Protection episode 4 recap: Who is John Gibson?

DCI Amanda Kelman and DI Liz Nyles in Protection episode 4 recap
(Image credit: ITV)

This Protection episode 4 recap contains spoilers... Liz begins the episode believing DCI Hannah Wheatley (Katherine Kelly) is the mole, but by the end of the episode she's not so sure.

In between all that, there's a break-in at her house where Crowther's men steal DS Brandice's third phone and we start to find out a little bit more about DCI Amanda Kelman (Nadine Marshall). However, we also want to know more about "John Gibson"...

Liz (Siobhan Finneran) tells DCI Kelman she believes DCI Wheatley’s team altered the footage from the hospital to remove the person who killed DS Brandice (Barry Ward). Reluctantly she agrees to investigate her claims, but wants her to keep her suspicions to herself.

Later on DCI Amos Wilson (Anthony Flanagan) has arrived with a new witness, hoping Liz will look after him. He's a witness in a case against the leader of a prominent far-right group, however he's also on sex offenders register and has been accused of an improper relationship with the activist's teenage daughter.

Liz doesn’t want anything to do with him, but DCI Wilson makes it clear people further up the chain of command are keen to make it work. Very keen.

That person further up the chain is Assistant Chief Inspector Rory Davenport (Ian Pirie), who tells her the Home Secretary is very keen to bring this witness to trial. She says she can help, if he organises a review of the evidence against DS Raj Koli (Chaneil Kular), while also allowing her to oversee the next interview of Amy McLennan (Tilly Kaye).

However she’s too late, because Raj has already disclosed the existence of DS Brandice’s secret third phone to DCI Wheatley…

Did Eddie Crowther order the break-in at Liz's house?

A masked hitman breaks into Liz’s house, clearly hoping to find Amy. She’s away being interviewed by DCI Wheatley’s team, but Liz returns while the intruder is upstairs. He escapes with DS Brandice's third phone and when Liz chases him, he punches her to the ground.

Presuming Eddie Crowther (Alec Newman) organised the attack, she storms off to confront him. Whether it’s a good idea or not isn’t clear, but the police HAVE found the motorcycle assassin, Jock Ferguson. Suffice to say, his motorcycle riding days are over.

Still high on rage and adrenaline, Liz rushes to the scene and starts throwing accusations at DCI Wheatley, which definitely isn’t a good idea. “Crowther had DS Brandice killed,” she tells her. “He had help from a police officer, probably the same officer who leaked the location of Amy’s interview. Crowther’s covering his tracks right in front of our eyes!”

DCI Wheatley dismisses her theories as crazy and despite the trust they’ve built up, DCI Kelman agrees with her. It’s fair to say Liz is in a tight spot.

Who is John Gibson?

Liz turns to DI Rick Bewley (Andrew Knott) who has more disturbing news about John Gibson. His address doesn’t exist, no one’s heard of him at his work and his phone number is now dead. It’s clear he’s a bad man.

While Liz is waiting for DS Brandice’s post-mortem results to arrive she speaks to one of the nurses who tells her what a shock his death was. But she also says DCI Kelman had a conversation with him on the day he died, which was making him agitated. Apparently, she was talking about "duty" and the need to "keep quiet". Oh dear.

Later on Liz chats to DCI Arun Kapoor (Ace Bhatti), who tells her it was DCI Kelman who told him to allow DS Brandice on to the unit without proper vetting. So it seems the evidence is now mounting against Kelman, which leaves Liz wondering who she can trust.

Speaking of DCI Kelman, she advises Liz that Raj was the victim of a targeted cyber-attack that made it look like he leaked the location of Amy’s interview. He’s now being released and re-instated. But if DCI Kelman is organizing a conspiracy, why isn’t she covering that up?

However, she says the post-mortem results show DS Brandice died of his injuries and there was no sign of tampering on the CCTV. Swings and roundabouts. “Leave the murder investigation to Wheatley,” Kelman tells Liz before departing.

Liz believes DCI Kelman is the mole and she shares all her theories with Raj after he’s released, although he’s worried about what will happen to them if they keep pursuing her.

There’s not much time to worry about that though, because Amy has gone missing from the static caravan!

CATEGORIES
Sean Marland

Sean is a Senior Feature writer for TV Times, What's On TV and TV & Satellite Week, who also writes for whattowatch.com. He's been covering the world of TV for over 15 years and in that time he's been lucky enough to interview stars like Ian McKellen, Tom Hardy and Kate Winslet. His favourite shows are I'm Alan Partridge, The Wire, Wolf Hall and Succession and in his spare time he enjoys drinking tea, doing crosswords and watching football. 

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.

News
Stay updated by following
What to Watch