The Gold season 2 episode 5 recap: the investigation finally closes in on the criminals

The Gold season 2 marks the return of the thrilling BBC drama inspired by the real life events and theories surrounding the infamous 1983 Brink’s-Mat robbery.

The police continue their hunt for the £26 million of stolen gold – the largest robbery in world history at the time.

After realising that they were only chasing half, they focus on following the money which takes them on an international investigation into money laundering and organised crime. Starring Hugh Bonneville, Charlotte Spencer, Emun Elliott, Tom Cullen, Jack Lowden and more.

Here's a recap of everything that happened in The Gold episode 5.

The penultimate episode opens a few years ago in Soho, London. A man is waiting in an empty bar with just the bartender behind the bar. Another man arrives. He greets him as Joey and they take a seat together. They reminisce about how life used to be in London and the way it was run. They talk about Brink’s-Mat and how Charlie is on his toes with half of the money, but Joey argues lots of people got rich from that robbery, but not the six men that did it.

Joey says there’s one detective that’s catching all the big names, but one way or another he’ll be taken care of. Joey wants to know what the man has for him. He says it’s cocaine. Joey asks how much and he says two tonnes, but he needs Joey’s name to put it on the streets. He says that they’ve got a smart kid in charge who can bring it all in in a week from Southampton Docks. He offers him 10%, £5 million, just for his name. And to show that blokes like them can still pull off something like that. As they agree, the police storm the pub.

On the TV, Tina is reporting on John Palmer and the footage they got. Marnie is watching and tries to call John, but he doesn’t answer. Boyce is on the phone to the officers in Tortola. He asks Lundy where Logan is. He explains he’s still with the Americans, but he’s got a plan to get him back. Boyce tells Lundy to get Logan to give up the money and then Charlie. He tells him he’s going to Tenerife with Harper to get search warrants against John. Brightwell calls Boyce back once Lundy and Jennings have left the room. He asks about the murder on the M25 in the papers, he say the name of the suspect is an alias. Boyce asks for whom? But, only Boyce hears what he replies.

Boyce heads out and says he’ll meet Harper at the airport. It cuts to Dartford, Kent. Boyce is asking a police officer if they have a strong witness and the man replies that the girl is 17 and her boyfriend was murdered in front of her. The press are all over her and she comes in every day to look at photos to try and catch the man who did it. So, he says she’s as strong as they come. He gets a phone call and tells Boyce that it’s a Kent police investigation. Boyce says people will come to help, good and bad. He says that he can keep it straight and loyal. He points to the photo they have of the suspect, it’s Kenny. Boyce wishes him good luck.

As he goes to leave, the man stops him and says that the papers are calling the murder road rage. But he says it wasn’t. It was heinous and evil. He tells Boyce that Kenny got the knife because he was losing the fight. After getting caught on TV, John is staying in a different apartment and two men arrive to get him. He says they’re late and they leave together.

Lundy goes to see Gabriella. She says the gold money that Logan has is just a small part, the rest is drugs money and when the drug dealers find out he’s been caught, they’ll come for him. Lundy says they can protect him and apply for extradition. She says she’s going to offer him a federal witness protection deal tomorrow. So, Lundy says he has until tomorrow to persuade Logan not to take it.

At El Dorado, angry tourists are protesting at the offices and John sneaks in round the back. Both Marnie and Léna in France have been calling him all day, a lady in the office tells him. He picks up Marnie’s call and she starts to shout. He puts her on hold to pick up on Léna. He goes back to Marnie and says he has to call her back and hangs up. The Russians arrive at the office.

In Tortola, the Met officers are asking Logan where Charlie is. Logan says he has a limited time and he needs to pack. Lundy asks him if he really wants to spend his life in America looking over his shoulder. But, when Jennings says they can extradite him, Logan says they’d need proof of laundered money, which they won’t ever get. Lundy says if Logan gives them Charlie Miller, they’ll drop all the British charges. To this, Logan tells him that there’s a small amount of Charlie’s money in Costa Rica and it’s getting smaller.

As they head outside, Jennings and Brightwell are furious with what Lundy offered Logan. Lundy says they’ve got Logan and his paperwork until the Americans come, so they should focus on finding the money. Lundy puts Brightwell in charge, saying he was the youngest detective in the flying squad. In Tenerife, Ivan tells John he can’t hide. He says he’s not, he’s just keeping his head down. Ivan is angry that John spoke about them on television and he’s worried what John would also say if it was the police. John says he’s safe because he’s paid a lot of people on the island to look out for him, so if Ivan comes for him, it won’t end well for either of them. Ivan says the only reason John is alive is because of them. They don’t need to come for him, they just need to stand aside.

Meanwhile, Kenny is reading the front page of the paper with the M25 murder in Estepona, Spain. John asks Enrique to bring whatever money he can and he’ll give him half. He wants to know where John will go, but he doesn’t know. He says he does know that Enrique was right about Tenerife and letting the Russians in. Meanwhile, Joey is in Estepona and Kenny walks past, keeping his head low.

Marnie gets a phone call, it’s Léna in France. She introduces herself and says she knows John. Marnie hears the baby crying in the background. She tells Marnie she’s sorry and hangs up. Back in Tortola, Brightwell and Jennings share a drink. She asks him why he didn’t tell her about the flying squad. He says he wanted to be a lawyer and ended up in the police. He thought the flying squad would be fun, but it never was. She tells him to go look at Logan’s files and use his skills there.

They’re interrupted by the police alerting them that a car has arrived with two men inside. It’s parked up and waiting. The local police ask for urgent backup, but Brightwell and Jennings start walking towards the car. He lights a cigarette and explains that he was taught about how a threat with no action leads people to either act or leave, and the car chooses to leave.

The next morning, Brightwell is looking at all the files and tells Jennings he can see there are a few dozen companies around the world that the money moves between, but while it seems random, the companies are decoys apart from one. But, he hasn’t figured out which. He realises the banks give 0% interest in exchange for turning their heads the other way. Jennings admires the flowers and realises they need to use Kadene to get to Logan.

Boyce goes to see the police in Madrid with Harper. She says that they’ve been investigating him for two years and yet he admits it on television. She says they can apply for search warrants, but Boyce insists they’re still British charges. The officer says the crimes were committed in Spain and will be charged there, too. She says Boyce can arrest John when he comes out of the Spanish prison. She passes him an Interpol file saying there’s another way this whole thing could go.

In Estepona, Kenny corners Joey and grabs him, demanding to know who sent him, but he says he doesn’t know anything about that and asks him if he wants to get some lunch. Meanwhile, Jennings sits down with Kadene. She says she didn’t know what Logan was up to, but she says it wasn’t for Tortolians, it was for the rich people who came and used the island to clean their money. She says Logan would take the best deal, but he did some good with the money. Jennings asks what he did.

Joey and Kenny share lunch together. Kenny says he heard Joey got turned over and he said that’s true, by his oldest friend. He said he escaped after getting a dentist appointment on remand. Joey moves Kenny into his house and says he’ll protect him. At El Dorado, Boyce and Harper are parked outside. He says they just have to wait, watch and look for weakness. Suddenly, she steps out of the car.

Inside, Marnie arrives to see John. She catches him doing cocaine and he tells her she should’ve checked before she came out there. Marnie tells him that Léna phoned her. She wants to know how many others there are and John says Léna is lying. Marnie says she’s lost all respect for John and he says she likes the money and life that comes with it, though. She says she used the money to distract herself and hands John divorce papers. He offers to do a deal and she says, no. He tells her that she’s like the rest of them, thinking he’s finished, and he shouts that he’s not. Marnie places her ring on the papers and tells him everything that happened to him was the gold and leaves.

The tourists at El Dorado are angry. They want their money back. Harper watches on. Boyce also watches as Marnie leaves. Harper comes back to the car and tells Boyce that they should give money laundering to Spain because they don’t need it. What they have instead is John’s fraud, which is bigger than she thought, and the victims are British. Tens of millions and a lengthy prison sentence can be given, but they need to get John back to London to face the charges.

In Tortola, Brightwell and Logan are sitting on the porch. Brightwell tells Logan that he's figure out that his holding company is the real one that rotates the same money as a diversion. It doesn't send money anywhere, it just receives it. Logan tells him that he’d need the account number, which he won’t find in the files. Jennings arrives back with the account number, revealing she knows he sent money for the school for Kadene from it. Brightwell says Logan should come back to England and cooperate and then fight it out in court with the Americans. He’ll get a few months in open prison and then he’ll be back out. Logan says he knew people came for him last night and the Americans are offering him protection. Brightwell says they’ll speak to their governor to pull a few strings.

John goes to see Enrique, but he’s gone. Boyce arrives instead. He tells John that he could’ve said no to all of this and lived with his wife at home, but instead he’s in Tenerife as his whole life collapses. John says he knows Charlie Miller escaped. Boyce asks where Kenny is and he says if he finds out that John helped a murderer escape, John will get another ten years. Boyce says they’ve got people after Charlie, Kenny and him and they’ll get all three of them. He says that they all think they fear the chase, but they welcome it. John says he’s not done running. Boyce tells John that there’s a £1 million contract on his life to kill him. John argues he’s worth more alive. Boyce tells him to come home and go to court to fight, to try to beat him again.

Jennings sits with Logan. She says she wouldn’t feel very proud to have a place like this, considering how he got it. He tells her he failed his degree in Cambridge, but he did a deal with the Dean to get a third. He was then dispatched abroad and tried to return with the Rolls-Royce. He says he was punished and shamed, but he doesn’t want to go home with more shame on him. Brightwell returns, saying that they’ll match whatever the Americans have to offer. Logan says their work has been in vain. Jennings says he’d be a nobody in America and he says he’d rather be a nobody than a failure. The DEA takes him away. Gabriella says if they can catch Charlie, it can be a conspiracy and the financial penalties can be multiplied, giving them a $50, $60 million dollars share, but only if they can catch Charlie.

In Costa Rica, someone knocks on Charlie’s door. A young boy is inviting him to play football. Meanwhile, Lundy heads to the local bank, a woman translating for the bank manager says that he can’t help. Lundy says that Charlie has been making withdrawals and so they must know where he is. The bank manager gets angry and insists Lundy leaves. When the manager leaves on his bike, Lundy watches as the woman also drives away and he follows her instead.

Meanwhile, Joey and Kenny are having a meal in Estepona. Kenny asks who runs the super grasses and Joey says one detective at the Yard, but he never got a name. In the past, they would’ve got rid of the detective, but now it’s every man for himself. Joey says he admires Kenny for Brink’s-Mat, but Kenny says he’d rather never talk about it again. Joey says he understands the super grasses. While him and Kenny ran off, it’s not an easy life. There’s boredom, fear, paranoia and wondering who’s coming for you next. He hates the super grasses, but he understands choosing another way out of a prison sentence.

Boyce arrives back at the office. He calls McLean and says he read Lundy’s file on the flight back and half of it is redacted. She says Lundy ran the super grasses and it didn’t end well. In Costa Rica, Lundy is trailing the woman from the bank. He follows her all the way to Charlie. In Tenerife that night, John is taking cocaine in his apartment and tells someone to get the plane ready. When he goes to get his gun from under his mattress, it’s not there. Realising he’s left it in his car, he looks out the window and heads to get it. Men immediately start shooting at him and chasing him with guns. He runs. He reaches a taxi that the driver has just left and jumps inside and drives away. The men steal another car and chase after him.

In Estepona, Joey and Kenny are having a drink. Kenny says he’s going to get going, but Joey wants to know where the other half of the Brink’s-Mat gold is. He asks after Charlie and John. Kenny says he doesn’t know about any of that. Kenny asks how Joey forgot that you don’t ask questions and asks him what he’s become. Joey asks Kenny if he had a nice day with him and asks him to remember that he gave him this nice day. Kenny gets up to leave and sees police approaching in the darkness.

It cuts to when Joey was arrested in the pub with his friend. Lundy walks in and Joey gives him a wink. It wasn’t the man that turned Joey in, it was the other way around. Kenny tries to escape, but the police are knocking on the doors. The housekeeper comes in and Kenny points asking for the tunnels. Meanwhile, in Costa Rica, the young boy with the football shouts a warning to Charlie that the police are coming. Charlie runs out the door and spots Lundy approaching. He gets a head start and tries to escape.

John is also still running, driving away in the taxi he stole, but he reaches the airport. He jumps the fence as the other car approaches, pulling up. Kenny runs through the tunnels under Joey’s house and the police chase him. Meanwhile, Charlie continues to run, but they’re catching up. He’s running towards a dead end and a cliff. John runs towards his private jet. All three of them are on the run.

All episodes of The Gold, seasons 1 and 2, are available on BBC iPlayer.