Hidden Assets review: Frantic finale pays off with satisfying end to RTÉ crime show
Angeline Ball and Wouter Hendrickxx in the final episode of Hidden Assets.
Now that we know that straight-laced businesswoman Bibi Melnick is actually at the heart of a terrorist attack in Antwerp and Brussels, what were her motives? The finale of RTÉ crime series Hidden Assets weaves the threads and clues together in a satisfying way.
Having found a personal phone that she threw in the water, CAB officer Emer Berry (Angeline Ball) and her Belgian counterpart Christian De Jong (Wouter Hendrickxx) confront Bibi with irrefutable evidence - photos which show her with an identified bomber and two other men. Interviewed without a lawyer present, Bibi (Simone Kirby) is truly taken aback at the extent of her crimes being uncovered.
She then drops the bombshell: “You’re right, there’s another terrorist attack planned for tomorrow morning.” But teflon Bibi feels the privilege of wealth and power, and is determined to wiggle her way out of being incriminated to the very end, to the fury of Berry.
But why would a wealthy businesswoman get involved with terrorists? It all comes down to money. After confessing all to her unknowing and devastated husband James, she confesses to the authorities. Following her father’s death, she claims, Bibi and Fionn got involved in laundering her father’s assets through criminal associates. But they were also involved in terrorism - and threatened the Irish siblings with death unless they assisted in sneaking the Antwerp and Brussels bombers into the country.
Bibi wants immunity, a regret settlement, which prompts a straightforward reaction from Emer: "Are you f**king joking?"
But the choice may well be above our Euro-sleuths’ pay grades. There’s a general election the following day, the day the next terrorist attack is planned, and Bibi is the only person outside the terrorist cell who knows where and when the attack will take place. The attack will target a leading politician’s supporters gathering on election day.
For all her crimes, it looks like Bibi’s information will help her walk away free, her millions in assets safely hidden from the scrutiny of Berry and her team.
The finale becomes a frantic race against time for the authorities in the streets of Antwerp, as they try to identify and apprehend the bombers just moments before the attack.
But there are further reveals about Bibi’s crimes and connections - and the assets she’s determined to keep away from the scrutiny of CAB - to the very end.
It’s a fitting finale to a series that aimed high and delivered for audiences - and understood the value of giving its characters some personality too.
