S04.E03: Penny for Your Thoughts

[Snazzy Daisy]

Synopsis:

Quote

River is trapped in France.

Back at Slough House, the Dogs have come for Lamb.

Air Date: Sep 18, 2024

 

[paigow]

Baltar Whelan must be playing a long con... he cannot be that dumb

[Snazzy Daisy]

Wait, no Diana Taverner at all?

Claude the Weasel goes against Diana is not going to turn out well for him. She has so much influence.

So, the big bad is Frank Harkness who runs an in-house indoctrination camp at Les Arbres.

Well, the “old man” on the wipeout list turns out to be Sam Chapman. He should be able to explain what David means when he says these:

Quote

“I did it for River. To protect him.”

Quote

“The bomb. All those people, those poor people.”

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“It’s my fault. It’s all my fault.”

Bertrand’s mom — Natasha says there were other mothers too at Les Arbres including one English girl. Could that be River’s mom? Could the wall painting means something or looks familiar to River? The reason why Bertrand looks a lot like River could be because they share the same dad. River was born in 1990. Since Frank always made the mothers leave, Sam possibly went to Lavande in early 90s to rescue baby River. Just a theory.

This is the weakest episode in S04 but it still has some funny moments. My favorite bits — Lamb walking past Sam/Shirley/Marcus fighting the French assassin and River strutting away from the mob to fall through the roof. Too funny. 😂

 

[MissLucas]

Ha, Weasel! Molly agrees with us LOL! And I really hope he gives Taverner a run for her money. It's so much fun watching Callis playing the bumbling idiot with a knife behind his back.

Speaking of knives, that funny scene between Roddy and Shirley escalated quickly. New horse turns out to be a truly dark horse.

I'm getting tired of Marcus. He should know better and nearly ruined the ops.

Flynt is going to learn some hard lessons. She was on the right track with Lamb but then allowed herself to get played, again. Also: Lady, that's what you get for not wiping your shoes before entering a building.

Louisa is definitely carrying a torch for River even though she scoffed at the notion of romance in the first episode. Protesting too much and all that.

@Snazzy Daisy you could be right about fake River being River's (half-)brother. IIRC we don't know much about River's parents. If River's mother was David Cartwright's daughter then maybe Sam Chapman was sent to France on a mission to get mother and baby out of Les Arbres but he could only save River? Or maybe he walked into that whole freakish operation as part of another mission, shocked by entering a baby making factory he managed to save one baby and that was later adopted by Cartwright's daughter/son?  

I'm struggling with both scenarios. If David Cartwright had a daughter who fell into the hands of cult leader/predator that would have been somewhere in the files. But then we have now several characters who are very good at finding stuff that should not be found. That's clearly a set-up for some major revelations. On the other hand Sam Chapman does not strike me as the type who acts out of the goodness of his heart.

And there's Granddad Cartwright's guilt trip over the bombing. Sounds like he was involved in whatever went down at Les Arbres one way or the other. But I wonder how he managed to connect the dots.

tltr: River will need some serious therapy after this is over.

Lamb pulled a Roddy LOL!

 

 

[paigow]

This whole spy nursery plan is ridiculous...

• All the teenage mothers were released alive
• Everyone in town knows the boys
• Agent Smith fathers all these children- leaving a DNA link to be discovered by CSI / autopsy

[Mindthinkr]

I keep wondering why that art at Les Arbes struck River so much that he took a picture of it. 🤔

[PaulaO]

Too many separate story lines.  Who is Sam Chapman?  How did the French woman and her cousin know where River was?  Did Lamb quit smoking?  He was drinking in his office but not smoking.

[MissLucas]

We've seen Chapman before in season 2 and 3. Last season he met with Lamb in a laundromat to brainstorm who had kidnapped Standish. Victor noticed River leaving Le Blanc Russe and mistook him for Bertrand, called his cousin and followed River. They said that they had thought Bertrand had disappeared, so they wanted to know why he had returned. The only nitpick is that Victor just happened to be parked outside the café when River was there. 

[aghst]

There are no official records of David Cartwright going to France.

Now is the old man pretending to be out of it?

He kept insisting to see the First Desk.  Standish stashes him but he gets away.

Still Standish is sharper than most agents, for just being a secretary.

In season 2, she beat that guy in chess to get key intel.

That Patrice guy is like the Terminator, too much even for Marcus.  And he walks away from being run over by one of those big and heavy London black cabs.

 

[paigow]

Did that dog get tired? Or was there a stop signal?

[aghst]

Yeah it turned away suddenly.

Maybe it was suppose to have been called back.

Or maybe the trained dog wouldn't keep chasing someone on a moped or whatever that motorized bike was.

 

 

[stormy weather]

It's a detail but it keeps bothering me, how River doesn't look like Bertrand one bit. They could've picked a more similar actor. The mob with pitchforks who wanted to kill him (so I assume they knew him well) took a pretty good look at him while he was running away on the roof and they still couldn't tell he was a different person? His own uncle mistook him for Bertrand? It's a bit of a stretch.

[Natalie25]

On 9/19/2024 at 10:38 AM, MissLucas said:

Ha, Weasel! Molly agrees with us LOL! And I really hope he gives Taverner a run for her money. It's so much fun watching Callis playing the bumbling idiot with a knife behind his back.

Speaking of knives, that funny scene between Roddy and Shirley escalated quickly. New horse turns out to be a truly dark horse.

I'm getting tired of Marcus. He should know better and nearly ruined the ops.

Flynt is going to learn some hard lessons. She was on the right track with Lamb but then allowed herself to get played, again. Also: Lady, that's what you get for not wiping your shoes before entering a building.

Louisa is definitely carrying a torch for River even though she scoffed at the notion of romance in the first episode. Protesting too much and all that.

@Snazzy Daisy you could be right about fake River being River's (half-)brother. IIRC we don't know much about River's parents. If River's mother was David Cartwright's daughter then maybe Sam Chapman was sent to France on a mission to get mother and baby out of Les Arbres but he could only save River? Or maybe he walked into that whole freakish operation as part of another mission, shocked by entering a baby making factory he managed to save one baby and that was later adopted by Cartwright's daughter/son?  

I'm struggling with both scenarios. If David Cartwright had a daughter who fell into the hands of cult leader/predator that would have been somewhere in the files. But then we have now several characters who are very good at finding stuff that should not be found. That's clearly a set-up for some major revelations. On the other hand Sam Chapman does not strike me as the type who acts out of the goodness of his heart.

And there's Granddad Cartwright's guilt trip over the bombing. Sounds like he was involved in whatever went down at Les Arbres one way or the other. But I wonder how he managed to connect the dots.

tltr: River will need some serious therapy after this is over.

Lamb pulled a Roddy LOL!

 

 

If I remember correctly, doesn't River tell someone the story of how his mother dropped him off with David Cartwright? It sounded like he remembered that happening, so I think if that cult guy is River's father they must have both gotten out. River and his grandfather have talked before of how flighty his mother is - maybe she got herself caught up in the cult by accident, and then Chapman rescued them both. And a few years later she dropped River off with her father, either for safety or she really wasn't able to care for him.

[MissLucas]

On 9/22/2024 at 7:39 AM, stormy weather said:

It's a detail but it keeps bothering me, how River doesn't look like Bertrand one bit. They could've picked a more similar actor.

I can't recall ever seen a clear pic of him. Little to see when his face was covered in blood before River took care of his face. He kinda looks like River on the passport photo and the photo from Les Arbres but we never get to have good look and the similarity seems to come mostly from the side part. I also couldn't find the name of the actor in the credits or on IMDB.

The locals and his uncle hadn't seen Bertrand in a while but I'm not sure that's enough of an explanation or simple hand-waving at this point.

 

[stormy weather]

Bertrand in the bathtub (sorry, it's gruesome, but you already saw it)

Bertrand in the photo:

I don't know, he might bear a passing resemblance for a distant acquaintance, but for an uncle??

[Enigma X]

Bertrand looks nothing like River to me.