History Recap / BabylonBerlinS1E3

* LawOfInverseFertility: Charlotte's mother visits a female doctor, Voelcker, and learns she has syphilis. She very reluctantly reveals that [[YourCheatingHeart she had a single, very brief affair]] some twenty years ago. At this moment the scene cuts to Charlotte who is in her early twenties with the implication being that she is a child of a one-night-stand.

The Russian train arrives in Berlin. One of the Russians returns to his home country while the driver stays in Berlin. Swetlana appears at the railway and tells the driver that the last car will be redirected to Paris instead of Istanbul as originally planned. When the driver gets suspicious, Swetlana threatens him with a gun, but gets stopped by German rail workers and arrested. The driver wants to look for Kardakow and goes to his pension, which happens to be the same as Gereon’s.

* MontageOut: Gereon investigates Kardakov’s possessions. Kardakov heals his slashing wound and foot injury. Charlotte sleeps in Toni's bed, tucking her in. Sorokina smokes in her cell, staring at the train.

A naked Kardakov emerges from the river in the dawn hours. Slashed by a homeless man for attempting to steal his coat, he attempts to evade police by jumping from a bridge onto a coal barge, clearly breaking a limb.

The [[MacGuffin Trotskyist train]] arrives in Berlin. The remaining two infiltrators part ways. [[TheMole Countess Sorokina]] arrives at the train yard, entering AB 3221 to find it [[MacGuffin filled with gold]].

Sorokina confronts the infiltrator train driver, Boris. He asks about Kardakov, which Sorokina deflects. They are both confronted by German customs officials. Sorokina gives them forged consignment documents for AB 3221 – but they are destined for Paris rather than Istanbul, which Boris comments upon. Sorokina attempts to deflect his concerns, but Boris insists that the gold is intended for Trotsky in Istanbul, causing a scene. He seizes the documents and insists that he should speak to Kardakov instead. Sorokina draws a pistol. The Germans move to disarm her – Boris uses this distraction to escape. Sorokina is thrown in a cell.

Kardakov is tended to by the captain of the coal barge – his leg is not broken, only dislocated.

Gereon visits a slum “slaughterhouse”, inquiring after “''Mutti aus Wedding''” with the “butcher”. He goes upstairs to question her, where she initially mistakes him for a client. When Gereon reveals the film frame, she tries to force him to leave. She reluctantly reveals that the painting on the wall in the photo is of a [[ChekhovsGun red horse]]. As Gereon leaves, he is unknowingly shadowed by [[SinisterMinister the man in priestly garb]].

The police are collectively addressed by the Police President, [[DaChief Herr Zoergiebel]], regarding the upcoming May Day demonstrations by the communists. As Zoergiebel speaks about “defending the democratic constitution”, [[ForeShadowing Bruno looks distinctly unimpressed]]. As the police mobilize, Bruno is shown having significant connections among the rank-and-file police, and is even offered access to brand-new submachine guns by the quartermaster, who gives him a signal that “the General” wishes to speak to him.

Gereon ruins a photo being developed by [[TheLabRat Herr Graf]], asking for an enlargement of the blackmail photo.

Charlotte is exasperated by her work transcribing horrifying homicide photos, and pawns the work off onto her friend Doris. Charlotte’s grandmother visits a female doctor, [[MeaningfulName Voelcker]], and learns she has syphilis. When the doctor reveals that she could not possibly have contracted it from her work in a slaughterhouse, she very reluctantly reveals that she had a single, very brief affair many years ago. She conceals all this from her family, passing it off as a mere rash. Toni offers to work in the slaughterhouse; when Charlotte suggests her brother-in-law do so instead, he dismisses the concern. [[DysfunctionalFamily When he calls Charlotte a tramp, she loses her temper and begins beating him with firewood]]. Her brother-in-law is prevented from retaliating by his wife holding their baby, and the situation is only defused by their grandmother breaking into tears. Charlotte’s brother-in-law spits on her and complains about women.

Bruno gives instructions to Jaenicke, who drives him to a restaurant. While he waits in the car, he notices that Bruno is meeting with military officers, most prominently [[FourEyesZeroSoul ''Generalmajor'' Seegers]].

Kardakov waits outside Sorokina’s apartment building. He bluffs his way into the building and enters Sorokina’s apartment, notably picking up a letter opener and hiding it as a weapon. [[ChekhovsGun The portrait of the noble family is repeatedly shown in the ensuing shots]]. Satisfied that Sorokina is away, Kardakov undresses and moves to treat his wounds.

In the car, Jaenicke [[ChekhovsSkill reads the lips of the men in the restaurant]], discerning that they are planning an assassination against [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Chancellor Gustav Stresemann]], recording this in [[ChekhovsGun his journal]]. Bruno returns to the car, unsuspecting, and Jaenicke drives him home. At home, Bruno hears the oven rumbling while his wife, Emmi, slumps motionless in a char, and hastily rushes to remove the roast from the oven before a fire starts. He gradually softens his attempts to address his wife, who finally acknowledges him on the third address. Clearly, [[ScatterbrainedSenior she is senile]].

Charlotte means to go to [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold work]] that night. Her older sister confronts her. Charlotte berates her sister for getting knocked up and marrying the man who did it, degrading herself to being a beleaguered mother and housewife of an impoverished family.

Boris, the train driver, reads a note, and discerns the address of Frau Behnke, observed by Soviet agents all the way. [[BeingWatched He notices them]], and ducks out of sight, entering what he believes to be Kardakov’s room via the roof and window. Behnke hears him enter and confronts him; when she threatens to call the police, he desperately assaults her and drags her off-screen.

Gereon eats dinner with Bruno and his wife, [[PetTheDog who Bruno compliments]]. When she retires, Bruno tries to pressure information out of Gereon, especially regarding his mission and his conversation with Benda. Gereon reveals nothing. Bruno tells Gereon that he will accompany him to put down the communist May Day demonstrations in Kreuzburg.

Gereon voices a letter to a woman named Helga in Cologne.

The Soviet agents staking out “Kardakov’s” residence sit back as Gereon enters. [[SherlockScan Gereon sees and hears things amiss]] – he goes to the closet and frees Frau Behnke, who tells him her attacker is in his room. Gereon confronts Boris, failing miserably – but Boris kicks [[ChekhovsGun the vitally important booklet of customs documents under the bed]]. Boris escapes by leaping off the balcony. He is seized by the waiting Soviet agents, despite Gereon’s attempts to rescue him out of the car window.

Afterwards, Frau Behnke [[INeedAFreakingDrink offers Gereon a drink]]. She reveals to him that Kardakov was a significant and charismatic communist activist, and that Kardakov never retrieved his belongings, including his violin, despite allegedly going on a cruise gig to the Bosporus over the next six months. Behnke reveals that she is a [[WidowWoman war widow]], and Gereon that he is also a veteran, [[ForeShadowing who followed his brother to the front]].

Charlotte patronizes the cinema, verging on tears.

Jaenicke is rudely awakened by the radio playing loudly about confrontations between communists and police. He confronts his parents, who are revealed to be deaf – the source of his talent to read lips – and turns off the radio. Describing the broadcast, he clearly wants to be apolitical. Nevertheless, his parents pressure him into describing the broadcast, which transitions into a classical musical number. He describes it. The entire scene is in sign language.

We have another MontageOut. Gereon investigates Kardakov’s possessions. Kardakov heals his slashing wound and foot injury. Charlotte sleeps in Toni’s bed, tucking her in. Sorokina smokes in her cell, staring at the train.

Meanwhile, Boris is interrogated, and [[ColdBloodedTorture tortured]], by the Soviet agents, including the ambassador. He is shackled to the floor, his arms matched up with a set of very ominous stains. Boris reveals that Trotsky is in Istanbul, and that the train is destined for him. The Soviet agents ask what is on the train, as one of them slowly inches a car toward him, the wheels ominously in perfect alignment with the stains surrounding the shackles. He reveals that the cargo of the secret train car is a large amount of gold – that of the Sorokin noble family.