'The Gold' Recap: Season 2 Episode 1

The Gold airs Sundays at 9:00 pm is available to stream on the PBS app and wttw.com. Recap the previous episode.
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The investigation into the robbery of £26 million in gold bullion from a Brink’s-Mat warehouse has become the longest and most expensive in the London police’s history – and the police have still only traced half the gold. Years in, the investigation is being carried on by just Boyce, Nicki, and Tony and has narrowed in on Charlie Miller, who disappeared the day of the robbery. It has been reduced to fruitlessly digging for hidden gold in the south London properties of acquaintances of Charlie’s based on tips, and the commissioner is ready to shut it down.

But there’s word that Charlie has run out of money – he’s been abroad – and so will soon return to England to start moving the gold he must have hidden. A tip leads the detectives to Cornwall, where Charlie’s associate Danny has received a postcard that simply says “see you soon.” Danny reluctantly agrees to cooperate, since his wife is pregnant, but covertly tips Charlie off to the police presence when Charlie calls to say he’ll visit tomorrow.

As the police wait at Danny’s for Charlie to arrive, Boyce eventually realizes that Danny is not expecting Charlie and insists that he take the police to the abandoned tin mine where he and Charlie hid the money years ago, the very day of the robbery. Danny’s wife tells him to comply or to never return. He does.

The police have set up checkpoints around all the mines to search cars for gold, but when they arrive at the mine there is only a single gold bar left, with a flashlight shining insouciantly upon it. The serial number has been removed, badly. 

Charlie used an ambulance to transport the gold out, passing the police checkpoint without a second glance. He now stashes the gold with a friend who lives at an encampment with other drifters. The friend will start smelting the gold for Charlie, melting it down to remove the serial numbers. 

While Charlie moves into the sights of the investigation as a new target, an old one also resurfaces. John Palmer was acquitted by a jury, despite the police’s confidence that he smelted and sold the other half of the Brink’s-Mat gold on behalf of the fence Ken Noye. He now runs a timeshare resort called El Dorado on the Spanish island of Tenerife. Some British tourists recognize him and refuse to buy from someone they think is a crook, but he insists to his bookkeeper Shirley that the business is legitimate, subtly threatening her when she asks questions. 

Despite his assurances, he still disburses bribes to the police and bank in Tenerife – and worries that he’s being followed. He pulls a mailman out of his van and asks him why he’s trailing him while his driver Jerren pulls a gun that John didn’t know he carried. The mailman insists that he’s just that, nothing more, and is let go.

Jerren accompanies John on his private jet to England, where he flies without going through customs. He’s under intense surveillance in England, which is why he still works and lives in Tenerife, he explains to his wife, Marnie, who remains in England with their daughters. She was happy with their life, and wishes it would return to normal. He promises it will – eventually.  

Marnie warns John to watch out for Jerren, who is obviously ambitious. And, like Shirley, she thinks it was a bad idea for John to talk to a journalist who was compiling a list of “Britain’s Rich.” But John says it shows that he’s legitimate – he’s listed next to the queen. 

This, of course, infuriates the government. The police commissioner calls Boyce in and sends him and the assistant commissioner to Downing Street, where a government official asks how to prevent such a thing from happening again. Boyce asks for stricter money laundering laws, an extradition treaty with Spain, and more resources for his investigation. The official agrees to try.

Boyce then argues to the assistant commissioner for more resources for his investigation into Charlie as well. The country is on the brink of a recession, but she can help him. She sends him Tony Lundy, a cop who was cleared by a panel after a suspension and urged to resign, but refused. 

Charlie has also added someone to his team, in order to set up a scheme to sell and launder the gold while he stays abroad. His friend at the encampment will smelt it, and a jeweler will sell it, but he needs someone to launder the money from the proceeds, putting it in legitimate places so it can be used without the police tracking and finding it. 

He finds Douglas Baxter, a brilliant Cambridge-educated lawyer who has had his license suspended because of cocaine – and hates that he now has to live in a cheap flat, mingling with the uneducated riff-raff and flying to London once a month to help some south London businesses dodge taxes, working with people he considers utterly beneath him. 

Douglas is not afraid to show his contempt when Charlie approaches him, even claiming that he’s willing to physically fight him. But money calls. He’s soon downing champagne in the airport lounge and eying a Rolex while working with Charlie’s jeweler. 

All the gold is quickly sold without incident. Charlie calls Douglas from abroad to ask him where the money is – it had better be safe in investments. Douglas assures him it is, while looking at the boxes in his office full of wads of cash.