One Last Hit
Episode 6 of We Children From Bahnhof Zoo begins with Axel excelling at work. With a certificate of accomplishment in hand, he leaves work proudly. Only, he’s suddenly grabbed by a group of kids outside who cut his hair and leave him in a mess on the ground. Meanwhile, Babsi tries to leave her house, pushing past her Grandmother on the way. Only, she suddenly collapses, prompting Babsi to douse her in water and try to wake her up. It certainly doesn’t look good. Thankfully this is enough to shock Babsi into staying with her Grandmother. Robert returns home with Lamai, but after showing her around, spies Karin from afar. He bundles Lamai in the closet and locks the door. Karin is distraught and asks for Robert to follow her. When he does, he forgets to unlock the door and leaves her trapped inside. Down by the station, Christiane finds Benno and together with Robert, head back to Karin’s apartment to try and go cold turkey and get over the addiction. After throwing up a few times, the kids lie together and discuss moving to Paris and progressing with their life beyond drugs. This is short-lived though, especially when Benno and Christiana find themselves sweating and vomiting. Karin is forced to endure all of this, lost in her own thoughts as she sits outside their door. As night turns to day, the kids believe they’re completely clean and head off in search of the others. Karin is proud of them both and encourages them to get some air. At the station, they find Axel. He’s a journeyman now, complete with a new haircut. The pair excitedly tell him they’ve decided to go clean. Back at Axel’s apartment they begin clearing away all the drugs. They all make a pact and decide to get clean and live their best lives… after one last shot. Benno and Christiane both succumb to this too, giving in to peer pressure. After dancing all night, the kids wake up to find Axel isn’t breathing. Mouth to mouth doesn’t work either, as the kids are forced to confront their worst nightmare. This drug has killed another of their friends. At the graveyard, Stella shakes uncontrollably, propped up against the wall. After stealing a purse from someone at the station, she’s eventually stopped by a couple of police officers who take her to the station and lock her up. Meanwhile, Babsi buys a balloon and lets it float off, her tribute to Axel’s memory. When she heads home, she finds herself sobbing uncontrollably while holding a needle. Her Grandmother slips into the room, listening in shock as Babsi tells her she doesn’t want to do this anymore but doesn’t know how to stop. Given her Grandmother’s mother and influence, she’s inducted to a rehab center. When Robert returns home, he finds Lamai on the edge of the bed, disappointed by what’s happened. He apologizes to her but it’s clear she’s not happy. Meanwhile, Benno and Christiane continue to score drugs, slipping further down into addiction despite originally getting clean. Unable to see her daughter slip this far anymore, Karin manages to rustle together some money to send Christiane off to Narconon, a rehab center for addicts. Benno however, believes they can go to Paris and kick the addiction together there. Benno and Christiane prepare to head off to Paris. Only, Michi stops Benno while he’s on his way to meet her, covered in blood. He begins shaking, telling him he’s made a big mistake. He took Benno’s job, deciding to whip Max himself. Judging by the blood all over him, it’s clear this has gone horribly wrong. As Benno and Michi drive off together, Christiane is left at the station alone. As chance would have it, she picks up the letter from Axel – the one with invisible ink. As raindrops fall from the ceiling, they unveil the words within. She begins reading them; a final tribute to Axel’s memory.
The Episode Review
And now we start to see the slippery descent into rehab. While there is still a glossy tone a lot of the material being shown here, there’s at least some effort to show the horrors of addiction and what it can lead to. Stella, in particular, is probably the one character here that portrays this harrowing ordeal the best, with a much darker and sinister edge to her storyline now. Of course, given the abuse she’s suffered from it’s hardly surprising to find her ending up like this. By comparison, the rest of the kids are rocked by Axel’s death. This should have been the wake-up call for them all to stop but it seems only Babsi has been shaken (thanks in part to her grandmother too) into submission. With her in rehab and Stella in a police cell, the final two episodes set up a grim couple of chapters to close the story out with. While the early episodes have done a poor job by glamorizing the drug scene, these later episodes have been much, much better at showing the true reality of all this. It’s just a shame that it’s taken a while to reach this point. Still, there’s certainly a promising sign of things to come for the episodes ahead.
