This post contains spoilers for Payback episode 4. Lexie Noble was forced to throw her lot in with Cal Morris when DCI Guthrie left her high and dry in the last episode, yet she soon gets a little taste of just how dangerous her new boss can be when she follows the trail of his missing £28m to Lithuania.
Here's our recap of what happened in Payback episode 4...
The episode begins with Aaron Morris accidentally inspiring Lexie to use her car’s Satnav to try and discover the identity of this mysterious blonde woman her late husband, Jared, was seen with. Yet when she arrives at the address in question, she finds the house belongs to Kathleen from Jared’s firm, who’s definitely not blonde.
Further digging reveals that Jared asked Kathleen and her partner Michael, who’s a web designer, to help him design the banking software that he used to disguise his theft from Cal Morris. Yet he didn’t tell them who the client for whom he was supposed to be working was.
When Jared was killed, they sensibly wondered if they might also come to a sticky end and decided to lay low. Lexie tells them they should continue to do that and they give her a mysterious locked box, which turns out to contain a collection of bank cards with account details and passwords. (Nice trick with the spanners btw Doris!)
It’s immediately obvious that these are all accounts connected to the various shell companies Jared set up, a fact that DC Khan has surely guessed as he listens in on the wire. There’s also a torn postcard in there as well, but what significance does it hold?
Lexie has no time to figure it out, because DI Royce shows up to take her in for (yet more) questioning, where she shows her a CCTV image of her husband with a mysterious blonde woman. Royce points out the footage was recorded on the day Jared booked a hotel room and bought some sapphire earrings, which is all very suggestive — but who is this woman?
No matter who she is, Royce is still convinced that Lexie had a hand in her husband’s death, but she still has no actual evidence to connect her to his murder.
Back at home she starts looking through the bank accounts and finds a Latvian account called "Previte Holdings" that really takes her interest. However there are no such companies registered in Latvia. Odd.
When DC Khan shares this information with DCI Guthrie, he seems convinced that Lexie is Morris’s new “money man” (Guthrie obviously missed the whole MeToo movement) and that they’ll be able to arrest both of them. Khan protests that Lexie is probably under duress, but Guthrie couldn’t care less. What a guy.
However as Lexie continues to offer financial advice to Morris, it becomes difficult to disagree with Guthrie’s assessment, especially when Lexie proves herself as talented in the slippery world of criminal finance as her late husband.
'I don’t want to be answering to our friends...'
Meanwhile Cal Morris is a bit concerned about a missing shipping container, which seems to have been Aaron’s responsibility. Aaron's confident things are all under control and the shipments will eventually reach China, but apparently it’s not just Morris's money tied up in these containers.
Cal doesn’t want to have to answer to his ‘friends’ if the shipments go missing and if he’s worried about these people, then they must be pretty scary. However Aaron still hasn’t given Malkie the paperwork, why is he stalling over this and will Malkie get suspicious?
Back at Casa Morris, Cal’s wife Connie and his daughter Bianca are discussing the family hotel business, where “occupancy is down and overheads are through the roof”. Connie offers her daughter help if she’s struggling, yet Bianca is understandably keen not to go running to daddy every time there’s a problem.
Later on Connie confronts her husband about his plan to buy the island and he shocks her by disclosing that maybe he wants to live there. Surely he can’t be serious?
'A rotisserie chicken...'
Meanwhile DI Royce makes something of a breakthrough when one of her minions manages to find footage of a young man who fits the description of one of Jared Noble's attackers on a bus around the time of the accountant's murder.
In a stroke of luck, the young lad is soon nicked for shoplifting a rotisserie chicken (?!?!) and arrested, whereupon DI Royce takes the chance to question him. After asking why he stole a chicken when he had a big bag of weed in his pocket (it seems quite obvious to us) she then tries to get him to identify his accomplices. Eager to escape and get back to his chicken, he immediately gives them Connor Ridley’s name and address.
Ridley is soon arrested, despite his attempt to flee from his mum’s house, but when he’s questioned he admits being sent to “rough Jared up” by a mate who promised him a “score”. Although he says he didn’t know his pal was going to stab him. His mate’s name? Tab, or Michael ‘Tab’ Moray, who was presumably paid to set up the attack. Yet Tab's involvement leaves Royce’s colleagues less than convinced that Lexie was behind the attack.
However word of the arrests soon reaches Cal Morris, who seems as perplexed by the whole business as everyone else. Yet he also hears that Lexie has been taken into the police station for more questioning, something she neglected to tell him.
'There's a clear threat to life...'
After chatting to her solicitor Rufus, Lexie realises Jared had previously visited Vilnius on a stag do and wonders if it was a pretext to go there and set up that bank account. A bit of googling on a moody web search engine confirms her suspicions, but unfortunately they won’t pick up the phone when she calls.
She does share the whole story with Morris, who then tells her to go out to Vilnius and retrieve the money. When she refuses he takes it extremely well, but that’s because he’s confident she'll change her minds as he's kidnapped her children. It’s a chilling reminder of what kind of man he is and what a dangerous game Lexie is playing.
DC Khan overhears the conversation Lexie has with Morris and immediately realises there's a serious threat to life. Meanwhile Lexie texts DCI Guthrie asking for help, but he doesn’t see the message. However he is furious with DC Khan for sending uniform to her house and is desperate to use the situation to his advantage, no matter what danger he puts Lexie in.
At the airport, Lexie is beside herself with worry about her children, but Aaron just gives her a fake passport and tells her the best way of getting her kids back is to get the money back. As they approach the gate, Aaron is back on the phone discussing that missing shipping container. Anyone who's had to track down a Hermes delivery will feel his pain.
Meanwhile DC Khan pleads with DCI Guthrie not to abandon her and let Aaron Morris take her off to Vilnius (“she’s a murder suspect!”) but Guthrie refuses and contacts the Lithuanian authorities to ask that they track the pair when they arrive. However DI Royce is furious when she finds out that Guthrie let her murder suspect flee the country. But all Guthrie cares about is Guthrie.
'Can anyone hear me?'
As Lexie and Aaron arrive at the bank in a snow swept Vilnius, they try to get access to Jared’s bank accounts, but are told they will need “a particular item” as a matter of security. So that’s what the torn postcard is - we have to admit it’s a pretty inimitable key, despite what Aaron thinks.
The banker reveals that Previte Holdings has been doing a good trade in computer chips, but that to access the company account they’ll need to wait until tomorrow to go to the bank.
They book themselves into a hotel - and a swish hotel at that - before heading to the bar for a drink to take the edge off what’s been a rather stressful day. But what they don’t know is that Vilnius Police are about to start surveillance and when Lexie catches an officer coming out of their room, she realises they’ve been bugged. Crucially she doesn’t share that information with Aaron. Why would she? He can’t even keep track of one shipping container.
When she gets back to her room, she uses the surveillance device to try and contact the police back in Scotland, but Aaron hears her and demands to know who she’s talking to!
