Episode 8 marks the end of the first major plotline – the blackmail film.
Greta goes on a romantic outing with Fritz. Gereon and Bruno finally get a lead to the location of the missing film reel but after the truth come the consequences.
Tropes:
- Binge Montage: At the club, Gereon suddenly starts feeling the effects of the drug, and stumbles off, beginning a surreal sequence to demonstrate his disjointed and disoriented memory.
- Compartment Shot: Gereon opening the safe is shown from inside the safe.
- Concealment Equals Cover: During the shootout at the Moka Efti, Gereon tips a table over and hides behind it. The trope gets averted when suddenly bullets pierce through the wood. But Gereon stays unharmed.
- Destroy the Evidence: Bruno and Gereon decide to burn the film stock recovered from The Armenian's safe.
- Et Tu, Brute?: At the club, Bruno reveals that it was Charlotte who brought him a sample of Gereon's medicine. Gereon is shaken by the knowledge that Charlotte betrayed him. Next morning Gereon shrugs off Charlotte's offers of help and furiously shouts at her to get lost.
- Foreshadowing: When Dr. Schmidt treats the wound in the Armenian’s hand, he is grateful that the Armenian restrained himself and did not harm Gereon.
- Guns Akimbo: Gereon fires with two handguns during the Moka Efti shootout.
- Human Shield: Gereon makes his way out of the Moka Efti using The Armenian as his shield.
- Missing Time: After the session with Dr. Schmidt, Gereon ends up stumbling in a construction site and covered in cement. We ominously cut to the next morning, where Charlotte awakens Gereon, who has been passed out on his stoop and doesn't remember what happened the night before.
- Slipping a Mickey: At the club, the bartender flips a sedative into Gereon's drink.
- The Villain Knows Where You Live: The Armenian tells Gereon that there is no escape for him as he knows everything about the detective including his father, sister-in-law and his nephew.
- Villain Respect: At the Moka Efti, the Armenian attempts to grab his gun unsuccessfully, and Gereon shoots him in the hand. The Armenian takes it in begrudging stride.
- Voiceover Letter: The episode ends on a voiceover of a letter written by Gereon to Helga, where he admits that he is unable to return to Cologne, and wants to leave his past behind in favor of a new, more open beginning in Berlin.
- Wham Shot: When Gereon finally retrieves the blackmail films, he and Bruno decide to watch them. It's not Konrad Adenauer, as his father had claimed, in them. It's Gereon's father himself. This is the last straw for Gereon when it comes to his father, and he decides to permanently stay in Berlin.
