In From the Cold Season 1 Episode 4 Recap – The Family

The people in the room clean the scene and remove the dead bodies. Anya is still camouflaging and watching everything that’s happening. After the last person leaves the room, Anya stops blending in. Her knees give in, and she starts catching her breath. She starts sobbing because of what happened. Felipe sees Anya when she comes out of the room. She says she’s looking for him and is just so happy to see him. Felipe is about to take his gun out, but Anya suddenly kisses him, enough to get Felipe’s mind off of suspicions. 

Felipe offers to drive her to the hotel where she stays. Anya says she has two kids and staying in the Josefina hotel. Chauncey and Chris prepare the room for her, making it look like someone lives there. They even edited a photo of Anya with two boys to make it look like she has sons. Chris goes in Anya’s direction to give her the key secretly.

The following day, Anya’s facing the mirror, remembering the bad things that happened when Lidia and Ramón got shot. She goes home to where she stays with Becca. Becca even thinks she has jet lag. Becca also tells a story about the dead bird in the soup of Claire, one of their team members. After the conversation, Becca leaves.

In another flashback, Anya’s talking to the woman wearing a black coat and asked if she sent one of their comrades after her so she‘d kill him. The woman answered yes. Anya didn’t understand it because the guy wasn’t an enemy, but the woman said everyone was the enemy.

Anya’s telling Chauncey that something doesn’t add up with the Caleros and their wacko group. He tells her they’re zealots, so they rarely make sense. She asks why they have to risk their reputation and wealth to assassinate Spain’s prime minister. Chris finds an article, “Undocumented immigrant murders police officer Eduardo Santos.” Eduardo Santos is Felipe’s brother-in-law, married to his younger sister, Inés. Chauncey says Felipe uses his brother-in-law’s murder to convince young men that the liberal prime minister is destroying the land. Fortunately, Felipe is taking Anya on a date at his estate. It‘ll be their time to gather another information from him.

Chauncey goes to see Davi again. He doesn’t know that it‘s a setup to get him. A group of ladies goes to Chauncey and then puts a handcuff on him; the other lady points a gun at his face. One of the ladies is named Ohana, a Chief Inspector in charge of Europol’s Criminal Investigators Unit. They ask him why he‘s in Madrid and if he isn’t drawn there by a strange series of incidents of the three unconnected individuals exhibiting outrageously uncharacteristic behaviors. He tells her he‘s drawn to Madrid by the sangria, wine, and paella. Ohana doesn’t believe him, but she uncuffs him when Chauncey tells her he‘s on covert operations.

Anya arrives at Felipe’s place and is so amazed at his property. Felipe’s been waiting for her to arrive. They go inside, and Felipe introduces her to his younger sister, Inés. Felipe shows Anya around the place. He even shows her the bull he owns. Along the way, they meet Felipe’s other nephew, Diego.

In another flashback, the woman with the black coat said Anya must be removed immediately from the Yaroslav assignment because she’s simply unfit, even if she specifically wanted Anya. She told the man that Anya showed great potential at the institute, but she knows she‘s just a naïve country girl. The man reminded her she called Anya her “greatest asset.” The woman said she had another girl scoring exceptionally high. The man cut her off and said there‘s no time to swap agents because Anya was too close to accessing the Chinese Embassy. He mentioned that Anya would reclaim the Yaroslav Program. The man called the woman “Svetlana.” 

Chauncey’s back in the car while Chris’ is already there. They‘re watching Anya again through the monitor. Going back to Anya, she’s having dinner with Felipe and his sister. They’re having conversations about Inés’ family. Felipe tells how he became best friends, confidants, and brothers with his sister’s husband, Eduardo. They met when they were choir boys. He tells them that Eduardo is the most honorable man he has ever met. Anya asks where Inés’ older son is. Felipe says Ramón left to deal with a family business in Barcelona. Inés still doesn’t know her son’s whereabouts.

Chauncey tells Anya they need her to be in the house when Felipe’s brother, Andrés, arrives. She tells them that the news Andrés has is bad for the prime minister, but she knows she can‘t get into the meeting even when she disguises herself as Sara. She comes up with the idea to use Diego, or at least his image. Anya goes into Diego’s room to check on him. She tries to morph him, but she fails on the first try. Luckily, she succeeds on the next attempt.

In another flashback, Anya’s talking to Svetlana. Svetlana asked her if anyone had told her what the Yaroslav Program does. Anya answered, “no.” She explained it‘s a biological weapon developed by Dr. Artur Orlov as a byproduct of cancer research after Chernobyl. The intel said it enabled human cells to mutate. She told Anya she could become the greatest spy Russia has ever known.

Anya, now looking like Diego, approaches Felipe to apologize. He tells his uncle he had a moment of weakness, but he‘s not weak — he’s not Ramón. He adds he‘ll never betray his trust. He even plays the piano for Felipe. After that, Anya goes with Andrés to do a task. After Andrés gets out of the car, unfortunately, Anya can’t hold Diego’s form. When Anya turns back into her original form, she follows Andrés. Anya sees Andrés talking to Gideon. While Anya’s walking, somebody pulls her hair and bumps her head into the wall — the girl she met in the graveyard. She fights Anya, so Anya defends herself from the attacks. She wins the fight, but the police arrive.

Our Thoughts

They say to keep your enemies closer, but Anya is getting too close. Too close that she always seems to be on the verge of getting caught. We feel nervous every time she‘s with Felipe. The guy killed his nephew, so why would he hesitate to kill Anya if he learns the truth? And why can’t she hold Diego’s form? That ability she has can be very useful in different situations. If Felipe finds out she can do such, they might take her and use her in their operations.

The flashbacks always happen bit by bit. What happened to Svetlana? Is she an enemy to Anya or someone who looks after her? What happened to Anya that she chose to leave everything behind and live a new life? And what did she do to run away from the people she‘s with? When flashbacks happen, we always wonder what happened to the people from her past. Especially the girl who liked her; where is she? Where is Faina?