Thursday 8 August - iTunes: Matt takes a step too far and Brenda's seriously frightened. As opposed to the amusingly frightened?
Previously on From Russia with Thugs our intrepid heroes plus Dimitri man of no fixed abode or discernible source of income were dashing back to the car as a black 4x4 loomed on the horizon in some bleak but valuable part of Russia 90 mins outside of St Petersburg....place your bets as to when and where the action picks up....
Sounds of a bar, Bren is wishing Matt Happy Birthday, she's bought him a cigar. It must be Wednesday. Matt still wants to go after Nikolai-the-baddie but Bren isn't happy. At least she wants Dimitri to see the contract before he does anything else. As if by magic or just the miracle of scriptwriting Dimitri appears having been buying more drinks [how does he fund them?]. Matt agrees to show him the contract but not in the bar, in his room.
The TV is on, Matt doesn't recall leaving it on. Clearly he's been having to grill his own sausage as Bren catches sight of the screen and goes 'ewww'. Matt is outraged, he doesn't watch this stuff, he really doesn't. Bren is unflapped and says it's ok, he doesn't have to explain and I'm curiously side-tracked wondering if there is a file in the sound engineer's archive labelled 'Eastern European Porn' or do they just download some and rip their own soundfile. Matt is obsessed with pointing out he hadn't left the telly on. He says it must be the cleaner Dimitri points out why would a cleaner be watching porn.
There is a knock at the door. No-one is expected, Dimitri advises checking the peephole, there's no-one there, just a bottle of champagne with a note saying 'Happy Birthday'. Dimitri queries if the note is in English, clearly he also feels AmEx is dragging on so long that Matt has had enough time to learn Russian and read Cyrillic. He gets cross and insists Matt shuts the door. Dimitri says he doesn't know who it's from but they want them to know they're watching them. Nobody has a better explanation and Bren decides she feels sick. Dimitri says it's a warning to stop looking for Nikolai-the-baddie. Bren asks what they're going to do and Dimitri tells her she's getting on a plane straight back to England.
Piano music, they're back at the posh-squat. Bren is packed and starts to cry. She doesn't want to go but she's terrified as well. She had been having such a wonderful time with Deeema she never imagined it could be so ugly. Deeema promises to visit, presumably when he's short of a place to stay.
Matt calls Bren, he thanks her for sticking by him. Bren gets him to promise he won't do anything stupid and he asks her not to mention any of it to Lillian. Bren isn't happy and Dimitri gets the phone off him and tells him not to do anything until Dimitri gets back - Matt is NOT to go back to the office and is to stay at the hotel until he gets back. Bren panics that she can't go back to Ambridge, what if she lies to Lil and something happens to Matt.
...which is highly likely as he's back at the office, menacing the cleaner/secretary. He wants to know about her boss. She tells him everything in the office has gone and so has Nikolai.
At the airport Dimitri is arranging for Bren to stay with Zak who is a great guy and has a beautiful flat in Malmo where Bren can stay as long as she wants and there's no chance of her running into Lilian...although with the current plot lines pretty much anything seems to be possible. The smooch a bit and Bren leaves. Once she's gone Nikolai says 'dosvadanya, until we meet again Brenda Tucker'.
Matt is still menacing the cleaning secretary they're on the tram. He can't stop until he gets his money back. Nikolai has gone to the south and disappeared. Matt wants to know who told her to close the office but she can't say as 'then they'll know'. Matt demands to know who, he has to know, it's his life and he has to get his money back. Cleaning sec. is scared and Matt asks her to give him anything, she has something but Matt must promise never to see her again.
It's something Nikolai-the-baddie left in the offfice, she took it to give back to him but N-t-b never came back, it's the only thing not destroyed. She gives it to Matt and she makes it clear he must now bugger off.
Matt shows Dimitri what he got, it's N-t-b's phone. Dimitri is really scared/cross and hustles Matt inside somewhere echoey (later revealed to be a toilet). Dimitri is really cross and wants the phone. They need to get rid of it and certainly not turn it on (the battery is flat). Dimitri loses his rag and is seems to be waterboarding Matt who gives him the phone. Dimitri wants to know what Matt was going to show them earlier on when they were in his room but Matt's not playing. Dimitri realises that now he doesn't have to be nice to Matt as Brenda's not around tells Matt that he's on his own but he's warning him, he'd better watch his back.
Don't you think that the jingle jangles would make great music for Cossack dancers?
Dosvadanya until next week comrades!