It is these surprising twists as well as the obvious conflict in Daniel who has to be convincing as a racist/fascist, that provide the suspense in this episode. Following Daniel/Trevor around as he is worming his way near neo-Nazi bad boy Otto Ganz by way of daughter Lena, is told quickly, deftly, concisely, including little plot surprises here and there: Armando (weird name, btw?), Trevor’s deft handling of guns, and then a massive surprise at the end of the episode where we catch up with Hector. So for a change, the plot of the season is quickly set up: The CIA and the BfV are working together to implicate a neo-Nazi politician in a planned terrorist attack. It is so close to the reality of demagogues and bourgeois fascists currently poisoning the German political scene, I find it difficult not to be affected by it. To be honest, I get goose-pimples watching Natalia Wörner making her speech. BS very cleverly pits the two women against each other – BB rallying her troops for the mission at hand, and Katerina Gerhardt rallying her neo-Nazi sympathisers. We meet her in the station, explaining the next general mission, which is discovering the intents of a pre-eminent right-wing politician who is rumoured to be colluding with neo-Nazi extremists in order to swing the election in her favour. No time for long arrival scenes of the new station chief, BB Yates, either. If I were Otto, I’d lose any will to resist right there and then… Screenshot from BS 2×01 Boom, and Daniel is in the neo-Nazi lair (ok, just a bar) but he gets the ball rolling, pretends to become indebted to his targets in order to be credible as someone who wants to do *them* a favour in return. It may be at the cost of explaining what happened to Daniel (and his cousin and nephew?) since the end of season 1, but as it is, the mystery of the new mission is far more interesting. The new “fake character” is right there from the start, and BS wastes no time with protracted set-ups. The emotional tension between the two of them is still there – now, there is a plot line from season 1 that might be interesting to continue, especially that now dynamics are changed and complicated with Esther at the helm of the German spy operations… Cleverly, the show doesn’t waste much time in explaining how Daniel and Esther get back to work – we are immediately introduced to Daniel’s cover, arms dealer Trevor Price, by way of his explanation to Esther. That adage for me is connected to US-American white supremacists, not with Germany. And Esther is helping him with a way in. Sorry, I am really disturbed by the continuous use of describing the German neo-Nazis as the “alt-right”. He is to infiltrate the German neo-Nazi scene. The ex-casual lovers – Esther now advanced to a higher position in BfV – are working together on a deep-cover mission that Daniel has been sent on. And not only that – he is also back in league (not “bed”! – yet?) with Esther Krug. Now season 2 opens a new chapter, and it starts by reacquainting us with a pre-loved character and the mystery of his new name and look. Sure, season 1 “jumped right in”, too – but with a spoilerish coda. No, not only because the Richard Armitage fangirl is delighted to see her favourite actor in the opening scene, but because we jump right in. BUT – with Richard Armitage back on board and some well-timed trailers that gave us glimpses of characters old and new, I had resolved to be back on board for season 2.Īnd to jump ahead – I actually *am* fully on board, because season 2 pretty much gripped me from the first minute. It didn’t feel balanced in that respect, even though the general themes were interesting even if not necessarily new – the price of being a spy, their (often-cited by the actors) moral compass, the battle against IS, the in-house competition between men and women, and the cat-and-mouse game between competing secret services. – The show did not fully convince me when watching it the first time around – I was disappointed by the lack of depth to some characters (especially Daniel Miller) and felt somewhat frustrated by the way the show prioritised some plot lines (and characters) over others. But Berlin Station is in disarray, not least because station chief Steven Frost has been sacked over losing an agent, the latter a fact that has deeply affected Valerie Edwards. Luckily, he survives, as we see in the very last scene. After uncovering the secret of the Berlin Station mole and the rather fishy involvement of the German secret service in the goings-on, Daniel Miller ultimately lets the culprit – colleague and friend Hector de Jean – go, yet suffers gunshot injuries in the final show down of the series. We left the show not with cliffhangers, but not exactly with tied-up character arcs, either.
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