Pasodoble
We begin episode 4 of Season 4 for La Casa De Papel five years before D-Day, with Berlin posing as a man named Alfredo. Unfortunately Gandia clocks that he may not be as straight and narrow as he seems and follows him suspiciously around the bank. Back with the Professor and the others, Berlin discusses the guards and in particular Ganida, putting emphasis on how much trouble he may be in the future. In order to test his resolve, they stage a fake crisis inside the bank. Inisde, Berlin watches this unfold after admitting to the the Governor that he needs to invest in gold incase of another financial crisis. Gandia, as it turns out, is an ex-mercenary and has been involved in several wars too so he certainly knows his stuff. In the present, Nairobi awakens to find Gandia looming over her, about to smother her with a pillow. Tokyo and the others race to her aid and thankfully Gandia stops before she dies. Tokyo and Helsinki follow in hot pursuit, desperate to stop him. Unfortunately this causes quite the commotion in the main atrium as the crowd start chanting for a resistance, thanks in part to Arturo egging on the crowd. Stockholm and Denver manage to quiet them though, shooting the rooftops to prove a point. However, this remains a volatile situation. While Sierra spills the truth about Germain to Lisbon during her interrogation, inside the bank things go from bad to worse. Gandia is smart and manages to string Helsinki up by the neck and distract both Tokyo and Bogota long enough to slip away without being caught. All together, the group discuss how Gandia managed to break free and Denver points to Rio as a traitor. The Professor watches all of this unfold on his video broadcast and feeds back to the team exactly what sort of man Gandia is, imploring them to keep their guard up around him. The Professor finally gets back on his game again and threatens Sierra with the evidence he’s collected against her during their next phone call. He promises justice Lisbon and with bad PR hovering over the entire incident, Sierra is forced to succumb to his request. News of a truce spreads as police hand over food and beers for those inside. Of course, inside the bank the guys aren’t in a celebratory mood as Gandia piles on the pressure and continues to hunt them. While Tokyo heads down to the basement, the power goes out losing the Professor’s feed inside the Bank. As we soon learn, the reason Rio didn’t shoot Gandia originally is because he was one of the men torturing him in the desert. Rio decides to try and face his demons, deciding once and for all to kill Gandia. However, he happens to be waiting up in the vents for them all. He sneaks around the different areas until he finally makes it to the panic room and phones through to the police. Tamayo tells him they’re in the middle of a truce and suggests he stand down. Only, Gandia is having none of it and opens the gun vault, revealing grenades and a whole slew of weapons at his disposal. Eventually Tamayo caves though, telling him off the record he’s not legally obliged around anything that happens. Meanwhile, Sierra makes her play with Lisbon and shows her pictures of a man she’s tasked with heading to the Philippines while the Professor receives a call from a pay-phone. It’s Benito and he urges him to act, given Gandia is in the panic room. The Professor feeds this back to Tokyo but unfortunately she lets her guard down and Gandia knocks her out cold, dragging her away. La Casa De Papel cranks up the heat and finally starts to slot into a more familiar exciting rhythm for the season ahead. Although the idea of a single mercenary being able to single-handedly outsmart everyone (including the Professor who’s run rings around the police in the past) is a bit far-fetched, it’s certainly helped to step things up a gear. Having said that though, if Gandia is that powerful and dangerous why haven’t Berlin and The Professor prepared for this possibility if he’s likely to be a hostage? It does feel like a bit of a big plot hole to be honest, especially for two characters that have carved out this plan as meticulously as they have so far. Everything seems to be unraveling this season but thankfully in the midst of this carnage is some promise that this may just be the stepping stone needed to deliver some exciting action alongside the heist. Let’s hope the show follows through with that promise.
