The 'Van der Valk' Bird Mystery Is a Romance Gone Wrong in "Hope in Amsterdam" Part 2

This second case of Van der Valk Season 4 was an absolute doozy, folks. There were a lot of intersecting layers for a murder that came down to jealousy and an intensely possessive housewife. It turns out that our victim, Gerda (Zoi Duister), wasn't murdered by Meatball (Brian van de Vooren) after all. Meatball was just there dropping off the money for Jay (Sanne den Hartogh) and Gerda's boyfriend, Flinn (Mattias Van de Vijver); he was blackmailing them into a bird trafficking scheme along with Cobie Stegenga's (Lateesha Verwey) old neighbor, Jesse Bergen (Alexander Cobb). 

While it seems super weird that these three men were all connected around Gerda, none of them were there to kill her, either. Instead, it was Anki Bergen (Raquel Cassidy), Jesse's mother, who was downright obsessed with Cobie's father, Marcus (Dennis Rudge). Cobie did fake her death years ago, but when she missed her family, she reached out to Anki in hopes of reconnecting. 

Anki didn't want to risk Cobie returning and ruining the co-dependent relationship she had managed to cultivate with Marcus. So she kept Cobie hidden in the woods in the middle of nowhere while Anki continued doing Marcus' laundry and making him lunch whenever he rang a little bell. 

What does all of this have to do with Gerda, though? It turns out Anki wasn't completely heartless. Cobie found Gerda online and asked to reach out so they could talk about birds, and Anki acquiesced. However, Gerda soon figured out what was happening and encouraged Cobie to return home. When Anki figured out what was going on, she went to the conference center, and she was the one to murder Gerda so that she could maintain control over Cobie and Marcus. 

When Piet and Lucienne finally put the pieces together, with help from Eddie analyzing Cobie's early lyrics, they followed Anki out to the woods to find exactly where she was stowing Cobie away. Confronted with losing everything, Anki tried to hold Cobie hostage with a pick axe. (This almost certainly means she's watched Misery with Kathy Bates a few too many times. Maybe she can try the new Matlock reboot instead.)

Piet was eventually able to get a clean look and shot the axe out of Anki's hands. (Very impressive.) Cobie was reunited with her father, and Anki went to jail, along with her son and his co-traffickers, for their illegal activities. 

It was ultimately a happy ending, even if the route to get there was convoluted and disturbing towards the end. However, it's not all smiles for the gang. Piet finally confronted Hendrik about his weird behavior during this case. Hendrik came clean about his throat cancer self-diagnosis, and Piet…then told everyone else, much to Hendrik's dismay. Everyone wants to support him, but Lena tells Piet at the end of the episode that Hendrik is lying to everyone about getting a second opinion. He hasn't been to the doctor's office since they told him to stop drinking years ago. He's trying to handle this on his own, but if it is throat cancer, then early detection and treatment are imperative to stop it from spreading and killing him. 

So we've wrapped another case, and another is coming down the pipeline, but as Piet put in this episode, a family member is in deep trouble. Knowing how to help Hendrik when he's hellbent on not helping himself is extremely difficult. Maybe Piet and Lucienne can knock him out and then drag him to a hospital? It doesn't seem like he's keen on going otherwise, even with everyone informing him they're worried and want to be there for him. Having to face your mortality and actually having to do it are two very different things. 

We know that Piet and the team need to think of something quick because the longer Hendrik waits, the darker this storyline could potentially be. 

Van der Valk Season 4 continues with new episodes on Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on most local PBS stations, the PBS app, and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel. PBS Passport members will have access to all episodes of Van der Valk Season 4 to watch as a binge (or as initially intended, i.e., as three two-hour-long episodes). As always, check your local listings and streamers.