Berlin Station 3.1, first impressions [spoilers!] #richardarmitage

Reminder that a link to this episode that is visible in the U.S. and Germany is here. I’ve been hearing that a VPN is letting viewers in eastern Europe and South America see it. I’ve also heard it’s not visible in Canada.

These posts will 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 becomes legally available in your region.

***

I said I was going to watch the third season of Berlin Station with no expectations, and I’m not sure I achieved that. I am watching at a comparative disadvantage this time, as I know much less about the topography of Tallinn (or Budapest) and the twentieth-century history of Estonia. After seeing 3.1, I am cautiously optimistic, although I was cautiously optimistic a year ago and look where that ended.

In general, on the idea behind the plot: Estonia feels like a lightly veiled substitute for Ukraine (although we do have one Estonian reader, at least, so perhaps she’ll weigh in from time to time). I’m sure whoever wrote this series (Steinhauer is back, I seem to remember) is going to claim he predicted events in Ukraine or something — but frankly, that there was going to be increasing tension in Ukraine of the kind we are seeing now has been in the cards for several years now. (I’m now tongue-in-cheek predicting a fourth season that takes place in North Korea, involves an ICBM that may or may not work, and a Korean-American addition to Berlin Station. There were also Cold War-era connections between East Germany and North Korea, with subsidies and student exchanges, until the Sino-Soviet split ranged the two countries on opposite sides. So maybe Daniel has a German-Korean cousin. But I digress.) Anyway, I’m probably okay with it insofar as, while the whole question of US / Russia relations and US / NATO relations are hot button issues for me, they’re much less so than the US / German relationship. Also, I’d add that this question of what should happen to Cold War-era Soviet monuments has come up in virtually every post-Iron Curtain country, so the initial conflict here is believable, as is the possibility that it would be manipulated by nationalists on each side of the question (Estonians and ethnic Russians in Estonia, which constitute about 8 30 percent of the Estonian population and who live mostly in the cities).

So all that is to say that I will probably comment somewhat less on the historical plausibility of the plot, unless something is so obvious that it just slaps me in the face. Some readers are probably happy to hear that as it means I’ll be less nitpicky about things I don’t know.

On the plot itself: it seems a bit more complex and interesting to me than “neo-Nazis try to influence the Bundestag elections” and “secret U.S. plot tries to influence Bundestag elections.” While the more intriguing plotline is welcome, I hope they don’t end up losing the plot in the details as they did in season 1. I also like that they are following one of my recommendations, which was to return to the question of Daniel Miller’s past. A year or two ago I jokingly suggested that maybe Steven is Daniel’s father. Well, now he looks like the murderer of his mother. But if that’s the case, then we have a replay of season 1 with the solution to the mystery known to the audience but not to the protagonist, and most of us found that really hard to watch.

Finally: I had realized not long ago that I badly needed to SEE Richard Armitage on screen or stage, not just hear his voice. It’s pretty gratifying, I have to say — and I feel like his U.S. accent just gets better. The script still doesn’t allow him a lot of room for his trademark detailed acting and micro-expressions, unfortunately, but at this point I’m just happy to see his face again.

But I doubt I’ll get along without at least a little snark. So I’ll do a little blow-by-blow, shall I?

***

Episode opens on a scene with ambiguous time reference at the CIA HQ, as a new star is being chiseled into its memorial wall.

Is this Daniel Miller?

Cut to someone else chiseling: on the Berlin Wall in 1989.

OK, sorry, I do have to quibble a little. According to the Bernauerstr. Memorial, which has an excellent documentation center, the breaking down of the wall here actually occurred a night later.

We then follow a mysterious figure through the streets of a chaotic East Berlin.

He somehow looks an awful lot like Steven (Richard Jenkins).

He gets a cryptic alphanumeric and something else from a man in uniform who’s going to run over the border, and proceeds to Stasi HQ.

I have to object here, again, that the “storm on Normannenstraße” took place in January of 1990. I guess it maybe took Steven a long time to walk there? However, this doesn’t look like the Normannenstr. to me (but I’ve only been there once, so maybe it’s a corner of the institution I didn’t see. There’s an interesting museum there now, although my favorite Stasi museum is still the Leipzig one.)

He walks in, frees a prisoner, steals a file, kills a Russian, and burns the file, marked “Diver.” (This sequence could possibly be a tangential reference to something that actually happened: the CIA did come into possession of the Stasi’s records about its foreign agents — the so-called “Rosenholz” files — but it’s unclear when these materials ended up in U.S. hands, and Rosenholz was stored on catalog cards, that were the microfilmed and placed on CD-ROM. But it’s unlikely that this transfer coincided with the January “storm” or the events of November 9, 1989. Also, as far as I remember, they didn’t hold prisoners at Normannenstr., which was primarily a huge archive and office building.)

As Steven steps back on to the western side of the wall, we see him untie / un-handcuff the prisoner’s hands, and we cut to a voice over of a very deep voice narrating that “Henryk” never would have seen the dawn if it had been up to the KGB.

And we see someone take this picture, which turns out to be important later.

The narration (which concludes that Henryk started the revolution in Estonia), cuts to a picture of Daniel listening to the narration on a device: Diver risked his life to save Henryk, but had his own agenda.

I wonder if Daniel has listened to Richard Armitage’s narration of The Man from St Petersburg yet. Also, Richard Armitage, your thumbs are gorgeous!

Also note it looks like Daniel is wearing Armitage’s trademark leather strand necklace.

Yes, our man’s in bed with Esther again. To me, this extended scene exemplifies why the relationship is not that interesting — they are just way too similar and they are always, always thinking about work, and since they have the same job, the conversations are really predictable. Still, I’m always happy to watch Richard Armitage in his prelude to playing stuff the sausage. Or almost always. Even if he interrupts it to talk about work. Or his mother.

Moreover, I have no objection to the slight haggard Richard Armitage here, even if it seems obvious he’s now doing something with his hair.

Esther doesn’t believe that Daniel believes the narration — which plays out loud to tell us that Diver was the CIA’s wetworks (assassination) expert in Berlin in the mid-80s to 1989. Esther gets impatient and switches the device to play Iggy Pop singing “The Passenger” (he wrote and  recorded it there in 1977; this show really does have great musical taste), although she acknowledges Daniel’s motivation: discovering who killed his mother. Here Daniel reaches back to a detail from episode 1.6. He wants her to see if the BfV inherited a different copy of the file; she declines; then she says she’ll do it because she wants to know. Daniel gives her a copy of Spy vs. Spy for her birthday. Then he jumps her bones.

Because I needed to put an image here.

Obligatory montage of Berlin as “The Passenger” continues to play and Daniel checks in to the station. I found myself watching Daniel walking a lot as this episode went on: kudos to Armitage for “getting” the American male walk, which is about taking up space. He says hi to Robert, April and Val. Then Val gets a call from Warsaw — she’s now Berlin Station chief! The Warsaw call is to alert Berlin about problems in Tallinn (Estonia). The sole CIA person in Tallinn, Rafael Torres, is claiming that advance Russian forces are already embedded. (This will come up again later and is accurate — the Trump administration has drastically cut personnel throughout all branches of government.) Meanwhile Henryk is inciting Estonian nationalism. Val seems to be aware that it was someone in Berlin who saved Henryk in 1989.

Adi Kvetner as Rodion Volkov. Kinda my type, except the whole Russian villain thing is a turnoff. (Kvetner is Russian-Israeli, apparently.)

Cut to a paramilitary training camp of some kind, where a group of men is allegedly being inducted into the Order of St George (the real Order of St George is something different, but perhaps there’s something else going on here). The inductor, whose name we find out shortly is Rodion, is a member of Spetsnaz (Russian special forces). He exhorts them to deeds for Mother Russia against Estonia / Estonians, and warns them they will be expected to sacrifice soon for “a glorious end.” One of these soldiers — Gunnar — wanders away from the event after they are dismissed, eventually running as he is chased, and discovers (what is probably — it’s blurry) a mass grave. His Russianness is weighed in the balance and found wanting and so Rodion murders him and lets him fall into the pit.

Cut to titles at 17 minutes in!

The show is still starring Richard Armitage and the titles have been partially refreshed. (And they still show at least one shot of Rhys Ifans … does no one in this show ever die?)

This is kind of a neat shot, too.

Back to the show: Valerie is hosting a fourth of July party.

Robert will be leaving to be Chief of Station in Japan next week — which explains why he hadn’t blown up Berlin Station after Valerie became chief there.

April and Robert grouse about how Daniel and Esther are not hiding their relationship very well. Then Valerie tells them about the call from Warsaw.

At a party, where anyone could be listening?

Valerie explains there’s only one guy there, “named Torres.” Cut to a man walking into a bar in (one assumes) Tallinn and starting a fight. Valerie tells Robert and Daniel to go to Tallinn, “rendezvous” with Torres, and tell Henryk to cool it. “Don’t poke the bear,” she says. (Does she know that’s a metaphor for Russia? Anyway, no one laughs.) Cut back to the man, who leaves the bar and chases down Torres in order to beat him up, I guess. They have an extensive, brutal fight. I guess this advances the plot but I played a game of Candy Crush on another screen while it was on. Torres wins the fight and carries the guy away.

Meanwhile, Valerie is telling Daniel he has to get his relationship with Esther cleared, and he promises to do so when he gets back from Tallinn.

Does anyone feel transported back to the beginning of Spooks 8.4 where Sarah wants Lucas to get her vetted and cleared?

Esther approaches the group to thank Valerie for the invitation and praise her effortless leadership style. Just when it looks like they might get into a cat fight, Daniel intervenes.

“To America!” [this made me laugh out loud]

As they watch the U.S. embassy fireworks (which look kind of lame, frankly, I honestly hope we can afford a better show than that, or what are our tax dollars for?), Esther tells Daniel that Diver was real but that the file went missing in 1989.

Is she telling him the whole story? Honestly, I’ve never really trusted her. But I do like the angle of this shot over Daniel’s cheekbone.

The story then moves to Tallinn, with nice aerial shot of Alexander Nevsky cathedral. But I think the next shot, which is supposed to be in Tallinn, was actually taken in Sopron (Hungary). In any case we see some youths vandalizing a Soviet war memorial and youtubing the vandalism, as a waitress walks into a restaurant.

Meanwhile, Daniel and Robert walk into the U.S. Embassy, identify themselves, and learn that Torres is not there.

For some reason Daniel seems really uncomfortable delivering this line: “What is this, marine?”

The marine also signals his discomfort with Torres. Robert and Daniel drive to a safe house, where they meet Torres and the guy he picked the fight with the previous night.

Here’s Torres (Ismael Cruz Cordova). Let me just note how happy I am that they disregarded my advice and added ANOTHER recurring character. Oh, and: ANOTHER ROGUE AGENT!!! Oh, goodie. You’d think there wasn’t anyone in the CIA who was even remotely normal, to judge by these people.

Torres has been beating and torturing the guy from the bar, who claims to be Estonian but is really Russian. Torres is crazy. This feels quite a bit like Robert and Daniel have finally found Mr. Kurtz. The guy from bar’s fingerprints have been removed (ouch!) which I guess suggests more Spetsnaz.

Just inserting a cap of Daniel (Richard Armitage) looking concerned here. Because I am still so happy to see him again. And because it’s my blog and I can do what I want.

Torres reports having seen someone called Sergei Basarov, which means the advance troops are already in Tallinn. Daniel and Robert question Torres’ reasoning about why the guy he beat up is really a Russian sympathizer, and Torres is condescending about how naive they are. Torres agrees to release him and calls after them that he’s not wrong. Yeah, this is the guy who’s replacing Hector (uch) and he’s like the un-April. Let’s hope he gets offed relatively quickly as the man is way more obnoxious and unbelievable than Hector was, and that is saying a LOT.

Cut back to the waitress from earlier.

The waitress is dishing up some kompot. It’s probably a stereotype, but I had an Estonian-American friend in grad school. Her mother came over as a refugee in the late 1940s. My friend served kompot for dessert at every dinner party. Delicious!

Robert and Daniel are urging Henryk to cool it with the monuments.

I took this to capture Armitage’s profile, but does it look like he’s having some beard rash down there below his jaw?

Henry eats the kompot and orders some tea, and says that he knows the U.S. and NATO will come to Estonia’s aid because President Obama promised him personally. Daniel points out that things have changed (unfortunately, this is true, although I’m certain NATO would still aid Estonia, I’m not sure it would happen as automatically as it would have happened a decade ago). Henryk agrees to calm things down, but he’s coughing and takes a pill for his heart.

Sorry, just had to put this here!

Henryk introduces them to Sofia, who he says will be the next PM of Estonia.

Sofia Vesik (Katerina Cas).

Henryk thinks Sofia will help the CIA only if it’s what’s best for Estonia. Daniel turns this into a conversation about how Diver got Henryk to cooperate.

“My name is in the history books, but he is the one who should be remembered.”

Sadly, before Daniel can ask a followup, they are interrupted by fans seeking a photo (!) and then Henryk collapses. They go to the hospital. Back at the safe house, Torres gets the evidence he needs that the guy he picked the fight with is Russian. Torres releases him on a balcony without a railing.

On a call with Warsaw, Robert and Val speculate about what could happen in Estonia if Henryk dies just now and Robert tells Val that Torres is seeing things, and is a liability. Val says his supervisor in Homs (Syria — the place where Assad’s destruction of civilians was the worst) said his IQ is off the charts. Robert tells Val he thinks Henryk was poisoned. The announcement comes that Henryk is dead.

And so unfortunately Daniel can’t ask his questions.

Rodion’s in the hospital and a nurse identifies Robert and Daniel to him. Daniel wants to collect evidence, so he needs to get to the body.

Now we have some splicing, between the waitress — who doesn’t seem at all surprised that Henryk is dead! — and Daniel in the hospital

Daniel disguises himself discreetly to get to Henryk’s body.

and there’s nothing conspicuous about this

or this.

At home, it turns out that the waitress is happily hosting Sergei Basarov!

and his rifles. So, yeah, she is a Russian or a Russian sympathizer. Wonder what she’s been putting in the kompot all this time?

But, oops, the waitress’ little sister is there (we actually saw her earlier, briefly gathering flowers in the square around the restaurant) and she complains that she hasn’t heard from her brother, who’s becoming a Russian soldier, yet today. Oops — the picture is Gunnar, who‘s sleeping with the fishes died earlier that day and is sinking into the mass grave even as we speak.

I foresee a conflict emerging when this information becomes more generally known.

Back at the hospital, Daniel is busy burgling Henryk’s body. he takes his pillbox, a piece of his hair, and this photo:

the fateful night of November 9, 1989.

Daniel gets out of the hospital unnoticed, calls Robert to update him, and heads for “the depot.” (I assume he means train station?)

TOTAL detour from the story — COULD this be more awkwardly arranged? Back in Berlin, Val stops to console April over being away from her mother during her mother’s illness (April doesn’t seem that sad about it) and offers her some leave. April wants to get some tech from someone named Adeyemi (sp?) first.

Back in “Tallinn,” Daniel calls April and gets her to book some train tickets for him and Robert. As he’s hanging up, he’s brutally attacked by Rodion, who’s looking for something (presumably the photograph? or the pillbox with the hair in it?) This fight is nastily violent and it and the subsequent and intermittent chase scenes take up 8 minutes. I played some more Candy Crush — I hate this stuff. Daniel makes it to the train station and debriefs with Robert — he gives Robert the pillbox and Robert leaves for Warsaw, but Daniel decides to stay in Tallinn. Rodion has meanwhile gotten the police involved, and they’re chasing him, but Daniel says he needs to stay there to guard the remaining peacemakers (Sofia) and then disappears. Robert calls Val from the train to explain: not very much.

~ by Servetus on November 28, 2018.