'The Gold' Recap: Season 1 Episode 5

The Gold airs Sundays at 9:00 pm on WTTW and is available to stream on the PBS app and wttw.com. Recap the previous and following episodes.
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Ken’s neighbor insists that the fifty thousand pounds she found buried in a box in her garden were not put there by Ken. But the notes all have serial numbers starting “A24,” the number marking bills withdrawn by John Palmer’s associate Garth from the bank after selling the Brink’s-Mat gold. And there are instructions for how to deposit the money, as well.

Nevertheless, the detectives need more evidence to prove their conspiracy charges against Ken and his gang. Nicki suggests looking into Micky McAvoy, the leader of the gang that stole the gold in the first place. Micky has already taken a fall and is in prison, but won’t provide evidence on anyone else – he must have gotten some reward to stay silent. He has a wife and girlfriend outside – maybe they’re the beneficiary of that reward.

Nicki and Tony track both women down at the country houses purchased for them at Micky’s request via mail found at the apartment of Kathleen, Micky’s girlfriend. Kathleen has named her two dogs Brinks and Mat. Neither she nor Micky’s wife knows who owns the houses in which they now live. The purchaser is obfuscated behind several shell companies, so the customs agent Archie Osborne gets to work wading through the financial thicket. 

Kathleen also threateningly asks Nicki about her dad, a former criminal.

Kathleen warns Gordon that detectives came calling, but Edwyn assures Gordon the police won’t be able to trace the purchase to them. Gordon assures Edwyn that the art dealer Keith, who was stopped at the Liechtenstein border trying to transport cash, also won’t talk. 

Indeed, when Tony’s computer alert for any A24 bills in the police system alerts the detectives to the presence of such bills in Keith’s car at the Liechtenstein border, Keith refuses to tell them anything. But they do find out the car he was driving is registered to Gordon.

Meanwhile, Boyce is trying to identify the owners of the Swiss accounts into which the money from the sale of the Brink’s-Mat gold was being deposited. Swiss law protects the privacy of account owners, but Boyce befriends a Swiss policeman who also served in the military. They swap war stories over lunch, and the Swiss policeman agrees to request a hearing. The policeman may be able to get the judge to reveal the name of the account holder. The hearing will be sealed, but Boyce could sit quietly in back; however, the proceedings will all be in German.

So Boyce calls in an officer on his team who speaks German. At the hearing, the Swiss policeman manages to convince the judge to reveal information about the account. The money from it was mostly moved to Liechtenstein recently, and the owners are Edwyn and Gordon.

This information may be under seal of the court, but Archie manages to discover that Edwyn and Gordon are behind the purchases of Micky’s country houses. The fact that Edwyn left his law practice six months ago also suggests he has taken on new business and wealth recently.

Boyce knows that corruption in the ranks of the police means Edwyn will hear about it if he issues warrants. He plans for this.

Edwyn and Ken are both Freemasons, which is how they have benefited from the protection of the high-ranking policeman Neville. Neville visits Edwyn in the South of France, where he is living with his girlfriend, and warns him that Boyce has issued warrants for him and Gordon – but they can probably make a deal. Edwyn gives his girlfriend the deeds to the house he has bought in France before going back to England, telling her that he hopes to return to France but may not.

He then visits his ex-wife and his children in England, telling her that he may not have the chance to do so again. She saw him with Sienna once and knows that he has started a new relationship; he also knows that she slept with someone else. 

Boyce makes a point of visiting Scotland Yard in person, allowing Neville to run into him and request a meeting with Gordon and Edwyn. Boyce agrees to attend alone.

Police corruption is also protecting John Palmer in Tenerife, where he has remained even as his wife and children have returned to England. He’s finishing a set of timeshare dwellings named El Dorado and planning to sell them, telling Marnie that the whole family could live in Tenerife permanently even as she asks him to get a lawyer and figure out how to return home without getting arrested.

John has bribed a policeman in Tenerife to smooth permit applications for him. So when Boyce’s team realizes that John’s passport is expired and puts in a request for him to be returned to England as an unlawful resident after Spain refused an extradition request, the cop warns John. 

John barely manages to evade the man who comes to arrest him for the expired passport. He gets on a flight to Lisbon and then Brazil. But the detectives are able to track him and have him arrested in Brazil. He bribes an officer there with his gold watch, reluctantly giving the man his cheap gold wedding ring as well, in order to misinform the English detectives about the flight he is taking back to England. He then excitedly calls Marnie and tells her he will see her soon.

As she waits at the airport in England, Boyce sits down next to her. John’s bribe didn’t work. He is arrested at the airport. He still tells Marnie he is innocent, and she still believes him.

Micky is also trying to reunite with his lover. He sends Kathleen to meet with someone to plan an escape. When he learns from a friendly guard that he’s due to be moved to another prison, he tells Kathleen the plan has to happen immediately. But the planned day ends up being rainy, so his outdoor recreation is cancelled and he loses his chance to escape. 

Gordon has better luck. When Boyce meets him, Edwyn, and Neville at a pub to make a deal and insists that they return all the gold and the money they have made from selling it, Gordon tells Boyce he’ll give him some gold now, as a peace offering. He asks Edwyn to help him get it from the back of the pub. Having noticed police officers outside, Gordon tells Edwyn to flee.

Gordon manages to escape into his car while Tony chases Edwyn on foot. Edwyn loses Tony in a sprawling housing estate, but Boyce knows where he is: the estate is where Edwyn grew up.

The police go to Edwyn’s mother’s flat in the estate, where Edwyn’s mother tells him to give himself up with pride — he has made something of himself despite his rough beginning. He is arrested.

Neville warns Boyce that he has made a powerful enemy for refusing to make a deal. He calls Ken in prison and tells him that it’s time they did something about Boyce.