Van Der Valk Season 4 Episode 6 Review: Secrets in Amsterdam: Part 2

Things get personal on Van Der Valk Season 4 Episode 5, “Secrets in Amsterdam: Part 2.” Thankfully for our squad, that only leads to deadly violence for the guests of this last, messy case.

Tech billionaire Freddie Klink is proven to have both professional and personal connections to assassin Nettie Hark. It’s unclear whether she’s killing people to spite or avenge him, but soon she winds up dead too, following a missed meeting with Klink.

The team finds Ruben holding Freddie at knifepoint, attempting to force him to confess to the killings out a complex personal vendetta. He eventually surrenders and a code for a medical formula, left from Tycho to Alis, is discovered shortly thereafter.

Along the way, Kellie makes another appearance but takes her secrets with her when she leaves. Piet leads an effort to force Hendrik to get tested. It backfires terribly but, in the end, persuades the other man to seek help himself.

Despite the twists of the connections between various characters, this wrap-up to the episodic plot is pretty mundane for a season finale. Only one more person winds up dead, and given her actions, it’s hard to grieve for her too much.

I’m not complaining that we never have to fear for our main character’s lives, but everything new we learn about those involved only with this story comes so quickly that it’s hard to keep track of it all, especially just why Ruben is so vengeful.

I also wish it hadn’t overshadowed the medical breakthrough, because it is very satisfying to see the code be uncovered at last. We never know exactly what the breakthrough is, but, given the idea of a fictional cure for cancer, that might be for the best.

I’m not sure how to feel about Kalie’s reappearance, especially considering how little comes of it. I do like that there’s less tension and more banter between them this time around, if only because it lets them work more effectively.

It’s unclear if her brief reference to something “else” that happened between her and Piet a sign that she’ll return again in a potential season 5. We have plenty of questions about whether feelings linger, but answers are hard to find.

We do get a little more of the feeling of a season finale in the partial resolution to Hendrik’s storyline. His enraged reaction to a first attempt to take his blood for testing is alarming—even more so than seeing Ruben hold Klink hostage.

Letting that anger go by the next day might not be completely realistic, but it’s a nice segue into him softening on the subject until a final, heartwarming scene as the entire squad, plus Lena and Piet’s dog, wishes him well as he walks into a clinic.

As expected, we won’t see any further details until and unless we get additional episodes. I hope this show is renewed not only for this but because it’s clear these characters have more cases to solve and more stories of their own to play out.

What would you like to see if season five eventually arrives on our screens? How might Hendrik’s diagnosis play out? Will Lucienne’s desire to have kids be a plot of its own? And what more can we expect of Piet’s already complicated love life?

 

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 Sundays at 10/9c on PBS.

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