As this episode opens a teenaged boy heads to an apartment block in Hamburg's red light district; here he waits for one of the residents, the owner of a large brothel, to return, then stabs him to death. The killer leaves his phone at the scene where it is found by Michael Lübke, an employee of the deceased. This is an area Falke considers his neighbourhood; in his youth he worked as a doorman alongside Lübke who he considers to be a friend. While the police work to find the killer, and more importantly the person who hired him, Lübke runs a parallel investigation. He is one step ahead of the police and is determined to be useful for his employee one last time.
I rather enjoyed this episode; its setting is grittier than many in the series and there is more of a mystery. We may know the identity of the killer from the start but he feels like another victim; the real villain is the person who arranged for him to commit murder. The setting, the Reeperbahn area, feels somewhat sleazy with the large brothel, owned by the murdered many, featuring in many scenes. The fact that this is Falke's home leads to interesting revelations about his past. The cast is impressive; as well as the regulars Michael Thomas stands out as Lübke, a somewhat tragic character. As things stand this is the last episode of 'Inspector Falke'; I hope we get more later.
These comments are based on watching the episode in German with English subtitles.
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