Twelve Hours
S4E5 Twelve Hours
We open on a dark lit horizontal face, he’s sleeping but not for long as we hear noises that sounds like a bomb whistling then a scream and I’m thinking another Gereon PTSD open. But no, Alfred wakes up in bed with Helga and then gets up to see what’s up. Walking down a dark hallway, we see a dim figure sitting before a fireplace and that’s twice now the directors have chosen this idea. I can’t help but wonder, “well what if Alfred doesn’t wake up till morning?" That reveal won’t look nearly as dramatic in daylight, plus Abe Gold just might fall asleep waiting all night with a lit cigarette in hand and burn down the place. “Good morning, Mr. Nyssen” but Alfred’s in no mood. Abe casually waves a gun at Al, “I’m here for the Blue Rothschild” and they quibble about this and that, but ultimately Abe paints the picture for Al “. . . or I’ll put a bullet in your head.” Alfred sees the logic in that and goes to the bureau where we saw the jewel locked up before. Oops, it’s gone! Abe actually buys that lame excuse and postpones Alford's bullet for 12 hours, which starts now. Credits.
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“Iris (1) opens” on Esther and Walter’s courtyard as another museum piece screeches to a halt. Walter is curious that no-one has cashed in their bets from the Schultz fiasco. Our “sweating bullets” cashier explains they couldn’t have paid out anyway. “Not even remotely.” The loss is 840,000 Reichsmark (2) which sounds like a lot. Then Fuch interrupts the boss to tell him they’re needed at the club. Now at “Boxklub Weintraub” they enter guns drawn to see a figure seated inside the lit boxing ring. No pigeons this time, but poor Red Hugo is quite gruesomely dead with betting slips cruelly nailed to most of his upper body and head. Deigo rushes in to tell Walter the cops are coming and this looks like quite the set-up. “Get rid of him” is a good idea and the cops bust in.
Walter is seated with an empty ring behind him. “I didn’t hear you ringing the doorbell” is a line I’m going to try next time the torrent police bust down my door. The camera pans out from the empty chair in the ring.
And cut to a phone being dialed and it’s Alfred with a considerable tone of panic in his voice calling mom to see if she looted his safe. “She never answers the telephone, this impertinent person!” and Al’s lucky he doesn’t live in 2022 where no one answers their phone. Wegener offers to track mom down then leaves while I admire the elegant excellent art deco set design and I have to note that Alfred is OMG wearing 14” wide cuffs on his pants which look fantastic and my theory is proved correct that bell bottoms swing back into fashion every 40-50 years. 1930 - 1970 - 2022.
Gereon is finishing his coffee and breakfast. Jacky needs to close out his tab as his shift is over. Lotte enters to hand off the apt keys to Jacky, sees Gereon and smirks. He offers her a chair but her eat-sh*t & die look persists and she storms back out. Gereon tracks her down in the street and starts lamely once again with the “throwing away her whole future” line which she deflects but her real issue is that Gereon is now someone who “beats up jews and spits on gypsies.” So the moment finally arrives that Gereon fesses up to being undercover under orders of the Police President with the goal of “splitting up the SA, criminalizing the NSDAP to close them down.” OK, I buy that and so does Lotte so long as it comes with a shot of schnapps. Which they knock back at Koppen Eck where Jacky works. Gereon has thought this through quickly, telling Lotte she has to keep hating on him for appearance sake to keep his cover and keep her safe. “I don’t want to hear anything more from you” which Jacky overhears just before leaving. Lotte finally smiles at Gereon and my heart warms a bit seeing that at least this issue is resolved. I look forward to some interesting future scenes where she gets to yell a lot at Gereon and not really mean it. Trading secrets, Lotte brings up Rudi’s examination of Benni’s hand marks indicating foul play and wants Gereon to talk to Rudi. Gereon accepts the deal as Lotte then pretend-storms out.“This conversation is over!” And frankly she looks like she’s having fun with it.
Jacoby is typing away at the Der Angriff office when Hermann swings by to check out what’s typing. “Murder of a Police Officer.” Meh – Hermann’s not impressed with the dry factual language Fred’s using so he starts tarting up the text with lots of smarmy adjectives and schemey adverbs. Hmmm, sounds like someone I know, but whatever. Fred’s going along with it, but dying inside, I can tell. The look on his face speaks volumes.
And speak of wanted cop killers, Toni’s face is nicely framed in the shot next to her own personal “Wanted cop murder” poster. The pen drawing adds 5 years to her age but at least they spelled her name right. She, Renate and Willie steal potatoes off a delivery truck but Willi gets caught because the others run faster.
Moritz stands nervously in a school courtyard, his face slash still red. Arndt bikes up to him and Moritz chews him out for pining the cop murder on Toni. “One less tick” Arndt justifies coldly, but Mortiz claims self-defense. “He was going to kill her. You saw that.” And out of the blue, Arndt says he did it for Moritz out of love. Yikes. Moritz head butts Arndt in disgust and stalks off leaving Arndt’s nose bloody and broken hearted.
We’re in front of a delightful bit of architecture labeled "Berlin District Court" and the moment I’ve been dreading arrives where I have to sort out this trial stuff that Katelbach is going thru. Deep breath, here we go. You may remember Litton from Season 3 where he and Lotte tried to get poor Greta off death row. Katelbach is there with his editor Haymann, and he looks behind him to wave to Ms Benhke and MaLu. Haymann name checks some heavy hitters from world newspapers and flatters Katelbach that they’re becoming famous. Katelbach agrees as he watches the prosecuting attorney receive a folded note. All rise as the judges enter.
Jorns, the prosecuting attorney now rises to offer a document of “immense importance” referencing the paper he just received. Then he requests “the public be excluded” citing the security of the Republic at risk. Litton naturally objects, pointing out that all the facts have already been made public. Jorns continues that the press be kicked out also and I’m guessing that document to the head judge is going to weight heavily on granting that request. The judge asks the room be emptied which erupts in outrage. Litton asks to see the document Jorns gave to the judge and so do I. Litton then puts on an impressive protest receiving only glares from the judges in return and then finally launches into something I understand - “The German armed forces have systematically bypassed the restrictions of the Versailles Treaty.” Litton continues on to request his 28 witnesses testify and present his submission of evidence. Too late, the fix is firmly in and the judge refuses. “The taking of evidence has finished. The hearing is over.” Yikes, this looks bad. The judges depart to discuss while Jorns warns Litton ominously of the “thin ice” he’s skating and we cut appropriately to a graveyard.
It’s Abe checking out his dad’s tombstone. Dad passed away 15 years prior and has a few rocks placed on top of his stone for luck, I guess. (3) It’s a dreary rainy day and Abe seems sad and places his own rock on top as well.
Cut to a spectacular view of Alfred’s place. Wegener slithers in to Alfred’s office to report mom’s waiting for him in the Great Hall. Al’s pissy that mom won’t walk the mere 200 yards to his office and storms out to meet her. I haven’t seen Al this hot ever, but then he’s only got a half hour left before his bullet appointment. The hall looks a lot different in the daytime without a bandstand and dancers and I still love the stained glass windows. She explains patiently that she's taking this opportunity to tutor Al in “life lessons” as well as admonish Alfred for flaunting the jewel in public. Plus she refuses to be spoken to in that tone of voice. Eventually mom get serious and admits they “never officially owned the Blue Rothschild. It came to us like a nameless founding. We took it in and gave it a homeland, cherished and cared for it” and now I wanna check mom’s meds. She pounds the table hysterically in fear of losing the diamond then paints a picture of dad rolling over in his grave. I feel so sorry for Alfred, rich as he is. Hysterical mom weeps, Al consoles and I’d rather be doing the courtroom scenes than witness Ann-Marie going thru her top 10 list of crosses she has borne with Al as a son. Curiosity having gotten the best of Helga, she tip-toes into the Hall to evesdrop mom’s Oscar worthy guilt trip which seems to have landed. Alfred now promises to open an entire wing back up for mom to return home to live and begs her forgiveness. No word on the diamond though. All this doesn’t go down well with Helga either and I can’t blame her. She rushes out in a huff while violins denote the rapprochement of AnnMarie and son.
Helga draws her gloves on to protect from the cold as she walks out the front door to a car waiting. The usual chauffeur is out today so Abe Gold fills in.
And cut to Gereon walking the parking deck when Graf catches up to him. It's surprising that Red Hugo stood Gereon up. Hmmm. Gereon asks Graf to check out if Walter would know his whereabouts, but Graf is already on it. As promised, Gereon visits Rudi in Pathology. “I’ve spoken to Lotte. Can you confirm that someone stepped on the boy’s hand?” Rudi can only nod grudgingly. Gereon asks further that perhaps the findings were “corrected afterwards” by Schwarz? And Rudi finally speaks – “yes.” Poor Rudi is mildly panicked to be in this cross fire between the cops and his boss, yet he offers his carbon copies of his original report which is the best Gereon could possibly ask for. Who knows how much of this Dr Schwarz is hearing 20 feet and a sheet of glass away but he elects to drop something to make known he’s there so Rudi will finally shut the heck up. Gereon and Rudi agree to meet later to hand off the carbons.
We haven’t seen the train yard in a few seasons and I confess the solid gold train car was a favorite subplot of the series. Fuch is meeting a new character, Werner Doll, who’s in charge of the customs warehouses. “She wants something from us, not the other way around” remarks Fuch then “Just shut up & you’ll make a good impression.” Heh. So now we see Else from the boxing match who is there to do business in illegal imports starting with “Schnapps, Goods, Hooch & Snuff.” Basically, she’s Costco shopping and they bicker over terms she doesn't like and so walks away. Fuch stops her with “I know who killed Red Hugo” which gets her attention, mine too. “You’re next, Else” as I finally learn her first name and realize she has silver crowns on her front teeth. He insinuates darkly, “if Weintraub has his way, you and your dolls will be history very soon.” Hmmm. The prices come down to where they can do business and Fuch adds “we turn the tables and Weintraub is next.” They shake so Else can finish her Costco run.
Back at Chez Walter, he’s peeking thru the curtains so that the light hits his face perfectly for the cameras. He sees Esther in the courtyard having a cigarette break with the guys. Esther and Walter have some domestic disputes about her safety and blah, blah blah. Yeah, sorry, it’s too predictably boring to go into detail here. It’s hard for Walter to compete with the memory of dead Edgar who Esther has upgraded to god-like competence and perfection. Esther refuses to be housebound and storms out.
Meanwhile, at the Courthouse, MaLu crosses to get her cigarette lit then returns to chat about the long verdict wait with Ms Benhke. The judges march back from their deliberations to a nearly empty courtroom. It’s bad. Treason and defamation leads to an 18 month sentence and Litton is now oh for two. There’s a small ray of hope in that if they can find new evidence in 5 days they can appeal which begins another plot thread to follow. The judges haven’t even left the room when Heymann starts riffing the angle the paper is going to take on this outrage. “I’m going to jail because I make them uncomfortable.” which ought to work ok. The noisy press gather around Litton for his official statement of indignant outrage which is how MaLu and Ms Benhke learn the bad news.
As Katelbach is marched out in handcuffs all he can think of is how much he’ll miss Ms Benhke and so this seems as good a time to him as any to ask for Elisabeth’s hand in marriage. I may get that spring wedding after all! The practical side is it would make visiting jail easier but Ms Benhke thinks he’s overreacting as they bicker hilariously out to the paddy wagon outside. She won’t give her answer but agrees to the Plan B they must have discussed earlier so I hope the Peter doesn't steal the negatives . . .
Now we pan down to view a steamy canal and a figure is pulling up a rope ladder from a barge where Helga is likely to spend a few days with 2 portholes of light for company. Her cries for help go unheard.
Alfred is looking for Helga in my favorite sitting room but she can’t be in two places at once. On the stairway Wegener informs she drove off earlier and doesn’t know where. How Alfred doesn’t trip on the stairs with those bell-bottoms amazes me.
Dr Schultz literally drops a dime at a phone booth and I can’t wait to find out who’s on the other side of the call. Yikes, it’s Mr. Chairman Voss from the White Hand club! Schultz is getting cold feet “They’re on to me! . . . my assistant, Malzig! . . .” and gets hung up on.
Ms Benhke disembarks from a bus and we cut to smooth operator Peter breaking into her apartment. He is tucking away every thing small and shiny he can find as we see Ms Benhke walk to her building. Peter’s in the kitchen now looking for the silverware as Benhke ascends the stairs to her flat. The sound design gives us stabbing sharp violins which ratchet up the suspense. Ah yes, Peter grabs the silver canister as I slap my forehead in dismay. Suspense mounts as Elizabeth walks thru the untidy pillage she's discovered in her home. Too late, Peter is out and descending the stairs. She sees the canister is gone and rushes to the phone to call Litton. Ah! MaLu still works for Litton and answers the phone. Benhke informs her the negatives are gone and she’s paranoid enough to think “the authorities are after us” instead of being victim to a very petty thief. Welp, guess it’s time for plan C.
Curled on the floor in a near fetal position Alfred is viewed from an interesting ceiling POV. The phone rings and he’s desperate to hear Helga’s voice. Nope. It’s Abe goading Al a bit as he makes it plain that Helga is hostage to the jewel. Alfred rages in frustration that he doesn’t know where it is.
Chief Detective Bohm is washing his hands in a restroom and I’d rather not speculate why. Gereon enters to do #1. He makes idle convo about the cop murder and if Bohm has found “the girl.” The murder weapon and autopsy are mentioned and I’m wondering if those were Bohm’s socks he was scrubbing as he hides something dark in his valise. Oblivious to all that, Gereon offers his help in the case as a fellow detective all around good guy, but we know where’s he’s coming from with that. Bohm grumps f*off. Another penny drops and I recall that Bohm is in dire straits financially. God knows what’s happened to his wife and kid since he bankrupted them all buying stocks on borrowed money just in time for the global stock market crash. It's also worth noting that Gereon was the cop who talked Bohm out of suicide last season, so the fact that he’s caught in the restroom having to sink-wash his socks and underwear was humiliating enough for Bohn to make him fling his wet boxers at the sink enraged.
Gereon descends the Paternoster, luckily keeping all his arms and legs then enters a room with a new character sporting an awesome mustache. The old guy is a librarian or archivist of sort and he descends his ladder to congratulate Gereon on the nifty riot he had a week ago on the Wittenbergplatz. Gereon explains he’s working the Department Store Gang and needs all the files on them. Five really thick stacks later, Gereon drops them on his desk as he returns to his office to pore thru them. Magically, seconds later those same files are on his kitchen table with Lotte muttering over them. “Someone is obviously targeting homeless kids.” which seems to be all in Section 14’s part of town and I suddenly feel a cold chill for little Willie.
Rudi is riding a bus as a hungry mom and child are begging food. Rudi offers half a sandwich from his valise packed with autopsy carbon copies and he gets serenaded in return as the kid literally sings for his supper. The song haunts Rudi as he walks to meet Gereon and he’s momentarily freaked by a man innocently following behind him in the street. The sound designers have chosen a children’s choir hymnal which sounds definitely ominous. Rudi is not cut out for skullduggery at all, but his paranoia here is earned. A car starts on the street and oddly, slowly, follows behind him along his pathway. A second car in front is flashing lights. Oh, crap, it’s Kuschke walking up to him menacingly and I’m screaming RUN RUDI RUN! at the tv but Rudi can’t hear me. Rudi's cut off by 2 other men and I can hardly bear to watch as Kuschke knifes poor Rudi dead. RIP Rudi. Sorry dude, you were a good guy and Lotte and I will miss you.
Lotte and Gereon are putting their heads together adding up 12 dead children from arrests plus 14 dead children from "accidents" all relying on Rudi’s autopsy carbon copies for justice. “Where is he, anyway?” The doorbell rings. It’s Moritz, who covers his face as he sobs . . . and credits!
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OK, so I’m really missing the Moka Efti now for its levity and joie de vivre, plus no-one I can recall has actually died dancing there yet. I have to admit, Rudi’s death has hit me harder than I would have thought for how little screen time he’s had because he was so great for Lotte and had his whole life ahead of him cutting up dead people. There were no grand expository set pieces in this episode like the “Moka Efti “and “Sportpalast” scenes – just a relentless pushing through of rapid-fire scenes and many disparate plot threads. Ramping up the White Hand into the story adds quite a bit of peril cause we simply don’t know how far their tendrils have crept into the police or the courts. And as we now see, they're comfortable with murder. Still, Gereon and Lotte have teamed up which is the only upbeat development I can summon at the moment. So per usual, revisions and editing as I think I’ve gone thru much of the learning curve doing these. Headshot pics are still offered, but dwindling in number as we’ve seem to have about maxed out our cast budget. And if you’re still reading this far, thanks!
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Footnotes!
1) So I finally found out what this opening circle technique is called. “Iris shot" – An iris shot is a technique used in silent film and television sometimes to emphasize a detail of a scene above all others, more commonly to end or open a scene. The film camera's iris is slowly closed or opened, so that what is visible on film appears in a decreasing or increasing circle, surrounded by black. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_shot
2) The quoted 840,000 Reichsmark figure gives me another shot at estimating to get about $4,278,000 in todays US dollars. Still a lot!
3) Kudos to katla_olafsdottir from /BablylonBerlin for the wiki link to Jewish bereavement stones!
The act of placing visitation stones is significant in Jewish bereavement practices. Small stones are placed by people who visit Jewish graves in an act of remembrance or respect for the deceased. The practice is a way of participating in the mitzvah of burial. It is customary to place the stone with the left hand
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visitation_stones
