First Tapping
Episode 4 of Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood begins with Maria arriving at the hospital and seeing first-hand the devastating impact of Prank’s wrath. With Roman a bloody mess, Maria gasps in shock and tries to work out how to gain revenge. This event is completely drowned out though by the start of Oktoberfest. The tent is all ready and prepped, prompting thirsty patrons to gather and embrace Prank warmly. Meanwhile, Stifter has his own agenda for what’s going on. He’s going to lie in wait and take over Prank’s tent at the next Oktoberfest. He wants Prank to bleed out but for now he’ll play nicely. Back at the festivities, Prank tasks Golgauer with a new mission – find Clara. She’s been missing for 4 days now but as we know, she’s out in the streets and hiding. He also asks him to take out Maria Hoflinger but he warns that this is not a good idea. Back in the tent, Stifter and Prank come to blows over the Clara situation, with Prank fingering his brass knuckles incase things turn violent. Stifter is playing hard ball when it comes to the beer, telling Prank that he’s messed up their business arrangements. Maria leads her family and friends together to try and start a rebellion against Prank and his beer tent. Elsewhere, Colina arrives at a lively “bar” (which actually happens to be a brothel) and asks to work. It doesn’t take long before a client takes her back home. Only, he’s not interested in sexual relations and instead ends up drawing her. Day 2 of Oktoberfest begins and Prank encourages his patrons to continue drinking. While he does, Roman awakens from his battered state and hurries back home. He confronts Ludwig about his wedding confession and shows the newspaper headline to his brother. As the two look set to come to blows, Maria arrives and admits that it was her that broke the news about Clara’s pregnancy. Disgusted with her son, she kicks Roman out the family home. This brings him to the Prank household intent on trying to find Clara. She’s obviously not there though and out in the streets somewhere. Thanks to Colina’s patronage, her drawing is made out to be the poster child for this brothel. This gives her just the leverage needed to encourage her boss to cough up more marks. Meanwhile, Prank is called away from the festivities to attend the council meeting that Stifter has attended so often. He arrives out the shadows and things are pretty tense. Despite drinking the beer given, Prank appears to have walked into a trap. He’s wise to what’s happening though and uses his brass knuckles to beat his way out the predicament. Stifter watches in amusement as he walks away. Day 3 of Oktoberfest begins with Colina entertaining her guests with a lively song. Only, Clara shows up at the door and asks for a job. Colina warns that the men there will eat her alive and pleads with her to go home. She doesn’t, and things inevitably take a turn for the worst when one of the men starts having his way with her. Golgauer arrives before Roman and tells him they’re going to make a deal. While they do, Prank goes a bit delirious and starts to experience serious hallucinatory pain. With only 20 kegs left, Prank passes out on the floor and only awakens when those nearest to him rips the tooth out his mouth. Day 4 of Oktoberfest begins and the beer completely runs out. Prank has a plan though and he speaks to Urban, telling him to offer up the bankrupted breweries 1% more than they want in order to get their stock. As the night draws on, Clara and Roman finally come face to face again while Ludwig frequents a rather erotic hotspot. All of these simmering plotlines look like they could explode at any moment but who’s going to pull the trigger first?
The Episode Review
There’s more colour injected into this episode which beautifully juxtaposes the growing darkness within the storyline here. The idea of splitting up the days of Oktoberfest is really good and the changed locale works perfectly to inject the story with a bit more urgency. The different stories start to come together too and all of this builds up to a dramatic climax at the end, with extra tension given thanks to the kegs slowly running out. Quite what will happen next remains to be seen but we could be in for quite the dramatic showdown to come.
