Brave Guy

**Brave Guy** is the second episode of *Deutschland 83*.

## Synopsis

Tischbier orders Martin to break into NATO head analyst Henrik Mayer's hotel room to steal a secret report. He refuses until Tischbier promises to help his mother who is suffering from diabetes in East Germany.

## Plot

Off-duty in the barracks, Stamm listens to news reports on the continued nuclear escalation between the U.S. and the Soviets while Alexander Edel feeds his pacifist views by reading left-leaning political philosophy. General Edel calls the men in and tells them they’ll attend an upcoming conference where a NATO specialist will report on the possibility of attacking with nuclear weapons. A horrified Alex questions his father, who tells him, “Stand down, soldier.”

An excited Renate bursts into her sister’s house and tells Mrs. Edel (Ursula) she’s finally remembered what happened at the Edel’s barbecue. After discovering a button from Stamm’s uniform in her house, Renate explains that she remembered catching Stamm calling East Germany from the Edels’ house and deduced that he was a spy and must have drugged her so she’d forget. Ursula dismisses her sister’s story as a “drunken sexual fantasy.”

Nina, the female East German assassin who killed the real Stamm, corners Stamm in his hotel room at gunpoint and demands his real name. After Stamm doesn’t crack, claiming he doesn’t know what she’s talking about, she puts the gun down and enters the room. Nina gives Stamm a bug to plant in the suite of Henrik Mayer, the NATO specialist. Stamm demands information about his mother.

Stamm has some difficulty when he orders a steak for lunch, since the East German in him is not accustomed to this West German indulgence. The waitress asks for his room number to bill the meal. Tischbier meets Stamm outside and tells him his mother is well, with a transplant on the way. He also tells Stamm to steal the NATO security report from Mayer’s suite while the delegates are having dinner.

In his guise as a professor, Tischbier leads a subversive pacifist rally, which Alex Edel attends, offering his service to the cause.

Back home, Annett frolics naked with a new lover, Thomas, trying to move on from Martin (alias Stamm).

At the hotel, General Jackson throws a wrench in Stamm’s mission at the last moment when he trades rooms with Mayer. As Stamm retrieves the bug from Jackson’s room, the general mentions that an old colleague of Stamm’s, Lt. Frank Sperber, is at the conference. Stamm places the bug in Mayer’s new room.

Delegates debate policy, hawkish General Jackson advocating a preemptive strike against Russia while Mayer shares his findings: Any attack will lead to total escalation. They break for lunch.

General Edel sends Stamm and his son to collect uncooperative daughter Yvonne, who refuses to return home, from her ashram in Cologne.

Lenora Rauch visits Annett and delivers her Stamm’s letter, easily manipulating the girl into agreeing to stay with Stamm’s mother in case she needs help.

Stamm and Alex find Yvonne singing for a group of fellow devotees. Alex and Yvonne immediately lose patience with each other and Yvonne’s friend must intervene when Alex tries to drag her out by force. After Alex storms off, Stamm explains to Yvonne that her father only wants her home because her mother is worried about her and she relents.

Back at the conference, Stamm narrowly avoids Frank Sperber and sneaks outside to break into Mayer’s room through a window. Stamm manages to break into the hotel room’s safe as well, but the report is on a floppy disk, foiling his plan to photograph it and record the info without blowing their cover. He steals the disk and drops it off a balcony to an operative waiting below.

The waitress from the hotel is waiting nearly naked in Stamm’s room. She attempts to seduce him and then attacks him, pulling the sharp stick from her bun to wield like a shank. Stamm manages to overpower her and push her over an indoor balcony. She hits the stairs below and flees, injured but alive.

Stamm feigns amnesia as he explains the attack to General Edel. The assassin’s presence provides an explanation for Mayer’s missing report.

Suddenly Stamm finds himself face-to-face with Sperber and General Jackson. Sperber doesn’t recognize the bloodied Stamm, but laughs it off. It turns out Sperber didn’t know Stamm well and has little to talk about.

Stamm cleans himself up and joins the partying delegates, where he meets Henrik Mayer’s secretary, Linda Seiler. They share a drink.

## Music

 Speaking Unto Nations (Beethoven Symphony no 7 - II)
 Boys Don't Cry
 Just Like a Woman
 Modern Love
 Call Me
 Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92: II. Allegretto

## Gallery

*The gallery for **Brave Guy** can be found here.*

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