Deutschland83 “Cold Fire” 

In the series premiere of Deutschland 83, when Kramer instructed Martin to drug, instead of kill, Renate when she overheard something she shouldn’t have, I thought I knew what kind of show this was. With every passing week we’ve seen Martin put himself in more danger, but even with his missteps, he still delivers the intel the brass at the HVA are in need of.

But in “Northern Wedding” things change. Martin gambles and thinks he can turn Linda. That would’ve been my first choice, too, over killing someone. But when his attempt at letting her drown doesn’t go well, he decides to propose instead. The problem? When he comes clean — not with the real story, mind you — Linda is able to deduce the actual truth. And she isn’t having any of it. So, Martin calls Tischbier, who promises to take care of it. And this time, Linda has to die. But she’s not the only one. Instead of giving in to Lenora’s blackmail attempt, Mayer would rather die than compromise his beliefs. So, he kills himself.

Martin is obviously reeling from Linda’s death. Just watching him say goodbye to her in his own way and seeing him have to dig her grave was hard. If it was hard for us to watch, it was even more difficult for Martin to come to terms with. Even though his job has been challenging, he’s been having fun as well. After this incident, I think Martin may truly understand the stakes of what he’s doing.

Who can he turn to in his time of need? Yvonne. He had a connection with her when they first met and he just needs to lose himself. The morning after, she jokes that all her housemates think he’s a spy because of the way he was going on the night before. Martin cops to it, before pretending to truly be a Mossad agent. Yvonne has no reason to suspect him and her fellow communers are all (seemingly) about peace and love not war and hate, so Martin shouldn’t have anything to fear from any of them.

When Tischbier shows up, however, things get physical. I have to admit that I always saw Tischbier as an intellectual, so when he quickly gets the upper hand on Martin, I was surprised. Martin’s so upset with how Tischbier “handled” the Linda situation that he tries to quit. But Tischbier isn’t willing to entertain Martin’s ingratitude. He expects a thank you for cleaning up Martin’s mess, but that’s not the real reason he’s there. Martin’s been recalled to East Berlin so he can donate his kidney to his mother.

On the train Martin runs into Nina, who gives him package to deliver. Martin has no idea what’s inside the decaf coffee cans, until after he hands them over. Mere moments after making the trade, the Maison de France on Ku’damm blows up. Martin chases the man and is forced to make his first kill. It doesn’t seem like things are going Martin’s way, at first. But Martin’s good at improvising, so he’s the one who makes it out of this confrontation alive. After destroying the second detonator, Martin makes it to the border. It looks like they’re going to detain him, which he absolutely doesn’t have time for. But they’ve been expecting him and give him a ride to the hospital. It’s a good thing too, because Ingrid wasn’t going to make it much longer.

Other Developments

On the homefront, Thomas tries to convince Annett that Martin has abandoned her. As far as he knows Martin hasn’t been in contact at all. He tells Annett he loves her and doesn’t care that she’s pregnant with Martin’s child. All he wants is a chance. But all Annett wants is to get a message to Martin, and she’s willing to sell both Thomas and Ingrid out to Schweppenstette in order to do that.

Alex has repeatedly told Tischbier that they can’t affect change from the outside. So when Tischbier suggests that Alex stay in the army and try to make changes from within, Alex doesn’t take it well. He thinks Tischbier is trying to get rid of him. He can’t go home or back to the base because he’s AWOL. And crashing with Yvonne doesn’t help at all. The people at the commune are pacifists; they won’t fight violence with violence, but Alex is spoiling for a fight.  He decides there is something he can do: offer his services to the Diplomatic Mission of the East German Republic.

Deutschland 83 airs Wednesdays at 11/10c on Sundance TV.