The Entire Nyssen Empire is Built on This Theft

The Entire Nyssen Empire is Built on This Theft  S4E11

There’s wet pavement in the cop HQ parking deck. A beautiful burgundy museum piece drives thru without a drop of water on it. The Police President exits the car and I’m pretty sure I know where he’s headed. Photographers slow him down a bit since they want to get just the right angle on his awesome eyebrows. A crime tech is lifting a bullet shell and there seem to be quite a lot of them on the floor of Inspection A. The crime tech guys have been busy drawing body outlines, lifting fingerprints and putting up fun numbered signs to count the dead mob guys. At his desk we see Gereon writing a letter to Lotte. Dear Lotte, why don’t we go away somewhere, maybe Ahlbeck, I may have a few days off this week. Nah, scratch that. He walks his letter to Buddha’s office where all the usual guys are hanging out but no one is eating pie. I guess the Buddha is too upset to even eat, imagine that. The human skull on Buddha’s desk is a nice touch. 

“I would like to resign from my position” as Gereon drops his letter on the desk. Buddha isn’t surprised but insists that the buck stops with him so maybe Buddha’s got his own girlfriend he can pen a letter to. Buddha adds a small disclaimer that he was forced into the decision but that’s soon upstaged by the Police President’s entrance. He’s brandishing the morning newspapers and my hunch of last week proves prescient. The Reinvereign Kaffeklatch reviews are in and boy was it a smashing success! “Berlin Can Breath Again” since the Reinvereign guys who have been terrorizing the city by killing each other are now all mostly dead. “One officer in particular who is responsible for this heroic action.” (!!!) and I gotta wonder who leaked that to the press? Edgar? Bohm? Gereon goes from scapegoat to hero at the speed of light but Buddha won’t have it - he insists to The PP that the truth of their failure to secure the meeting be reported. Nope. Gereon’s resignation is point-blank refused and they are all ordered to go on like the fiasco was accidentally on purpose. Buddha accepts reluctantly then calls downstairs to maintenance to clean up all the blood and tape off the office floor. 

Gereon walks thru the cop HQ lobby, humbled yet a bit relieved. He’s noticed by the small mob there and smiled at. Then dozens or so cops there start hooting and applauding. Gereon receives many kudos and back pats. It’s ironic that on the occasion of a massive f*-up Gereon is now a hero. 

Gereon is walking the sidewalk, so I’m guessing he forgot he parked his car at cop HQ. A car pulls alongside of him containing Graue and Edgar (his bad side.) Gereon sees them and bids them a cherry “Go to hell!” but Edgar is a man of his word. Sure, you f*ed up, but a deal is a deal so lemme know when you want that guy Anno dead  and credits!

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Iris opens to church bells pealing. Gereon enters a confessional giving him the opportunity to think out loud to the priest as well as us about his brother Anno. He has quite a hatred for his brother, that devil, and we are treated to another Anno glass booth scene only it’s Gereon and Anno just before Gereon beats the crap out of him. No idea if this is an actual event or flight of fancy. No word either on Gereon’s Pervitan (1) dosage. “He abuses me, he is destroying my soul. I want him to die” But before the priest gives him his penance of 377 Hail Mary’s Gereon has bolted the confessional with far more certainty than when he entered.

Bohm opens the door of his family’s new home. It’s a nice flat with no furniture, they’ll purchase new. It’s clear that reassembling his family with Bohm at the proud helm justifies all the crimes he had to commit to obtain it. Wife is skeptical and demands to know where the money came from. Bohm resists and the writers show us the backstory of how Graue paid him off for storing the tommy-gun suitcase, getting the blueprints to Assembly A, then letting Graue inside his file room to redecorate the brick closet. Bohm feigns a minor cerebral event against the wall by way of slamming the door on that money discussion. “What’s important is that we’ll never be separated again." Sadly, I don’t see this ending well.

A very nice leather portfolio embossed with the words “Testament” in gold lettering is opened and Wegener starts reading aloud. Alfred is relieved to be named “sole heir” and as a gesture of marital solidarity we see that Helga has now gone blond as well. Cute couple. Wegener continues to amplify a small detail that AnnMarie changed her will following Alfred’s New Year’s Eve marriage announcement (that was fast!) so that her body must be found for the behest to proceed. We see Alfred read mom's addendum as it sinks in. He's p*ssed now and orders the barge be investigated. Helga twirls her new blond locks pensively.

I simply gotta love Alfred here swirling his Sherlock cape melodramatically to open the scene. If Al had a mustache, he'd be twirling it. He’s watching divers surface to inform everyone that the barge is empty of human remains. Alfred vents – “that scheming old witch!” Even from the grave that woman continues to be a pain in his ass. Alfred flounces his cape dramatically and storms off. 

A hospital corridor finds us following Wendt to General Seegers holding up the wall across from the MaLu’s room. Wendt is in high snit at the moment. It’s clear to him that MaLu was in on his attempted hit, but the version he sells to Gen Seegers is that Malu is a hero who took a bullet for him. MaLu has lost some blood but she’ll recover cause she’s young, if that makes any sense. I’m batting .500 on last episodes' death count predictions but I’m not giving up hope that mean-mom backstroked all the way to safety from the barge. We’ll see.

Seeing Wendt, MaLu attempts a winsome sleepy smile that fails badly. Neither look particularly happy to see each other so this becomes the second awful breakup for MaLu in the last few days and I sure hope she finds happiness eventually. (Psst. I’m single by the way MaLu, DM me ...) Wendt’s snit level is now in the red zone as he grills MaLu on his murder attempt. MaLu refuses to rat out her comrades so Wendt makes a lot of threats until MaLu drops the name “Oscar.” Wendt doesn’t buy Oscar being jealous to explain being shot until MaLu drops that Oscar is also a Soviet spy. MaLu claims she didn’t know that Oscar used her to spy on her father until it was too late – which gives me pause on what game she’s playing. Angling for double agent perhaps? Wendt gets the full name, Oscar Kulanin, then exits to MaLu’s great relief.

We’re outside at the flea market in Jacob’s neighborhood. Wegener is tracking down an address when Jacob happens to call out to him. Happy chance, Wegener was seeking Jacob and flashes the Rothschild Diamond at him. Wegener wants Jacob to touch base with “the kidnapper” so he can give up the stone since no one will buy it from him. Jacob tries lamely to feign innocence to no avail then promises a phone call. 

A car drives and parks, Esther’s son opens the door for mom who exits with flowers for Edgar’s mausoleum. She’s hitching her star to Hollywood so this may be her final visit. She says her farewell and looks back where the kids used to be, calls out and then hears Edgar calling out to her! He conveniently happened to have been waiting there since the massacre as the writers told him Esther was gonna drop by before she left for Hollywood. Esther doubts her own eyes and they trade acrimony for a bit. Edgar is p*ssed about being mourned for a mere month before Walter hopped into her bed and took over everything Edgar had built. It dawns on Esther that Edgar avenged that disloyalty by committing the Ringvereign massacre, then “where are the children?” Now it gets even uglier as Esther wails in anguish knowing Edgar will never let her see her kids again. Payback this vicious is pretty ugly, but Edgar doesn’t care and walks off as Esther’s howls hang in the air.

Lotte walks out of a storefront and lights a cigarette. Nearby a boxing poster is pasted on a kiosk for display. And here I have to stretch my memory to the breaking point to summon the name of Rukeli Trollmann from E1 who is featured on the bill promoting a boxing match. Which I guess are still on given that half the Ringverein are deceased. Rukeli's a lot more handsome without his mouthguard and Lotte thinks so too. Thankfully, the writers refresh our memories with his backstory that Lotte got some personal affects from her mom from a neighbor way back in S3. Lotte investigated to find that mom was having an annual fling with Ruleli's dad, Erwin Trollmann. One could literally see the wheels spin in her head as she views the boxing poster so it’s no surprise that she’s now on the phone posing as a news reporter needing to set up an interview with Rukeli. She reaches Rukeli on the phone and we cut to . . .

Jacob and Wegener take an evening stroll to Abe’s hotel. They enter Abe's apartment and Abe (2) is his usual depressed grim self. Wegener confirms Abe’s parentage for some reason then launches into his lawyerly prequel to “here’s the damn thing, sorry about that.” Here the writers offer us a fascinating novel technique of colorful animated paper cutout silhouettes to present the following backstory. (3) I'm so impressed cause it’s really charming! Abe’s dad got Mr Nyssen, described as a somewhat incompetent ner-do-well, to agree to deliver the stone to Abe’s dad’s synagogue in Berlin. But AnnMarie, knowing how badly their failing businesses needed the money, took the diamond from her husband’s luggage the evening before he set sail. Then she hired a “stranger” to blow up the ship. Kind of a harsh move to destroy an entire cruise ship and everyone on it as cover for a stolen diamond, but who am I to second guess mean-mom. It was an interesting change of pace to tell a backstory with clever animation and I’m all here for it. Danke. 

“The entire Nyssen empire is built on this theft, on this stone” and I’m still trying to connect the dots here. She would have had to sell the original to get the funds to save their floundering businesses? Or perhaps it was possible to use it as collateral for loans? Dunno. 🤷🏻‍♂️ What Abe focuses on is who blew up the boat that killed his father. Abe grabs Wegener and presses his gun to his neck and asks. Where you the stranger? Wegener closes his eyes and starts praying as he nods yes, it was me. Abe takes this in, removes the gun from Wegener’s neck and mutters, “Go.” I suppose it's a bit of personal growth for Abe that he simply didn’t blow Wegener's brains out for “revenge” at that moment. Jacob observes “you won” and offers more useless unwanted advice, “Consider carefully what you do with the money.” Feh. Jacob’s batting average counseling Abe is in the low aughts so I don’t know why he bothers anymore.

Wegener is now on the street outside the hotel marveling at the power of prayer being that he’s still alive.  Abe gazes at the Rothschild Diamond in his hand as the tune “Is That All There Is?” (4)  that Peggy Lee sang in the 60’s plays in his head.

A dramatic angle of a door labeled “Tor 2” opens and it’s long lost Moritz released from jail. The legal wheels have ground just enough to get him acquitted for knifing a dirty cop in the back in self-defense. Moritz looks happy to be out and I bet he's thinking "hot bath!"

A car drives a country road and we hear Wendt’s lacky read off intel on Oscar Kulanin. (I've finally figured out Wendt's lacky's name is Sebald.) Oscar's intel dossier reads Likely a Russian agent, so-so in bed, breaks up badly, but that’s it apart from jet-setting over to the continent in a Zeppelin. Wendt is doing 5 dimensional chess in his head and ponders why Moscow should send a new agent at this specific point in time? Just when we’re making progress on a new type of weapon? Hmmm? Sebald and I get the hint to get to work on that angle. 

Wendt and Sebald are meeting Gen Seegers in one of Nyssen’s 23 parlors in that wing of the manse. The lackys are dismissed so Wendt can update Seegers privately about Seegers' daughter the hero. Wendt lights a cigarette and dials his snit setting to “6” then reveals that MaLu had the bad luck to fall romantically for an enemy agent. Now at “8” Wendt flat out accuses Seegers of ordering his murder because Seegers knew Oscar. Baffled, Seegers mentions the incident with the WH808 papers that turned out to have been altered during Dr Gregorius’s train ride back to Breslau. Wendt demands to know what MaLu knew of the conference then puts Seeger on notice that if MaLu was involved she will be severely punished. Apparently Oscar taking the WH808 docs to Russia would be a problem for Wendt. Wendt exits the parlor then orders Sebald to search all the railway stations, borders, Starbucks, barges, harbors and airports to find Kulanin and Sebold nods OK, no big deal, like he does that all the time.

Nyssen’s butler announces to the two that Alfred is ready to see them and they enter the gallery hall now with that really long table but instead of blueprints there’s an actual rocket on it and I’m curious if they’re gonna open the windows first before firing it off. Alfred has the same suit on he wore to the empty barge event and man those bell bottom 14” cuffs look fabulous. Nyssen brags about his rocket and here I have to highlight a wonderful piece of subtitling where Gen Seegers mutters “is that weirdo still serious about the moon?” and I’ve fallen off the couch laughing once again. Alfred bloviates to close the scene - Thanks to superior German engineering “Paris will burn, London will burn and one day also New York!”  and we cut to . . .

Stennes exits a car to receive his exultant homecoming at SA headquarters. Yea, Stennes!  He’s in high smirk now taking in the adulation of his brown shirt homies. Inside he walks up to Gereon wearing his browns. “Welcome Oberfuhrer.” Stennes nods to Moritz, the nephew, and mentions approval of how Moritz handled himself stabbing the bad cop. Stennes had plenty of time to ponder SA strategy in the hoosegow and shares his plan with Gereon. “Reality follows the narratives” and here I have to admire how the writers are nodding to modern times with fake news, gas-lighting and the manipulation of objective political reality. Whatever, Gereon just wants brass tacks – “You want to occupy the editorial office of der Angriff to you can announce the end of Hitler?” Which Wendt confirms will be scheduled when Hitler travels to Thuringia somewhere in the German outback away from the internet, phones, telegrams and pony express. At that time, the SA will release their propaganda “facts” which won’t be easily countered from the provinces and I’m kinda curious along with Gereon on how all that will work. 

“We’ll occupy the entire party headquarters!” Hmmm. Gereon is a bit taken aback on the audacity of the plan and asks his role. “You’ll hold back the police for as long as possible” which, yikes, he’ll be aiming guns at his old pals from cop HQ. This could get interesting. A secondary goal is to spearhead the take-over of the der Angriff editorial office so they can have the fake news edition published quickly before Nazi fact-checkers can react. The fake news will snowball as other publishers will amplify the der Angriff news so the “facts” they create will spread and diminish Hitler’s control. Hmmm, OK then! Gereon and Stennes toasts to this mad scheme.

Jacky enters the bar/restaurant he manages, Lotte is there and is offered a beer. Jacky looks depressed for some reason, but I guess today is the day he finally took my advice (Dude, she's using you!) and actually asks Lotte to pay for the beer he just offered which shocks poor broke Lotte. “Am I a charity or something?” Yikes. Just then, Rukeli enters to interrupt, thankfully, which delights Lotte and they sit at the window table and converse. As the camera pans away from the two talking, the subtitles give us - “So my neighbor, Mrs. Cziczewicz? After my mother died, she gave me letters from my mother – from some guy, and they mentioned Brandenburg and some AirBnB there. So I went to Brandenburg and found out that your father and my mother probably had an affair.” The part she didn’t get to was “which means we’re brother and sister with different dads so us getting frisky might not result in normal healthy babies, not to mention it being incest ...” 

Cut to a mysterious grey water surface where Moritz’s face comes up for air. Man, he sure loves those hot baths at Uncle Gereons’ place. He hears convo in the hallway and it’s The Police President stopping by for a quick reassurance that Gereon is all in for something planned the next day. (5) Of course, Gereon replies, then “Hitler and his people are definitely in Thuringia?” he asks, confirming Stennes’ scheme. With enviable hearing Moritz is taking all this in and is stunned and confused that Uncle Gereon is scheming with someone he recognizes as the Police President! “Tomorrow you will contribute to the collapse of the NSDAP” Yikes! Poor Mortiz’s mind is totally blown, unaware Uncle Gereon was undercover all this time.

We in the hospital corridor again only it’s after hours and we see that familiar bun of Dr Volcker sneaking into MaLu’s room. I’m a tad apprehensive on what Dr V has in mind as I don’t see her with flowers or get well cards. MaLu is asleep but busy making more blood corpuscles to make up for the other day.  Dr V places her hand over MaLu’s mouth awakening her. Dr V is p*ssed, “You threw yourself into his arms, you rat!” and then switched sides, she accuses. MaLu pleads guilty but not of switching sides. Dr V states they know where Oscar is then orders MaLu to stop him from returning back to Russia. MaLu agrees, she’ll get right on it as soon as the bullet hole in her shoulder stops bleeding and then mentions retrieving his WH808 documents.

Moritz knocks on a door. It opens and he demands to see Stennes but gets turned away. Mortiz blurts out that he knows the cop who has infiltrated the SA which Stennes will want to hear about. Credits.

So, lots of grim drama with no respite now that Esther isn't running the Moka Efti anymore.  It’s a pretty tense episode with lots of plot points moving along briskly with only one episode remaining. I look forward to another exciting set piece of the Der Graff editorial takeover and exactly how Moritz’s discovery affects that. Plus I still have high hopes for somehow getting Oscar to cough up those WH808 docs in time for Katelbach’s trial and spring wedding. I’m also curious to see if Rukili and Lotte can keep their hot hands off each other for this last episode. Then there is Edgar’s offer to off Anno still pending as well as the triumphant return of mean-mom AnnMarie. Dunno how they’ll squeeze all that in one finale, and I’m already getting weepy over the conclusion of another Babylon Berlin season. I’m assuming that the series continues to #5 so I can blather you guys into oblivion once again with bad spelling, mislabeled headshots and baseless speculation in next years recaps. As usual a zillion edits and re-scans while I've throw in the towel on quaint notions of proper editorial form and article format - honestly, this is as good as it'll get. And if you’re still reading this far, thanks!

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Footnotes!

1) https://www.amusingplanet.com/2020/05/pervitin-wonder-drug-that-fueled-nazi.html

2) I hearby withdraw all my embarrassing notions of Abe going thru some emotionally nuanced internal drama reclaiming his jewish roots and discovering who he is, blah, blah, blah. This gun/confession scene with Wegener is just so ugly. If there was ever a scene where someone in Babylon Berlin crapped his pants, this would be it. Not that’d I’d care to see it, just saying. 

3) Kudo's to reddit's TheHistorian2 for posting that this silhouette animation is likely an homage to Lotte Reiniger, who pioneered the technique.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotte_Reiniger

4)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is_That_All_There_Is%3F

5) While at first glance this might seem to be an awkward bit of convenient plotting for Gereon's boss to happen to check in just so Moritz could overhear an essential plot point, many's the time my own boss swung by my home to make sure I had the Penske file all ready for the following day. . . <grin>