Baptiste Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

Further Twists In The Tale

After last week’s dramatic turn of events, Baptiste returns this week with a continued focus on the investigation. With Edward Stratton awol and Baptiste frantic to save his family, this week’s episode sees the pieces fall into place ready for the finale.

The episode itself begins with a brief prologue before cutting to a frustrated Baptiste, annoyed at the police who eventually get moving, asking around the sex clubs for the whereabouts of Stratton but none of them appear to have any information.

Meanwhile, Stratton grabs his ex-wife Claire and takes her away from the house and into a safe place, knowing the gang will be after him now. As they arrive safely and Stratton breathes a sigh of relief, Baptiste appears and tries to talk him out of the plan he has concocted. It turns out Stratton wanted to use the money as leverage to buy back Natalie’s sister from Constantin.

Baptiste talks him out of it and decides instead that he should be the one to do the negotiations. As he relays the information to the police, they come up with a better plan using the resources at the station. That plan involves using Constantin to get to the people higher up the food chain.

Constantin inevitably sneers off the original suggestion but later winds up agreeing to the terms and joining up with Baptiste. Unfortunately, things go awry before they can get some ground on this plan and the police find Constantin dead on the ground, presumably pushed out of his apartment window.

Meanwhile, Stratton heads home to find Claire dead and the assailant waiting for him in the bathroom. After a bit of a skirmish, Stratton stabs him and tries to calm his nerves as Baptiste finds out the news via the phone. He suddenly comes to the realization that they’ve been betrayed and the only one person who knew of their whereabouts was Martha.

Much like last week, Baptiste delivers another brilliant episode, weaving together various plot twists and character changes in a believable and well-paced manner. Although Baptiste himself arguably doesn’t quite have the charisma to carry the show, his calm demeanour adds another dimension to this one that contrasts brilliantly with the frantic tension at the heart of this drama.

All of this culminates in a really enjoyable thriller that looks set for a dramatic finale next week. It’s anyone’s guess now how this one will turn out but with a trail of blood behind them, will Baptiste get out of this one alive?