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.