Great episode - my only quibble is that none of last week's mess was directly addressed. How did General Edel deal with the death of his right hand and all the murky circumstances of Alex's return home? What about the suspicious Freisinger?

There's still hope the show won't go there. However the fatherly theme was looming heavily over this episode. Martin trying to figure out what becoming a father means, his conversations with Annett, Schweppenstette and Ingrid. General Jackson was also invoking his kids whilst trying to argue with Alex. And then…

Well, that's quite an impressive mess they've left at the bordello. Martin better come up with a really good story how he and Kramer knew where to go looking for Alex. General Edel seems to have gotten suspicious of his aide de camp even before he saw him snogging his daughter.

Except that it wasn't Jackal but one of his henchmen who may or many not have also been in the East's pocket.

Hey, I've watched several seasons of Supernatural - I know that space and time folds in the US when you drive a black Impala!

And somewhere between the lines it was clear that family members of people high up in the party echelon will magically find themselves on top of the waiting lists for those medicines/procedures.

It has a better reputation outside Germany than back at home. I'm currently wearing the Nouveau Cologne which has not much to do with the original but is great during the summer heat.
This show does love its perfumes that's the second time perfume plays a part - first time was the bottle of Chanel No 5 (?) Leonore…

4711 to be precise - and it got another product placement earlier in the episode when Martin catches the train. There's a huge advert in the train station.

Tischbier hasn't killed Linda - at least not directly. Daun is 60 km from Bonn as the crow flies, even German cars can't cover that distance in the couple of minutes it took from Martin freaking out on the phone to catching up with Linda in the woods. Tischbier can't teleport nor does he have any other supernatural…

It's easy to miss - I had to rewatch several times because I could not believe the show would pull such a big handwaving-moment on us.
Martin comes back to the empty hotel room, realizes Linda is gone, runs outside to a phoneboot to call Tobias.
After the call he runs to the train station, from an overpass he sees…

I'm still trying to figure out the existential meaning of that line. I think Sir Julian wanted Lady Mary to have a fleeting moment of Mrs Dalloway.

Well - that's certainly a possibility. Thanks for mentioning it since that ring business had been bugging me more than it should have.

Yes, the message was clear and the drama was not about what were his orders but which option he was going to chose. And the surprise was that Martin tried to find a third solution for the problem (by claiming to be BND) and almost managed to pull it off. Although to be fair - sooner or later that ruse would have blown…

Gosh, there was a lot of fourth wall crumbling in this clip. Doesn't look as if Moffat/Gatiss are willing to cut back on the fanservice. But this made me strangely yearn for a spin-off where Mrs Hudson is solving cases.

The fencing guy in the last episode was also a POC.

That was intense - and unlike the reviewer I had no problems with the shouting match between Edel sen. and Edel jun. I've seen similar arguments played out. That Tobias continued his seduction of Alex was not a big surprise and I have no problems with the plot - sexual seduction is an integral part of the spy game.
What…

The Nazi-thing had to come up sooner or later. Alex's generation was/is more or less traumatized by the question 'What was Granddaddy doing during the war?'

Thanks for pointing that out.

Anyone who loves that movie should try to get their hands on Thompson's Screenplay & Diary. I laughed tears and I learned a sh*tload about movie making.
Here's a snippet: “Very nice lady served us drinks in hotel and was followed in by a cat. We all crooned at it. Alan [Rickman] to cat (very low and meaning it): 'Fuck…

Jason Beghe.