Berlin Station 2.3, first impressions [spoilers!] #richardarmitage

Continued from here. These posts contain spoilers. PLEASE do not read them if you are not watching concurrently with the U.S. broadcast but still want a fresh look at them when the show is available in your region.

***

This week’s episode spends forty minutes telling us what happened in Berlin during the events of last week; about the last third of the episode seems to be taking place after Daniel et al return to Berlin.

This is literally the only frontal view of Richard Armitage you will see in Berlin Station 2.3.

TL; DR: After its first few minutes (after the titles), which seemed intentionally amped up, this episode was tedious, and not just because Richard Armitage was only in it for five seconds. I desperately hope we’re not about to be wrapped up in some left wing conspiracy theory TV. All plot, almost no characterization; half of the characterization that was provided concerned a character I wish had been written out last season. Richard Armitage, since they apparently didn’t feel the need to even have you in this episode, please feel free to get yourself written out of this. If it turns out we’re missing out on your Oedipus because of this, I could get a little tetchy.

Episode highlights: Keke Palmer — I like this story line a lot and she’s doing a great job; getting to see lots of Berlin Mitte; a few of the moments with Valerie Edwards, who has pretty respectable deltoids and who is turning into a really relatable, funny character. Heino Ferch as Joseph Emmerich.

Things I’m undecided about — the BB Yates story line and Yates’ behavior.

Things I wish I hadn’t had to endure: Steven Frost’s dreams and Richard Jenkins’ horrible acting; the US ambassador’s conspiracy theory; 50 minutes of tv without Richard Armitage in them. And I still wrote 4500 words about it. Allons-y.

***

Episode opens in an open air cafe on the Gendarmenmarkt — Valerie and Joseph Emmerich (Heino Ferch) are having coffee. This is what everyone thinks of, when they think of Mitte. The editor cuts back to the kiosk where Daniel buys the straw donkey in Spain, to explain the timeline. Back to the cafe. Except, oops! Heavy flirtation warning. I like Heino Ferch a lot but I’m not sure how I feel about the flirting. I think Valerie is starting to like it, though.

Valerie thinks she’s getting a ring or something but actually Emmerich is giving her her bug back, in Berlin Station 2.3.

With which Emmerich demonstrates that he knows that Valerie’s CIA. Edit back to the station, where they’re discussing this information. Whose cover has been blown by the discovery, exactly? (What I want to know is: how did he know? Is there some agency somewhere running him already?) Edit back to the café, where Emmerich tells Valerie he sees her as a new opportunity to plumb Katerina Gerhardt’s secrets — and purge the PfD of its “unsavory elements.” (In case Brad Winters tells us this is prescient, keep in mind that Frauke Petry’s problems with the AfD’s extremism had been obvious to Germans for about six months at this point and she resigned as AfD party leader in April, just before this was being filmed.) Emmerich shares the CIA objective of stopping Otto Ganz. Back in the office, they think the fact that this suggestion comes just as Daniel calls from Spain suggests that they’ve fallen into some kind of trap.

Back at the cafe, Emmerich (Heino Ferch) invites Valerie to the PfD reception later that evening, in Berlin Station 2.3. Emmerich is kind of cute, I will give you that.

In the office, Robert is worried that it’s the PfD running an agent against the CIA, and if Valerie’s uncovered, she’s done, but Valerie points out that if Ganz and Gerhardt are uncovered that was the point of the operation. BB Yates wants Valerie to attend the party; Robert does not, is overruled, and asked to leave. After Yates asks him to leave, she offers Valerie some money to rig herself up with the appropriate gear for the party. Momentary appearance from April Lewis, who’s going to check out Emmerich’s background more fully. Yates tells Valerie that they’re not supposed to engage in honeytrapping and they agree that they both have. Warm moment of camaraderie. Interestingly, Valerie knows how to pronounce Emmerich’s last name and Yates does not. This isn’t significant to the plot of the show, but I was bored enough to notice it. Valerie turns down the cash but asks for April to join the operation.

Cut to Steven in his apartment, taking some pills (am I supposed to feel bad for him? Don’t all old men with the privilege of health insurance take pills these days?) and looking soulfully at himself in the mirror. Gawd. When I have better access to the episode I’ll go back and see if I can tell what the pills are.

Do I dare disturb the universe? Oh, wait, I mean, will I betray my country? Steven Frost examines his wrinkles in Berlin Station 2.3.

We glimpse him next in a restaurant with the US ambassador, who’s sending him to the same PfD reception that Valerie will be attending. The ambassador says he wants Frost to figure out why Nick Fischer, the Norway chief of station, is also attending the PfD reception but without having asked for the customary clearance to enter the country. Some super-macho posturing — “the last I know, the ambassador has ultimate power!” — so Steven agrees to surveille Fischer, who’s supposedly “off his rocker.” “Surveille” is a word, I heard Frost use it later in the episode.

Krug (Mina Tander), Kirsch (Leland Orser), and Yates (Ashley Judd) argue about the identity of Andrew Chevalier in front of a background that’s more interesting than the conversation, in Berlin Station 2.3.

Fast move to an outside scene in Mitte, near the Alexanderplatz, with Esther Krug meeting with Yates and Kirsch. Now we’ve advanced to the point in episode 2 where Armando has called home and told Esther about “Andrew Chevalier.” Esther wants to know who Chevalier is and Kirsch says he has no idea, but after Esther flounces off, Yates asks and Kirsch tells her it’s a Hector de Jean alias. She’s aware that he’s supposedly disappeared, but curious as to whether that’s a problem. Kirsch tells her it is, and when she asks, he tells her to forget it, as it’s “not how we work around here” and she reminds him that that’s her decision now, not his.

Back at the station, April is briefing Valerie on Emmerich. This is kind of a weird scene. Emmerich was very liberal and has turned conservative. He goes to church (does April — or Brad Winters — know how unusual this is in Germany?) but wrote his dissertation on Nietzsche, which April finds weird. I want to intervene at this point and say that way more Germans have read Nietzsche than go to church on a weekly basis, but luckily for me, Valerie tells her it isn’t that weird. “Behind his politics,” April explains, “lay a gay man, buried in the right wing closet.” (I’m not sure what this means, exactly — is she saying that Emmerich is gay? Awkward phrasing.) Late marriage, no kids. (The sound reproduction on this episode was poor and I listened to it several times without being sure of what was being said.)

April (Keke Palmer) learns she’s going on the operation to the PfD party later that day, in Berlin Station 2.3.

At this point April learns she’s going to the party — she wasn’t sure she’d be invited after “last time,” but Valerie says she has potential but that she must stick to the plan (which she didn’t do last time). April promises.

We follow Valerie as she goes shopping to one of those cute little boutique stores that Berlin is so full of. The helpful salesperson offers her this:

But Valerie decides for something more “sensible.”

Valerie (Michelle Forbes) takes a measure of herself in a boutique dressing room mirror, in Berlin Station 2.3.

There’s a curious parallel here to Frost’s self-assessment in the mirror, but whereas that one made me sigh in pain, I liked this one. The changes going on in Valerie and her reactions to things were one of the few elements of this episode I really enjoyed.

Valerie goes home to get ready, which she does while watching a political debate on TV (this is a less common practice in Germany than in the U.S., and there was a lot of tension about the single debate this year, between Angela Merkel and Martin Schulz). She then meets up with April — they are tracking each other via their smart phones, but Valerie has memorized the layout of the PfD HQ (“pre-smart phone habits”). As Valerie walks in to the event over the jeers of protestors …

… she sees April (Keke Palmer) standing the crowd, observing her, in Berlin Station 2.3.

At the party, Emmerich finds her and is happy to see her, explaining that the party has turned into such an event because Gerhardt had a strong debate performance. He then introduces the two women, with Valerie saying she’s a cultural attaché at the embassy.

At the party.

Creepily, Gerhardt tells Valerie, “any friend of the White House is a friend of mine” before she and Emmerich disappear into the party to meet someone. Valerie spots Frost at the party, as he’s looking toward Nick Fischer — who is surprised to see him there and doesn’t want to tell him anything. Then Frost notices Valerie, and she gives him a big wave of her chin to come talk to her in private.

In a hallway away from the main party, they try to have a conversation. He wants to apologize to her for Clare (for those who’ve forgotten, the young operative who got killed last season trying to suss out the woman who was shipping Muslim war bridges to Syria — Valerie’s friend and Hector’s lover), and she says “we all have a lot of stuff to apologize for.” He wants to know what she is doing there; she admits she’s there “trolling,” but Frost says, “I’m a little bit more conservative, you know.” She hopes he isn’t there to help the PfD, he asks her if she’s there to harm them. Awkward moment because they can’t discuss what’s going on. Then Frost notes that Valerie needs to be careful about Yates’ demands, as this operation can’t possibly be known in DC, and the ambassador is dangerous. Valerie nods gravely.

Frost (Steven) and Valerie (Michelle Forbes) hug at their first meeting after he’s left the station, in Berlin Station 2.3.

Valerie wishes Kelly (Frost’s wife) well and they embrace before they split up.

And then there’s this weird moment that sort of encapsulates everything I hated about Richard Jenkins’ acting last season. Valerie leaves and we see Frost sort of “taking stock,” again.

Frost (Richard Jenkins) has some reaction, if I could just tell what it was I’d be happier, in Berlin Station 2.3.

He sort of laughs to himself. So is this some sort of wry laugh about the end of his CIA career? Is it a happy laugh because he’s somehow pulled one over on Valerie? Is he frustrated because he’s once again failed to get the information he wanted? I can’t tell. This was a problem all season last year — Frost acts like a doofus all. the. time. It’s not credible for him as a CIA chief, but I could imagine that sometimes it was an act to pull the wool over someone’s eyes, as if everyone is supposed to think Frost is lame and he lives up to that reputation to get more information. Except he pulls exactly the same act in scenes where I’ve concluded that he’s supposed to be serious. It’s the classic Berlin Station bait and switch: I can’t tell if it’s supposed to mean something, or it’s just poorly executed. Uch.

OK, sorry about that — back to the plot. Emmerich starts to give a speech about the German past, and Valerie uses the moment to try to bug Gerhardt’s computers. Emmerich notices she isn’t listening adoringly to his words, and runs upstairs to stop her. He wants her to “do it my way, not your way.” Valerie is asking him why he wanted her to come (if not to bug the computers), but just as he’s about to answer, Gerhardt walks in — surprised. Valerie tells her that Emmerich is giving her the tour, and then to cement it, she begs for a selfie with Gerhardt. Emmerich plays along. In the hallway afterwards, Valerie accuses him of trying to get her discovered, and says she doesn’t know what to think. She insists he delete the photo, and he complies, and after some tussle (can she trust him? why not, since he’s saved her twice?) she agrees to have a drink with him. April trails them as they leave.

I can’t imagine they let them film on the embassy roof — so this must be a CGI alteration of some kind. Or maybe they did.

Meanwhile, there’s a nice party going on on the roof of the U.S. embassy (we can see the Brandenburg Gate from Kirsch’s viewpoint). Yates and Kirsch are there and discover the ambassador is, too. He’s surprised to see them both, and Robert makes a joke about the horrible hors d’oeuvres, and the ambassador suggests maybe he should work in another city.

And then, the ambassador lays all his cards on the table, as he raises the topic of the election.

The US Ambassador (John Doman) asks if Gerhardt’s party will get 15 or 20 percent of the votes, in Berlin Station 2.3.

Yates says they’re polling at 9 percent. And then the ambassador trots out the whole Trumpster line about how the polls are unreliable and Gerhardt could be the best thing that’s happened to Germany in decades. When Robert challenges him by saying “did you have a decade in mind?” (wow, what a line, even I will admit that), the ambassador says Robert’s thinking is what’s kept the country behind for years. Yates forces Kirsch to exit while he’s still alive.

So: everything about this scene bugged the hell out of me. Like, it made me physically nauseated. From a couple of directions.

First, yes, the US ambassador to Germany is a Trump appointee (every ambassador is a political appointment by a US president, it’s part of the spoils they have to distribute). But this character seems to be nothing like our actual ambassador to Germany. Here’s some information about the current almost-nominee; the sloth of the Trump administration’s diplomatic appointments is one of the big stories this year, and the embassy is currently being run by its chargé d’affaires, but the current US proto-nominee is probably one of the administration appointments with the most diplomatic experience. He was a Bush-era diplomat, he’s a Fox News commentator, and he’s openly gay. I guess we’ll see what happens, but this guy doesn’t necessarily look he’ll just be a Trump sockpuppet.

I know, yes, it’s just entertainment, but this is playing with fire. Winters says he doesn’t have a left-wing agenda, but if that’s true, why is this script fanning the flames of every single conspiracy theory about the Trump administration and Trump appointees? This sticks in my craw in particular because since January, I’ve watched a good dozen of my close friends embrace various kinds of conspiracy theories relating to our current president — following fake news, or endorsing stories that reflect nothing but confirmation bias and aren’t even credible (like, sorry, I actually don’t believe that the White House staff is preparing to tackle Donald Trump if he wants to start a nuclear war, even if Vanity Fair reported it). I can’t say this enough — I despise this president as much as the next person, but I do it based on facts, things that he’s actually done and said, not on crazy ideas promulgated by unhappy liberal fantasists or trolls who just enjoy watching people react, like Louise Mensch. I’ve actually asked my friends to tell me immediately if they think I’m slipping into left-wing paranoia. Because I’m still foolish enough to believe that combating fascism can only be done with the truth.

So yeah, Winters, if this is somehow your left wing conspiracy fantasy — that the State Department is being taken over by right-wing Trumpist conspiracy embracers — that’s just. plain. sickening. Frighteningly offensive. This was not the moment at which to do this.

OK, back to the plot. Yates and Kirsch go a strange Berlin scene bar where the waitstaff are dressed in rubber nurse uniforms and the drinks come in syringes.

The Berlin subway entrance by night, where April is pacing in worry about Valerie, in Berlin Station 2.3. Typical Berlin night atmosphere.

Valerie and Emmerich are still walking and talking. He jokes and flirts with her to get her to turn off her GPS tracking so she can’t be followed, which she does. But this jars April, who’s pacing around, and calls the NSA to figure out where exactly she is. They promise to find her. (Spooks aficionados will remember we saw this same trick performed in, I believe, series 9, where they turn on a cell phone that’s off to call a whistleblowing reporter. He then gets murdered. Moral of the story: if you want to be unlocatable, separate yourself from your SIM card.)

Nick Fischer (and thus Frost) finally leave the PfD party. Here we get one of those atmospheric Berlin moments that this show does really well, and that always give me hope for more when I see them. As Fischer, crosses the street, we see the pedestrian lights telling him to

STOP

and then

GO.

Obeying the stoplights is very important in Germany — jaywalking is considered a great social evil — but non-Germans may not be aware that these are “GDR signs.” This little guy is called the Ampelmännchen (try to say that, Richard Armitage) or the “little stoplight guy.” In 1970s East Germany, the previous style of pedestrian traffic light was changed to make the figures look more proletarian, like representatives of the people. Many of these signs were initially replaced after 1989, but in the last few years all of the Berlin lights are gradually being replaced with the former GDR figures. It’s a hallmark of Ostalgie (feelings of nostalgia about the GDR), as well.

So Fischer crosses the street and he ends up in a neighborhood that looks at first glance like it’s in the Hackesche Höfe (lots of glossy yellow building tile), but is a little bit away from there, in the Münzstraße. This is another neat scene, as in the 1920s, this area was a lot like the area around Grand Central in NYC, with a lot of transfer points for public transportation and a great deal going on. Fischer lights his cigar and looks a bit like Mack the Knife. Back in those days, this location wasn’t far from the red-light district. So, lots of associations here for those who are aware of history.

Cutting back to the weird bar, Yates and Kirsch are using their drink syringes to trade tastes of their beverages; then they go back to Robert’s and screw. Yates is on top. It’s mostly dark. We mostly see that Yates appears to have to reach around and detach a garter belt.

And continuing with the red-light milieu feeling, Valerie and Emmerich are now in a darkish bar. Out of the corner of her eye, Valerie sees April. Valerie begins to point out the contradictions she’s feeling from Emmerich — he wanted her to see the PfD party, but not do anything; he wanted to conceal her identity from Gerhardt, but almost revealed it; he wants her to bring Gerhardt down but he appears to adore her. (This has to be a script error — Emmerich has never said anything about that, just that he wants to get Otto Ganz and other unsavory influences out of the PfD.)

When asked what it is that he wants from her, Emmerich replies, “I like it when you say my name,” in Berlin Station 2.3.

Valerie excuses herself and goes to the bathroom where she finds overeager April, who points out that Valerie never told her that she was going to turn off her tracking device, and leaves in a bit of a huff. Valerie then returns to the bar, where a chanteuse is singing a melancholy version of “What Else Can I Do?” Neat citation of a line about “schem[ing] my daily schemes.” Emmerich takes Valerie back to the PfD HQ, where she bugs the computers successfully. Emmerich then kisses her, in almost total darkness, and she kisses back somewhat hesitantly, before withdrawing. He looks a little defeated — or at least his profile does in the darkness.

Frost is now walking back to his apartment, which is apparently in close proximity to Bahnhof Zoo (the center of West Berlin’s drug buy scene in the 1980s, but now a very chic part of town). He lives in a “tower suite.” Nick Fischer is in his apartment. It turns out that the reason he is in Berlin — what the US ambassador wanted Frost to find out, allegedly — is that the US ambassador invited him to Berlin. Fischer wants to know why Frost was tailing him, and Frost again puts on his song and dance about how he misses the game. Now, he may indeed miss the game — but I can’t believe anyone would watch him say this here and not be convinced he was lying.

Cut: Robert wakes up in his apartment with a headache …

… and no Yates.

And immediate cut to Frost with his feet in a fish tank, and watching himself through a window. Yes, he’s at a spa, and if anyone reading is not from the decadent West, yes fish pedicure is a thing now, allegedly imported from Asia. (It’s also banned in a lot of places.)

Frost’s fish pedicure. No fish were harmed in the filming of this scene.

It quickly becomes apparent this is one of Frost’s strange dreams. (Again with the water dreams — I already wasn’t interested last season.)

Kirsch opens his apartment door, thinking it’s Yates …

… but no. Definitely not Yates.

Frost says he thinks the dreams are about Fischer. When questioned about his apartment …

Kirsch (Leland Orser) admits he’s fucked the boss, in Berlin Station 2.3.

Frost says he’s hurt that Kirsch never tried it with him (joke). Kirsch notes that his son is coming to Berlin to live with him. Frost opens some very expensive wine and downs it all in one gulp.

It’s apparently Saturday — Kirsch goes to the office where he finds Yates. She’s wearing a pink hoodie. (?). And then, yeah … I am confused about how I feel about this next bit of plot.

Yates (Ashley Judd) explains to Kirsch that his son’s presence in Berlin is no obstacle to an occasional encounter as fuckbuddies, in Berlin Station 2.3. Well, she says it in somewhat more elevated language: “If ever we want to blow off some steam together, we’ll figure out the logistics.”

He seems to have thought it was the beginning of an affair, but she puts him off by saying that they have separate lives. He seems, I don’t know, a bit chagrined. I think he thought it was more than just ventilation of excess fluids.

So. I know when I was twenty I would have thought this was a great plotline (anything a man can do, a woman can do). And speaking as someone who’s very close to fifty, I now know that the booty call is a very useful relationship type for the middle-aged woman to cultivate. But I guess the problem is that she is his boss. And also that I think this is once again just the kind of female CIA chief a certain kind of man would imagine. It goes right along with the coarse language and the plunging neckline from last week.

So I don’t know.

Hector and Daniel have arrived in Berlin, in Berlin Station 2.3.

Next — a shot of Daniel and Hector in Berlin — Gerhardt’s posters in one of the same places we saw Thomas Shaw’s last season — indicates that episode 3 has now caught up with episode 2.

A cool idea, but a bit heavy handed.

Then Frost is in the restaurant with the ambassador again. Frost’s frustration at being played with comes out, and the ambassador reveals that he knows Valerie was at the PfD party and this means Yates and Kirsch are up to something. Frost asks if the ambassador wanted to know if he’d rat out his own station. Another weirdly emotional scene from Richard Jenkins, whining about how his recompense for loyalty in the past was “practically a death warrant.” The ambassador says it was all a test of loyalty and commitment. Blerg.

Finally, then, we get a glimpse of Kirsch’s son, Noah, who’s come to live with him, as they go to his apartment. (Looks like it could be the Große Hamburgerstr, or part of the Spandauer Vorstadt, keeping with the Jewish theme, I guess.) And Robert commits a huge parenting mistake. His phone is going wild, and Noah challenges him to answer it. As the spectators all know, this is a test. Noah wants Robert to look at the phone and then indicate that Noah is more important.

Kirsch explains to his son, Noah (Brandon Spink), that he’s just going to go out for an hour or so, in Berlin Station 2.3. #epicfail

The episode now has a “wrap up loose ends” feel to it. At the station, April apologizes to Valerie and thanks her for the mentorship. Yates praises Valerie for delivering them the intel to track the weapons buy live — you can tell Valerie’s not used to it, and is very skeptical, and after all there is one more account to decrypt — and asks her to keep Emmerich “in play.” Valerie seems happy to comply.

But there’s one more huge moment before the end of the episode — the confrontation between Hector and Kirsch. They have each other by the short hairs, with Hector threatening to betray the Ganz operation to Langley HQ if Kirsch doesn’t fix his record so he can travel freely again.

And, we saw it coming: Valerie goes back for the red outfit.

Valerie (Michelle Forbes) takes stock of the red jumpsuit in Berlin Station 2.3.

Oh, Valerie. This will not end well. Don’t be the next Claire.

Continues here.

~ by Servetus on October 23, 2017.