Berlin Station 3.8, first impressions [spoilers!] #richardarmitage

Continued from here. 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.

Reminder: SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

SERIOUS SPOILERS. I’m NOT kidding.

***

I write this in a mood of anger (about the episode) and frustrated distraction (because apparently if you want everyone to know to call you or need you at a specific time, all you need to do is specify that you need an hour to watch dedicated TV at 8 p.m. on a Sunday evening).

So, Daniel’s back, only to (apparently?) be killed again. I guess I have to watch till the end of this season to see if he’s really dead or not (3.2 taught me that lesson), but honestly, I fucking hate being jerked around like this. No, it’s not suspenseful, no, it’s not filled with thrills and chills, it’s just goddamn juvenile. Again, I thought we were supposed to care, but not in order to be manipulated. There’s no value added here. The whole script is disgustingly cynical. Anything can happen for any nonsense reason at any time. Maybe the Adeyemis’ surgical weapon sciency thingie will pop up in the hands of Hector, though, and in the absence of all the king’s horses and all the king’s men, he’ll put Daniel back together again.

This plot is six minutes shorter than usual, but in exchange, it feels like it has a lot of plot and more than enough filler. I will admit it was suspenseful even if I got sick of the constant cuts to the forest. Even so, apart from that: again nothing on events in Estonia, even though that is ostensibly the center of the plot and why we are going through all this; again nothing on Valerie’s weird friend. I suppose it could be the case that Frost wasn’t Diver, but after this, it sure looks like he was, and if Daniel’s dead I don’t know why it matters anymore anyway. Steven either is Diver or killed to protect Diver. Honestly, all this work for a character they were just going to kill off anyway? Daniel sort of became the equivalent of Clare from season 1 here. And if Daniel isn’t dead — did they forget that they already used this plot device in 3.2? At least this time it happened where we could see it.

And oh yeah — on the spoilers issue, EPIX posted a picture of the crucial scene in this episode bout two hours before it aired, on their press site. Cynical much? So what was that stupid “tell Armitage we love him” thing about this week again?

Man, I am pissed off. The best thing that could happen to this show is for it to die an unmourned death after 3.10. We’ve got all the pretty pictures and interviews, which was pretty much all Armitage’s fans got out of this one anyway.

Jesus fucking Christ.

***

Everything pre-titles is recap from previous episodes.

Hopefully this is the last time I ever have to post this title cap.

We open with Hector and Daniel being hunted through the forest in the dusk, I guess, or maybe the moon is coming out or the sun is coming up. St. Petersburg is pretty far north so … wait, why do I expect this show to make sense again?

Berlin Station Season 3 Episode 308: The Green Dacha

Don’t ask me what episode they took the press photo from, because on my screen they are barely visible. Hector tells Daniel to go to the Green Dacha (episode title!) one mile north; he is going to distract the hunters and will meet Daniel there later.

Cut to Tegel Airport, where Valerie and April seem to be returning from the South of France and Esther tells them they are authorized to see the Adeyemis before they are deported. April protests loudly and Esther explains that this isn’t something that can be affected on the federal level (as far as I know this is true — you get your residency permit via the city / Land, it’s not a federal office you go to). It emerges that the police didn’t find the Adeyemis’ prototype sciency weapon surgical thingie.

April is perplexed.

April thinks that the weapon’s been stolen by Aquinas / Bankole, the thug from 3.3, but when she gets a little too vocal about Esther’s apparent unwillingness to help, Valerie takes her aside, tells her she agrees, but that she shouldn’t speak that way to the head of the BfV. Valerie wants April to talk to the Adeyemis, find out if there’s something they’ve missed, and keep them on side. (Sorry April, they’re going to get screwed, and you’re going to be responsible; that’s life in the CIA.)

Meanwhile Valerie and Esther have more to hash out — Valerie informs Esther that her agent is back from Estonia — “in bad shape, but I guess he’s going to make it.” He looked awfully corpse-like last week in 3.7, but pretty much killing people off and then reviving them seems to happen often in this series. Weird, because it’s not like they seem to have any problem adding random new characters at the drop of a hat. (It’s like they all have red shirts on, though.) Did someone used the sciency sound weapon thingie to repair the German agent? So anyway, Valerie’s upset that Esther used German government resources to look for her agent: “you probably jeopardized his recovery.” So Esther hits back with the betrayal over the Fourteen Eyes vote in 3.7 (Esther gets a great line, probably the best one in the episode: “From now on, good luck getting anyone in Europe to listen to a damn thing you say”).

Still wondering about the film subsidy they got for this.

We pick up with Steven drinking tea in Afghanistan with an “old friend” and asking about Krik’s valiant service there.

This is the guy, not like we can see his face, either. No clichés at all in this portrayal of a Taliban leader. [coughs]

Steven asks him if he knows about Krik — indeed, Mr. Taliban knows the story: “everybody knows that bullshit.” He is a moderate now, he says. And he’s got proof of what happened — which he will give Steven in exchange for Steven getting them arms to fight against ISIS.

Of course you did. Between 1979 and 1989. In the middle of nowhere during the Soviet-Afghan War. And then you transferred the VHS (?) to a DVD. Because you knew this moment would come.

Apparently this is a local “most watched” vid. For training purposes only, of course. They haven’t aired it more widely because it was enough for them to humiliate the Soviet Empire. Krik also made up the story about taking the rifle off of a mujahideen.

Back in St Petersburg:

Daniel is in this picture. Can you see him?

Daniel continues to traverse the woods.

Here, Torres, who is still “hunting,” jumps Daniel. Can you see them?

Torres gives Daniel the little girl’s phone with its depleted battery and tells him to call Berlin for the ex-fill. Daniel apologizes to Torres for not believing him, and Torres says it wouldn’t have mattered anyway, it was already too late. This entire scene courtesy of them needing some way to geo-locate Daniel.

Daniel weaves unsteadily away from Torres. Can you see him? Honestly, it’s not like they needed to have Richard Armitage here. Oh, wait, that’s been the operative principle of the entire season.

Back in Berlin, Robert is trying to get a Navy SEAL team ready to pull Daniel out, but they are not cooperating.

I wonder why none of Robert’s scenes are ever filmed in the dark. Not even the sex scenes.

As always in the secure room, THEY SLIP IN A FEW AGGRESSIVE PLOT REMINDERS IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T BEEN WATCHING THIS SHOW FOR EIGHT WEEKS NOW. (Do they think they’re somehow keeping the plot secret from us by discussing it mainly in this room?) Valerie and Robert still don’t know where Daniel is, remember. The JSOC won’t go in if they don’t know definitely where Daniel is, and the failure of the Article V vote means Krik has no reason to keep Daniel alive.

Just then, the phone conveniently rings — and we get this week’s midweek teaser spoiler — they are really happy to hear Daniel’s voice, as multiply predicted. Robert uses his magic computer to geo-locate the phone Daniel’s using, and Valerie promises they’ll use the Krik “kompromat” to take down Krik and get Daniel out. Daniel warns them about Platov.

Daniel as his phone drops the call. Isn’t that an amazing expression on his face? (Actually, if you were Krik, wouldn’t you be running some kind of cell jamming operation at this point? Hmm.)

As Robert’s about to push on JSOC, guess who calls? Of course, it’s Steven! He’s sending them a file of “kompromat” that will “finish” Krik.

Steven responds to the news that Daniel’s alive, but we can’t see it because it’s shot with his face in shadow. All the money spent on this show and apparently they can’t afford lighting. It’s a terrible shame. Maybe they could get a lighting subsidy.

Steven insists on going himself! (dun dun!) because there isn’t time for JSOC to get there. He’s only a short flight away. (Okay — I just checked. It’s roughly 5000 km from Kabul to St Petersburg. I make that five hours. I wouldn’t call that short but then I don’t jet around the world in a Gulfstream either.) Steven argues with them. He has clients there! No one will notice him! In desperation they agree. (Dun dun!) Steven is relieved. Robert is relieved. Valerie leaves, telling Robert if she’s going to get the “kompromat” out there she’s going to have to “eat some crow.” Valerie’s exit leads to another one of the kind of scenes that I hate most in this show — a convoluted introduction of another minor character, typically a red-shirt, that ultimately serves no purpose other than to display some weirdness. Also, I admit that I find the constant repetition of the word “kompromat” annoying — no one even used this word in the U.S. until the alleged revelations about Donald Trump in January 2017.

But first, a shot of Steven looking tired in the Gulfstream. So stressful, all this intrigue. And then, we’re back in the forest. (I’m starting to be reminded of those scenes in films from the 1930s and 40s that take place at dances, where they use the dance to make sure every character talks to every other character.) This time it’s Hector and Torres, who casually kills one of Krik’s henchmen before he updates Hector as to what he said to Daniel.

FINALLY we get back to the detention facility. I thought it was in the airport, but I guess not. April must have had a hard time getting a cab. She establishes that the device must be in the hands of Bankole from 3.3 (“mercenaries — the Chinese are too careful for this”). Professor Adeyemi tells April you can’t use the device like a gun — it has to be aimed precisely by a skilled doctor. April says she’ll do everything she can to get them out, but that she needs everything they know about Bankole and Aquinas.

So, yeah, that pointless plot detour — Valerie meets with Esther to tell her that Daniel is alive, and suddenly, they’re best friends again! And it comes out that Esther has known all along that Krik was holding Daniel (“that’s what our intelligence indicated”) and untouchable. Oh, wait, it’s an opportunity for Valerie TO REMIND US WHY THIS KOMPROMAT IS SO COMPROMISING, IN CASE WE’D HAD OUR MEMORIES ERASED BY STROKES. Valerie wants to get it on Russian state television so that it will be believed — and Esther knows just the guy, “a sleazy tabloid reporter who’s helped us out a time or two.” The Kremlin trusts him, he’ll do it for the money, and they’ll have to do it on his terms because he’s paranoid.

Brief cut to April and BB Yates in a bar. April tells her that Daniel is alive and in Russia — and that BB’s idol status for her is over since she sabotaged the summit. (I found myself wondering idly if the reason no one knows where the weapon is is that BB has it.) April accuses BB of losing track of her purpose in the job. Anyway, blah blah, BB tells April she needs to learn the job isn’t black and white, April doesn’t have all the info, BB choosing to vote as directed by the administration guarantees she can stay in the decisionmaking process.

Back in the forest, Rodion shoots and wounds Hector. Not that we can really see it, and I’m sick of these nothing screencaps anyway, so just take my word for it.

The guy on the left is the red-shirt.

Cut back to the pointless plot detour. Esther gives him the envelope. He wants a Döner with extra lamb fat. I was a bit taken aback by this — I didn’t know that was an actual order, as your basic Berlin Döner already has an astounding amount of fat, like even more than a Big Mac.

But then, they’re not IN Berlin, they’re in Budapest in a pub called Marxim that appears not to serve Döner anyway.

When it turns out that a side of lamb fat costs €5, he asks for two. This is just strange. A whole döner in Berlin costs €3-ish. Weird, weird, weird.

Based on the size of that Döner I’d say he got cheated.

He doesn’t want to take the stuff, being afraid of Krik, but Valerie convinces him that he will be safe, and also Esther says he will be seen as a hero.

Mr. Sleazy Tabloid looks at the video on a burner phone and says “holy shit.” (It’s another mystery of this episode that everyone who sees this tape immediately understands exactly what they’re seeing — don’t ask me why.) He’ll do it, he says. As he leaves, Valerie says (second best line): “Jesus, to think that the fate of Estonia and maybe the free world is resting in that guy’s hands.”

Maybe, maybe not, because he’s a red-shirt. But anyway, back to the forest! This time, it’s Hector + Platov. Platov doesn’t want to kill Hector because “he’s the only roofer who can find blood oranges in September for me.” Then Platov offers Hector a gun, and Hector splits.

In Berlin, we suddenly have lights again, in Valerie’s office!

But apparently not at the local FSB outlet.

It’s Jack Palance Kolya calling, to say he’s intercepted Rivkin. (Told ya! Red-shirt! And Serv thinks — well, if I’d known his name was Rivkin, I’d have told you the Kremlin would never trust him for long.) Valerie gets her second warning — it’s better if Krik stays where he is, so he couldn’t allow the publication of the “kompromat.” Valerie doesn’t have a lot of patience with that.

Robert and Valerie’s solution is that Sofia Vesik will hack into the Russian state tv system and put the “kompromat” there, so it can get on the most watched show. So now we know why she’s still in the story — WHICH HASN’T BEEN TO ESTONIA IN WEEKS NOW. There’s some weird reasoning here — Robert says, we want it on this show because it’s on Russian state tv and people will have to trust it. (Not to be too cynical here, but people didn’t trust Soviet state tv back in the day and I can’t imagine that has changed much just because the Cold War ended.)  She agrees to do it, “for Estonia and for Daniel.”

Back to the forest!

You can almost see Daniel this time.

And so the pairings game runs full circle — Daniel and Hector. Hector notes he’s been shot and Daniel brings him inside the green dacha, which is about 20 yards or so away. Not that we can see any of this.

This is the vid Sofia hacks into the Russian tv computer. Apparently she interrupts a fitness broadcast to do it? Interesting — this is March of 1985, at the height of Soviet force strength in Afghanistan, and about a year before the US gave the mujahideen the Stinger missiles sometimes credited with changing the course of the war.

We get to see the video, and we see everyone seeing it. This mystifies me a bit as I don’t know how you’d understand what was in the video unless you already knew. Eventually you can see Krik in very small perspective, fleeing the scene as the Soviets get massacred, but even that would only mean anything if you knew who he was. But the CIA people watch it, and Mikhailov (the alcoholic guy who lives on Nevsky Prospekt and plays with his rifle) watches it, and does an extra shot with a shaky hand …

and we’re back to the forest.

And the sun is out. Honestly, why waste full exposure on this ugly face? Rodion and Torres are with him, incidentally.

As Krik emerges, one of his lieutenants comes to get him. He doesn’t want to be interrupted but the guy insists. Turns out that back at the ranch dacha, all the goons are watching, too. Irina and the little girl abandon him and the little girl can’t even kiss her daddy goodbye. Man, the weed of crime bears bitter fruit.

And now, what we’ve all been waiting for — actually getting to see Daniel.

I feel like US tv shows usually have better fake blood than this. Maybe the Hungarian subsidy didn’t pay for the good stuff.

Almost immediately, Steven walks in! He’s so happy to see Daniel!

This is pretty good acting from Armitage, but I kept thinking it was cruel for him to have to play these scenes about Daniel’s dead mother so immediately after his own mother’s death. Also, this scene will inevitably inspire comparison among fans to the last scene in Spooks 9.8, which was a really problematic scene, too. I think Armitage does this one better, but I haven’t watched Spooks 9.8 in the last few years. It’s another one of those things one doesn’t look to rewatch.

Daniel is not happy to see Steven, and Steven plays it cool, as if he doesn’t understand why Daniel would be suspicious. He has the nerve to say “You okay?”

(Om, what do you think, Steven? Sheez.)

Steven digs himself in deeper — when Daniel asks why Berlin Station sent him, he states that he volunteered. “I know who you are,” Daniel says, and this is the result.

Berlin Station Season 3 Episode 308: The Green Dacha

Now we get to another pet peeve of mine, not just in this show — when people who are deadly enemies have long conversations before the violence occurs. IMO, how this would have happened in real life is that they’d have started with the violence immediately rather than talking first. Shoot first, ask questions later, right? But no, they gotta talk. I get that Daniel wants details. But Daniel also knows that Steven is a trained assassin (he says it in the first minute of the scene). Is he really that naive?

Daniel unveils it gradually: this is about you … about who you were … an assassin … Diver … Your name was Diver … and you killed my mother. (Prepare to die! my mind wouldn’t stop saying). Steven flails in a very typically Stevenish way. When Daniel won’t lower the gun, he decides for the talking cure — Daniel should tell him the whole story. Then Steven turns away for a second and pulls out his own side arm. Standoff!

Cut back to Krik, playing the piano in his dacha as the полиция appears to take him away. Rodion and Torres, looking on, agreed that he’s fucked. The police give Krik a last conversation with Platov — who promises that Krik’s plan will succeed without Krik; Platov will make sure of it. (Third wink with the fencepost that something extra specially bad will be happening next week in Estonia.) Of course, Platov is only seeking to survive, he says. Platov, Torres and Rodion take a moment to toast the destruction of Estonia before Rodion trains his gun on Torres. Platov wants to know why Torres broke into Krik’s safe — his life depends on the answer. CUT! This never gets picked up; it’s simply left hanging. Torres in danger!

Back to Daniel and Steven. Steven says neither of them “want to do this” (whatever “this” is). Then we get a garbled statement from Daniel — who says he talked to Henryk before his death (well, if so, we didn’t see the smoking gun conversation), and that his instinct says he’s right, and then when challenged by Steven, he says he’s relying on his memory.

Daniel says, “I’ve been reliving the death of my mother since I was 8 years old,” and there’s a twitch in his eye. Really painful to watch.

I feel like Steven looks a lot like Lenin all the way through this episode, for some reason.

Steven suggests it’s just an idea that Daniel has talked himself into. Daniel seems a bit shaken by that, but he persists, “No, I know that you killed my mother and you killed Lucas Becker, but what I don’t know is why.” Daniel then states that he recognized Steven’s silhouette in the photo taken the night that he saved Henryk. The tension rises and Daniel threatens to kill Steven if he doesn’t start talking.

Steven lowers his arms and says he followed CIA orders to kill a target, which is what Daniel or anyone would do. He hated having to do it and having to keep it from Daniel. He says his mother’s death was collateral damage. (He will contradict that later.) He admits knowing who Daniel was ever since Daniel’s arrival. He says he was ordered to kill all witnesses. Daniel said that Steven waited till his mother was in the car to shoot — and Steven admits —

[Honestly: this plot revelation beggars belief. The CIA runs extremely extensive background checks on its candidates; I know this because I’ve been interviewed by CIA agents twice about former students and I dated someone in college who wanted to work for the CIA and I was asked intrusive questions about our relationship. There is NO WAY the CIA would employ the son of someone who’d been the target of an operation in this way. NO WAY.]

“I hate saying this, Daniel, but your mother was not who you thought she was. She had engaged in many risky relationships, which put a target on her back.”

[at this point my mind is saying to me, Steven is Daniel’s father — and had to kill his mother for that reason — and that’s why Daniel’s father was so abusive (2.1). OK, shut up, mind.]

Daniel accuses Steven of lying — and since Steven doesn’t really much, it’s always Daniel articulating the next step. Which in this case is that his mother was the assassination target. “Why would the CIA order the assassination of a US citizen unless they were an enemy combatant or–” and Steven interjects, “or, or … a traitor” and Daniel’s hands start to shake on the gun.

Steven, oh so noble, wouldn’t have taken it to the grave, but he informs Daniel, now, “Your mother was a Russian spy.” Daniel isn’t really having it, noting that there’s always been something off about Steven. HAVEN’T I BEEN SAYING THAT FOR THREE YEARS NOW? Still shaking, he notes that his mother moved in officer circles, she would have known Diver, she was smart and would have figured out whatever it was that Steven was hiding. Daniel mentions that while Diver was active, agent were being killed on both sides of the Berlin Wall and so concludes:

Diver was a double agent.

(Which would explain why it wasn’t a problem for him to slip into Stasi HQ in 3.1. Just a note.)

“If you believe that,” Steven says, “why don’t you just fucking kill me,” and he adopts a position of surrender.

Daniel hesitates. He wants Steven exposed. Steven objects that he’ll never prove it.

I pause to note his weird hairstyle and that massive forearm.

Daniel vows to spend the rest of his life proving it, “because if there’s anything I’ve learned after all these years, it’s that the past never stays dead.”

Steven agrees, pulls his handgun out again, and shoots Daniel in what looks like the gut, sort of on the opposite site from where Porter was shot all those years ago. It’s a serious shot. Daniel looks pretty well dead, I have to say.

Berlin Station Season 3 Episode 308: The Green Dacha

And they show it to us in the light this time.

Steven apologizes to Daniel: “I didn’t want this.”

And if you’re curious as to where Hector has been this whole time, the answer is under the floorboards.

~ by Servetus on January 28, 2019.