'The Gold' Recap: Season 2 Episode 2

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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It’s island time. In their pursuit of John Palmer and the other half of the stolen Brink’s-Mat gold, Boyce’s team leaves England for other isles. Boyce heads to Tenerife, where John is selling timeshares to British tourists. Nicki and Tony go to the decidedly less desirable in weather but more attractive in financial laxness Isle of Man, where all of Charlie Miller’s “legitimate” associates have registered businesses, in search of the company laundering the profits of the stolen gold. And new team member Tony Lundy visits Spain’s Costa Blanca – not an island, but warm nonetheless, and a haven for South London criminals like Charlie.

Charlie himself has decamped to an island after learning that Douglas Baxter, the disgraced lawyer he has hired to launder his money, has as yet failed to do so. Piles of cash are sitting in Douglas’ office on the Isle of Man because Douglas has guessed the money is from the Brink’s-Mat theft and thus must be moved slowly to evade detection – his stated reason for failing to launder it – and because his business offer has been rejected by his school friend Logan Campbell – his actual reason.

So Charlie and Douglas fly to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands to pitch Logan personally. Logan again refuses, disdaining Douglas as a scholarship kid and Charlie even more as a low class South London native. Charlie promises to return everyday, even though Logan claims to not do any illegal work.

That’s a lie. He helps launder money from cocaine profits, connecting Colombian cartels with buyers in Florida. This has attracted the attention of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, which has sent the agent Gabriella Lunez to the island to investigate. Logan is an important supporter of the island’s governor Lauretta, so she warns him about Lunez. 

Lauretta has removed financial regulations, making Tortola a haven for international businesses looking to hide profits, just like the Isle of Man. But the profits of this have largely gone to people like Logan instead of the poor locals of the island. Logan’s girlfriend Kadene wants him to do more to help her fellow native residents, for instance by building a school outright instead of just fundraising on behalf of it. He gets upset and refuses. 

In a pique, he approaches Scott Errico, the American bag man who runs money back and forth between Florida and Tortola as part of the drug trade. Logan pays him to get Charlie and Douglas to leave the island. 

But Charlie is charming and more like Scott than Scott is like Logan. Charlie convinces the American to join him. With Douglas in tow, they visit Logan and insist that he launder the Brink’s-Mat money for him. Scott will increase the profits through the cocaine trade, everyone will get a cut, and Logan will put the money somewhere safe. Logan has no choice but to agree.

He returns to Kadene and tells her he’ll pay for the school, and name it after her mom.

John is also expanding his business. Enriqué, an employee of the timeshare business, approaches him: I know you’re laundering money, he tells him, and I could do it better. John fires Enriqué in front of the whole office. His bookkeeper, Shirley, tells him he has encouraged such graft in the business. John promises her it will now be totally legitimate.

That’s a lie. John puts Enriqué up in a basement. Enriqué will set up fake accounts for Shirley’s benefit while laundering money through other, hidden accounts. Like Kadene, he wants the locals of his island to share in the wealth passing through it. 

And more outsiders are trying to park wealth in Tenerife. A Russian named Ivan shows up at John’s office with some thugs whom John’s driver Jerren believes are KGB. They want to buy the timeshare business. John refuses. Ivan, like Charlie, promises to keep returning – with a lower price each time.

When Ivan next approaches John, this time at his home on the island, he explains that the USSR will soon collapse, presenting financial opportunities. Ivan is looking for somewhere to hide a lot of money when that happens – somewhere like John’s timeshare business. John offers him something better: John will launder Ivan’s money for him, and keep his business. Ivan smiles.

But when John tells Enriqué, Enriqué tells him his operation isn’t ready to handle that volume of money yet. John insists. 

John doesn’t spend all his time on Tenerife. He picks up his wife Marnie, who is still in England raising their daughters, and whisks her to France on his jet, plying her with champagne. He has bought her six of the best horses to be found, to her amazed delight. While she rides, he goes to meet a former employee of his timeshare business, Léna. They had a brief affair, and now, she reveals, she is pregnant – and Catholic, so there won’t be an abortion. 

Boyce is quietly shadowing John – and runs into others who are watching the money launderer. The Spanish police are on the island looking into corruption but at an impasse. Boyce offers to coordinate with them to catch John.

He’s looking for an asset close to John, and so pretends to be a tourist dropping off a timeshare deposit to case John’s business. He immediately identifies Shirley as a weak link, made even weaker when he looks into her background and learns she has a record. Rather than face charges for minor embezzlement, she fled to Tenerife while out on bail. Boyce uses this knowledge and the threat of prosecution to enlist her help.

Nicki and Tony also run into the local police, while on the Isle of Man. It’s an independent jurisdiction that doesn’t appreciate the prying eyes of the mainland, but the local officer is also bored and so authorizes Nicki and Tony to investigate, despite the wishes of the many shadowy financial businesses headquartered there.

They go door-to-door, looking at the lists of businesses each entity is required to post outside its door. They have no luck until Nicki realizes one list has several businesses named after South London council estates – it’s Douglas’ office. She picks the lock when Douglas doesn’t answer. Tony spots a box for Douglas’ new Rolex and guesses that this is their target.

Lundy also does some good old-fashioned legwork in the Costa Blanca, visiting addresses that have made calls to the Isle of Man. He got those addresses from a friend in the phone business, a sub rosa move Boyce opposed until he realized its utility; then Boyce turned a blind eye. Lundy notices a bottle of South London beer at the pool of one of the addresses, and, finding it empty, takes a look inside – just as Nicki did. There’s a stack of newspapers with articles about the Brink’s-Mat robbery. He’s found Charlie.