Spiral: Season 4 Recap

So, a bunch of leftist types want to open borders and supposedly make life better for immigrants and detainees. Sounds pretty good, until their leader, Riffaut, turns out to be a radical revolutionary who mostly wants to blow up… everything. He starts by accidentally blowing up one of his own friends, which gets the attention of Laure and her squad, wrapping them up in a – guess what? – spiral. RIffaut buys his weapons from Turks who illegally bring in immigrants who are detained in the center where Joséphine has come to defend a client who is locked up with a Turk who commits suicide leading to the discovery of their weapons which they then sell yadda yadda yadda. It’s so much more complicated than that, so let’s talk about the important stuff. First…

Here comes the judge.
Brought to his knees by the outcomes of his zealous pursuit of the Villedieu case – near-fatal hits to his reputation; his brother’s betrayal; and, worse, the suicide of his disgraced intern – Judge Roban seemed, at the end of Season 3, a broken man. I say seemed, because… well. Can you imagine a world where anyone is fool enough to believe that Monsieur le Juge is truly down?! Those who count him out do so at their own peril! Does it matter that he has just been through an experience that would have caused any other fanatic rule-follower to, perhaps, learn to bend a little? Not at all. With Marianne loyally by his side, and Pierre and Laure lending support when he needs it, the Judge fights his way through yet another political quagmire, accusing a colleague of imprisoning an innocent man. Recent history even cruelly repeats itself when a victim in the case commits suicide, but Roban cannot and will not allow justice to be perverted. Still, his attempt to return to his rightful and righteous place goes anything but smoothly (Freemasons get involved?), which is pretty much a Season 4 trend for all our favorite Parisians, most especially…

PTSD.
The invaluable Tintin has always been there to serve as Laure’s voice of reason when she needs it, which is always. When Gilou’s source tips the team to a gang of Turkish jewel thieves and a bullet grazes his head during a raid, he’s shaken to his foundations. Not wanting to face the truth, or ask for help, he keeps returning to the field, endangering himself and everyone else with his anxiety-induced bungling. With two kids and two more on the way, and his livelihood now in peril, it’s no wonder his decision-making process is on the fritz. Still, receiving smug shade from Laure and Gilou, whose bad choices he has often had to cover, is surely as rich as it gets. Good grief, things are stressful enough with…

BMOC.
When the wonderfully understated Commissaire Aubert retires, Laure must contend with the new boss, Herville, who is trying to make a name for himself as a big dog in an already overcrowded field. While they’re both out to bust the Ozbeck crime family and their bomb-buying dissident customers before Hell breaks loose in Paris, Herville and Laure are driven by entirely different forces. He can say all he wants that what he cares about is results, but his lack of personal foundation spells disaster for at least one very important member of the team when he disregards the safety of the squad while trying to grab professional glory. Basically, Herville’s a jerk among jerks, seemingly born to mess with Laure, even going so far as to get under her skin by praising Gilou as some sort of undersung leader, which would be funny, except…