At the Bottom of the River

It's the morning after The Big Bang, and the bill has come in. Spider survives the plane explosion by a margin he won't want to examine too closely, gets himself home, and walks straight into the next disaster: Riesen's body being loaded into a van like so much cargo. For a man who only wanted a quiet charter business, the week is going badly. He's wanted for robbery, he's wanted for murder, and two very different men are hunting him. Laidlaw wants the money. Bulman wants the truth.

The title gives the game away, and the hour earns it. Spider ends up in the water, drowning in earnest, and it's Bulman who pulls him out. And there's a lovely awkwardness in that rescue. The detective spends the whole series trying to put Spider away, and here he is keeping him alive, because the law still wants first claim on him. Don Henderson plays that moment with a scowl that says more than a speech would. But the rescue buys Spider a few hours, not a pardon, and both men know it.

Tim Aspinall and Kenneth Royce wrote it, Ken Grieve directed, and it aired on July 18th 1977. Stephen Yardley carries the running and the hiding, with Dennis Blanch's Willis, Vivienne McKee's Maggie and Fiona Curzon's Penny in support. William Squire's Laidlaw and Oliver Maguire's Don Stevens apply the pressure, Johnny Shannon's Warren hovers, and Ron Pember turns up as the mortuary attendant, the episode's quiet reminder that someone keeps count of all the bodies.

It's the grimmest entry in the second season so far, and the show is honest about what that means. Spider can outrun most men, but he can't outrun the water. The river has the last word in the title, and the episode doesn't pretend otherwise.