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These two are hopeless!

After season 3 with all its little lovely GerLotte moments, we’ve got the trailers of season 4 and what do we see?

Charlotte hates Gereon and sleeps with Rudi.

That’s the pain we have to endure, my dear Gerlotte shippers  💔

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The show gets darker and even more violent. Can’t wait for the premiere!

Finally.

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It was interesting to read your observations :)

Here are some of my ideas:

I am quite sure that Anno is Dr Schmidt for real (he knows too many details about the war and Helga, and also that Gereon hates their father), and poor Gereon is drugged by him and manipulated through hypnosis. That´s why he sees a hallucination of a dragon in the sewer, and Nyssen & Helga in movie costumes.

Right, S2 and S3 are only a few months apart but Toni has grown taller than Lotte, and Moritz is about 2 heads taller than Gereon. Next season it will be even more obvious as these two turn into young adults.

Helga is actually caring about where Moritz is. By the end of S3 she does not refuse to communicate with Gereon only for the reason of Moritz. But she is going through hard times and her son is a rebellious teen who doesn´t recognize authorities. Gereon made a mistake allowing Moritz to mingle with Nazis. Some more problems will surely occur.

Occult practices were trendy back then and sly Anno participated in them using some "Juliana" to manipulate people and get better connected in upper circles. However, his session of “criminal telepathy” in the police department is mysterious. Did he get some hints from the Armenian and Walter about the second knife and the other murderer?

Gräf and Nyssen must be both around 40. Nyssen´s mother mentioned his age once when scolding him immdfm. Gräf looks quite youngish for 40 yo though. And Gereon must be 30-32 - considerably younger than Gräf!

Sorokina and Kardakow fled to Paris and the train with gold travelled to the Soviet Union if I remember correctly the ending of S2.

Hiding the room behind the wardrobe is a nice old trick. Anna Frank and her family hid half of the house in that way. Yes, and Narnia..

I think Gereon indicated that he recognized Nyssen and disapproved of him. Remember how angrily he hissed at Helga "that is A dot" when he found them in the hotel lobby chatting over a cup of tea.

Kattelbach, Frau Behnke and MaLu are sailing into troubled waters, and Gereon risks a lot as Wendt gets more and more restless and vicious. Lotte promised to help Hans Litten in his office when he stepped into Greta´s case. So probably soon Lotte will join that big mess too.

S3 and S4 are over a year apart as we will be transferred to year 1931. Hopefully some loose threads will be fixed. It´s quite curious to see how scriptwriters are going to use the storyline of Kutscher´s books as the TV show deviates from books more and more. 

Random Babylon Berlin Season 3 Thoughts

*SPOILERS GALORE*

You have been warned…

(Also it gets really random)

Half the time I had no idea what was going on in the moment, but like, in a good way.

There were so many loose threads at the end, they should have filmed season 4 back to back. Like, what is up with the new trio infernale, Kattelbach, Elisabeth Behnke and Marie-Luise Seeghers? The hell, what is up with Dr. Schmid/Anno? Does anybody in the police department still care that the Armenian/Edgar and Walter Weintraub murdered the murderer of the actresses? And what happended to Svetlana Sorokina and Kardakov, who were MIA in this season?

Alfred Nyssen is younger than Gräf

Apparently there is only one therapist in all of 1929 Berlin and he also does occult practices as a side hustle

Helga has a type: brown-haired morally grey guys with mental health issues (who also have the same therapist who might or might not be her long lost husband)

Böhm: “that’s why there shouldn’t be women in the homicide department, they only cause dRaMa”

Böhm three weeks later: *running rampant at the stock market and holding the brokers hostage*

I am now a shipper on deck for Elisabeth Behnke and Kattelbach, their conversations about settling down and proper housekeeping were very nice

Helga cares surprisingly little about where her son is

Your secret meetings won’t stay secret for long if you always use the same department store entrance as a meeting spot, Frau Behnke

However, she’s still better at sleuthing than Richard Pechtmann/the artist formerly known as Fritz aka one of Benda’s murderers

Hiding the room behind the wardrobe was a very clever trick I think

Elisabeth Behnke is still complaining that Kattelbach doesn’t air out his room

I love how detailed the visual storytelling is and that they still have the same extras like (Reinstecke) Fuchs and Doris the other typist

Now that Sabin Tambrea made an appearance I’m counting on it that Sonja Gerhard joins the cast next season. These two are in everything.

I love how Gereon acts like he doesn’t know Alfred Nyssen when he was arrested very publicy in the case Gereon was working on two seasons (and in-universe about 4 on months) ago

Only about 4 months have passed since season 2 and the characters don’t act like it. They have like two murderous police officers who kill their co-workers in the span of 4 fucking months. And nobody is thinking about poor Jänicke anymore…

That’s one of the things I found a bit lacking in this season: while the minor call backs were really good, the big plot points were kindo swept under the rug like the Sorokina/Kardakov cliffhanger, the Anno reveal, the Wolter/Jänicke situation. I mean, I understand that Gereon is a bit preoccupied but still…

I found myself asking how many of the things happening were real. Just look at the last sequence with Alfred and Helga in the movie costumes… And does Gereon actually go down to the sewers to visit Dr. Schmid/Anno? And is he Anno or not?

I found the Edgar/Walter Weintraub crime plot to be a bit weak tbh, Edgar was so powerfull and schemy in the earlier seasons but here he was just meh

Charlotte’s side-storyline also wasn’t the most interesting for me this season, I don’t know why but I just couldn’t get interested.

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Inspector Gereon Rath is a complicated protagonist and a typical flawed hero. The viewers are charmed by his charisma and stoicism, even though most of the time Gereon is trying to get through the heavy fog of his professional and personal life like a blind kitten.

Let´s try to figure out - is he a good cop? 

Right in S1 E1 Gereon was disarmed by a detainee (very unprofessional) and could not prevent him from committing a suicide. 

Later in S1 Gereon killed a person under the influence of drugs (gangster who was known as the Priest or St Josef), tried to cover up traces and replaced the bullet which was a key piece of evidence with another one. + He and Bruno destroyed films that showed sexual perversions done by some high-rank politicians and Gereon’s father.

Generally his deductive skills usually don’t help much, and he seems to lack a gut instinct to detect the criminals. In S3 Gereon is even more off track than before. He was absent when Tilly Brooks was murdered and couldn’t prevent Felix Krempin from being shot in his car on the way to the Burg. Ok, in the situation with dancer Vera Lohmann he had a bad luck, but well, failed again. If anything ever can go wrong, it will go wrong in his case.

Should we mention his perjury concerning the events of May, 1? He believed he was protecting the police force, but doing so he betrayed the whole legal system and undermined the ideas of democracy.

Gereon doesn’t have great physical strength and is often attacked and beaten. He can´t shoot that well (for ex. in the episodes with crazy Ullrich) and he is not a team player (sharing investigations with Böhm did not work).

Gereon is a typical representative of his epoch. Despite “good” intentions and glimpses of progressive thinking, the society and Gereon himself are rolling towards the abyss. We know history, we know the future will get even more horrible that the present, and we feel for him and other characters of Babylon Berlin in advance.

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In S1-2 of Babylon Berlin we meet Toni Ritter, Lotte´s little sister (actress Irene Böhm). She is probably 11-12 years old. The girl is smart for the age and has a bubbly personality. Lotte and Toni resemble each other and have a nice emotional bond. Lotte is trying to take care of Toni and wants her to study at school instead of doing poorly paid random work. Toni is worried about Lotte being away at night and probably has an idea of Lotte´s night shifts. Other members of the Ritter family are too concerned about their own issues and they pay little attention to Toni, or even worse want to exploit her (Erich). In S2 Toni becomes an orphan as her mum dies.

In S3 we meet Toni who has quickly grown into a teenager. She lives with Lotte, goes to school and from time to time has lunches in Aschinger. Her life seems more stable and secure. However, Toni is not a happy girl, she feels lonely and neglected as Lotte is often missing their lunch appointments and comes home late. After school Toni has a lot of spare time but she can´t go home till evening (as they used the apartment taking turns with a guy from the bar who slept there at day). Toni finds a bad company, a questionable assignment and eventually gets molested by some elderly pervert. Lotte is trying to discipline Toni and prevent her from getting into bigger troubles. Toni wants to be independent and is annoyed at Lotte scolding her while generally neglecting her. Toni is also upset because she found out that she and Lotte have different fathers. By the end of S3 Toni decides to leave Lotte and join the group of homeless kids. Lotte is totally devastated as she truly cares about Toni, and once again her efforts to be good to her family member are not appreciated.

In S4 we might find out what happens to Toni. Probably she will be engaged in some illegal activity (for ex. street gang) and at some point face the police and Lotte.

Lotte is struggling with Toni, and Gereon has his adventurous nephew Moritz who is also getting into troubles joining Hitlerjugend. Both Gereon and Lotte are so busy with work and personal issues that they don’t pay enough attention to the rebellious teenagers, and that will surely have some bad consequences in the future.

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Last episodes of S2 are so far the most dramatic in the series. It took lots of time and effort for Gereon to save Lotte from the drowned car and revive her. And though these scenes are super emotional and even painful to watch, they are incredibly beautifully shot and there is some interesting symbolism enclosed.

The crucial moment is when Lotte gave up letting water to her lungs. Probably she lost her hope for being saved by that point, or maybe she was already weak from oxygen deficiency and afraid of dying all alone. So she decided to die holding Gereon´s hand and having him by her side. Quite selfish but we can´t blame her in the given circumstances.

After that it is shown how Gereon swims to the surface and screams with pain and horror. Then we see two swans flying up together and also screaming. It´s a beautiful allegory since swans symbolize loyalty and choose a partner for life. If one swan dies, the other remains lonely.

Another interesting phenomenon pointed out by Lotte when she got back to life after drowning is the moon and the sun together at the sky. The sun gives its light to the moon and the moon receives and reflects the sun’s light. It is traditionally believed that the sun is the symbol of masculinity and the moon is the symbol of femininity. As a desperate GerLotte shipper I want to believe that it means that Gereon and Lotte are meant to be together.

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For obvious reasons Helga Rath née Schwartzbach is quite an unpopular character of BB. She is a part of Gereon’s trauma and an obstacle between him and Lotte. In the hotel registration book Helga wrote she was born 23.7.1901 which makes her 28 years old. She got married young as by the end of WWI (1918) she was already having her son Moritz. We don´t know for sure why she preferred Anno to Gereon (in Gereon’s dream she said she fell in love with Anno) but we can speculate she chose the more promising of the two brothers. Anno was older, probably could provide for her better and had leadership qualities according to old Rath. Delivering her speech for Nyssens’ foundation Helga looked pretty sincere crying over her missing husband. Or was she feeling sorry for herself?

Helga got a conservative upbringing, she wants to be a housewife, to have a cosy home and fancy clothes. She is quite a down-to-earth and unsophisticated lady (her awful checked hat says it all). She has a practical touch to life! As soon as Anno is pronounced dead she comes to Berlin to get settled with Gereon (her plan B) and in S2 succeded in it, but in S3 something went wrong. Dr Schmidt did good job to brainwash Gereon, and Gereon became cold and indifferent to her.

I actually feel for Helga as she found out about her pregnancy after moving to Nyssen’s hotel which made the whole situation fishy. When she came to see Gereon in hospital in S3E8 to tell him the baby news, she found Lotte next to him. Gereon was clinging to Lotte’s arm and she was sitting on the edge of his bed, and not in the chair for visitors. Helga noticed that the girl is younger than she, good-looking and apparently very confused to see her. 2+2=4! What is worse Gereon noticed Helga right away but didn’t immediately release Lotte´s arm and just stared at her without saying hello. Poor Helga couldn´t introduce herself to Lotte. She couldn’t call herself Gereon´s wife and she didn’t want to say she was his sister-in-law. Her only weapon was a hostile glance.

After Lotte left Gereon scolded Helga about staying in the posh hotel paid by an unknown man and questioned his paternity (he wasn’t happy to hear the baby news at all). It´s understandable that after such a reaction Helga went for abortion as having a child outside of a wedlock would be a disaster in her case. Another misfortune for Helga was that Lotte accidentally bumped into her as she was going through the abortion. Now Lotte has another ace up her sleeve (remember it was Lotte who revealed to Gereon the hotel where Helga was hiding in S3E5) because Helga lied about having a miscarriage.

Alfred Nyssen appeared in Helga´s life just in time (an amazing coincidence, right?) They make a perfect couple as both are tired of loneliness and disappointing relationships. I wonder what Dr Schmidt will say about their union as he is also Nyssen’s therapist. Or was it Dr Schmidt’s plan to get them together? Well, it depends if he really is Anno (I’m still not 100% sure yet) or is he just cheating Gereon to manipulate him and exclude human relationships and passions from his life in order to turn him into a human android or Mensch-Maschine .

In S4 it would be interesting to see how Helga and Nyssen are doing together (was Helga well accepted by nasty old Mrs Nyssen? is she enjoying being super rich all of a sudden? is she a meek hausfrau or a wild party animal?) And how will she participate in Moritz’s life taking into consideration he stayed with Gereon? So more Helga, please! (but no overdose of Helga, please:)

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I guess this is when Gereon realizes what Lotte´s life really is. And the truth hits him like a ton of bricks. Since they met Lotte was making an impression of smart, courageous, strong and independent woman. They never discussed personal problems (he didn´t even know her mum just died!). And Gereon was so occupied with his own mental issues, work, Helga and stuff that he was blind to obvious signs of Lotte´s every day struggling (for ex. she ate his leftovers in Aschinger and one morning was deadly tired sleeping in the office and then almost fainting in the café.. oh, come on, she had tights instead of a scarf!). Visiting the brothel opened Gereon´s eyes. He didn´t feel disgust, only huge sadness because of what Lotte went through.

“Wann war sie das letzte Mal im Dienst?”