Breslau (2025) s01e08 Episode Script

1
Mysterious death
of the Breslau Monster
[tense music]
Go.
- Where to?
- Just fucking go!
Giddy-up!
[pensive music]
[music turns suspenseful]
[knocking at door]
[knocking continues]
Your wife has been heavily sedated.
Someone should stay with her,
in case she wakes up.
Thank you. I'll tell the servants.
Should you need anything
Thank you. I'm fine.
[door creaks, closes]
[suspenseful music]
[Holtz inhales]
Obersturmbannführer,
I have sad news.
[subordinate 1] Your son
How?
Sir, I performed the autopsy.
[subordinate 2]
It was most likely a heart attack.
I've ruled out foul play.
Make sure the press doesn't find out.
[Holtz] I'm counting on you.
I have to prepare my wife for the news.
[dramatic music]
THE BRESLAU MURDERS
[Podolsky] Thank you for doing this.
You think I'm crazy?
I think Superintendent Barens
is the most decent man I know.
I'm sorry, Erwin.
Erwin?
Boss, now is not the time for us to
I'm sorry. I acted like an idiot,
and I owe you an apology.
We both know it.
I know that you're apologizing
because you want me to do something.
And I guess it's something illegal.
How is Lena?
She's fine.
She sleeps a lot. She's getting better.
[somber music]
[sighs]
[Barens] It's been an honor.
I'm going to miss you.
[doorbell ringing]
[door clicks]
[suspenseful music]
What now, Detective?
Now we wait.
[suspenseful music continues]
[uneasy music]
Why do you believe me, Benk?
You believed me when I wanted to arrest
the son of this town's
most powerful man.
You believe me now,
when I want to arrest a war hero.
Why aren't you even asking if I'm mad?
I could give you
plenty of answers, Detective.
But the truth is, it's easier this way.
[distant door rattling]
[door closes]
[footsteps approaching]
Podolsky?
What are you doing here?
Excuse me, boss. We need to talk.
[suspenseful music]
[doctor]
That's very kind of you, Colonel.
I didn't know you were friends.
For years.
Lena, Franz, and I are like family.
I see.
However, I'm afraid Mrs. Podolsky
isn't strong enough to talk.
I just brought her favorite flowers
and I wanted to check on her.
It won't take long, I promise.
- Of course, Colonel.
- [clears throat]
[doctor] Lena, ma'am?
Mm, I don't get it.
Only yesterday,
she was unable to get out of bed.
Let me check with the nurses.
They must have taken her for a bath.
[suspenseful music]
[Podolsky] He wrote it to mislead us.
To make us search for a psychopath.
You've lost your mind.
I always feared
it would come to this, Franz.
- You've really lost your mind.
- Where's your brother?
You've never mentioned
these letters before.
- You could've made it all up.
- Boss, where's your brother?
Do you really believe
that he could have done it?
I'm really sorry.
[Benk] Detective.
[Podolsky] It's hard to make out.
A man in uniform, a child
- Do you know what's in this film?
- [Barens] No.
I left the police force today
because of you.
I always stood by you.
It would've been better
if you had drowned in the Oder.
I couldn't agree more, boss.
You should be lying in a hospital,
next to Lena.
What? How do you know where Lena is?
It was me.
[stammers]
I told the Superintendent.
We were after Jürgen and
if anything happened to us,
I didn't want Lena Mrs. Lena
Lothar knows where she is?
You call him a serial killer,
and he was so worried about both of you.
I'm asking you
if Lothar knows where she is.
How could I not tell him?
FOR THE POOR ORPHANS
[Lena] I told you I'd come back for you.
I'm sorry, Peter.
You're a big, strong boy now.
[Lena] Come.
Peter, come on.
No need to worry now.
[Lena sobbing]
I'll never leave you again.
Don't be afraid.
Come.
[suspenseful music]
[Podolsky] Stay with the Superintendent.
I won't take long.
Erwin, he lost his mind.
Quite likely, Superintendent.
She's gone?
You were supposed to watch her!
It's a hospital, not a prison.
[grunts]
Did anyone come to see her?
[breathes heavily]
Your friend, Colonel Lothar Barens.
But she was already gone,
so the Colonel just left.
This is it. Come.
Thank you.
Watch your step.
Okay.
Remember when I told you
that I wanted you to meet someone?
That someone is my husband.
Come.
[Lothar] Lena!
Oh, thank God I made it.
[Lena] What are you doing here?
Yesterday, Franz arrested
Obersturmbannführer Holtz's son.
And today, the son died in his cell.
Holtz won't let it go.
He'll be seeking revenge.
And you're the person
that matters most to Franz.
The SS could be here any minute.
They could already be inside.
Franz asked me to hide you out of town.
He'll be there waiting for us.
[gasps]
And who is this young man?
He's my son.
Come on, dear. Let's go.
[ominous music]
It's an honor, Obersturmbannführer.
I'll do anything for the Reich's glory.
I know, that's why I chose you.
These are the files concerning
the immoral conduct of Inga Eissmann.
She's a psychiatrist.
And, as it turns out, a homosexual.
But the Reich knows how to deal
with such people, right?
Breslau needs cleansing.
Our nation's entire scum
is gathered here in the East.
Communists, criminals, Jews, sodomites.
Enemies of the Reich.
I'll dispatch additional patrols
to clean up the city before the Games.
Hm, Barens,
your predecessor, is a decent man.
But he lacked
the national socialist courage.
Too complacent, too entangled.
- But I need a new order here.
- I'll cleanse this city.
And this unit too, Obersturmbannführer.
You can start
by arresting Detective Podolsky.
I want him in a solitary cell
in the custody of the SS.
On what charges?
Acting to the detriment of the Reich.
Together with his nephew, he plotted
an attack on the NSDAP headquarters.
And after the conspiracy was exposed,
he illegally released his nephew.
He wanted to pin
the Eyeburner case on my son.
He falsely accused my son.
Because of him, my son was detained.
He wanted to get at me,
wreak havoc before the Olympics,
and ridicule our country
before the entire world.
He's a Pole.
And every Pole in his heart
hates Germany.
Out of fear.
Please accept my condolences.
[pensive music]
My boy's heart gave up.
I want Podolsky to pay for it.
Understood?
You can see the Detective is unhinged.
What he says doesn't make sense.
Allegedly, he brought you here
for your own safety.
But even I can see he's paranoid.
Franz, let's assume for a second
that your whole sick theory is true.
- Why would Lothar kidnap Lena?
- Because he's after me.
[door opens]
[door closes]
You got everything?
[Benk] You were right, boss.
Holtz issued an official warrant
to arrest you and Ms. Eissmann.
Apparently, in the Third Reich,
it's hard to distinguish
paranoia from prudence.
And a brothel
is the safest place for a woman.
[Benk] I checked the film.
Colonel Lothar is on it.
And the boy is Max.
[Benk] Yes, sir.
Blumenstein shot films.
[Podolsky] He had
an assistant, Abram Niepold.
Maybe he didn't tell us everything.
We need to question him.
Unfortunately,
he disappeared from his apartment
after we released him.
Which means he had a reason to hide.
The question is where.
During the interrogations,
right after Blumenstein's death,
one of the girls said he was renting
an old warehouse to shoot his films.
Maybe that's where he's hiding.
Where exactly are we going?
To my oasis. We'll be safe there.
Franz should be there soon.
[suspenseful music]
You have the same eyes.
You and Peter.
I can tell you two share the same blood.
Same eyes.
[foreboding music]
Have I told you his name?
I rudely asked who he was,
when I should've figured it out myself.
[clears throat]
[music turns tense]
[tense music continues]
[sighs]
[ominous music]
Freeze, motherfucker!
[intense music]
[grunts]
- Run.
- [chokes]
[Lena] Run!
[Lothar gasping]
[intense music continues]
[panting]
[gun cocking]
[shouts]
[gasping in fear]
Peter! Run!
Run, darling, please! I'll look for you.
[sobbing]
[crying]
[Lena sobs]
And now you will kindly tell me
what's in this film.
I've already told you everything I know.
Then why are you hiding here like a rat?
Do you like this humid dump?
- I was afraid they'd kill me.
- Who?
I really don't know anything, I swear.
Maybe that freak who killed Blumenstein.
Maybe he wanted to punish me too
for the pornography or
for my ethnicity.
Isn't it common these days?
You're lying.
[suspenseful music]
[gun cocking]
I'll count to three.
- I don't know anything.
- One.
- I swear.
- Two.
I swear I don't know anything!
Let me go!
- Three.
- I really No!
[breathing heavily]
Fate gave you
an unexpected chance, right?
You won't get another one.
Films!
Films.
[breath trembling]
Blumenstein had films
shot with a hidden camera.
[panting]
He wanted to have dirt on people so
he could raise money to go to America.
That was his plan.
After they killed him,
I knew they'd come after me too.
Couldn't you have said so earlier?
Where do you keep them?
If you were so scared,
why did you take the films?
If anybody found them,
I'd be the first one they'd kill,
even though I wasn't involved.
Who'd be looking for them?
There are rich and powerful people
on these films, Detective.
I'm interested in one.
Colonel Lothar Barens.
- [Lothar] Get out!
- Leave him alone!
Get out.
[Lena grunts]
[tense music]
[Podolsky] Zelda, Blumenstein, and Max.
[Lena's breath trembling]
[Lothar] Your mother
loves you very much, young man.
It wasn't her fault.
She couldn't do anything.
Has she told you yet?
She comes
from a respectable Viennese family.
It was just a summer love affair.
Her parents forced her
to put you in an orphanage.
Still, she never forgot about you.
You should forgive her.
[gun cocking]
Now you must listen to me.
I didn't mean to hurt anybody.
I just wanted
to understand.
That's why I did it.
[deep breathing]
1916. SOMME DEPARTMENT, FRANCE
[Lothar] I've been thinking
every day ever since.
I could have just looked away.
All I had to do was look away.
Commander Angelsman was a good man.
He had a wife
and two daughters in Berlin.
[Podolsky] Those are the corpses
Lothar was buying from the morgue.
[suspenseful music]
[gun cocking]
[Lothar] He told me
he'd spare them if I did it.
[suspenseful music continues]
[breath trembling]
[breathing heavily]
[crying]
[crying continues]
[gunshot]
[body thuds]
[Lothar] I couldn't move.
I stood there, but I was hollow inside.
[whimpering]
After it happened,
whatever humanity left in me was gone.
[crying]
I was wounded by shrapnel a week later
during an attack on our unit.
I spent six months in a hospital.
I received the Iron Cross.
I kept returning to the front. To die.
I wanted someone to set me free.
[Lena] Let Peter go.
[breathing deeply]
He has nothing to do with this.
Franz doesn't know about him.
[Lothar] I didn't want to kill them.
They were only supposed to act.
[Lothar] I kept reenacting the moment
hoping it would change something.
He was recreating
some trauma from the war.
He was badly wounded.
He saw and experienced terrible things.
[sighs]
It's the burden of war.
No, he did those things.
And he was reenacting them?
He came back as a war hero,
but he did those terrible things.
He was never punished for that.
He was drowning in guilt.
He shot people.
That's what you do in war,
for fuck's sake.
That doesn't make you a murderer.
They took those corpses
from the city morgue.
Zelda and Blumenstein
must have filmed him secretly.
They blackmailed him.
They wanted money to get to America.
The boy was a witness.
And he was the only one
who didn't die where we found him.
The Colonel must have
a hideout somewhere.
[Lothar] It's impossible that Lothar
Where is Lena?
[Podolsky] Where is she?
[pensive music]
Benk, play the last bit again.
The painting, the furniture
It's our parents' summer mansion
in Görbersdorf.
[foreboding music]
[foreboding music continues]
[clicks]
[maid] Obersturmbannführer.
Your wife is awake.
Thank you.
[pensive music]
[Gerda breathing weakly]
Are you leaving?
I'm going to Berlin.
For the opening of the Games.
[gun cocking]
[ominous music]
[faint classical music
over phonograph]
[classical music over phonograph]
[Lothar] Put the gun down.
Let Lena go.
Put the gun down,
or you'll never see her again.
Let Lena go.
You're after me.
You can kill me
and no one will ever know.
I have no proof.
I'm the only one who knows.
[breathing heavily]
You're a war hero, Colonel.
To become one,
you must have gone through hell.
You just wanted to heal.
But those bad people
wanted to use it against you.
You couldn't let them do it.
That's the whole story.
[chuckles]
[Podolsky] That's bullshit, right?
Maybe it was like that in the beginning.
But then, you killed the boy.
We already had Gerber.
All you had to do was hide the body.
No one would look for you.
Why did you do it?
I am evil, Franz.
War turned me into a monster.
I thought I could overcome it,
but that's not possible.
I can't be fixed, Franz.
That's why I need you.
Because you rid the city of evil.
Where is Lena?
[quavers]
I need to see her.
Lena?
Lena, darling?
Lena?
Lena, darling?
[Podolsky] No, no
No, no, no
[crying]
No!
I'm sorry.
Forgive me.
I'm sorry.
[somber music]
[crying continues]
[sighs, whimpers]
[breathing shakily]
[tense music]
I am not like you.
[gunshot]
[Podolsky sniffles]
[Podolsky cries]
Are you sure?
[informant] The prostitute and the Jew
were blackmailing Colonel Lothar Barens.
They filmed his perversions.
He was the Eyeburner.
Hello?
Hello?
[dramatic music]
[subordinate] The Führer is expecting
you, Obersturmbannführer Holtz.
[music turns tense]
[faint chatter]
The Detective needs to come with us.
All right, gentlemen, give us a minute.
[Benk] Boss, there's something else
you need to know.
We checked with the orphanage.
The boy got there eight years ago
when he was two months old.
His mother is Lena Reus.
Your wife's parents found an orphanage
that was the farthest from Vienna.
That's why Lena came to Breslau.
He's in shock, post-traumatic mutism.
[Inga] But I could work with him.
[soft music]
[dramatic music]
The Olympic Games of 1936 were a vehicle
for Hitler's Nazi propaganda.
Most countries,
deceived by the propaganda,
opted to participate in the Games.
Three years later, World War II broke out.
The most brutal
and bloody conflict in history.
So far
[closing theme music]