Ringverein Kaffeklatch
Ringverein Kaffeeklatch S4E10
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We’re at Chez Walter and see a car drive into it’s guarded courtyard. OMG, if I’m not mistaken that’s a very clean shaven Edgar! Not 20 seconds in and the Writers have dropped us in the deep end of a frozen pond to get us into the Babylon Berlin vibe toot suite. And the sound of puzzle pieces falling into place is almost deafening. Now we see Walter walk into his front door, flanked by Fuch, 3 words I’m happy I didn’t have to pronounce out loud. That’s definitely clean shaven Edgar gazing out a car window but perhaps we don’t know where he's watching from just yet. A non-clean shaven Edgar is seen gazing down from the balcony at his brother on the vacant dance floor of the Moka as Edgar’s wife Esther walks up to him for a quick kiss and ass grab. All adult type arrangements aside, that’s gotta hurt to watch and glum Edgar turns away. A car with Edgar and Walter drives into a dark parking area near a warehouse and this feels familiar. Oh, we’re getting a replay and I can’t wait to see how Edgar escaped from being blown up in a firestorm. As before Edgar walks out of the car to the warehouse as Walter waits in the car. The gravity of what Edgar is about to set in motion is sobering for him. Inside the warehouse sleeps either a homeless dude or the security guard about to get fired. Edgar checks his brother in the parking lot and sees the three thugs he hired to kill him, only then, more thugs arrive to kill his thugs. Yikes, thinks Edgar, wtf? Behind him that same guy as last time lights a bright sparkling fuse and hauls ass. Oddly it takes longer than it should for Edgar to do the same as he checks out the fuse. Wow, sparkles . . . Finally, Edgar decides to gtfo and we see his ent entry in the Olympic Warehouse Window Dive event where he would have gotten all 10‘s if it weren’t for his pants catching fire. His excellent roll into a convenient nearby creek kept his score up and his life saved. From wherever he is, we return to clean shaven Edgar’s moody gaze as his car drives off and – credits!
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Iris open to a ceiling POV of Gereon, Buddha and Police President huddling together over blueprints of the cop HQ. Our very familiar detective office is ideal for the Ringverein Kaffeeklatsch as well as the production budget. Gereon describes his meticulous preparation featuring limited entry, body searches and phased escorts for each crime lord. “Inspection A” has only one entry and Gereon notes that the special room Bohm disappears into turns out to be just a file room and not a fetish closet after all. We’re shown a bricked up closet where that file room once had an exit to a hallway leading out. Gereon figures only Henning, Czerwinski, Graf and himself are needed to run this. The Police President is impressed but Buddha still wants nothing to do with criminals “peace-making.” The PP likes the PR aspect of it and he has the last word. It’s refreshing to see polite debate on an issue with mutual respect without acrimonious Twitter wars. As they leave, they mention 3 day weekends and the PP politely drops to Gereon that if the Kaffeeklatsch fails, “you’re in for it”, but if he succeeds, “then we’ve always known it.” Heh. Buddha oddly offers “break a leg.” I never knew he was a thespian.
A lovely aerial forest view, followed by an unlovely hare being degloved and my stomach lurches a bit. MaLu watches at a distance as grossed out as I am. MaLu maybe wants to call it a day saying “I’m cold.” But by-the-numbers Wendt has one box left unchecked on his clipboard so he needs to bag a wild boar before they wrap up. MaLu reluctantly agrees, she’s been straddling the fence on this caper since day one. The tension is helped by the background score as MaLu leads Wendt thru a verdant gully in the woods, littered with branches and fallen trees.
They sneak thru the gully as Wendt smiles following MaLu – checking out her ass, I guess. Before long a really ugly looking boar is traipsing and snorting thru the brush as Wendt locks and loads. MaLu is scanning the woods fearfully and I’m undecided if she’s losing her nerve or just hates seeing wild boars killed for no apparent reason. Now Dr Volcker sees her human prey and raises the gunsight to her face. Suspense builds as I wonder why MaLu doesn’t simply stab him in the back like Lotte would, but maybe that's over her pay grade, I guess. MaLu’s mental tug of war finally snaps so she blows the whole caper by hissing at Wendt “Go! Go away quickly!” That puzzles Wendt momentarily, he scans the woods suspiciously. A shot rings out. MaLu inexplicably had stepped forward and catches the bullet meant for Wendt. The bullet pierces MaLu’s upper right shoulder so there’s a good chance it’s not fatal, but we’ll see. Wendt locks eyes with MaLu as she falls to the ground, he scans the woods deciding for reasons not clear to me that he’s no longer in danger. Oh crap, Dr V drops her rifle and runs off, perhaps Wendt has hearing that good. MaLu is gurgling some, likely unconscious. Wendt takes far too long to decide to be a sport and carry her back to the hut. Surely, Wendt has figured out this failed assassination attempt but I’m hoping we don’t have to watch MaLu degloved in revenge.
The fog never lifts off that barge canal, seemingly. Alfred and Helga are taking a nice spin down a quiet country road and I have to stop now and applaud whoever costumes Alfred. He’s wearing an astonishing fabulous silver fur coat plus a “Twin Peaks” hat that Atlanta’s Darius would surely rock. Still not used to Alfred being a blond, though. Helga has plenty to think about on the drive. Like how she’s going to put a happy face on how she abandoned Alfred’s mother to die alone in a barge in the middle of nowhere. Helga’s memory turned out to be a lot better than she gave herself credit for and they pull up next to the canal where just the smallest 6-7 feet of barge corner bobs above the surface with no sign of AnnMarie anywhere. Given how fast and loose the writers are playing with resurrection themes this season, I’ll believe she’s dead when I see her cold dead hands crossed over her chest at her wake. For now we’ll have to just play along and watch Alfred emotionally devastated, his life irrevocably changed.
“Mutter” Alfred mutters. He’s clearly distraught but not curious enough to get his clothes wet and throw himself on his dead mother's barge to at least look inside. To the melody of a discordant toy piano, Helga is all – look on the bright side, you’ll have “the Company, the Plants, the Property, it will all be yours now” er “Ours . . ” she adds. Heh.
After taking all that in, it takes all of 10 seconds for Alfred to transfer a lifetime of chronic mommy issues squarely on to Helga's shoulders. Having his mother drown at the hands of a deranged American Jew Gangster lacks a certain je ne sais quoi compared to the anticipation of the massive wealth and power he's due from Mom's estate. Like a puppy you’ve just thrown a kibble to, his face brightens and he hugs Helga with grieving happiness, or happy grief. Whatever.
Bohm walks to the payroll office, stands in line to address the Paymeister inside. Bohm acts surprisingly chill about last months salary not hitting his Venmo yet. Paymeister goes to check and returns with the very bad news that “The Bank” decided to confiscate his money due no doubt to Bohm’s stock margin loans blowing up last season. Bohm protests the bank has taken everything, he must have money to live on but Paymeister can only advise him to apply for “dole money” which Bohm doesn’t take well. Bohm can’t hide his shame, he can’t even un-grouch at Henning and Czerwinsky’s cursory “morning, superintendent.”
We’re looking thru a window from a car’s interior to watch Bohm exit cop HQ building. The camera pans to reveal our old friend Gaunt Guy whom I will name by the end of this recap, by god. (Ah ha! Der Graue!) GG is still shamefully gaunt, bummer, perhaps it’s the heroin. Bohm sardonically chuckles gazing at the river just yards away. Perhaps drowning is too cliche and ordinary for him to even contemplate, but perhaps not. He approaches the railing, looks down then steels his resolve. But just then a bloated ghoulish face bobs to the surface while I wonder if mean-mom could have floated that far so quickly? But as luck would have it the floating face looks nothing like hers since there’s clearly a bullet in it’s forehead. Bohm rears back appalled as this image of death sobers him. Just then, Graue interrupts with an interesting offer. Grumpy Bohm tells him to fo but Graue persists. “What would you say if all your worries melted into thin air in one fell swoop?” Graue has Bohm’s full attention now as he opens the car door revealing a large suitcase, “I just want to help. . .”
Majestic dramatic music swells as Walter saunters into cop HQ with his entourage. He breezes thru to Inspection A to check out the joint and gets some pushback from Henning. Fuch checks out the janitor’s closet which is A-OK. A calvary of cops arrive, but Wendt exits gracefully having made some kind of point.
Outside is a line of ladies queuing to a table. Ms Behnke presents herself to a uniform, gets a paper stamped then is directed to the visitor’s room. Ah, now we’ll see how Katelbach is holding up. She breaks the news of her silver canister burglary and Litten’s nightly pillage. Katelbach is given to dramatic hysterics, “I’ll be rotting behind these walls like Count Monte Christo at Chateau d’If” gets a grin from me. Ms Behnke catches it too, “Didn’t he get out?” Kat counters “Yes, but only at the very end, 14 years later sewn into someone elses body bag!” LOL! Behnke is a lot more optimistic and reassures Kat that MaLu can clear this all up when she gets back. Hmmm. Kat then offers a catchy acronym, ‘WCOH - we can only hope” and I’m thinking they should start now. With an attempt at reassurance, Behnke promises for as long as Kat is locked up, she won’t rent out his room, which I find kind of underwhelming. But Kat takes the deal as long as the room is aired out once a day and I’ve fallen off the couch laughing. These writers are having far too much fun.
Behnke asks how jail is and Kat starts wallowing in melodrama once again. “You are my tower of strength” as he gestures for her hand, which he’s not supposed to hold from the looks of the uniform nearby. “Ahem.” Next is a pained analogy between these two and “Orpheus and Eurydice” and I’m not even gonna google that. It’s Katelbach for gods sake. Finally, Kat bottom lines Behnke about his many episodes ago marriage proposal and Behnke is saved by the uniform calling time's up! Behnke can’t even so much as nod her head as the uniform gets aggressive and the scene ends with Kat in great turmoil.
Now we’re treated to a scene stolen from every buddy prison movie ever made. Two guys just hanging out exercising in the prison yard having a smoke. Only now it’s Editor-in-chief Heymann, who I thought might have been connected enough to at least make bail, and Katelbach grousing about the quality of Heymann’s cigarettes. It’s guy talk about Behnke’s answer to Kat’s proposal and Kat is losing heart, I’m afraid. After all, Ms Behnke is an AbenteurMadchen now and maybe doesn’t want to settle down just yet.
Cutting quickly to Behnke and Litten’s coffee break debriefing her prison visit with Kat. Behnke can’t recall how she answered the big question so we cut back for Katelbach’s version which is also inconclusive. Litten can’t believe what he’s hearing as Elisabeth shoo’s off the whole proposal issue as having gone by so fast. Litten fills Behnke on his failure to get the deadline extended and I ponder how he got out of law school. Behnke is cool with Kat's 18 month term as it now gives her more time to carefully consider Kat’s marriage proposal which might be just about enough time. These writers are killing me here. Oops, hope you don’t mind, but Litten appealed that decision and Elisabeth is like, well, ok I guess, he is in jail after all. What’s up with Miss Seegers? Nada from Litten.
Walter is walking, smoking of course. He gazes at his brother’s headstone and starts talking to it, apparently unsure about the Ringverein Kaffeeklatsch. “What would you do, Edgar?” The huge gold coin in his hand seems significant, but I don’t have a clue about it.
Meanwhile at a different Berlin Starbucks, it’s Wegener (1) meeting a guy named Karl. They seem to be old University buds who barely like each other anymore. Karl buys some of Starbucks best champagne for them both, so he can showboat how successful he is now. Then he scarfs down one of those featured organic free-range deviled eggs after Wegnener butters him up about what a gigantic success Karl turned into. Karl now runs a thriving auction house as in 1931 Germany, wealthy folks are liquidating left and right everything their grandparents left them. Art, fine furniture and oh by the way, jewelry too. “What about diamonds?” Wegener queries. What? Gotta wedding ring in mind? scoffs Karl who then slaps Wegener’s back obnoxiously. Karl drains his champaign, then to showboat more he orders two beers during which Wegener tiptoes into his ask, “What if someone approached you with a genuine rarity? Say. . . the Blue Rothschild?” Um, Karl explains, he can’t deal in stolen goods, that gem is too hot for anyone to publicly own. Oh, never mind, Wegener counters meekly, forget I mentioned it and then gets his third hearty slap on the back in return which makes me grit my own teeth as Wegener does now. Karl offers some savy advice. “It’s a stupid idea!” The scene closes with Karl bragging about being on his 3rd wife as Wegener and I have had just about enough of him.
Now an interesting view of some kind of metal contraption, clanging away with sprockets chains, a handle and a few widgets. I have no idea, but perhaps it’s an industrial sized music box. Now we see where Esther landed after walking out on Walter. Her stock has dropped a bit, perhaps, as she’s having to audition for some guy in a very small shabby club. Work is work. She’s wearing a black Joker outfit with Picasso inspired makeup and pulls out the last thing I could have ever guessed which wasn’t on my bingo card at all. She sets one end between her legs and stretches the long metal end down with one hand over her leg. She has a violin bow in the other hand and proceeds to make those creepy theremin sounds you usually hear in bad seance scenes. But I confess I’ve always wanted to try that. The clanging won’t stop either so I’m guessing it’s from the metal contraption on purpose. Esther starts orating, “The man on the moon looks down at me . . .” and continues on that free verse theme with the theremin saw adding much creepiness and atmosphere. She tosses glitter in the air as her finale then floats to the floor as the manager applauds, “Bravo!” But just now, someone looking very similar to Gaunt Guy Graue whispers into the manager’s ear who now squirms a bit telling Esther, “Some people don’t want you to be hired here.” She doesn’t take this well and storms out.
If there's anything more Noir than seeing a black vintage sedan driving thru a dark rainy night, it would be a full on headshot of Gereon at the wheel as we watch him smoke and contemplate. Buddha’s comments echo in his ear and Gereon looks apprehensive about how the Kaffeeklatsch will work out.
We cut to Lotte and Toni at the Jackie/Lotte co-op. Lotte asks if Benni was Toni’s boyfriend and says sorry after Toni’s faint nod. Toni can stay there, but for how long Lotte doesn’t know as she’s broke with no work. Toni will take it but she’ll find her own way if worst comes to worst. Toni helps herself to a cigarette for later. Lotte pitches Rosa Helfers from social welfare who might be able to help. She trial balloons a posh rural school that might be available which would surely turn Toni into a proper young lady with singing and activities along with good schooling. Lotte can't top that, but Toni doesn’t see schooling in her future, but thanks anyway. Toni asks about Lotte losing her job because of her. “That’s old news,” Lotte replies. Toni’s also curious about Gereon, are they a thing? “It’s all connu” whatever that means, but I get it. Lotte is just day to day on all that, or pretends to be. They plan to go downstairs and scrounge “some scraps from Jackie” but before they go Toni stands to offer Lotte a simple quiet “thanks.” My heart melts along with Lotte’s as they encore a long loving sisterly hug which brings me and Lotte near tears.
Esther returns to what might be a single room AirBnB she’s sharing with her two kids. Yikes. The boy offers a telegram that arrived from America as I scratch my head on who we might know there. Nope. No idea. The telegram promises her a job in Hollywood from a guy named Bellmann who I’m guessing we last saw during the ill fated movie production of S3. Esther’s delighted face reads Oh, hell yeah! !
The camera pans from the deserted parking deck of cop HQ, then to it’s empty lobby. Whoever preserved this 100 year old building and let the producers use it as a set gets a big thumbs up from me as it is Art Deco gorgeous. The paternoster is still for a change. Henning, Czerwinski, Graf and Gereon are anxiously assembled, watching the clock which strikes 8:45. “Let’s go.”
Gereon scans the Kaffeeklatsch room worried if they have enough of the correct type of sweetener for their coffee. There’s just too many types of artificial sweetener and everyone hates all but their own favorite. Whatever, it’s too late to turn back now. Gereon's pondering “what am I missing here” drawing a blank. He checks the brick closet in Bohm’s file room and while there notices a backpack with night wear and a shaving kit inside. Having already missed the major clue of Bohm washing his socks in the sink, he’s surprised to realize Bohm’s been living in his office for some time now. No wonder Bohm’s such a grump.
The Ringverein Kaffeeklatsch montage begins with some mournful organ riffs. Cars pulling up into the parking deck. Blind Bob is escorted into Inspection A, but not before he and his entourage surrender weapons. There seems to be an honor among thieves system here where the guns are all just randomly thrown in a few boxes with the notion that everyone will get back the exact one they threw in. I find that kind of trust among murderers kinda quaint. Else exits her car now with her entourage and gets frisked, “Watch it bud.” Adolf the Muscle is still rocking that spectacular mustache and goes thru the same process. Ede the Knife adds a comic touch opening his fabulous zebra print overcoat to reveal no less than 83 knives of various lengths and types. This is gonna take a while as Ede get’s his own box.
They’ve assembled in the Inspection A room now, four bosses seated flanked by their perspective goons. Someone’s missing as Gereon checks his watch then Walter floats in fashionably late. Gereon seems undecided if he should commence with The Lords Prayer or the German National Anthem, but nixes both then throws the first pitch. None of the violence of the past days and weeks will go unpunished regardless of what happens in this room! Then, don’t forget to leave tips in the jar for the coffee and donuts, we’re not made of money around here. The hoods react like he’s just saying “yada, yada, yada” and finally Gereon shuts up after “You have 3 hours.”
Fuch begins by suggesting another site inspection and someone comically glances under the table. The others are just as lame but Fuch takes the opportunity to unlock what I’m guessing is Bohm’s special file room. Hmmm, wonder where he got the key? A few other goons return from checking out adjacent offices. Walter steps up to the plate and offers statesmen like oratory to the effect of “How did it get this far? . . .” “Tsk, tsk, tsk . . .” “Blah, blah, blah . . .” as the camera pans thru Bohm’s file room. The handle of the door Fuch unlocked turns now and we get to see the other side of Edgar's face we haven’t seen since his Olympic Warehouse Window Vault. It’s not pretty with 3rd degree burns and bonus dramatic cheek slash. There’s a grim intensity on his face now as he tiptoes in.
Walter is still droning on, taking quite a while to get to any point at all. Gereon lights a cigarette in the hallway, wishing he could be a fly on the wall inside. Graf checks his watch, only 2 hours and 58 minutes remaining - it’s gonna be a long night. Walter continues not getting to the bottom line. We see Edgar opening a familiar looking suitcase we last saw in GG’s car. Finally Walter finds a point. “Who killed Oelschlager?” That envelope guy from E1? Man it’s been a while since I thought of him. Nobody fesses up. Edgar assembles pieces of a tommy-gun from the suitcase. The first argument of the Kaffeeklatsch begins as they all accuse the others of offing Oelschlager.
Suddenly Bohm enters the stairway hollering up a storm. He was left out of the loop apparently and wants back in his office to check if his socks have dried yet. Edgar raises the tommy-gun he just finished putting together. The scars on the right side of his face don’t look pleasant. Graf stops Bohm from entering the hallway as Gereon perks up his ears. The round part with all the bullets in it is the last piece Edgar snaps in place and Bohm is yelling pretty loud and insistently. (Am I really supposed to think that this is his way of pre-empting suspicion on him by just randomly dropping by, or is he having a change of heart somehow to fix things?) Bohm is really steamed and Gereon has to fight him off to keep him entering, but on second thought, the door’s locked, right? Gereon has leverage on Bohm mentioning he'll keep Bohm's homeless secret if he’ll just please gtfo and that works.
Edgar is taking a moment to gather himself then smashes a door open and mayhem ensues. Imagine the look on Walter’s face as he sees his very p*ssed off brother about to hose them all down with bullets. Two goons are first, Blind Bob takes it next. Walter gets a token sprinkling followed by Adolf the Mustache, may his mustache rest in peace. I should take a moment to point out that Fuch took less than a second to take cover around a corner as soon as Edgar entered. Another goon down followed by Ede the Knife wondering if he still had that nail file in his pants pocket. Bodies are hitting the floor now except for Else who stares back at Edgar with faint hope in her eyes thinking, “But I’m just a girl!” Edgar takes a long time to think that one over while Gereon tries to get the door open.
Edgar eyes his brother who’s still breathing, barely, hearing Gereon and Graf kick at the door. He walks up to Else with a knife and slashes her throat open which feels coldly personal. See, bitch, since you’re the girl you get special treatment. Fuch raises from his crouch behind the corner as if to say “Wow, nice! You ok boss?” but Edgar’s bloodlust is in high fever now and I take great pleasure in seeing Fuch blasted to the floor with both me and Edgar thinking, “I never liked that guy . . .”
The room is still now, save for the blood seeping from several holes in Walter’s chest. Oops, I take that back, Gereon and Graf are now attacking the door lock with bullets. No matter, the lock on that door would defy hours of attack, it only just looks like a cheap Walmart Chinese generic.
Walter is now busy dying, refusing to even look up at his brother. Edgar stares back and Walter tells him, “Get it over with.” See? There you go again, always trying to tell me what to do! We get a memory flashback of those happier days when Walter came home from prison. They loved each other as only brothers could back then. How did things ever get so wrong? (Ahem, Esther. . .) Walter looks up at his brother and sees no love left in his eyes. Edgar raises the tommygun for one final blast – RIP Walter. Gereon finally bashes the fire extinguisher at the lock, as Edgar plants his knife in Walter’s dead hands and the tommygun in Else dead lap (“Watch it bud!”). And as Gereon finally bludgeons that cheap Walmart lock out of the wooden door, Edgar escapes.
Bohm enters after Grau and Gereon with an interesting look on his face. (See what you did, dude?) Bohm doesn’t look contrite at all, he just wanted to change socks and get some sleep later but now this mess. It’s only now that Gereon begins to register what a monumental f*-up this turned into and he’ll get no end of I told you so's from Buddha if there’s any of Gereon left over after the Police President gets thru with him. Conversely, just spitballing here, I could see a way where this could be turned on it’s head since a lot of bad guys are now deceased, so we’ll see.
On a hunch, Gereon rushes to Bohm’s office to check out the brick closet and yep, there’s an Edgar sized hole bashed out at the bottom. There’s also a loose wall panel next to the bricks. We flashback to Gereon checking the brick wall less than an hour ago as the camera pans showing us a ceiling POV of Edgar hiding behind the paneling directly next to the bricked closet. So, Edgar managed to enter the Inspection A office when no one was looking, removed the wall panel and hid inside. At 9:00 he exited, assembled his gun, spattered everyone inside and then bashed out 12-13 bricks in less than 60 seconds without making a sound, then crawled to freedom. Hmmm.
All of Gereon’s scene reconstruction points directly to Bohm who now enters his office to gaze at the empty suitcase with all the tommygun parts in the next room. Gereon and Bohm study each other intently for quite a few moments, then Gereon walks out and hears Walter’s ragged breathing.
I suppose as a last act of brotherly love Walter uses his remaining 3 breaths before he goes to hell for all eternity, not to rat out Edgar, but to connect with Gereon’s hand and ponder “What can you do? I loved him . . .” We now dolly back to view a glorious tableau of a shot up workroom, 3 stunned cops, many slumped bleeding bodies, with bullet smoke still hanging in the air. Credits.
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Yowza! I’ve been waiting for that spectacular 15 minute set piece for quite a few episodes now and it certainly didn’t disappoint! I was guessing bombs versus bullets, but this worked even better cause now they can continue to use that office set after they clean it up some. I suppose I might apologize for going a bit long on this recap, but I won’t because the series is almost over and I’m gonna savor every moment I can while I have them. After last episode I was a bit worried about many of the major characters exhausting their narratives, but we still have plenty more story to watch. I really look forward to Police President and Buddha getting back from their long weekend to clean up the cop HQ sh*tshow. Plus it’ll be an interesting test of wits between Gereon and Bohm on just how the Kaffeeklatsch fiasco went down. Then there’s Abe still looking for his Jewish roots or something, he still hasn’t figured that out yet, while Wegener wishes it were the year 2022 so he could just put the damned Rothschild Diamond on eBay and have done with it. We’re still missing Oscar with that WH808 document he stole from MaLu. I have little doubt that AnnMarie will resurrect and we’ll get to see the flashback of how she floated up the inside of the barge then used a ballast brick to knock the hatch open to escape. I have less hope for MaLu, though I would hate to lose her from the cast as I enjoyed her tuxedo dancing and frisky stuff so much. You know the drill, evasions, rewrites, spellchecks and verb tenses as I’ve given up on consistently putting text properly in quotation marks and if you’re still reading this, thanks!
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Footnotes!
1 I probably shouldn’t get into minutia this small, but I’d noticed before that all the cigarettes smoked on the series are period correct in that they’re imperfectly rolled. Last I looked, modern day cigarettes are flawlessly smooth shaped cylinders, while the one in Wegener’s hand shows faint lengthwise creases. So, kudo’s to the prop guys who figured all this out. Details matter.
