Liaison – Season 1 Episode 4 “Dangerous Liaisons” Recap & Review

Dangerous Liaisons

Sabine is called into the office after news about Bolton breaks out as episode 4 of Liaison begins. Before leaving, Gabriel plants malware in her laptop which enables Telkis to spy on her through her webcam.

Vandermeer tries to steer the authorities away from suspicions of murder, which Alison alleges. Sabine phones Didier, who says Bolton was killed as they wanted him to be investigated by the anti-fraud office and subsequently cause the deal between the EU and England to fall through.

His death, while tragic, is good for Antropa. Sabine realizes she is being used and out of guilt and her fear for Pierre tells Alison the truth in private. Sabine tells Alison to leave Brussels. She has documentary proof that the train crash in England was this group’s doing but since all electronic communication is monitored, she cannot help her. Alison understands and also warns Sabine about Gabriel. Sabine is unprepared and that is when Alison learns Antropa is involved.

Telkis catches wind of Didier and Antropa’s plans, while Myriam pleads with Samir to tell her his location so that the French and English can help them. They will not be able to make it on their own so he tells her the truth.

When Alison comes back, Gabriel tells her to leave Brussels and says he is going to pick up Samir in Dunkirk with Myriam. Alison invites herself as well. In Paris, Dumas gives Didier a copy of Alison’s phone and asks him about Antropa. Didier gets defensive and refrains from giving him any information.

There is a sense of mistrust between the two men which has been clear since day one. After all, Dumas is no dummy. He is one of DGSE’s most experienced officers and ultimately a patriot. It will be interesting to see how their relationship develops. But he eventually caves.

Didier’s mission is to get Britain to sign with Antropa as he believes they are the country’s first global exporters of military equipment. Tensions are high in London as a passenger aircraft almost crashes in the middle of the city. The pilots lost control of the aircraft and we get our first glimpse of the hackers but their identities are unknown.

The man commanding the hacker instructs her to pull up the aircraft just before it’s about to crash, which is a clear signal and another security breach. Antropa is clearly behind this.

Hobbs and Albert surprise Alison in Brussels. Gabriel and Myriam have to escape through the back exit to avoid being seen. Toby, the PM’s aide, is pushing Richard to sign with Antropa, which alerts Alison. Hobbs corners Alison over the CCTV footage and she is completely stumped. Her lie is caught by Hobbs but the DI does not have authority over her yet.

Dumas watches Didier trying to force Sabine to change departments to get hands-on classified Commission documents but she refuses and stands up for herself.

Dumas calls Gabriel and tells him two things. First, they will have to fake Samir’s death to shrug off his tail who will never give up. And secondly, cease all contact with Alison, just when she gets into the car.

Someone watches them through a drone while Didier goes to Bob and confr0nts him with the information that Alison has seen his men kill Bolton.

When Bob says they will simply “silence her”, Didier tells a little bit of background about Alison. Her father is General Rowdy who served with the British special forces. He is a friend and mentor to Richard and without the General’s influence, Richard would never have been made Minister.

Instead, Didier plans to use something from Alison’s phone. Gabriel does not reveal his plan to Alison or Myriam, as it turns out that Alison’s father also lives somewhere near Dunkirk. She confirms Samir’s spotting to Richard while Krimo, Samir’s friend, alerts him that he can come out of hiding and meet with Gabriel.

All of them go to Rowdy’s house next. But Alison lies that Krimo is Samir. Jack is still suspicious of Gabriel, who isolates himself and studies the parameter. Alison renews her acquaintance with her old room. Jack gets a tape in the mail.

The tape shows that Alison was actually responsible for the death of Nathalie, the red-haired woman. Jack calls the number with the mail and threatens the blackmailers. But inside, he is worried. Gabriel hears snippets of this conversation.

Alison reveals that Samir and Myriam are in a boat near Dunkirk with Gabriel’s men. Jack warns her against trusting him after what she did to Gabriel.

Not long after, he confronts Gabriel in the living room. Jack also tells him that when he took Alison back to England, she was pregnant, something he did not know.

A host of cars embrace the property and Jack goes out with a gun to alert them to stay away. However, it turns out they aren’t actually Richard’s men. They are Didier and Bob’s. Jack doesn’t know this and despite Gabriel’s repeated requests, Jack does not come back to safety and Gabriel inadvertently shoots him. He puts Alison with Krimo in the safe room and prepares to fight everyone alone.

The Episode Review

For some reason, the cat-and-mouse game in Liaison seems set to come to a predictable end. We expected something different than a run of the mill spy story and cross-country wars but instead we get much of the same. This episode had some positives and negatives; more of the latter, frankly.

The psychological game between Didier and Dumas falls in the former category. It is an interesting battle between two similarly statured men with different intentions and ideologies. Albert and Alison’s dynamic too has changed ever since the latter suspects her husband of knowing something she does not. Vincent Cassel was again the saving grace, making himself a captivating man to follow. But that was mostly it.

Jack’s characterization though is very poor. The makers did not cast such an important and celebrated figure well enough and in his current form, seems more of a caricature.

His scenes with Alison and Gabriel are really disappointing and lack a necessary spark. There is no sign of Walid after episode 2 when at the time it seemed he was central to the operation.

We have no idea what the significance of the USB drive’s contents are, while Antropa’s villainous convulsions are way too scarce to make any sense right now. Liaison has a lot of catching up to do but it seems like time isn’t on their side.