East Berlin, 1988
A man is brought into a police station. He is accused of murdering Helga Albracht, his girlfriend. The man denies that he did it and says that the police have misidentified him. They think he is Yuri Gurka, a 20-year-old immigrant from Ukraine. He tells them that his name is Jakob Ungerleider and he is clearly older than 20. His wife is named Helga but her last name is not Albracht, and the police met her when he was arrested.
Minnesota, 2010
Ray Stussy, a parole officer, who is dating Nikki Swango, one of his parolees, tries to get money from his brother. He wants to buy Nikki a ring. Nikki is probably 20 years younger than Ray. He's hoping to get a valuable stamp, back from Emmit, his brother. It was bequeathed to Ray by their father but Ray traded it to Emmit, who is now the successful owner of a business that bears the family's name. Emmit has no interest in returning the stamp to Ray.
Ray talks Maurice, another of his other parolees, into stealing the stamp for him. Maurice failed a drug test. Ray uses that as leverage to get Maurice to do his dirty work for him. Maurice loses the address which he had written down on a slip of paper. It goes flying out the window while he is driving down the road. He looks for it but can't find it. He tries to follow though.
Emmit borrowed money from the mob, through a Mr. Ermantraut for his business. He wants to pay it back now. The mob sends Mr. Varga to talk to them. Varga explains that it wasn't a loan. It was an investment. The million dollars is theirs to keep but the mob wants to launder money through Stussy. Emmit doesn't seem to have much of a choice in the matter.
Maurice remembers part of the address but he remember it wrong and winds up at the home of Ennis Stussy. Maurice kills Ennis finds what he thinks are the stamps and leaves. Gloria Burgle, Ennis' step-daughter is a sheriff. She and Nathan, her son, were visiting earlier that night. They return because Nathan forgot the gift that his grandfather made for him. Maurice is already gone. Gloria sticks around to work the case but calls Nathan's father, her former husband, to come and pick him up.
Ray and Nikki take part in an out-of-state bridge tournament. Nikki was not supposed to leave Minnesota. They win third place and come home with money. Maurice interrupts them at Nikki's place. They were in the bath at the time. Maurice confesses to what he did. He pulls a gun and demands than Ray give him $5,000. Nikki distracts Maurice by stepping out of the tub. Ray tries to get the gun from him but Maurice gets away. Maurice tells Ray he's going to come back and Ray better have his money.
Nikki gets to work immediately. She loosens up the window air conditioning until in the front of her apartment. Ray gives it a good shove and it falls on Maurice, presumably killing him. She calls 911 to report her version of what happened. Ray takes off.
Thoughts
Ray and Emmit Stussy are both played by Ewan McGregor. I didn't notice it even though I thought they both looked familiar as I watched this episode.
I'm not sure how Maurice knew where to find Ray. They were at Nikki's apartment when he caught up to them. Maybe there was a clue dropped and I just didn't pick up on it. Maybe he followed them. Maybe Ray told him where to meet him. Maybe Nikki had some prior relationship with Maurice. I'm not sure.
I had to watch parts of this episode twice. There were things that I missed.
I'm hooked. I thought this was an excellent opening to this season. I enjoyed the first two seasons and based on this episode I have high hopes for this one.
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