#yet-unnamed-babylon-berlin-tag

[sherbertilluminated]

Over the break I've been watching Babylon Berlin and am about halfway through Season 2. In particular, I've been fixated on the portrayal of August Benda, the head of the "political" division of the Berlin police.

I suspect his character is going to die. And I really don't want him to, because I think he's responsible for the tone of the series, which is by no means cheerful but for now is allowing its characters small measures of contentment despite the harshening political climate. If the show loses him, that climate will get a lot harsher.

Babylon Berlin is a series about ideological violence: the violence of the police, the violence of poverty, the international ramifications of the rise of Stalin and the revanchism of the conservatives and soon-to-be-Nazis. And while Gereon and Lotte's conspicuous lack of political alignment allows them to navigate the various milieux of the titular city, Benda is not really a main character with an arc so much as the representation of the Weimar Republic. And the show endorses this!

From his first appearance in episode two, he tries to make Gereon feel welcome.

He's associated with the organ and the piano, majesty and domesticity. Compared to the other music on the show—Nikoros' avant-garde banger "Zu Asche, zu Staub," the swing songs on the radio and the lounge music at the Moka Efti—his aesthetic associations betray a Bildungsbürgerliche sensibility.

He's even allowed to dress in color, unlike most of the men in the series. While named police officers wear black/gray/brown and the conspirators are usually seen in their pea-green uniforms, Benda is consistently associated with a pleasant, subdued Prussian Blue.

This language is employed in Season 1, Episode 7, where he's put in a shot with other (nameless) cops and you realize

It's the color of the institution. He's embodying the institution.

It's the first time he is portrayed exercising his authority; the show was careful to distance him from the brutal suppression of the May 1 demonstration three episodes ago. Combined with the fact that he is often the only one in the room who does not at least tacitly endorse nationalism and rearmament,

And it seems like the show endorses the idea that his efforts are responsible preserving not only the Weimar Republic but the tone of the show. If he dies it goes from "Weimar Republic Noir" to "Fall of the Weimar Republic Noir." Which it ultimately will.

I wouldn't be surprised if he were conscious of his convictions' symbolic value. He's the one who took the "combat-right-wing-violence-and-prevent-assassination-attempts-on-the-chancellor" job, after all. And although his faith in the Republic makes him static to be an unambiguous protagonist of the series, his framing gives that constancy a purpose.

In short: the show has gotten me to think about Benda the same way Benda thinks about himself. Neat trick, that.

[sherbertilluminated]

Diversity win! The fascist scion of an arms manufacturing dynasty is receiving medical treatment for diagnosed manic-depressive disorder (sic)!

[sherbertilluminated]

Watched Babylon Berlin S2E7 tonight and I have some predictions. This show is about police violence and the fall of the Weimar Republic.

This episode was probably the climax of the Prangertag storyline. At least, it feels like something definite has happened and a new/unknown condition has been established.

Namely: Although Operation Prangertag was halted, the influence of its aristocratic/high-ranking architects prevents them from facing consequences for their plots. Benda—and Gereon, who since Stefan's death has become Benda's right hand—has continuously stymied in his efforts to prosecute the nationalists. All he can do is play defense as the attacks come.

On the other hand: assassination attempt #13 has been foiled.

Benda and Gereon have succeeded on a mission together. Through their combined efforts, the republic has been preserved, and Benda has made good on his narrative function as "only guy in the room who cares about preserving the republic." Which among other reasons is why I'm scared he's going to die soon.

It looks like Greta is going to kill him too.

This episode she's contacted by a friend of her creepy boyfriend Fritz, who returns his effects to her and directs her grief toward Benda, despite the identity of Fritz' killers being carefully obscured last episode.

This is the same rhetoric that Fritz has used throughout the last few episodes: he reminds her that Benda's position as Regierungsrat/leader of the "politische" implicates him in the state violence against communists, especially during the May Day Demonstrations.

This would be a compelling rhetorical tack, if Fritz' character were not consistently framed as an aggressor. Every time they meet up, he a) violates one of her boundaries, b) tries to play it off as mischievous sticking-it-to-the-man, and c) reminds her that Benda is complicit in the violence of the state.

But Fritz' persuasive tactics have been mostly been orthodox communism. His friend throws some antisemitism in.

Notably he says "seine Leute," which implies a looser epistemological association than the hierarchy implied by "his men". Either way, the conversation priming her for ideological violence based on sweeping divisions between societal groups.

So Greta, whose arc since getting hired by the Benda family has been about small tests of loyalty—Fritz's needling, Mrs. Benda's instruction of "no meat!" vs. Mr. Benda asking her to fry a sausage, the secrecy of the household, etc.— is probably going to turn against them.

Another person with reason to dislike Benda is Bruno, who is shown at the end of the episode sulking and smoking in the sun sets.

But it's more likely that Bruno will go after Gereon in the next episode; they've been fighting all season, and while I do like this show I don't think they're so innovative as to avoid doing "good cop vs. bad cop" character things.

And since he's already murdered Stefan and tried to kill Streseman in this episode, killing Benda would make it seem like he's a unique danger to the stability of the Weimar Republic. That's not the kind of story the show wants to tell. It's interested in representing a diverse array of people with unique motivations who inexorably contribute to the changes in their society.

\In Greta's case that might mean being (figuratively) seduced into ideological violence which, although urged by the death of her ostensibly-communist boyfriend, is terribly convenient for all the nationalists Benda is trying to hinder.

But if that's to be their arc, I don't think it can come to a satisfying end without a response to Fritz' argument. Benda is portrayed onscreen trying to prosecute nationalists and prevent political violence, but his complicity or lack thereof in violence against communists is almost deliberately obscured.

The most we actually see of him in conjunction with police violence is in Season 1 Episode 3, where he's seen introducing the police president Zörgiebel

and afterward in episode 5, where he discourages Zörgiebel from using force against the protesters.

So we get the argument that Benda is complicit in police violence only from Fritz and his antisemitic friend. But now Fritz is dead. And his argument remains unresolved.

And if Greta is going to kill Benda, who has proven himself to be such a pillar of stability that his death would destabilize the narrative enough to distinguish seasons 2 and 3, that resolution needs to come soon, probably in the next two episodes.

Here's how.

At the end of S2E2 Gereon is approached by Dr. Völcker for help in clearing the names of two women whom police killed on May Day.

Gereon refuses. Because he's a cop. But last season he also threw out the false testimony which would have implicated the women. So the guilt of the police is a matter that remains both unresolved and on his mind.

It's a matter that directly pertains to the question of Benda's own guilt that day, and that acts in narrative parallel.

Now that the plotline of the attempted assassination is resolved, there's a little space to pick up running threads. Including Gereon's own guilt (for violence he definitely did commit) and Benda's role in the institution of police.

Gereon and Benda have been working together all season to foil a coup that a large number of cops were involved in. It might make sense for Gereon to turn to the one authority figure he respects for advice about individual responsibility and institutional corruption.

Any response that Benda gives, from "I've been urging deescalation for years but you see how little power I have to change this institution" to "I completely endorse violence in the name of preserving the Republic," would provide closure to this question. It would move Gereon's character development re: being a cop and make his eventual death hit harder.

I want this scene to happen because it would make sense, and because like Greta I don't like the dissonance between the show's portrayal of a soft-spoken champion of democracy/mentor figure and the rhetoric of a man who is personally really creepy. The show is good enough that I want narrative closure for Benda.

But I don't want him to die. And I suspect I'm running out of time.

[sherbertilluminated]

SABIN TAMBREA IS IN THIS SEASON????

[sherbertilluminated]

It would not prevent the fall of the Weimar Republic but perhaps other problems in this show would be solved if there were more than one practicing psychiatrist in Berlin

Diversity win! The fascist scion of an arms manufacturing dynasty is receiving medical treatment for diagnosed manic-depressive disorder (sic)!

[sherbertilluminated]

Shit.

Watched Babylon Berlin S2E7 tonight and I have some predictions. This show is about police violence and the fall of the Weimar Republic.

This episode was probably the climax of the Prangertag storyline. At least, it feels like something definite has happened and a new/unknown condition has been established.

Namely: Although Operation Prangertag was halted, the influence of its aristocratic/high-ranking architects prevents them from facing consequences for their plots. Benda—and Gereon, who since Stefan's death has become Benda's right hand—has continuously stymied in his efforts to prosecute the nationalists. All he can do is play defense as the attacks come.

On the other hand: assassination attempt #13 has been foiled.

Benda and Gereon have succeeded on a mission together. Through their combined efforts, the republic has been preserved, and Benda has made good on his narrative function as "only guy in the room who cares about preserving the republic." Which among other reasons is why I'm scared he's going to die soon.

It looks like Greta is going to kill him too.

This episode she's contacted by a friend of her creepy boyfriend Fritz, who returns his effects to her and directs her grief toward Benda, despite the identity of Fritz' killers being carefully obscured last episode.

This is the same rhetoric that Fritz has used throughout the last few episodes: he reminds her that Benda's position as Regierungsrat/leader of the "politische" implicates him in the state violence against communists, especially during the May Day Demonstrations.

This would be a compelling rhetorical tack, if Fritz' character were not consistently framed as an aggressor. Every time they meet up, he a) violates one of her boundaries, b) tries to play it off as mischievous sticking-it-to-the-man, and c) reminds her that Benda is complicit in the violence of the state.

But Fritz' persuasive tactics have been mostly been orthodox communism. His friend throws some antisemitism in.

Notably he says "seine Leute," which implies a looser epistemological association than the hierarchy implied by "his men". Either way, the conversation priming her for ideological violence based on sweeping divisions between societal groups.

So Greta, whose arc since getting hired by the Benda family has been about small tests of loyalty—Fritz's needling, Mrs. Benda's instruction of "no meat!" vs. Mr. Benda asking her to fry a sausage, the secrecy of the household, etc.— is probably going to turn against them.

Another person with reason to dislike Benda is Bruno, who is shown at the end of the episode sulking and smoking in the sun sets.

But it's more likely that Bruno will go after Gereon in the next episode; they've been fighting all season, and while I do like this show I don't think they're so innovative as to avoid doing "good cop vs. bad cop" character things.

And since he's already murdered Stefan and tried to kill Streseman in this episode, killing Benda would make it seem like he's a unique danger to the stability of the Weimar Republic. That's not the kind of story the show wants to tell. It's interested in representing a diverse array of people with unique motivations who inexorably contribute to the changes in their society.

\In Greta's case that might mean being (figuratively) seduced into ideological violence which, although urged by the death of her ostensibly-communist boyfriend, is terribly convenient for all the nationalists Benda is trying to hinder.

But if that's to be their arc, I don't think it can come to a satisfying end without a response to Fritz' argument. Benda is portrayed onscreen trying to prosecute nationalists and prevent political violence, but his complicity or lack thereof in violence against communists is almost deliberately obscured.

The most we actually see of him in conjunction with police violence is in Season 1 Episode 3, where he's seen introducing the police president Zörgiebel

and afterward in episode 5, where he discourages Zörgiebel from using force against the protesters.

So we get the argument that Benda is complicit in police violence only from Fritz and his antisemitic friend. But now Fritz is dead. And his argument remains unresolved.

And if Greta is going to kill Benda, who has proven himself to be such a pillar of stability that his death would destabilize the narrative enough to distinguish seasons 2 and 3, that resolution needs to come soon, probably in the next two episodes.

Here's how.

At the end of S2E2 Gereon is approached by Dr. Völcker for help in clearing the names of two women whom police killed on May Day.

Gereon refuses. Because he's a cop. But last season he also threw out the false testimony which would have implicated the women. So the guilt of the police is a matter that remains both unresolved and on his mind.

It's a matter that directly pertains to the question of Benda's own guilt that day, and that acts in narrative parallel.

Now that the plotline of the attempted assassination is resolved, there's a little space to pick up running threads. Including Gereon's own guilt (for violence he definitely did commit) and Benda's role in the institution of police.

Gereon and Benda have been working together all season to foil a coup that a large number of cops were involved in. It might make sense for Gereon to turn to the one authority figure he respects for advice about individual responsibility and institutional corruption.

Any response that Benda gives, from "I've been urging deescalation for years but you see how little power I have to change this institution" to "I completely endorse violence in the name of preserving the Republic," would provide closure to this question. It would move Gereon's character development re: being a cop and make his eventual death hit harder.

I want this scene to happen because it would make sense, and because like Greta I don't like the dissonance between the show's portrayal of a soft-spoken champion of democracy/mentor figure and the rhetoric of a man who is personally really creepy. The show is good enough that I want narrative closure for Benda.

But I don't want him to die. And I suspect I'm running out of time.