Gereon faces a stand-off for train carriage TY 23-05. Greatly outnumbered, he, Henning and Czerwinski use their wits to fight their foes. The truth behind the Sorokins' gold is revealed. Svetlana is tracked down. Dr. Schmidt forces a truth to be seen.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Chemistry: Phosgene is not flammable.
- Bridal Carry: After having revived Charlotte, Gereon carries her in his arms back towards the city.
- Call-Back: When Gereon and Charlotte visit Sorokina's apartment together, Gereon runs his fingers across the dusty foyer table as Charlotte did before.
- CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Gereon is able to free Charlotte's arm with a metal bar. He then carries her to the surface and manages to revive her using CPR. Despite the fact that Charlotte has been underwater for a number of minutes and inhaled water, she survives with no lasting ill-effects. That said, she coughs out a large amount of water.
- Disney Death: Charlotte miraculously comes back from what looked like a certain death by drowning.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When Gereon and Charlotte look at the painting and all the clues come together for them to realize that the train car must be of pure gold.
- False Flag Operation: The communists are blamed for Benda's assassination.
- Foreshadowing: In a rage, the Soviet ambassador flings one of the fake gold bars at the train car, leaving a streak of gold across its face.
- Gambit Pile Up: Three factions compete for the gold on the train. Bruno and the Black Reichswehr, the Armenian and his goons and Gereon with his two comrades.
- Hair-Trigger Explosive: The content of the tanker wagon. A spark from Bruno's cigarette hits the leak created by Gereon's misfire and the wagon explodes.
- Hollywood Silencer: While Bruno inspects the gold bars, outside the train, Beck and the Black Reichswehr troops are slaughtered by silenced gunshots.
- Kiss of Life: The mouth-to-mouth respiration from Gereon to Charlotte.
- Military Salute: Bruno does a sarcastic salute to Gereon after he detached the front car from the rest of the train.
- Mindlink Mates: When a flock of birds make Gereon lose his balance and slip under the train car, both Charlotte and Helga seem to take notice of the event. Charlotte does an Eye Open in her hospital bed whispering "Gereon" while Helga wakes up screaming in her bed.
- MockGuffin: The gold bars turn out to be gilded coal.
- Montage Out: In Paris, a nightclub MC presents the latest attraction – the "Contesse en Noir", aka the Countess Sorokina. Kardakov turns up in the audience. Gereon placates himself with drugs. The Jaenickes congratulate Charlotte on her latest position. Greta is bullied by a woman in jail but is completely unresponsive, catatonic. Helga goes out, having dinner with Alfred Nyssen. Charlotte is at the Moka Efti, dancing as if relinquishing control of her body to a demon.
- Not Quite Dead: Bruno takes a shot to his chest and falls off the train top where we see him lying motionless. Minutes later he is back up and hijacking the locomotive.
- Charlotte, also, turns out to have not died, after inhaling gallons of water in the previous episode.
- Oh, Crap!: When Bruno sees the ignited flame next to him right before the explosion of the tanker wagon.
- Once More, with Clarity: During Gereon's session with Dr. Schmidt, we finally see what he actually did in the battlefield: he ran away and left Anno behind.
- One Bullet Left: Subverted. On the train top, while Bruno is getting away with the front car, Gereon finds he has one bullet left. He aims at Bruno for a final shot but then he notices the leak in the vessel next to Bruno and lowers his gun to watch the Hair-Trigger Explosive take over his job.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: When Wendt visits his new office, previously Benda's, he orders the maid to have it fumigated.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Bruno derides Gereon as lacking moral character, calling him an unprincipled, mindless follower of orders.
- "You're no hero. You're a traitor. No values. No morals. No guts."
- The Reveal:
- The Sorokins never hid their gold as bars within a train car, the train car itself was made of solid gold.
- Dr. Schmidt is Gereon's brother Arno, returned from the dead.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: This is revealed to be Gereon's reaction to seeing his brother in peril on the battlefield.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: As Bruno delivers his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Gereon, the latter, quite appropriately, retorts by blowing one of Bruno's earlobes off with a grazing shot.
- State Sec: Wendt receives and congratulates Gereon for his achievements. He expresses concern about the political opinions of Gereon's police colleagues, and offers him the position of heading this unofficial "Political Department".
- Stuff Blowing Up: A wagon explodes in spectacular fashion at the end of the Traintop Battle.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Neither Gereon nor Bruno have been fatally wounded after their Traintop Battle despite the number of shots they fired at each other. Fictional action scenes often greatly exaggerate the accuracy of handguns — shooting at a moving target with a pistol while yourself running on top of a moving train will score a hit only by blind luck.
- Train Escape: In order to shake Gereon, Bruno disconnects the front of the train from the rest of it. His victory doesn't last long though.
- Train Job: Gereon hijacks the train en route while Bruno, Beck, and a detachment of the Black Reichswehr intercept the train at marker 127 to seize the gold.
- Traintop Battle: Gereon has a gun shootout with Bruno, on top of a moving freight train.
- Unreliable Narrator: Gereon is brought to yet another session with Dr. Schmidt. Here it's revealed that Gereon never bravely rescued his brother from the no-man's-land – he broke down and fled.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Gereon's untold plan to have his comrades fake a poison gas leak worked out flawlessly.
- Vigilante Execution: As Gereon walks home from the headquarters, he is cornered in an alley by a truckload of communists, led by Dr Voelcker. They intend to execute him for "perjury and crimes against the people" – his false testimony regarding the May Day massacres. The Armenian comes to Gereon's rescue.
- Villainous Rescue: The Armenian interrupts the Vigilante Execution of Gereon and bundles him into the car.
