Steal Recap ‘Face Value’: Cold Wallet

Steal Season 1 Episode 2

It was a small scene in a tension-filled episode, but it was a humanising and illuminating one. Zara had retrieved her cold wallet with five million pounds in bitcoin from behind her refrigerator and taken it out of her flat. She stopped by a convenience store, and when the store clerk asked if she wanted a scratch card, she declined. The clerk commented that that was unlike her, which meant that Zara, who seemed to have a stable office job if not exactly a glamorous one, was a regular consumer of scratch cards. Prior to her getting involved in a four billion pound robbery, Zara was already searching, via a legal form of gambling, to significantly change her financial situation.

Quick to her feet, Zara immediately changed her mind and bought a scratch card. She knew that at this stage, it was important not to deviate from her usual routine. But, as careful and smart as Zara was, things happen, like her escaping Luke’s building via a window after Luke was assaulted and abducted by three men, and landing right in front of DCI Rhys.

The opening scene confirmed what the first episode heavily implied, that Zara was involved in the robbery. Inside her tiny flat, she used a VPN to access her crypto account, and found five million pounds in bitcoin. She transferred it into a cold wallet (it was that black thing she held), wrapped it in plastic, and hid it, first on top of her closet, then behind her refrigerator. Then, she went to work as usual.

However, Zara was not the only one involved in the heist; Luke was, too, and he was handling the stress very badly. Zara told him that instead of the one hundred thousand pounds they were promised, she received five million. She urged Luke to check his account and take the money offline because if he did not, there was a trail the investigators could find between them and the robbers.

Luke could barely keep hold of himself. He told Zara they needed to go to the police and tell them they were duped, that they thought they were only giving business details over to a rival. With the police wanting to talk to Luke again, Zara instructed him not to confess. If he did, they would either spend the rest of their lives in prison, or they would end up dead.

But Luke did not need to confess; his guilt was written all over his demeanor. The interview was with DCI Rhys, DI Ellie (Ellie James), and a financial investigator  named Darren Yoshida (Andrew Koji). Darren’s questions – whether they usually had that much cash sitting (no, they were in the middle of a portfolio rebalancing which was usually done every couple of years) and the timing of the investment committee meeting (one a week) – pointed to the obvious, that someone from within the company supplied the thieves with inside information. DCI Rhys gently told Luke that the robbers were dangerous people, but that the police could protect him, if there was anything he wanted to tell them. Luke kept his wits to himself enough to get out of there, barely.

The next test was the trauma counselling session. Zara could barely say anything, but Luke declared that he was feeling traumatised, that he did not feel safe knowing the robbers were still out there. It was a rare good move on his part, because letting people know his state of mind would lead them to excuse his strange behaviour. As they walked out of the building that day, Zara told Luke to call in sick with stress the next day. But, as soon as he got home, he was to use the VPN, download the money into a cold wallet, leave his flat, and stash the cold wallet elsewhere. For her part, Zara tried to have a reconciliatory talk with her mother, but it was only so she could stash her cold wallet under a loose floorboard in her old room.

Darren had told the detectives that the inside man would be from the trade processing team. Rhys believed the robbers would not have relied solely on Luke, that there had to have been backup, but he ordered surveillance on Luke anyway. So, it was with the police outside his building when Luke was assaulted by three of the robbers in his flat.

Alone in his flat, Luke had continued to unravel. He took his laptop and cold wallet, and got inside his closet to do what Zara had told him to do, take the money offline. But, he also called Zara and just recklessly talked about incriminating things, though he also told her he thought his place was bugged (it was, but not by the police, but the robbers). He said he could not hide the cold wallet in his flat because of the bugs but that he could not go outside because they were outside. He said he needed to go to the police. Zara tried to fix things in case someone was listening by saying Luke was not making any sense, that he was traumatised, and that she would come over. As he waited for her, Luke started dismantling his flat looking for a surveillance device.

Two of the robbers were inside a car in front of the building, watching Luke from the camera installed in his flat and listening to his phone call with Zara. They decided he was a liability and that they needed to take him out. Another robber in a motorcycle talked his way into the building by posing as a pizza delivery guy; he headed to the basement to open the garage gate for the car.

Luke, who could no longer wait for Zara, called DCI Rhys and insisted that he came over. Rhys agreed, and he also called the surveillance teams and had them do a drive-by to check on the building. The robbers got to Luke first; they forced their way into his flat whilst he was back hiding in the closet. When he tried to leave, one of them accosted him, and he stabbed this robber with a screwdriver. A chase ensued, which ended with Luke beaten and injected with something, before the two uninjured robbers carried him to the car. One of them took the camera from Luke’s flat and the surveillance tapes in the building.

Zara was already at the building whilst this was happening. She saw the blood on the elevator floor and hid, and saw Luke beaten and abducted. It was whilst she was trying to leave that she landed right in front of DCI Rhys.

This was a well-executed, tense episode, centred on two young professionals who may have bitten off more than they could chew. With strong performances from Sophie Turner and Archie Madekwe, I look forward to the slow reveal of the show’s many lingering mysteries.

Rating: A-

Strays

🌳According to Ellie, the thieves were likely ex army, ex special services, or even state actors. They did not discharge their weapons, they wore gloves and prosthetics, and they disappeared into camera black spots. 

🌳There’s something off about Myrtle. I didn’t buy how thrilled she was that there was press outside the building, and that speech she gave at the counselling session about Zara saving their lives. It was all too much and a bit performative. 

🌳Rhys went to his superior Nichols to complain about the slow case movement. Darren the financial investigator arrived over a day after the robbery when he should have been there immediately after. Lochmill and the custodian bank also have not given the account details they needed. Nichols alluded to more important things that Rhys was not aware of.

🌳The custodian bank eventually came through with the account numbers where the money was sent, but the accounts were under a private bank in the British Virgin Islands, and they had no details as to who actually owned them. Darren said political pressure could help hasten the usual two to three week response time from the bank.

🌳Zara’s mother saw the report of the robbery on the news. I wonder if she would connect that with Zara’s sudden visit and her trip to her old room.

🌳Zara picked up the empty vial of whatever that was that was injected into Luke.

🌳For the second time in a row, DCI Rhys was shown gambling, this time, in what looked like an underground poker game.

Episode Title: Face Value

Episode Writer: Sotiris Nikitas

Episode Director: Sam Miller

Original Release Date: January 21, 2026