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wellntruly · 6 years

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Babylon Berlin, Second Pass: Episode 14 [S2, Ep 6]

This episode is about two things.

1. Gereon Rath just throwing himself headlong at a whole theatre’s worth of fascist malefactors, and @memory-for-trifles’ commentary on this & More

2. @akahypotheticals & A German Friend’s ideas on Edgar’s backstory, which have utterly compelled and captivated me and is MY NEW GOING THEORY

All of this to come! In these! Der Notizen 16:

guys….I still do not know what happened with this SWIFTLY cut off plot line. lol I just don’t know! I actually sort of dragged the show for this to Jen back when I was first watching the series, because this plot is basically over as soon as it begins and it feels mmmm a little underdone, scripting wise. but Jen was like ja that’s the point, to make you feel like you can’t keep track of everything and at any moment someone might get shot on a sidewalk. and she has a point! this scene DOES make me feel like I’m going out of my mind! and that’s exactly where the show wants me to be, so instead of getting sloppy, it’s doing its job very well.

anyway whatever the heck is supposed to have happened with Katelbach and the engineer, Gereon appears to have just told all of it to Benda immediately, and that is at least the emotional plot line rendered clear: Gereon+Benda 4eva

Seegers, revealing a psychopath’s knack for collecting personal details to later use as weapons: “Ah, the little brother.”

Gereon sitting down AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE with his staring prey eyes, which is half why this screenshot, the other is please love Benda’s modern art in his office. he’s so stylish, his home? gosh.

“Who are you trying to impress, your brother?” HOW THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW TO NEEDLE ABOUT THIS, MY DUDE. did you like…..bug Elisabeth’s flat so you heard him talking to her that one night in the kitchen? WAIT. wait maybe they DID! Bruno could have done so easy, Gereon came home to find him there talking with Elisabeth one time! and that’s how they would have known he and Katelbach were arranging to meet the engineer! aaahhhh!!

Seegers is now postulating that “vision” is for novelists and lunatics, unexpectedly turning him into the Ben Horne of the show

Gereon is having a super grand time behaving like a little prosecutor here, all that fun where you get to make frowny eyebrows at someone as if you’re confused about some discrepancy in their story when you know EXACTLY why that discrepancy is there and that YOU GOT ‘EM.

mah boys in a walk ’n talk. they are living in their new Law & Order lifestyle

——their dynamic/energy arrangement is like the decent, Weimar version of Malcolm and Jamie in The Thick Of It/In the Loop, holy f uck. OH MY GODDD it’s like the heavens just fell open on my HEAD. that’s it!! very similar people, peas in a pod who almost function like one person, but one is the older more erudite director and the other the more feral foot soldier, yes yes yesss. running around being good at their shit and causing TROUBLE for people. they’re the polite lawful but still fucking furious Malcom & Jamie of the political police!!!

I mean BENDA EVERY DAY THOUGH

“Where did you unearth this, Rath?” “It literally flew into my arms.” “:D” “:D”

‘nichts’ can kinda function as a general negation, can’t it? it’s been ‘nothing’, and also a sort of ‘not’. Lotte’s “please no!” was “bitte nicht!”

memory-for-trifles: Herr Rath, your eyebags have eyebags

Gereon is SO stressed out that Charlotte has vanished, his whole gang has been out looking for her and they’re all distressed. (I like to imagine Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are just innocently fond of their unusual girl team-member, unprejudiced souls)

the fucking Dramatics though, Edgar! how long did it take you and Baldie to choreograph this thing where you stand behind him in such a way that he perfectly obscures you and so you can be Revealed when he steps aside. ugh his theatrics are unparalleled.

see this is what’s great about Edgar, because if you’re gonna die at his hands you’ll at least get to be part of a kick ass metaphor. that liquor distributor choked on his lying brother’s literal tongue. a pornographer who made Biblical-themed skin flicks with young boys as cherubs was terrified out of his wits by a murder priest telling him to pray for forgiveness. and working poor Charlotte, grist for the metropolis’ mill, could literally be eaten up by the rich and powerful of the city. how do you like that symbolism, Berlin.

aw Gräf gets to be part of the champagne toast to taking down the Black Reichswehr! tastes sweet

Emmiiiiii. the loveliest.

‘doch’ is being translated as yes but we already have ja….is this like a specifically countering yes? maybe used like the English “no really”?

intravenously, stoopp

memory-for-trifles: Awww HELL NAW DO NOT SHOOT ANYTHING UP

I hardly noticed when Gereon refers to his “wife”, which is some kind of telling, not sure what!

anyway, do we think the pharmacist is really out on vacation? or did he get threatened for being reluctant to up Gereon’s dose and is hiding? or worse??

last time I was all high key about my dawning realization that this was likely a trick and missed that the Fritz Friend busts out an antisemitic remark about Benda, of fucking course, you fucking Nazi

this plot is so despairing the second time around. I just feel so helpless, somehow compounded by how all Greta had to do was talk to someone else who could have given her a counter narrative, but she’s so isolated!

aw, I don’t like when he does *this* with his eyebrows :(

so natural did I find it that Helga was a nurse at some point that I didn’t even blink at that

anyway Helga certainly worked in a hospital during the war, which means girl is certainly carting around her own war trauma too

god this stuff is POTENT

hoooollly moly, it’s Dr. Schmidt walking behind him in the tunnel in his mind!! yipes

aaahhhh he turns around and looks TERRIFIED, like he actually saw him in his hallucination!!!! WiLd

*starts singing the Prangertag song* *no there are no words*

“I thought it was a bit over the top, a room with a radio. But now I like it.” aw, Helga? treat your self

this dreamy, dreamy woman though. your man’s ~medication~ just knocked him entirely out for a full hour, and when he finally wakes up you’re just like oh hey babe, I’m browsing Redfin, what do you think about living near a park

Gereon you are a bad Catholic, you didn’t even know it was Corpus Christi today

but you know what, what BETTER time to go swinging off to just literally throw your body at a coup than when your blood is still humming with barbiturates & heroin on a feast day about the Body of Christ

Benda’s watching Briand like he can defend him through focused attention alone

Gereon’s physicality reminds me of probably no one so much as my college friend Dan (Jen do u agreee). Dan was also a very small man, and built much the same, with this compact yet agile way of moving. both of them give off this impression of being a little rigid in how they hold themselves, up until the moment they’re doing back flips off walls or springing onto coffee tables to do handstands. you’d never describe their movements as loose, and yet they’re so acrobatic. anyway I wonder what would happen if you made Gereon start doing daily stretches.

memory-for-trifles: AHAHAHA he looks like the Nutcracker, where did they find this child-size uniform 😂 wellntruly: The costume department had two choices: realism to the scenario, or fit Volker Bruch in a trim little guard uniform. They chose the CORRECT OPTION.

anyway remember when @chibisashimi referred to this look as “patrolman drag”

memory-for-trifles: No offense but this play seems like it sucks memory-for-trifles: No offense to Mr. Brunch who we know is a graceful man, but he’s running like a friggin’ twit

Alex...I’m laughing

Gereon Rath can really not afford another punch to the face right now, sir, have you seen his face? no thank you!

I’m so glad they made sure to translate the side of this van as reading “Freshly Milked Whole Milk”

memory-for-trifes: Is it an international law that all actors have to rub their wrists after handcuffs are taken off

“Which side did he say?” he said stage right, keep up rent-a-cop!

ALRIGHT HERE WE GOOOO!

Last Time, the Origins of My Former Take:

memory-for-trifles: I read something interesting about those Armenian family photos, that the timeline matches up with the Armenian genocide. Someone posited that maybe Edgar Octopus had to flee Armenia, and that possibly that traumatic experience is what made him and Dr. Schmidt cross paths wellntruly: I just literally lowered my hand from my mouth and gazed off into the middle distance in wonder. I love this Armenian history detail. It’s so sad.

BUT THEN, rewatching Episode 13 I suddenly realized that I, a non-German speaker, had no idea how much of an accent Edgar might have, and, VERY SURPRISE, the answer came back: “born-and-bred Berlin. Like ‘there’s no way he moved there’ pure.”

well HANG ON then....

M then regaled me with MORE:

akahypotheticals: I was originally in the same boat as you, thinking he MUST be an immigrant and they'd do something with the genocide, but after talking to her [akahypothetical’s German friend who revealed Edgar’s pristinely Berliner accent] I'm not so sure. his accent poses an interesting possibility, since according to her everyone else sounds very matched to what they're supposed to be - like lotte is very poor/working class, gereon sounds very generic until he talks to the pharmacist at which point his cologne accent comes out a lot, etc etc

wellntruly: aaaahhhh wait I forgot the pharmacist is also from Cologne!! THAT'S ADORABLE, they get all Cologney together how great wellntruly: BUT YEAH THIS IS FASCINATING. it reeaally feels like it had to have been a choice then. maybe Edgar just tried Super Duper Hard to speak faultless German in order to make inroads in the city..? (maybe beyond what would actually be realistic, when it came down to the actual performance.) I can't come up with a reason for why he would PRETEND to be Armenian, and also why part of that act wouldn't be TO HAVE AN ACCENT.

akahypotheticals: lol well her angle is that the nickname "the armenian" is possibly something the GERMANS gave him, not necessarily something he took for himself. so like he is certainly armenian, but possibly the son of immigrants (as the photos on the walls in the living room would attest to) and he grew up in berlin but was still considered "separate" or "other" (not an unusual state for an immigrant in germany at any time, even now). because so far he hasn't introduced himself that way, and in fact when provided with the chance to give his name he does so very willingly (TONIIIIIII "he's nice, isn't he?" oh honey). so idk, there's a lot of room for speculation but I do think it would be sad if he was someone who DID want to fit in to the nth degree (the hottest spot in the berlin night scene!!!) and is instead continually reminded he Does Not Fit In.

wellntruly: oooo your pal's angle is REALLY GOOD, god, yeah. in retrospect I guess the strongest argument for Edgar being an Armenian refugee is *only* if you happen to know the historical timeline, the largely WWI-concurrent genocide pretty perfectly timed for him to have ended up in Dr. Schmidt's trauma clinic with all the shell shocked soldiers, as we saw. BUT, there are many reasons why someone might be suffering from PTSD, and this accent sure is NOT Armenian....

akahypotheticals: your theory was my theory but then I started wondering about how he ended up at the clinic. a fair number of armenian men avoided the genocide simply by already being enlisted in the russian army, so I was like "what if he was actually on the opposing team because russian was ostensibly supportive of pro-armenian reforms and it all backfired for him????" but my friend was like "eh, he was exactly the right age to be drafted for the german army if he was already living here" so I was like OH WELL THEN because imagine missing out on the destruction of your people because you were already enlisted on the LOSING SIDE of a war for a country that doesn't even like you. LOT OF POSSIBILITIES!!

wellntruly: AAAHHHHHHHH YOUR FRIEND IS SO GOOD THIS ALL FITS. I am super de duper into this and will be proselytizing it to the masses (like 10 people) forthwith. THE ACCENT WAS THE KEY! god I'm glad I ASKED

akahypotheticals: lololol np akahypotheticals: I like it because it's sort of a twist on what seems obvious, and as a sort of hidden minority myself I like the idea of a successful character still perceived as other by everyone else

aannd then we started finding connections between Edgar and various fictional heroes of surrealist WWII novels, but I’ll save you that rabbit hole

memory-for-trifles: Ok I hate that she’s nekkid, but that blanket is amazing wellntruly: I have such complicated feelings about Charlotte waking up naked in Edgar’s fabulously appointed chambers. Like, you gotta get those frozen clothes off! But it’s icky that some strange men undressed you. Buuutt it’s also kind of a glamorous treat to wake up nude in some gorgeous silken blanket, alone, with a low table of food just for you? I guess as ever I just like Edgar’s brand of villainy the most, if it’s given that one’s gonna villain. He really does a lot with the baseline “be creepy evil.” Edgar: “but suave about it yeah?” memory-for-trifles: “Evil, but make it fashion”

god it’s really such a good spread, how many types of cheeses are on that plate! plus seven separate bowls of various dishes and sauces, a glass of water, a whole pot of tea, an absolute pile of lavash, and of course half a dozen pomegranates. For The ‘Gram.

hahaha she literally has crumbs on her mouth when she turns around, get that nosh girl! god that’s so good, no need to stand on occasion I’m just gonna be SNARFING DOWN thanks.

Edgar sits down first, so now she’s standing over him not the other way around. he’s very good at arranging dynamics how he wants them for a particular moment.

lol

he must think she’s the most incredible damn liar he’s ever seen, “pretending” not to know all this at first

memory-for-trifles: “is it bad that I’d rather Edgar & Company have the gold than the Black Reichswerh? I mean if I have to choose…. like the generals are gonna use it to buy poison gas and Edgar’s gonna probably just get some more good coats to be sinister in and pay his physician-on-retainer” right??? And like, he turns his enemies into sellable food product, he’s even sustainable! Truly a man ahead of his time. wellntruly: SUSTAINABLE, u kill me

Benda: “Do you realize that you’ve prevented a coup d’état, Inspector?” Gereon:

awww. he just wants to make you proud.

did they keep Charlotte over another night just 'cause? when Edgar walked in he said “Good evening”, and now it’s definitely morning again, daylight and the streets are drying from the rain the night before

AH yes because that would give him time to spirit Toni over here! having her Berliner Luft dessert for breakfast with Uncle Edgar! god Toni is So Pumped to finally visit Moka Efti, the mysterious place where the sugar cubes come from that Lotte brings her after her nights out. and she gets here and it’s just MORE SUGAR.

FUCK I forgot how great this is. Edgaaaarrr. so sweet so scary!

memory-for-trifles: Oh Edgar Octopus, you’re a bad man, but I don’t really care

“sehr, sehr schnell” is the best thing I’ve heard in German all episode and maybe all month. I’ve rewound this three times.

Toni: “You have a cold room??” Edgar: “Of course!” Lotte: “I’M GOING TO MURDER.”

pls tell me “toll” is German youth slang, that Edgar was like yes we always have raspberries and Toni just goes “tight” and Edgar chuckles because this presh urchin is hilarious

Edgar, smiling at Lotte as he says to Toni: “Your sister had a free wish.” ha ha ha, FAE.

memory-for-trifles: In some far-off daydream of mine Charlotte and Toni join the weird gangland and go live at Moka Octopus with Edgar as the world’s strangest crime family. Alex I had not remembered this was your idea originally because I just super agreed so much. CREDIT TO ALEX, for the Concept.

“Thank you, Edgar,” and shakes his hand, she’s so cuuuute

“My pleasure, Toni. Come and visit me again, yeah?” “Only if the automobile collects me.” “But of course. We’ve got your address. :)” 🙂🙃I’M SCREAM. perfect execution on this one, Edgar you criminal genius

damn, moment to remember that Benda fucking outranks Major von Rude-to-Gereon. ugh General Seegers just go to hell, you’re calling someone with an Iron Cross unpatriotic.

Matthias Brandt does so much acting with the muscles around his eyes, it’s unusual and neat

President von Hindenburg: “Karl! How are the stocks?” oh my god

hahaha, I love that Gereon is confronted suddenly with the President of his country and just glares at him, lookin’ like a ghost

is there no process you have to go through for a presidential pardon? I admit I am not UP TO DATE on how presidential pardons work in 1929 in the Weimar Republic. I don’t even know how that would work in 1929 in my disaster country, lbr

oh poooooor Benda, has to go stand up in front of a crowd and tell the press there’s going to be no news after all, when all he wants to do is just DESPAIR for a moment alone in his office. possibly with Gereon. but NO ONE ELSE.

Malcolm & Jamie are of course perfectly in sync with how frustrated they are

well at least Wolter’s frustrated too, I GUESS

Babylon Berlin Beblogging Masterpost

#Everyone Once (More) In Berlin #Babylon Berlin Blogging #Babylon Berlin spoilers #Babylon Berlin #Tarra takes notes

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balladedutempsjadis · 7 years

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Gereon Rath’s Eyebags: Part 2 (Episodes 5-8)

Well, I have a snow day today, so what better time to continue our adventures with Gereon Rath’s eyebags (with additional focus on Volker Bruch’s facial bone structure)? The first part is here.

Episode 5 - May 4, 1929 (Gereon mentions it’s Saturday and that was the closest Saturday to May 1, 1929)

We rejoin Gereon and his eyebags in the aftermath of the bloody May Day riots of Episode 4.

When you’re waiting for the arrival of a truly unreliable witness (Franz Krajewski) because you finally have a lead in the porn film case. But you are clearly not sleeping well at all. (BUT OMG JAWLINE AM I RIGHT?) And then when Franz shows up, he gets you thrown off a train (literally thrown) because he tells the Communists on the train that you’re a cop, and the May Day riots are still fresh in everyone’s mind. Ouch!

When you smile for the first time in five episodes and it’s truly lovely, except that you’re talking to your secret lover who is also your brother’s widow and you want her to move to Berlin but she’s not sure about the whole thing.

When you spring Charlotte Ritter from jail after she pretends to be a police officer to gain access to the apartment of the Russian countess girlfriend of the guy who’s your only clue in a murder case, and she has some valuable information (and is very hungry and asks if she can finish your breakfast.)

Look at her! How can you say no?

Obviously you cannot say “no!” And then she suggests you go out dancing that night with her. (OK, fine, sleuthing, but really she’s asking you on a date, my dude!)

When you’re waiting for Charlotte to show up for your night of dancing and sleuthing and holy crap, the lighting of your profile ... AHEM!

When Charlotte abandons you at the bar when you get to the nightclub and you have no idea where to look because you are a good Catholic boy from Cologne and also one of your co-workers in drag tries to pick you up (and I think Herr Graef is ADORABLE by the way, Gereon, you could definitely do worse!)

Episode 6 - May 5, 1929

Sunday is a day of rest, except Herr Katelbach, your neighbor, wakes you up at 7 a.m. (WTF, HERR KATELBACH!) to talk to you about a fellow policeman, and you realize that you came home from your dance night with Charlotte and slept with Elisabeth Behnke, your landlady instead. Also, you sort of promised your boss, Herr Benda, to go to Mass today.

So you go to church.

And then Frau Benda sort of maneuvers you into the confessional, where you tell the priest that you’ve been sleeping with your brother’s widow for more than ten years.

And then the Bendas insist that you go back to their house for drinks and munchies, and Polizeipraesident Zoergiebel tells you he’s waiting for your report on the May Day happenings, and that report had better not mention that the police shot two innocent women. On your way back to the Burg, you start feeling horribly guilty, and detour to the home of the two ladies who were killed, where there is a long line of people waiting to pay their condolences.

You do a little sleuthing and it’s completely obvious that the police shot and killed the two ladies, because you’re a good detective and you can tell from the trajectory of the shots.

Meanwhile, the widower recognizes you as one of the policemen who was there when his wife was shot (I mean, ok, you did try to get help for the other lady but these folks are mad as hell - understandably - and want you to get the fuck out of there.)

Episode 7 - Not Sure Exactly What the Timeline Is Here, because at least part of the next episode seems to take place on Sunday (I’m guessing May 11) So Sometime during the week of May 5, 1929

When Bruno, whose help you desperately need to resolve the porn case, and who now also knows about your PTSD and morphine habit, asks you to an gathering at his home. The anti-government bent of the veterans there as well as Emmi’s obvious matchmaking between you and Elisabeth renders this the Most Awkward Possible Evening. (Also, you’ve stood up Charlotte for a sleuthing date!)

And then you have to relive the war and remember how you tried and failed to rescue your brother, who has been missing since 1918. Understandable front-line in World War I eyebags going on here, of course!

Episode 8 - Partially taking place (I think) on Sunday, May 11, based on a conversation that occurs in Episode 10.

So, Bruno Wolter’s cold-turkey detox from heroin program for poor Franz Krajewski finally works, and the poor man explains where the porn film is stored. You’re not exactly comfortable with tormenting Krajewski, but you see it as a means to an end.

Your plan is basically to go into the Moka Efti and sneak into the Armenian’s room and steal the films. It’s not a great plan!

But you have, at last, found the films.

The Armenian interrupts you, so you decide to use him to carry the films out for you. I’m not sure this is the best plan ever, Gereon, but I guess going out through the restaurant means you don’t have to worry about being ambushed at the service entrance or something.

Unfortunately, the plans don’t go quite as well as hoped, and you end up shooting the Armenian in the hand, and there’s a lot of gunfire that destroyed the fish tank (poor fish!) but eventually you DO make it out to the car with the films.

You decide to watch the films before you destroy them, and to your horror, it’s not Konrad Adenauer in the movie, but your own father. You decide on the spot that you won’t be going back to Cologne and you and Bruno burn the films. This is when Bruno suggests maybe getting a drink and it seems like a good idea at the time. (SPOILER: IT IS NOT A GOOD IDEA!)

You ask Bruno how he got hold of your morphine - and he tells you he got it from Charlotte. Which really fucking hurts.

So you start making out with another short-haired brunette, because I guess you have a type. But before you can do more than make out, the Armenian has the bar-owner spike your drink so you have weird hallucinations, and then Father Joseph kidnaps you and dumps you on the floor of the Armenian’s car (and punches you when you show signs of fighting off the spiked drink) and bring you to Dr. Schmidt, who puts you in restraints and injects you with YET ANOTHER DRUG (so at this point, Gereon’s had the barbiturates that Dr. Schmidt had the pharmacist substitute for morphine, whatever was in the drink at the bar, and whatever Dr. Schmidt shot into his vein.)