Babylon Berlin 1.01

Episode 1

May 29, 1929

The episode opens with a doctor using hypnosis to get Rath, a police inspector from Cologne, to remember something. 

Rath travels to Berlin and works with Bruno Wolter, of the Berlin Police Department, to track down something or someone. They break up a pornography studio. Krajewski, one of the men in the studio, runs. They catch up to him. He almost kills Rath. Wolter recognizes him. He's a former cop.

The two policemen let Krajewski go but they bring in König, the director of the film. Wolter interrogates him while Rath is busy with other things. Wolter wants to know how König knows Rath but König doesn't have anything to say.

Krajewski later goes to see the doctor who used hypnosis on Rath at the beginning of the episode.

A train on its way from the Soviet Union to Berlin is stopped before it reaches the German border. An extra car is added to the train. The engineers are killed and replaced. It almost gets stopped at the German border but a gray haired general shows up and signs off on the orders to let it cross into Germany.

Lotte gets a job helping out in the homicide office of the Berlin Police Department. The homicide department has her sort and organize pictures of murder victims. She bumps into Inspector Rath when she is leaving fur the night.

Rath goes back to the hotel where he is staying. He wants to extend his stay, but the manager says his room is already booked. Rath goes to pub for a drink.

The episode ends with a group of commuinsts, in Berlin, celebrating the news that the train has crossed into Germany.

Thoughts

I get the impression that everything after the opening scene takes place before that moment.

The communists are followers of Trotsky, if I understood correctly. Trotsky was exiled from the Soviet Union in Feb 1929.

Liv Lisa Fries plays the part of Lotte. This is the second thing I have seen her in. She was also in the first season of Counterpart.

It seems like Rath has a secret. I think that König has something on him. He probably caught the policeman on film doing something that could be damaging to his personal and/or professional life. 

I think that it is likely that when Rath and Lotte crossed paths something got mixed up. One ended up with pictures belonging to the other.

I like what I see so far but I am not completely won over. One downside is that the subtitles go by a little too quickly sometimes for me to read them. I had to pause the show and jump back 10 or more seconds on several occasions so that I could read what I just missed. I'm in for at least one more episode and possibly more than that. The first season is just 8 episodes.