Virdee episode 4 recap: 'Bradford's most violent kingpin'

This Virdee episode 4 recap contains spoilers... We finally discover the truth about what happened between Harry (Staz Nair) and Riaz (Vikash Bhai) back in 2001, yet Saima (Aysah Kala) and Tara (Nina Singh) are starting to suspect the pair are harboring some dark secrets from the past and the present. Elsewhere, the investigation into the serial killer begins to focus on Jai Pawa, a notoriously violent drug kingpin, whom Harry and his boss, CC Boardman (Silas Carson) put in jail a few years back. Could he be out for revenge?

'This guy is playing with us...'

We start with another flashback to the Bradford race riots of 2001, with Riaz and Harry hiding from a gang of white thugs. Harry refuses to leave his friend, who’s coughing and wheezing without his inhaler, in another episode that shows how much loyalty the future cop showed the future drug lord when they were young.

Back in the present, Harry fishes Alastair’s body out of the water — only to discover it’s actually his niece Tara (Nina Singh). Luckily he’s able to revive her, however, if this case wasn’t visceral enough, it’s now personal for Harry.

At the hospital, Tara has a panic attack when someone tries to give her a sedative, which could well be a result of the hallucinatory drugs she was given by the killer. It’s unsettling for everyone close to Harry, who are wondering if they have become targets to this depraved individual.

However, that means Alastair Boardman (Jack Archer) is still missing. “We don’t know who this guy is, but he’s playing with us,” Harry tells the youngster’s father, CC Boardman (Silas Carson). Seconds later the killer calls, explaining how he'll call back at 4 pm and wants to speak to DCI Virdee and no one else.

'We can hit him harder than he can hit us...'

Meanwhile, Riaz’s men act on the tip-off given to them by Ateeq Farooqi (Yousef Naseer) and storm Vasil Sharma’s hideout, stealing a load of cash. As they’re leaving they’re interrupted by Vasil’s crew, yet after a brief gunfight they make their getaway.

They've bagged over a million pounds, but Riaz’s partner Sophie Brodenham (Nichola Burley) says they should give the money away to charitable foundations “to show him we can hit him harder than he can hit us." Okay.

Later on Enzo (Tomi May) gives Ateeq his cut, but the youngster says he’s not interested in cash — or gold? — and wants to meet Riaz so he can negotiate himself an important position in the crew. “I saw something in him that might cause me a problem one day,” says the leader of Bradford West.

Elsewhere, Saima (Aysha Kala) is carrying the phone her son picked up at Riaz’s when it receives a text she believes could be from her husband, showing he’s been colluding with her brother in his criminal activities.

As she greets Harry at the hospital she sees him replacing something in the spare wheel well of his car boot and secretly takes his keys to find he has a secret phone. Let’s face it, having a secret phone is never good news is it…

Inside the hospital, Tara can’t remember much about the man who abducted her, although it’s clear she’s had Urdu text as a henna tattoo on her neck. The test says 420, which is slang for ‘dishonest’. Saima says people used to aim the term at her family when she was small, as they ran a shop at 420 Lammington Lane. Could this be important? Yes, it could.

Later on, Jyoti Virdee (Sudha Buchar) tells Ranjit (Kulvinder Ghir) she wants to watch young Aaron grow up, no matter what her husband thinks, although he’s still not ready to reconcile with his son. Later on, he speaks to Saima who tells him he’s a bully and “will never be worthy of her family.” Ooooof.

'Bradford's most violent kingpin...'

When the killer makes contact he tells Harry he must come clean about the “life he took” before setting a black widow spider crawling across Alastair Boardman’s skin. Harry can’t take it and confesses to being a killer, but who did he kill?

Afterwards, Harry tells his boss his confession was all lies, but we’re not sure she — or we — believe him. Afterwards his partner Khalil Amin (Danyal Ismail) asks if there could be a personal connection and whether the killer is Jai Pawa (Ramon Tikram) “Bradford’s most violent kingpin..” who Harry and Boardman brought down, but is now locked up in Punjab Central. Could it be someone connected to the notorious criminal?

Harry then goes looking for his secret phone and finds it gone, so calls Riaz and tells him to meet him at 420 in one hour. We think we know where he means, after all we’ve seen it in a few flashbacks.

Meanwhile, Tara slips her police guard, discharges herself from hospital and hails a cab to 420 Lammington Lane. When she gets there she’s shocked to see Harry going inside, but we’re transported back to 2001 when a white yob broke into the property and beat Harry and Riaz’s mother up. Harry stabbed him to death, but Riaz took the blame, which explains the drug kingpin’s comments about "keeping Harry out of prison" earlier in the series.

'Who did you tell?'

“Who did you tell?” Harry asks Riaz back in the present. “When you were inside with Pawa did you slip up?” It seems he did, which means the killer could be acting on the kingpin’s behalf, yet the pair's whole conversation is seen by Tara.

She’s not the only member of their families who’s joined the dots together, but when Saima confronts her brother about Harry’s burner phone, he tells her she doesn’t know what she’s talking about and to stay out of it.

Elsewhere, following Tara’s tip about the killer’s hideout being very hot, Khalil looks up electricity reports and finds a promising looking South Asian ex-offender, Visam Boucha, who seems very suspicious.

UKCA takes on the case and sends in the SWAT team, however despite being suspended, Harry can’t stay away and heads round the back of the building to find a trapdoor into a basement, with some suspicious insects around it. Inside he finds plenty more insects and a tied up Alastair Boardman, before he’s smashed over the head by a middle-aged man. Eeeeekkk.