Feeling lost after ‘Money Heist’ season 4? Here’s the plan so far

This whole “leaving us hanging halfway through the heist” thing that Money Heist is doing is driving us mad. Sure, we only had to wait less than a year to get the second half of the heist on the Bank of Spain, but that doesn’t make the wait any less painful. 

Netflix stopped teasing us and dropped the season on April 3rd. We know basically every fan has already watched the entire season, and probably rebinged the show from the beginning at that time just for the fun of it. But just like most Netflix series, a new release is drawing more fans into the show.

If you’ve managed to just stumble into the glory that is Money Heist, season 4 is far from the first place you should start. This is the payoff to the heist, and you need to watch the beginning to understand anything occurring. Here’s a quick guide to the story so far, and how everything went downhill quickly with the heist on the Bank of Spain. 

Not the first heist

Probably worth mentioning that all of our lovely crew members are millionaires after getting away with nearly a billion euros from the Royal Mint of Spain. In this first heist, the team you know and love, plus Berlin (Pedro Alonso), Oslo (Roberto Garcia Ruiz), and Moscow (Paco Tous), took down the government.

Of course, we lost the three men we hold dear along the way, and the original plan was 2 billion euros. But Denver (Jaime Lorente) fell in love with a hostage, the Professor (Alvaro Morte) managed to get the police inspector involved in the case on his side, and they got away scot-free. 

Paradise lost

Two years have passed since this original heist. Denver and Monica (Esther Acebo) are living in Indonesia with their son, Rio (Miguel Herran) and Tokyo (Ursula Corbero) are living that island life off the coast of Panama, and Nairobi (Alba Flores) and Helsinki (Darko Peric) are causing trouble in Argentina. 

Tokyo, being the problem child she is, wants to go party it up in the city. Her and Rio use satellite phones to stay in contact with each other, unaware they’ve been bugged. Tokyo managed to evade capture, but Rio isn’t so lucky. In a time of crisis, the gang was given resources on how to reach out to The Professor.

Finding her way to Thailand, the two reunite. Of course, Raquel (Itziar Ituno) has been kept secret, and Tokyo is less than pleased to find her in the Professor’s company. A quick slap knocks her back into shape though, and the three reunite the gang to make a plan to save Rio. 

An old friend comes back

The plan? Make a hell of a lot of noise in the Bank of Spain, taking it over and holding a mutiny. But this isn’t the Professor’s plan. Through flashbacks, we watch Berlin win over the Professor with this plan. Returning to the Italian monastery where the heist was set into motion, the gang is back in class to learn how to take on the heist. 

Berlin’s gone though, so who will step up to lead the way instead? Enter Palermo (Rodrigo de la Serna), a close friend of Berlin’s (who was 100% in love with him) who knows the plan like the back of his hand. Of course, he joins under the condition of loyalty to the plan, not the group. 

Money, money, money

With class dismissed, the group is ready to lead way into the city. Pretending to be armed forces on the move to protect the bank, the gang heads into armored vehicles. Raquel and the Professor are beginning to launch their plan on the technical side as giant airships with the iconic mask fly over the city.

Dumping plenty of money down, the city is in chaos. But right as police start their plans, a message pops up on every major screen in the city. Unmasking himself, the Professor addresses the people directly about their situation and who they are. Knowing there’s an attack coming, police dispatch the convoys to key locations in the city to protect themselves. 

After finding out which one is going to the Bank of Spain, the gang paints their vehicles, hops in, and after some arguments, gets permission to enter. There, they quickly take hostages and get the bank armed with explosives on every entrance, window, etc. 

Problems early on

It’s clear though that this was going to be a different beast than the heist on the Royal Mint. Palermo ended up getting shot in the eye by one of the governor’s guards, though thankfully some excellent surgery from Nairobi saved his vision. 

On top of that, the police call in inspector Alicia Sierra (Najwa Nimri) to handle the negotiations with the Professor and Raquel. Alicia and Raquel were in the same police academy class together, and it’s clear there’s some tension between the two, especially with her partner Angel still working on the case. 

Getting Rio back to Spain

Of course, at the end of the day, the goal of this heist isn’t to steal money, but knowledge. In a waterproof safe at the bottom of the bank is a bunch of red cases. In these 24 cases? Every dirty secret of the government of Spain.

If, say, you needed to get the government to surrender over a captured hostage of your team, you could be in good shape. Rio had been tortured by Alicia since the day he was captured, illegally of course. Once the gang (after some near murder) finally broke into the safe, they had the cards in their hands. 

Finally, the police had no choice but to turn Rio over. Walking into the bank with a cheering crowd behind him, the gang finally met their goal. But now that the safe is cracked open, why let those government secrets go to waste?

Death around the corner

But in the meantime, the police were finding new strategies to figure out how to take the gang down. The Professor was able to triangulate his phone signal in a way to keep the police off his tracks, but he underestimated how dedicated they’d be to the search. When police started chasing the two of them down, Raquel and The Professor separated.

The Professor ran up a tree, while Raquel hid in a barn. But the barn’s owners discovered her, and her negotiation tactics didn’t work, as they turned her over to police. While they just fired a gun to scare her, the Professor thought the gunshot was execution-style against Raquel, launching him into a blind rage.

Meanwhile, at the bank, the police tracked down Nairobi’s son she gave up, and brought him onto the scene to get at Nairobi’s heart. But with her chest exposed at the window, Nairobi was shot down by a sniper. Hopefully, quick action will save her life though. 

Finally, The Professor gets in contact with Palermo, especially when they find out that the police were sending armed convoys to finally break into the bank. Giving him the go for DEFCON 2, Palermo orders Rio and Tokyo to set up rocket launchers. Cracking open the doors, the two fire at the police, blowing up the armed convoy and most likely killing officers.

This was a signal of war on police, but this also drew blood. Whether that ends up affecting the public’s opinion of the robbers, we’ll have to wait to find out in part 4. But hopefully, if you’re new the series, or even need a recap before getting back into Money Heist, this caught you back up.

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