is seen coughing up blood.

Especially given the many months since leaving off with season three, it feels like we really hit the ground running with this return. Though there’s significant reflection on Piet’s romantic past, we otherwise see little of the characters’ personal lives.

Even that past is very much up in the air. We know that whatever happened between him and Kalie, it ended badly enough that he’s now constantly suspicious of her. It’s understandable given that a man died on her watch, but it does feel a bit forced.

The backstory to this episode’s case is also only touched on long enough to give us a chance to meet with the dead girl’s mother. We don’t yet know exactly what our victims would have said in testimony, or how it got them killed—one by his own mother.  

It should be noted that when these episodes first aired overseas, they aired as three longer episodes as opposed to six shorter ones. This formatting likely heightens awkward pacing as answers to our questions naturally come in the second half of a plot.

The first half places more emphasis on generating tension and energy and it does this in spades with the kinds of life-threatening stakes usually reserved for season finales. It’s anxiety-inducing just to see how it takes everyone to realize Eddie is missing.

As for Hendrick, we get only the briefest hint that he might be ill, so I suspect we’ll be waiting longer for follow-up to this. I don’t want to get too cynical too soon, but given some of his habits, he could be a prime candidate for certain tragic tropes.

We do get a few welcome scenes of the team acting as a unit, though there’s not room for much between the threats and acts of violence. It’s understandable as we kick off a new installment of the series, but I look forward to more character development soon.

For now, the first half of this story does the most important job of making us want to return for the second half. I’m not too worried about the eventual welfare of series regulars yet, but I’m still anxious to see the resolution from where we leave off.

 

What did you think of this episode of Van Der Valk? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Van Der Valk airs Mondays at 10/9c on PBS.

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