01x09 - Flegeton

[bunniefuu]

None of us thought
we would have to leave Lviv.

ENVIRONS OF WROCŁAW, 1946

They put us onto cars,
and we headed west, to Breslau.

Or rather to Wroclaw.

A city covered in propaganda posters,
the Soviets, People's Poland

and the pervasive repatriation.

Hell, what repatriation?

This is expatriation
from my beloved Lviv,

from the Borderlands,
from my beloved homeland.

Into the unknown.

We shouldn't have left Lviv.

The Polish Lviv doesn't exist anymore.

Department of Public Security,
ID checking.

They are looking for me.
We will meet in Wroclaw.

Through Father Blicharski.

- Don't go, maybe it's not for you.
- I'll see you in a few days.

Don't leave me.

Department of Public Security,
document control.

Where is Edward Popielski?

Where is he?

ERINYES
Goddesses of Vengeance

Chapter 9
Phlegethon

IF THEY DO NOT PAY ME
FIT ATONEMENT FOR THE KINE

I WILL GO DOWN TO HADES
AND SHINE AMONG THE DEAD.

Homer, Odyssey 12, 382-3
(the words of Helios, Sun deity)

Where is Edward Popielski?

Where is he?

Popielski's whereabouts
are unknown to me.

Popielski's whereabouts
are unknown to me.

It is unknown to me.

Popielski's whereabouts
are unknown to me.

Popielski's whereabouts
are unknown to me.

Popielski's whereabouts
are unknown to me.

Get up, wh*res!

Move your asses!

c**ts up, go on!

Listen, you wh*re.

We have already lost patience with you.

You will go to a special room.

This room is dark.

And so low that you will have to sit.

You will be there many days
and many nights.

Completely naked.

Let's go.

Colonel Placyd Brzozowski.

And back there

Miss Jadwiga Molakówna.

Stenographer.

Even in this cesspool
you remained a lady.

This is not for you, Jadzia.

How much sugar?

Two teaspoons.

How about a bunn?

With jam.

No, thank you.

Jadzia, observe the interviewee
and learn fortitude.

Our pigs eat better than this lady.

And she despises it anyway.

The best bunn, from Spychała.

And do you know why
Miss Tchórznicka endures it?

Because she loves the man
we are asking her about.

Because she loves Edward Popielski
more than life

and doesn't want to give him up to us.

And Mr. Edward Popielski,

lieutenant of the Home Army,
alias Cyclops,

is not worth

even a tiny bit of such great love.
He is a knave.

Have you heard of the Banderites?

Fascists who collaborated with Hitler
and their terrible crimes?

- Yes, I have.
- That's it.

A few months ago,
the Banderites attacked in Hrubieszów.

There they fought side by side
with Polish fascists from the WiN.

Their death squad

ex*cuted two Polish soldiers.

One of the attackers was identified

as the pre-w*r
Lviv policeman called "Baldy".

I know nothing about the wartime
experiences of Edward Popielski.

It doesn't matter for him
whom he kills.

According to our intel,

he was an enforcer during the w*r.

He burned Ukrainian villages.

And now, together with Banderites,
he murders Polish patriots.

An APB has been issued for him.
He is a m*rder*r!

Please, tell me.

Where is he hiding?

I don't have the slightest idea about
the whereabouts of Edward--

slightest idea.

I understand you, ma'am.

I understand you
like a woman understands a woman.

Eat something.

Here you are.

Yesterday, in broad daylight,
a tall, bald man

kidnapped the colonel's daughter.

Lusia.

They suspect
it was your cousin's doing.

And I overheard that the colonel
is able to trade you for Lusia.

Please, tell me at least.

Where is he?

I will run this case.

I won't tell you anything.

Our Soviet comrades will not wait
any longer. They want Popielski.

Tear my food out of her.

Go.

I despise the happy residents
of Wroclaw.

Just as one despises vagabonds
making their nests at cemeteries

and pretending that
this is their eternal homeland.

For me the w*r is not over.

I want the blood of the Soviets and
their collaborators torturing Leokadia.

And above all,
I want to return to Lviv.

Look, Józek!

These sons of b*tches
can afford anything.

Where do they get all this money from?

Not from work, damn it.

That boy with baskets,
password: "Oskar Uhlman".

Wroclaw is full of Kliparov drunkers.

And every one of them
would rat on me to the SO

for giving them a hard time
before the w*r.

Oskar Uhlman.

Cheers, Commissioner.

But fate can sometimes
be kind to me, too.

The epilepsy medication
started to work.

I got rid of the dark glasses which
made me recognizable to every Lviv bum.

Thanks.

- Praised be the Lord.
- Now and forever.

God bless.

Cocoa.

Pioneer.

Pioneer. Pioneer for you? Father?

Pioneer.

Pioneer.

Pioneer.

Pioneer.

Pioneer.

No need.

God bless.

On September 23, 6-year-old
Lucyna Brzozowska

was abducted in Szczytnicki Park.

A very high reward awaits
anyone who provides

the distraught father with information
that could help find the girl.

Praised be Jesus Christ.

Now and forever.

Laudetur Iesus Christus.

In saecula saeculorum.

Father Franciszek.

Ladies, it will be ready for Monday.

- Good.
- Goodbye.

In Lviv I would have mocked
your choice of profession

every time I visited this store.

But the w*r took away
my sense of humor.

A Jew running
a devotional articles store is nothing

compared to Commissioner Popielski
in priest's robe.

I don't want you to come here
too often, Commissioner.

I don't want to know where you are,
what you are doing now.

Is there any news from Lodzia?

Brzozowski is not the real name
of the head of the SO.

It is this b*stard, Hanas.

I didn't say anything to him.
I'm scared.

Did you know?

There were rumors that
our gangster king from Lviv

had got himself a big job
with the new government.

But he hardly ever appears in public.

He moves around with bodyguards.
We weren't sure.

What do you know about
the kidnapping of his daughter?

He offered a thousand bucks
for the kidnapper's head.

Undercover agents hang out
in pubs and dens

and tell that the guy
was tall and bald.

They give your description.

Someone is setting you up.

That's why I agreed to help you.

But this is the last time.

Everyone repeats
a strange detail of the kidnapping.

When the bald man
was running with the child,

white flowers were falling out
of his coat pocket.

This river is the river of corpses,
the river of Hades.

Do you still remember the names
of the rivers from the Aeneid?

Our classics middle school.

Reading Virgil.

It was in some other life
that I cannot recall.

But if this city is hell,

then the river that flows here

is the river of fire and smoke,
Phlegethon.

We left behind the Poltva,
our Styx of Lviv.

And we ended up here.

Only infernal rivers, my friend.

The kidnapped Lusia Brzozowska
returned home.

She was found in a ruined factory.

Rumor has it that the child
had been defiled by her kidnapper.

Brzozowski doubled the reward.

Almost one million zlotys
on the black market, get it?

A manhunt is underway in the city
for tall, bald men.

For God's sake,
don't go out without a cassock.

Jasiu.

Before the w*r, I ran a similar case.

It may be the same man, although
the description doesn't match him.

But there is one detail that
made me think of this b*stard.

It may be a trap, but if I catch him,

I will offer the SO a deal,
the b*stard for Lodzia.

I can't do it alone, help me.

We tracked down
the former chief of police in Breslau.

Eberhard Mock survived the w*r?

He is hiding here.

But soon he will have
to make it through to Germany.

He remembers you from a case
you ran together before the w*r.

He will help.

Good you are finally here,

because otherwise I would really
have to hear someone's confession.

What happened to you?

Burning tar paper and hot tiles are not
good compress for the skin.

Since when are you a priest, my friend?

Since I attacked with partisans
the Security Office in Hrubieszów

and freed the political prisoners
tortured there.

And you?
How do you hide from the NKVD?

The w*r is over.

The Austrian feldwebel went to hell.

My scars were never included
as distinctive marks

in the Abwehr files in Wroclaw,
which fell into the hands of the NKVD.

I live discreetly.

The Security Office
is torturing Leokadia.

They want her to turn me in.

Will she tell them anything?

She won't give me up,
and they will t*rture her to death.

My son died just before the w*r.

All I have left is her.

Ebi, I know
how to get her out of there.

You've heard about the kidnapping
of the daughter of the SO chief.

I still have ears in this city--

and eyes.

The description of her r*pist
fits your description, Edward.

Yours as well.

I know.

I know who this b*stard is,

who r*pes girls and scatters flowers.

If you help me get him,
I'll offer a deal to Brzozowski.

Do you believe in deals with the SO?

With this officer, yes.

He changed his identity and made
a deal with the new authorities,

but before the w*r he was
the king of Lviv gangsters.

In 1939, his daughter
was kidnapped and r*ped.

The r*pist's name was Gustaw Lewicki.

Dr. Gustaw Lewicki. A psychiatrist.

Lewicki had an unusual specialty.

He treated Ret*rded
and neurotic children with music.

If he didn't change his profession,

he must work with musicians
to obtain recordings for therapy.

The entire orchestra of the
Wroclaw opera house is German.

I have my contacts there.

It is not easy now for a German
to find a job in Wroclaw.

Is it possible to make a living
by working in the opera?

It's not easy to be the former head of
the German criminal police in Wroclaw.

Do the Polish authorities know
that you are still here?

To the point, Commissioner.

I'm looking for a man
who commissioned short recordings.

Tall, bald. Middle-aged.

He might have said he was a doctor
who treats children with music.

I will pay.

Bald and tall.

No.

But go to Karkonoska Street.

Polish Radio has been
broadcasting from there recently.

Ask about engineer Kukla.

I know he's been inviting musicians
for private recordings.

The radio was taken over
by the new ones from Lviv.

Maybe he did it discreetly

so that no one would know that he
was giving work to the Germans.

Kukla works long hours.

POLISH RADIO
IN WROCŁAW

You will have to wait.

Goodbye.

Good night.

Do you understand German?

A little. Don't hurt me. Please!
I have money.

Doctor. Psychiatrist. Tall. Bald.

His name is Gustaw Lewicki.

Do you provide him with records?

There is someone like that,
but his name is no longer Lewicki.

Speak German to me.

And he is not bald.

His name is Eugeniusz Stabro now.

He lives on Piastowska Street.

Praised be the Lord.

Now and forever.

Father doctor Łysiak
from Father Blicharski, right?

Could you remind me
the purpose of your visit?

I came to pick up the flowers
that the professor

came by at the request
of Father doctor.

Are you the mitered prelate's
representative for library affairs?

That's right.

May I ask why Fr. Dr. Blicharski
asked specifically for stephanotis?

Father would like to have
a rare, exotic flower

that could please the eye
of the alumni in the reading room.

And how big is this reading room?

About the size of professor's office.

You know, this is a dangerous flower.

It can cause severe allergies.

If an allergic person
was in a small room with it,

they could lose their breath and--

Die?

Yes.

Even die.

God bless you, father.

Baldy.

Why the hell do you need this flower?

Is my information insufficient?

I need to be sure that it's Lewicki.

I found a doctor on Piastowska Street.

He treats neurotic children
with music and hypnosis.

Everything checks out.

I need to be sure that Lewicki did it.

I hadn't finished that case
before the w*r.

The testimony incriminating Lewicki
was given under duress.

I was only sure that he wanted
to frame me, not that he was guilty.

I have to finish the experiment.

Will the fact that Lewicki
is allergic to this flower

be conclusive evidence?

Dixisti.

It is here.

No. 25 Piastowska Street, apartment 5.

He lives here with his wife.

Just the two of them.

Edi?

Are you all right?

I've seen this place before.

A long time ago in Lviv.

In my dream.

Come on. Let's go.

Who is there?

A patient to see the doctor.

You will get the money.

Should I be a good girl?

When a patient comes,
you will get rid of them.

Nod that you understand.

How will you do it?

- I'll say the doctor sick.
- Repeat.

The doctor is sick.

Will you remember that, Ebi?

Do you think every person
who doesn't speak Polish is an idiot?

He did all this and crafted it
so that it's on me.

Me?

I r*ped her?

Hanas, she doesn't want
to listen to him.

One more minute.

You will tell something to your master.

Repeat.

It's about your daughter
Lucyna Brzozowska.

I have the kidnapper
and r*pist of your daughter.

Where and when?

Under no circumstances.

You'll go straight into the hands
of the Security Office.

And what if Brzozowski doesn't agree to
release Leokadia and catches you too?

- I'm going with you.
- No, Ebi.

I know Brzozowski.

When it was about his daughter,
he was like an overcooked egg.

I will not expose you.
It's settled and final.

You don't need to clean yourself.
You're not going on a date, Edi.

You need to greet death with dignity.

What do you want, Baldy?

I know nothing about any kidnapping
of Brzozowski's daughter.

Shut up, you scumbag!

Wait here, and we will bring
the executioner.

Did you understand?

Did you understand!?

Yes.

No. 22 Pszczyńska Street, basement.

There will be vodka
and cold pork waiting for you.

- We will drink to--
- To what?

To Leokadia's health.

Hanas.

Cuff him.

In a minute I want to know
which way he got in here.

Yes, sir.

Hold the men back, Hanas.

The entrance to the nether region
is in the sacristy.

I have Lewicki.

It was a bait, Baldy.

My man, similar to you.

He pretended to kidnap Lusia.
And left flower petals.

I knew that an old unsolved case
would lure you out of the den.

Edward Popielski.

And Lusia was safe at home
all the time.

I am only interested in you.

HA lieutenant. Cyclopes.

For whom the NKVD
offer such a beautiful reward.

I've been looking for you for so long.

Comrade Colonel, there's an entrance
in the sacristy.

Go in.

Wait, Hanas.

I really found Lewicki.

I looked for a long time,
but I found him.

I found the man who hurt
your daughter Elżunia

in Lviv before the w*r.

And then we lost him.

I'll hand him over to you.

You will be able to do
whatever you want with him.

But first you have to release my cousin

and promise we'll be safe in this town.

And then

you can tear apart the monster
that hurt your daughter.

You will be safe.

Tomorrow I will make an announcement
that my Lusia is safe.

And unharmed.

You will be safe in this city
as long as I am in it.

And I will gouge
the b*stard's eyes out with a spoon.

Slowly, longly and careful.

But first I will show him Lusia.

I'll let him look at his daughter.

Lusia…

is his child.

He got Elżunia pregnant.

I don't want to criticize you, man,

but the colors of your tie
don't harmonize well

with your shirt and jacket.

Your tie doesn't go
with the outfit either.

I have a gift for you.

I bought it at Shaberplatz
a few days ago.

Do you remember this Greek myth?

The myth of the river of forgetfulness?

What's this, Ebi?

First you give me a tie,
and now you're testing me on mythology.

People drank water from the Lete.

One of the rivers of Hades.

They then forgot their past lives.

In order to reincarnate in new bodies.

My past life…

was the two colors I have on my tie.

Yellow and red.

The colors of Wroclaw.

And these are the colors of Lviv.

Blue and red.

We leave our cities, Edi.

Forever.

We will never return there.

You have already left forever.

And I won't be able to hide anymore.

I'm leaving tomorrow.

I bought it after our Minotaur case.

In Lviv.

Ten years ago.

I waited for you to open it.

It's our goodbye.

This is our water from Lete.

Goodbye.

for Gosia

THE SERIES IS AN ADAPTATION
OF MAREK KRAJEWSKI'S BOOKS:

Erinyes, Charon's Numbers, The Rivers
of Hades, In the Depths of Darkness