Russian Doll (2019) s02e04 Episode Script
Station to Station
1
["Morgen" by Ivo Robić playing.]
[chuckles.]
[water bubbling.]
[knocking on door.]
[grunts.]
[exhales.]
[knocks on door.]
Do you know what time it is? Don't you have thermodynamics? Right.
- Right.
Yes, class.
Yeah.
- Yeah.
Late for class again.
So unlike you.
What's gotten into you, Agnes? I'm a little distracted.
[chuckles.]
I've been distracted too.
I have to get to class, stay on the routine.
- See you tomorrow, yeah? Mm-hmm.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
- [Lenny.]
Yeah? - Yep.
[Lenny.]
Morgen ♪ See you tomorrow.
- I'll be there.
- [Lenny whistling.]
[sighs.]
["Morgen" continues playing.]
[chuckles.]
["Morgen" continues playing.]
[Alan speaks German.]
[whistles.]
Give us a smile! [in English.]
You have a nice day too.
[chuckles.]
[announcer.]
This is the northbound 6 train.
Stand clear of the closing doors.
[PA dings.]
[chuckles.]
[song ends.]
So you're the one who kills baby Hitler.
Impressive.
You know, I never took you for a murderer, Alan.
You give off much more of an accomplice vibe.
Thank you, but, uh, it's a little bit too late for that.
It's 1962 East Germany, so Middle of the Cold War.
That's just classic Hitler.
I mean, sabotage freak.
So, what's your endgame? Where's your long-lost family fortune? Maybe it's not about fixing anything.
You know, like you said, we leveled up.
Maybe we're just supposed to, like, I don't know, you know, enjoy the ride.
What's going on with you? Are you high? No.
There's someone in the past that I I like spending time with.
So, wh what is she? Is she, like, uh, a Marlene Dietrich type, or more of an Angela Merkel? He's Okay, okay, his name is Lenny.
Ah.
So a Florian Schneider.
I don't even know who that is.
Kraftwerk.
RIP.
Okay, we're not fucking.
We're not.
- Well, you're very good at it, Alan.
- Thank you, but - Greatest of my life.
- Focus.
East Germany apparently was a way out, or, uh, an alternative to Western colonialism, or just a place to get educated in the sciences.
My grandmother was a graduate student from Ghana.
I didn't even know any of this.
I mean, I didn't even know her.
Can you imagine what she must've lived through? I mean, she must've felt so alone.
Sounds like she met somebody, right? You gonna make a move here, dude? You're fucking killing me.
I I like spending time there.
It's It's nice not to have to worry what people think when they see me.
Alan, the only reason to go into the past is to change shit, all right? I mean, haven't you ever seen a movie? Yes, Nadia.
And I know that you won't believe me when I say this, but I have seen a movie, and literally every movie about time travel says don't change things.
That's why this is this is so great.
This is Nadia.
Nadia, don't don't mess this up.
Don't worry.
I am done with the '80s.
It turns out it's not all Cabbage Patch Kids and cocaine.
Check it out, motherfucker.
Checkmate.
All right, gotta do some reconnaissance.
Would you like to join? No.
No, no, no, I have plans.
I can't.
I'm meeting with Lenny.
Lenny, you told me, I get it.
I'm happy for you.
- [in Hungarian accent.]
Good day, sir.
- Okay.
[chuckles.]
[upbeat music playing.]
Wait, this is wrong.
Nadia This is a stalemate.
Nad Nadia, you're cheating! [sighs.]
- What is this thing? - [Nadia.]
Ah.
Hard evidence that my grandmother's family was looted by Nazis in 1944.
And people don't talk about this much, but the Nazis were basically broke and drug-addicted speed freaks.
Read an entire book about it.
The entire Third Reich.
I mean, just blitzed out of their mind.
Sweetheart, that's all common knowledge.
So where did you find this? Well, in, uh You know, in Nora's stuff.
Oh.
I wanna go to Budapest.
Find out what really happened with this fucking gold train.
- Yay.
- [chuckles.]
This was a plane, not a Sieg Heil, to be clear.
[Ruth.]
Ah.
[chuckles.]
Well, yeah.
I mean, you are turning 40 in a few days, so I suppose in some way you were going to get interested in your family history.
Now, you see, this is why I love you, Ruthie, okay? - You get it.
Uh - [Ruth chuckles.]
Yeah, I mean, I guess I wanna go, I don't know, celebrate my birth by going back to where all my people died.
Too dark? Ah! I don't make the rules.
That's history.
- [sighs.]
- Let me ask you a question.
Did you, uh, like, stay in touch much with Vera after mom died or what? Your grandmother was a hard person to know, and [chuckles.]
I was not exactly her favorite.
Why? I was an atheist and a heretic, and she thought that I encouraged the wrong sides of your mother.
- Atheist and a heretic.
That's - [Ruth chuckles.]
very hip, Ruthie.
Very hip.
What the fuck is this? What am I looking at? - What are all these? - That is nothing for you to worry about.
- Nothing.
- [Nadia.]
Anything good? No, nothing at all.
[Nadia.]
Looks like candy to me.
You know what? - What? - Take Maxine to Budapest with you.
- Make a girls' trip out of it.
- Okay.
See, when you're poking around in the past, it's helpful to have a second pair of eyes.
Ah, and a third leg.
[chuckles.]
What is this? When did you start smoking menthols? [chuckles.]
It's funny.
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about your mother too.
[Ruth inhales.]
[exhales.]
[upbeat music playing.]
[plane engine roaring.]
I thought you were Russian.
Well, my father's family was Russian, or rather, temporarily tolerated by the Russians.
My mother's family, same deal, but with Hungarians.
Fuck, marry, kill.
Hitler, Dracula, Frankenstein.
Too easy.
Three-way with Gary Oldman and Bela Lugosi, then I marry Boris Karloff and I kill Hitler.
Oh my God, we are total opposites.
- Where's our hotel? I got a call - Like, you wanna fuck Hitler? [yawning.]
What? Yeah.
[moans.]
- Do I wanna fuck Hitler? - Do you? [Maxine.]
I'm too tired for this.
Where's our hotel? I'll call an Uber.
Check it out.
I wanna go visit my grandmother's old place.
It's, uh, Dohány Street.
It is 3:00 a.
m.
in New York, Nemo.
3:00 a.
m.
is always the point in the night where we get sad and try to figure out our families.
Okay, we'll go see your grandma.
You know, my grandmother has also been talking to me a lot lately too.
Oh really? Yeah.
Lucid dreaming.
Right before you go to sleep, you slap a nicotine patch right here.
It's a fantastic voyage.
Oh you're "nuts" nuts.
- Yes.
- [Nadia.]
Look, moving stairs.
[upbeat music playing.]
This will be interesting.
- [Nadia groans.]
- Dead men get all the plaques.
Yeah, I know, right? Like, where are all the memorials for us living women? [woman speaking Hungarian.]
No solicitation! [Nadia in English.]
What the fuck is this? Ah.
Hello.
[in Hungarian.]
Bitch! Also, fuck me! [in English.]
Yeah? Looked up some Hungarian curses.
- Oh, that's handy.
- [Nadia.]
Yeah.
[in Hungarian.]
No loitering! [in English.]
I don't think that was an invitation to goulash.
[yawning.]
I don't like goulash.
I wanna sleep.
With a Hungarian, but first, with myself.
["Wasurenaiwa" by Peggy March playing.]
[speaks German.]
[indistinct chattering.]
[knocking.]
[footsteps approaching.]
[in English.]
Oh, Agnes, great.
They're inside.
[in German.]
It's okay, Bruno.
She made that schematic.
[Bruno.]
So this is Agnes, at last.
[in English.]
Yes.
Her German is only so-so still.
[in German.]
She is black.
[in English.]
Yes.
Agnes, this is Bruno and Lukas.
- Hi, hi.
I'm Agnes.
Yes.
- And the rest of us.
- [Bruno.]
Okay.
- You made a work of art, Agnes.
What did I make? [in German.]
We dig the final five meters tonight, then wait for Agnes' signal to break through the cellar floor.
Here, the bakery at Prinzenstraße 13.
Let's use English for Agnes.
[in English.]
Oh right.
Sorry.
[smacks lips.]
We're right on schedule for tomorrow night.
Lenny and I will do the final inspection, and then the first group of ten goes through just after midnight.
We rendezvous in the lobby of Boyd Hall East, then head down to lab B73 in the basement together.
If anyone asks, we're simply studying for our engineering exams.
Make sure to carry textbooks.
We'll have to leave everything else behind.
I'm sorry.
What are we doing? [chuckles nervously.]
[in German.]
She's joking, right? [in English.]
Agnes and Petra will cross over in the morning through the foreign entry checkpoints and meet my sister and the other couriers on Prinzenstraße.
You have a sister? You know my sister.
Wait, is this Is this a tunnel under the Berlin Wall? - [in German.]
What the fuck? - What's wrong? [in English.]
Agnes, what's going on with you? - [in German.]
What's wrong with this lady? - She's not a real Berliner.
These Socialist Project people are not like us.
We can't trust her.
She may even turn us in.
Don't say that! We can trust her.
We wouldn't be here without her.
[in English.]
Sorry to interrupt, but I don't think the train I take here goes to West Berlin.
[inhales.]
Lenny, this is crazy.
[in German.]
We've been digging your tunnel for six months, and now you think it's crazy? What's the new plan? This? [in English.]
Enough.
The tunnel will work, okay? Do you mind if I eat this? ["Mindkilla" by Gang Gang Dance playing.]
It's okay ♪ To lay your head down sometimes I say ♪ Ah.
Kapitány.
"Marton Halász living descendants.
" Uh Ah.
[indistinct chatter.]
There she is.
Kristóf Halász.
Hey.
Ah.
Yum-yum.
[music abruptly fades.]
[sighs.]
Maxine, look alive.
New deal.
No, I'm not done.
Yeah.
Try these.
[Maxine groans.]
I am not done.
So the Arrow Cross asshole who signed off on robbing my family was the last person on record to see the goods before the trail grows cold.
Only problem is, like most good Nazis, Captain Marton Halász is dead.
Yeah, okay.
Are you sure this couldn't be solved by Lizzy making you a plaque for your grandma's building? - Because Lizzy will make you a plaque.
- No, you're missing it, Maxine.
You see, she doesn't have to make me anything, because Marton made a son, who made a son who lives in Budapest, and is gonna give me all the answers.
I found where he works, where he lives, what he looks like, his two most recent ex-girlfriends Remind me to get off the Internet.
Too late.
Don't worry.
Your nudes are tasteful.
They're not meant to be.
[classical music playing.]
- Can you keep a secret? - I have lots of practice.
[Alan sighs.]
Um I know for a fact that that wall is going to come down.
Don't go.
You'll be reunited with your family if you just wait.
Oh.
Wait? Mm-hmm.
Until when? Uh, until 1989.
[chuckles.]
Fuck.
What game are you playing? Asking me to wait 27 years to see my family? I might as well wait until I'm a pensioner.
Okay, okay.
I I hadn't done the math, and that that is a long time, but it is concrete, risk-free hope for us.
Um [chuckles nervously.]
Isn't it better to just wait until then? Was Bruno right about you? - Did you turn us in? - Of course not.
- [Lenny.]
You sound like an informant.
- What? No.
No, no, no.
Agnes, I understand you're nervous.
I'm nervous, too.
Anyone No, I have information from the future.
[chuckles.]
[Alan.]
Who knows what's gonna happen in that tunnel, right? The tunnel could flood, or the Stasi will find you.
This is just basic risk analysis, right? Even if I do stay, what happens to you? Next year, you get your degree, you return to Ghana.
Maybe then you make it to Moscow, or who knows, even New York.
You've said so yourself.
You'll do anything for a better life.
Well, me too.
The problem is that we have different lives.
Maybe we only intersect here.
Maybe Nadia was right.
Maybe I am supposed to save you.
I don't need saving.
Who's Nadia? - [Alan.]
Whoa! - Come on.
Just leave it.
I can't take it with me anyway.
Leave.
Please.
Sure.
[classical music continues.]
[officer whistles.]
[in German.]
Give us a smile! [in English.]
Have you ever heard of place lag? It's not just time that screws you up when you travel.
We aren't evolutionarily equipped to jump 5000 miles overnight.
Our brains can't keep up.
I love it.
Time zones, what a concept.
- That's him.
- [Maxine.]
Holy Willem Dafoe.
Uh, excuse me, Kristóf Halász, yes? Well, your grandfather knew my grandmother.
Uh, Vera Peschauer.
- American? - [Maxine.]
Yes.
Well, Nadia is half-Hungarian.
She's finding her roots.
[Kristóf.]
I hardly knew my grandfather.
I was never told much about him, but I can guess why you're here.
He was on the wrong side of history, and for that, I'm sorry.
I'm having friends over tonight, so I can't stay.
Apologies.
Hold on, I've got more questions.
Uh, did your grandfather ever mention anything about what actually happened on that gold train? I don't know, did he perhaps keep diaries? Uh, look, do you know anything at all about this? Do you want to come with me? [sighs.]
Case open.
[motorcycle engine revving.]
[dance music playing in the distance.]
Holy shit.
Who the fuck is this guy? I'm Kristóf.
[Nadia.]
All right, looks like that's Kristóf.
- It's Kristóf.
- Yeah.
- [Kristóf.]
Follow me.
- [Maxine.]
Okay, officer.
[dance music playing.]
This is what it means to have friends over in Budapest? This is the party floor, if you like to dance.
Is there dancing on other floors? Uh, different kind of dance.
Of the mind, not the body.
I can take you there if you want.
Just don't lose sight of the silver thread that tethers you to life.
Uh, heady stuff, man.
So listen, uh, some people think that some of these, uh, soldiers secretly looted the train and kept the goods for themselves.
- What? - March 1944, before the Soviets invaded? I thought we were here to talk about Marton.
[Kristóf.]
Marton? This moment, this party is all I have.
See? Your friend understands.
Ah.
Are you a musician? Who, me? No, but I work with sound.
- Oh! - Jesus Christ.
Let me get you some drinks.
Great.
Great.
Fucking waste of time, huh? You think he'd make a good daddy? What? He doesn't have to know.
He's very tall, and he's very far from home.
[Nadia.]
Yeah, he's also a Nazi twice removed.
I mean, this is the fall of man we're talking about.
Yeah, exactly.
He fits right in with everything I'm trying to say.
Oh my God.
You know what? Great.
- Okay, you win.
It's probably fine.
- All right, yeah.
You have my blessing.
I don't need it, but it's good to have.
Like a driver's license or a left hand.
Oh.
Thank you.
Congratulations.
- Go make friends.
- Great job.
[sighs.]
Fucking shit.
All right, big boy time.
[song fades out.]
[Alan.]
Did Grandma ever talk to you about Berlin? Okay, did she ever mention anybody named Lenny? I can't find any trace of him online.
She didn't talk much about that time.
So nothing about anybody that she was seeing at the time, or [chuckles.]
We certainly didn't have that kind of relationship.
And raising a child as a single mother in this country was enough to deal with, as your grandmother often reminded me.
While I have you, Emilia mentioned that it's been three days and you haven't called.
- She thought the date went well.
- I I I'm sorry, Mom? I gotta go.
Maybe this is exactly what could've changed for Grandma.
Even if it isn't, I mean, I [sighs.]
I'm sorry.
Never mind.
[chuckles.]
I'm sorry.
I love you.
[dance music continues playing.]
[Nadia.]
Downstairs.
Huh.
Some type of fuck-pile scenario.
Eh.
This is where to get it.
Fucking weirdo.
Come on, give me something.
Ah.
Some sort of arts and crafts shop.
Great.
Huh.
Knick-knacks.
Well, at least you have good taste in fashion.
Black.
Mother lode.
I fucking knew it.
I fucking knew it.
[sighs.]
Blood is thicker, Halász.
Uh Okay.
[officer whistles.]
[in German.]
Smile! [sighs.]
[in English.]
B73 [exhales.]
Lenny? [door closes.]
[gasps.]
[water dripping.]
[breathing heavily.]
I'm too late.
[dramatic music playing.]
[breathing shakily.]
- [door closes.]
- [breathes nervously.]
[breathing heavily.]
[Nadia.]
Right.
Right, right, right.
This fucking guy.
[Maxine.]
Oh, wait.
- What the fuck? - [Kristóf speaks Hungarian.]
What are you doing? You know what we're doing.
What are you doing? This guy's a fucking Arrow Cross Nazi, all right? He's got a room full of fascist memorabilia.
What did you do to my room? Look, man, you lied to me.
I just met you.
Jesus.
Am I expected to explain such complexities to a stranger? "Nice to meet you.
" "I grew up with a father who hated the foundation of his very existence and was never able to make sense of it.
" "Welcome to my party.
" Uh Uh You said you didn't know anything about your grandfather.
My father dies, I clean out his house, and I find my grandfather's things.
Papers, medals, some clothes.
What am I meant to do? As far as I can tell, he was a deeply boring and awful man.
You guys have nothing in common, okay? You you're not helping, Maxine.
Look through everything.
Uh, I already did, pal.
I'm offering help, whatever you need.
What is that? Perspective.
Huh.
Have you ever wanted to separate from yourself? I'm only human.
To view yourself with objective distance? It's coexistence and lack of existence at once.
Kristóf, you Hungarian god.
[sighs.]
[Kristóf.]
We weren't allowed to study LSD.
Acid was deemed too dangerous for a Communist country.
It was a German chemist who first synthesized it from Ayahuasca back in the '50s.
It was actually a Hungarian chemist who first discovered the hallucinogenic properties of DMT.
[upbeat music playing.]
You're also well-known for the Rubik's Cube.
[music distorts.]
[car horn honks.]
["Personal Jesus (Alex Metric Remix Edit)" by Depeche Mode playing.]
Your own personal Jesus ♪ Someone to hear your prayers Someone who's there ♪ Your own personal Jesus ♪ Someone to hear your prayers Someone who cares ♪ Reach out, touch faith ♪ [bones crack.]
- [music abruptly stops.]
- [both gasp.]
[birds chirping.]
Where are we? [sighs.]
More like "when" are we.
[cell phone rings.]
Hello? - [speaking Hungarian.]
- [Nadia groans.]
Never mind.
[sighs.]
No.
Hmm.
[grunts.]
[sighs.]
[Nadia murmurs.]
Three, two, one.
[grunts.]
[breathes deeply.]
Huh.
- Hmm.
- You know him? Mmm? - Not personally.
- Mmm.
Hmm.
- [Maxine.]
What's with the rocks? - It's a Jewish thing.
Putting rocks on graves.
- Oh.
Mmm.
- Sign of respect.
Yeah.
- You know, like in Schindler's List? - Sure.
But this guy, uh, Kiss László, is a priest.
Weird, even for Spielberg.
- Yeah.
- [grunts softly.]
- [Nadia speaks Hebrew.]
- [Maxine speaks Hebrew.]
[sighs.]
So I'm sorry I blew your shot at having a Hungarian Nazi baby.
Yeah, that was fucked up.
[Nadia sighs.]
It's okay.
I'm sorry you didn't get what you're looking for.
Should we go find Kristóf? Nah, fuck it.
Uh, I mean, that guy doesn't have any more answers for me than I do for him.
[both grunt softly.]
[Nadia sighs.]
Let's go home.
I wanna change everything in my life.
That makes one of us.
I think New York is, uh, east of [Ruth on phone.]
So how'd it go? Was it a successful trip? I don't know, Ruthie.
I mean, uh, satiric answers I get.
Tangible ones, not so much.
Honey, we always think that closure is something we can find out there in the world, as if we can find it in another person, or a confession, or an apology.
See, in the end, nothing can absolve us but ourselves.
See, that's exactly what I'm supposed to say.
[chuckles.]
Lately, oh God, I've just been wishing I could tell your mother I'm sorry.
Ruthie, she needed to go to an institution, yeah.
I mean, she was really fucking sick.
[Ruth.]
Yeah.
I've just never heard you say that before.
What else did you find in your mother's stuff? I don't know, is, uh is grief a hot commodity? Oh God, they hid everything, your mother and grandmother.
[chuckles.]
And so much must have been lost.
[inhales.]
God, you know, under floorboards or buried under trees.
[chuckles.]
Oh God.
Which floorboards? Oh, long gone.
[chuckles.]
[inhales.]
Trauma is a topographical map written on the child, and it takes a lifetime to read.
Darling, come by tomorrow if you're not sick of backgammon and Bogart movies by now.
[inhales.]
With you, Ruthie, never.
Bye-bye.
[inhales.]
Fuck.
What are we missing? What are we missing? - [Oatmeal meows.]
- Huh? [purring.]
God, you're good.
One more trip to '82 won't kill us, Oatmeal.
["99 Luftballons" by Nena playing.]
[song fades out.]
["99 Luftballons" continues playing.]
[train horn blows.]
[train horn blows.]
[announcer in Hungarian.]
Now arriving Budapest, Keleti Station.
[train horn blows.]
["99 Luftballons" continues playing.]
[train brakes screech.]
["99 Luftballons" continues playing.]
[song fades out.]
[chuckles.]
[water bubbling.]
[knocking on door.]
[grunts.]
[exhales.]
[knocks on door.]
Do you know what time it is? Don't you have thermodynamics? Right.
- Right.
Yes, class.
Yeah.
- Yeah.
Late for class again.
So unlike you.
What's gotten into you, Agnes? I'm a little distracted.
[chuckles.]
I've been distracted too.
I have to get to class, stay on the routine.
- See you tomorrow, yeah? Mm-hmm.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
- [Lenny.]
Yeah? - Yep.
[Lenny.]
Morgen ♪ See you tomorrow.
- I'll be there.
- [Lenny whistling.]
[sighs.]
["Morgen" continues playing.]
[chuckles.]
["Morgen" continues playing.]
[Alan speaks German.]
[whistles.]
Give us a smile! [in English.]
You have a nice day too.
[chuckles.]
[announcer.]
This is the northbound 6 train.
Stand clear of the closing doors.
[PA dings.]
[chuckles.]
[song ends.]
So you're the one who kills baby Hitler.
Impressive.
You know, I never took you for a murderer, Alan.
You give off much more of an accomplice vibe.
Thank you, but, uh, it's a little bit too late for that.
It's 1962 East Germany, so Middle of the Cold War.
That's just classic Hitler.
I mean, sabotage freak.
So, what's your endgame? Where's your long-lost family fortune? Maybe it's not about fixing anything.
You know, like you said, we leveled up.
Maybe we're just supposed to, like, I don't know, you know, enjoy the ride.
What's going on with you? Are you high? No.
There's someone in the past that I I like spending time with.
So, wh what is she? Is she, like, uh, a Marlene Dietrich type, or more of an Angela Merkel? He's Okay, okay, his name is Lenny.
Ah.
So a Florian Schneider.
I don't even know who that is.
Kraftwerk.
RIP.
Okay, we're not fucking.
We're not.
- Well, you're very good at it, Alan.
- Thank you, but - Greatest of my life.
- Focus.
East Germany apparently was a way out, or, uh, an alternative to Western colonialism, or just a place to get educated in the sciences.
My grandmother was a graduate student from Ghana.
I didn't even know any of this.
I mean, I didn't even know her.
Can you imagine what she must've lived through? I mean, she must've felt so alone.
Sounds like she met somebody, right? You gonna make a move here, dude? You're fucking killing me.
I I like spending time there.
It's It's nice not to have to worry what people think when they see me.
Alan, the only reason to go into the past is to change shit, all right? I mean, haven't you ever seen a movie? Yes, Nadia.
And I know that you won't believe me when I say this, but I have seen a movie, and literally every movie about time travel says don't change things.
That's why this is this is so great.
This is Nadia.
Nadia, don't don't mess this up.
Don't worry.
I am done with the '80s.
It turns out it's not all Cabbage Patch Kids and cocaine.
Check it out, motherfucker.
Checkmate.
All right, gotta do some reconnaissance.
Would you like to join? No.
No, no, no, I have plans.
I can't.
I'm meeting with Lenny.
Lenny, you told me, I get it.
I'm happy for you.
- [in Hungarian accent.]
Good day, sir.
- Okay.
[chuckles.]
[upbeat music playing.]
Wait, this is wrong.
Nadia This is a stalemate.
Nad Nadia, you're cheating! [sighs.]
- What is this thing? - [Nadia.]
Ah.
Hard evidence that my grandmother's family was looted by Nazis in 1944.
And people don't talk about this much, but the Nazis were basically broke and drug-addicted speed freaks.
Read an entire book about it.
The entire Third Reich.
I mean, just blitzed out of their mind.
Sweetheart, that's all common knowledge.
So where did you find this? Well, in, uh You know, in Nora's stuff.
Oh.
I wanna go to Budapest.
Find out what really happened with this fucking gold train.
- Yay.
- [chuckles.]
This was a plane, not a Sieg Heil, to be clear.
[Ruth.]
Ah.
[chuckles.]
Well, yeah.
I mean, you are turning 40 in a few days, so I suppose in some way you were going to get interested in your family history.
Now, you see, this is why I love you, Ruthie, okay? - You get it.
Uh - [Ruth chuckles.]
Yeah, I mean, I guess I wanna go, I don't know, celebrate my birth by going back to where all my people died.
Too dark? Ah! I don't make the rules.
That's history.
- [sighs.]
- Let me ask you a question.
Did you, uh, like, stay in touch much with Vera after mom died or what? Your grandmother was a hard person to know, and [chuckles.]
I was not exactly her favorite.
Why? I was an atheist and a heretic, and she thought that I encouraged the wrong sides of your mother.
- Atheist and a heretic.
That's - [Ruth chuckles.]
very hip, Ruthie.
Very hip.
What the fuck is this? What am I looking at? - What are all these? - That is nothing for you to worry about.
- Nothing.
- [Nadia.]
Anything good? No, nothing at all.
[Nadia.]
Looks like candy to me.
You know what? - What? - Take Maxine to Budapest with you.
- Make a girls' trip out of it.
- Okay.
See, when you're poking around in the past, it's helpful to have a second pair of eyes.
Ah, and a third leg.
[chuckles.]
What is this? When did you start smoking menthols? [chuckles.]
It's funny.
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about your mother too.
[Ruth inhales.]
[exhales.]
[upbeat music playing.]
[plane engine roaring.]
I thought you were Russian.
Well, my father's family was Russian, or rather, temporarily tolerated by the Russians.
My mother's family, same deal, but with Hungarians.
Fuck, marry, kill.
Hitler, Dracula, Frankenstein.
Too easy.
Three-way with Gary Oldman and Bela Lugosi, then I marry Boris Karloff and I kill Hitler.
Oh my God, we are total opposites.
- Where's our hotel? I got a call - Like, you wanna fuck Hitler? [yawning.]
What? Yeah.
[moans.]
- Do I wanna fuck Hitler? - Do you? [Maxine.]
I'm too tired for this.
Where's our hotel? I'll call an Uber.
Check it out.
I wanna go visit my grandmother's old place.
It's, uh, Dohány Street.
It is 3:00 a.
m.
in New York, Nemo.
3:00 a.
m.
is always the point in the night where we get sad and try to figure out our families.
Okay, we'll go see your grandma.
You know, my grandmother has also been talking to me a lot lately too.
Oh really? Yeah.
Lucid dreaming.
Right before you go to sleep, you slap a nicotine patch right here.
It's a fantastic voyage.
Oh you're "nuts" nuts.
- Yes.
- [Nadia.]
Look, moving stairs.
[upbeat music playing.]
This will be interesting.
- [Nadia groans.]
- Dead men get all the plaques.
Yeah, I know, right? Like, where are all the memorials for us living women? [woman speaking Hungarian.]
No solicitation! [Nadia in English.]
What the fuck is this? Ah.
Hello.
[in Hungarian.]
Bitch! Also, fuck me! [in English.]
Yeah? Looked up some Hungarian curses.
- Oh, that's handy.
- [Nadia.]
Yeah.
[in Hungarian.]
No loitering! [in English.]
I don't think that was an invitation to goulash.
[yawning.]
I don't like goulash.
I wanna sleep.
With a Hungarian, but first, with myself.
["Wasurenaiwa" by Peggy March playing.]
[speaks German.]
[indistinct chattering.]
[knocking.]
[footsteps approaching.]
[in English.]
Oh, Agnes, great.
They're inside.
[in German.]
It's okay, Bruno.
She made that schematic.
[Bruno.]
So this is Agnes, at last.
[in English.]
Yes.
Her German is only so-so still.
[in German.]
She is black.
[in English.]
Yes.
Agnes, this is Bruno and Lukas.
- Hi, hi.
I'm Agnes.
Yes.
- And the rest of us.
- [Bruno.]
Okay.
- You made a work of art, Agnes.
What did I make? [in German.]
We dig the final five meters tonight, then wait for Agnes' signal to break through the cellar floor.
Here, the bakery at Prinzenstraße 13.
Let's use English for Agnes.
[in English.]
Oh right.
Sorry.
[smacks lips.]
We're right on schedule for tomorrow night.
Lenny and I will do the final inspection, and then the first group of ten goes through just after midnight.
We rendezvous in the lobby of Boyd Hall East, then head down to lab B73 in the basement together.
If anyone asks, we're simply studying for our engineering exams.
Make sure to carry textbooks.
We'll have to leave everything else behind.
I'm sorry.
What are we doing? [chuckles nervously.]
[in German.]
She's joking, right? [in English.]
Agnes and Petra will cross over in the morning through the foreign entry checkpoints and meet my sister and the other couriers on Prinzenstraße.
You have a sister? You know my sister.
Wait, is this Is this a tunnel under the Berlin Wall? - [in German.]
What the fuck? - What's wrong? [in English.]
Agnes, what's going on with you? - [in German.]
What's wrong with this lady? - She's not a real Berliner.
These Socialist Project people are not like us.
We can't trust her.
She may even turn us in.
Don't say that! We can trust her.
We wouldn't be here without her.
[in English.]
Sorry to interrupt, but I don't think the train I take here goes to West Berlin.
[inhales.]
Lenny, this is crazy.
[in German.]
We've been digging your tunnel for six months, and now you think it's crazy? What's the new plan? This? [in English.]
Enough.
The tunnel will work, okay? Do you mind if I eat this? ["Mindkilla" by Gang Gang Dance playing.]
It's okay ♪ To lay your head down sometimes I say ♪ Ah.
Kapitány.
"Marton Halász living descendants.
" Uh Ah.
[indistinct chatter.]
There she is.
Kristóf Halász.
Hey.
Ah.
Yum-yum.
[music abruptly fades.]
[sighs.]
Maxine, look alive.
New deal.
No, I'm not done.
Yeah.
Try these.
[Maxine groans.]
I am not done.
So the Arrow Cross asshole who signed off on robbing my family was the last person on record to see the goods before the trail grows cold.
Only problem is, like most good Nazis, Captain Marton Halász is dead.
Yeah, okay.
Are you sure this couldn't be solved by Lizzy making you a plaque for your grandma's building? - Because Lizzy will make you a plaque.
- No, you're missing it, Maxine.
You see, she doesn't have to make me anything, because Marton made a son, who made a son who lives in Budapest, and is gonna give me all the answers.
I found where he works, where he lives, what he looks like, his two most recent ex-girlfriends Remind me to get off the Internet.
Too late.
Don't worry.
Your nudes are tasteful.
They're not meant to be.
[classical music playing.]
- Can you keep a secret? - I have lots of practice.
[Alan sighs.]
Um I know for a fact that that wall is going to come down.
Don't go.
You'll be reunited with your family if you just wait.
Oh.
Wait? Mm-hmm.
Until when? Uh, until 1989.
[chuckles.]
Fuck.
What game are you playing? Asking me to wait 27 years to see my family? I might as well wait until I'm a pensioner.
Okay, okay.
I I hadn't done the math, and that that is a long time, but it is concrete, risk-free hope for us.
Um [chuckles nervously.]
Isn't it better to just wait until then? Was Bruno right about you? - Did you turn us in? - Of course not.
- [Lenny.]
You sound like an informant.
- What? No.
No, no, no.
Agnes, I understand you're nervous.
I'm nervous, too.
Anyone No, I have information from the future.
[chuckles.]
[Alan.]
Who knows what's gonna happen in that tunnel, right? The tunnel could flood, or the Stasi will find you.
This is just basic risk analysis, right? Even if I do stay, what happens to you? Next year, you get your degree, you return to Ghana.
Maybe then you make it to Moscow, or who knows, even New York.
You've said so yourself.
You'll do anything for a better life.
Well, me too.
The problem is that we have different lives.
Maybe we only intersect here.
Maybe Nadia was right.
Maybe I am supposed to save you.
I don't need saving.
Who's Nadia? - [Alan.]
Whoa! - Come on.
Just leave it.
I can't take it with me anyway.
Leave.
Please.
Sure.
[classical music continues.]
[officer whistles.]
[in German.]
Give us a smile! [in English.]
Have you ever heard of place lag? It's not just time that screws you up when you travel.
We aren't evolutionarily equipped to jump 5000 miles overnight.
Our brains can't keep up.
I love it.
Time zones, what a concept.
- That's him.
- [Maxine.]
Holy Willem Dafoe.
Uh, excuse me, Kristóf Halász, yes? Well, your grandfather knew my grandmother.
Uh, Vera Peschauer.
- American? - [Maxine.]
Yes.
Well, Nadia is half-Hungarian.
She's finding her roots.
[Kristóf.]
I hardly knew my grandfather.
I was never told much about him, but I can guess why you're here.
He was on the wrong side of history, and for that, I'm sorry.
I'm having friends over tonight, so I can't stay.
Apologies.
Hold on, I've got more questions.
Uh, did your grandfather ever mention anything about what actually happened on that gold train? I don't know, did he perhaps keep diaries? Uh, look, do you know anything at all about this? Do you want to come with me? [sighs.]
Case open.
[motorcycle engine revving.]
[dance music playing in the distance.]
Holy shit.
Who the fuck is this guy? I'm Kristóf.
[Nadia.]
All right, looks like that's Kristóf.
- It's Kristóf.
- Yeah.
- [Kristóf.]
Follow me.
- [Maxine.]
Okay, officer.
[dance music playing.]
This is what it means to have friends over in Budapest? This is the party floor, if you like to dance.
Is there dancing on other floors? Uh, different kind of dance.
Of the mind, not the body.
I can take you there if you want.
Just don't lose sight of the silver thread that tethers you to life.
Uh, heady stuff, man.
So listen, uh, some people think that some of these, uh, soldiers secretly looted the train and kept the goods for themselves.
- What? - March 1944, before the Soviets invaded? I thought we were here to talk about Marton.
[Kristóf.]
Marton? This moment, this party is all I have.
See? Your friend understands.
Ah.
Are you a musician? Who, me? No, but I work with sound.
- Oh! - Jesus Christ.
Let me get you some drinks.
Great.
Great.
Fucking waste of time, huh? You think he'd make a good daddy? What? He doesn't have to know.
He's very tall, and he's very far from home.
[Nadia.]
Yeah, he's also a Nazi twice removed.
I mean, this is the fall of man we're talking about.
Yeah, exactly.
He fits right in with everything I'm trying to say.
Oh my God.
You know what? Great.
- Okay, you win.
It's probably fine.
- All right, yeah.
You have my blessing.
I don't need it, but it's good to have.
Like a driver's license or a left hand.
Oh.
Thank you.
Congratulations.
- Go make friends.
- Great job.
[sighs.]
Fucking shit.
All right, big boy time.
[song fades out.]
[Alan.]
Did Grandma ever talk to you about Berlin? Okay, did she ever mention anybody named Lenny? I can't find any trace of him online.
She didn't talk much about that time.
So nothing about anybody that she was seeing at the time, or [chuckles.]
We certainly didn't have that kind of relationship.
And raising a child as a single mother in this country was enough to deal with, as your grandmother often reminded me.
While I have you, Emilia mentioned that it's been three days and you haven't called.
- She thought the date went well.
- I I I'm sorry, Mom? I gotta go.
Maybe this is exactly what could've changed for Grandma.
Even if it isn't, I mean, I [sighs.]
I'm sorry.
Never mind.
[chuckles.]
I'm sorry.
I love you.
[dance music continues playing.]
[Nadia.]
Downstairs.
Huh.
Some type of fuck-pile scenario.
Eh.
This is where to get it.
Fucking weirdo.
Come on, give me something.
Ah.
Some sort of arts and crafts shop.
Great.
Huh.
Knick-knacks.
Well, at least you have good taste in fashion.
Black.
Mother lode.
I fucking knew it.
I fucking knew it.
[sighs.]
Blood is thicker, Halász.
Uh Okay.
[officer whistles.]
[in German.]
Smile! [sighs.]
[in English.]
B73 [exhales.]
Lenny? [door closes.]
[gasps.]
[water dripping.]
[breathing heavily.]
I'm too late.
[dramatic music playing.]
[breathing shakily.]
- [door closes.]
- [breathes nervously.]
[breathing heavily.]
[Nadia.]
Right.
Right, right, right.
This fucking guy.
[Maxine.]
Oh, wait.
- What the fuck? - [Kristóf speaks Hungarian.]
What are you doing? You know what we're doing.
What are you doing? This guy's a fucking Arrow Cross Nazi, all right? He's got a room full of fascist memorabilia.
What did you do to my room? Look, man, you lied to me.
I just met you.
Jesus.
Am I expected to explain such complexities to a stranger? "Nice to meet you.
" "I grew up with a father who hated the foundation of his very existence and was never able to make sense of it.
" "Welcome to my party.
" Uh Uh You said you didn't know anything about your grandfather.
My father dies, I clean out his house, and I find my grandfather's things.
Papers, medals, some clothes.
What am I meant to do? As far as I can tell, he was a deeply boring and awful man.
You guys have nothing in common, okay? You you're not helping, Maxine.
Look through everything.
Uh, I already did, pal.
I'm offering help, whatever you need.
What is that? Perspective.
Huh.
Have you ever wanted to separate from yourself? I'm only human.
To view yourself with objective distance? It's coexistence and lack of existence at once.
Kristóf, you Hungarian god.
[sighs.]
[Kristóf.]
We weren't allowed to study LSD.
Acid was deemed too dangerous for a Communist country.
It was a German chemist who first synthesized it from Ayahuasca back in the '50s.
It was actually a Hungarian chemist who first discovered the hallucinogenic properties of DMT.
[upbeat music playing.]
You're also well-known for the Rubik's Cube.
[music distorts.]
[car horn honks.]
["Personal Jesus (Alex Metric Remix Edit)" by Depeche Mode playing.]
Your own personal Jesus ♪ Someone to hear your prayers Someone who's there ♪ Your own personal Jesus ♪ Someone to hear your prayers Someone who cares ♪ Reach out, touch faith ♪ [bones crack.]
- [music abruptly stops.]
- [both gasp.]
[birds chirping.]
Where are we? [sighs.]
More like "when" are we.
[cell phone rings.]
Hello? - [speaking Hungarian.]
- [Nadia groans.]
Never mind.
[sighs.]
No.
Hmm.
[grunts.]
[sighs.]
[Nadia murmurs.]
Three, two, one.
[grunts.]
[breathes deeply.]
Huh.
- Hmm.
- You know him? Mmm? - Not personally.
- Mmm.
Hmm.
- [Maxine.]
What's with the rocks? - It's a Jewish thing.
Putting rocks on graves.
- Oh.
Mmm.
- Sign of respect.
Yeah.
- You know, like in Schindler's List? - Sure.
But this guy, uh, Kiss László, is a priest.
Weird, even for Spielberg.
- Yeah.
- [grunts softly.]
- [Nadia speaks Hebrew.]
- [Maxine speaks Hebrew.]
[sighs.]
So I'm sorry I blew your shot at having a Hungarian Nazi baby.
Yeah, that was fucked up.
[Nadia sighs.]
It's okay.
I'm sorry you didn't get what you're looking for.
Should we go find Kristóf? Nah, fuck it.
Uh, I mean, that guy doesn't have any more answers for me than I do for him.
[both grunt softly.]
[Nadia sighs.]
Let's go home.
I wanna change everything in my life.
That makes one of us.
I think New York is, uh, east of [Ruth on phone.]
So how'd it go? Was it a successful trip? I don't know, Ruthie.
I mean, uh, satiric answers I get.
Tangible ones, not so much.
Honey, we always think that closure is something we can find out there in the world, as if we can find it in another person, or a confession, or an apology.
See, in the end, nothing can absolve us but ourselves.
See, that's exactly what I'm supposed to say.
[chuckles.]
Lately, oh God, I've just been wishing I could tell your mother I'm sorry.
Ruthie, she needed to go to an institution, yeah.
I mean, she was really fucking sick.
[Ruth.]
Yeah.
I've just never heard you say that before.
What else did you find in your mother's stuff? I don't know, is, uh is grief a hot commodity? Oh God, they hid everything, your mother and grandmother.
[chuckles.]
And so much must have been lost.
[inhales.]
God, you know, under floorboards or buried under trees.
[chuckles.]
Oh God.
Which floorboards? Oh, long gone.
[chuckles.]
[inhales.]
Trauma is a topographical map written on the child, and it takes a lifetime to read.
Darling, come by tomorrow if you're not sick of backgammon and Bogart movies by now.
[inhales.]
With you, Ruthie, never.
Bye-bye.
[inhales.]
Fuck.
What are we missing? What are we missing? - [Oatmeal meows.]
- Huh? [purring.]
God, you're good.
One more trip to '82 won't kill us, Oatmeal.
["99 Luftballons" by Nena playing.]
[song fades out.]
["99 Luftballons" continues playing.]
[train horn blows.]
[train horn blows.]
[announcer in Hungarian.]
Now arriving Budapest, Keleti Station.
[train horn blows.]
["99 Luftballons" continues playing.]
[train brakes screech.]
["99 Luftballons" continues playing.]
[song fades out.]