As this episode opens a child enters a house in the rundown suburb of Gaarden; inside he finds the body of a man. Borowski and Brandt are soon on the scene where Brandt recognises the local police officer, Thorsten Rausch, as a friend of somebody she once knew. It is quickly learnt that the dead man had convictions for child abuse; something that the locals seemed to know but didn't seem concerned about him even though he regularly invited young boys into his home. Suspicion falls on Timo Scholz, a local boy, who is bullied by other children because they think he had been abused by the dead man; something he staunchly denies. Later Borowski starts to have doubts about Rausch who may have interfered with the crime scene or worse. It won't be an easy case to solve though; nobody locally seems to want to help and even the children are contemptuous of the police.
Given the subject matter of this episode it is of no surprise that it felt somewhat darker than most. The setting has an uncomfortable feel; adults who don't seem to care and menacing children who have no respect for adults, including the police. The cast do a fine job making all these characters believable; Tom Wlaschiha is particularly good as Rausch; a distinctly ambiguous character; he might be a good man bending a few rules to protect the local children or he could have crossed the line and become a vigilante something that doesn't become truly apparent till the end. When the mystery is resolved it does come as a bit of a surprise without seeming too unlikely. Overall another really good episode; it is a pity that it is currently the last episode available here in the UK; hopefully we'll be getting future episodes in due course.
Given the subject matter of this episode it is of no surprise that it felt somewhat darker than most. The setting has an uncomfortable feel; adults who don't seem to care and menacing children who have no respect for adults, including the police. The cast do a fine job making all these characters believable; Tom Wlaschiha is particularly good as Rausch; a distinctly ambiguous character; he might be a good man bending a few rules to protect the local children or he could have crossed the line and become a vigilante something that doesn't become truly apparent till the end. When the mystery is resolved it does come as a bit of a surprise without seeming too unlikely. Overall another really good episode; it is a pity that it is currently the last episode available here in the UK; hopefully we'll be getting future episodes in due course.
