Cold Fire

**Cold Fire** is the fifth episode of *Deutschland 83*. It is the last episode directed by Edward Berger.

## Synopsis

Martin is sent back to East Berlin, but is forced to deliver a seemingly harmless package to a mysterious man in West Berlin on the way.

## Plot

After their night out, Stamm and Yvonne sleep together back at the ashram. Alex and Tischbier also wake up together with Alex expressing how happy he is. However, his happiness is short-lived when he believes that Tischbier is trying to make him go back to the army and storms out. He breaks down outside the house.

Meanwhile in the East, Annett discovers Ingrid passed out and unresponsive.  Yvonne tells Stamm that all her friends think he’s a spy because of his enigmatic demeanor. Stamm tells her he’s spying for the KGB, passing it off as a joke.  Tischbier meets Stamm near the ashram, where Stamm tells him he refuses to keep spying. Tischbier doesn’t bother arguing, telling Stamm his mother has collapsed and he’s needed back in the East as soon as possible to provide her a new kidney, also casually mentioning Annett’s pregnancy.

KGB top brass meet with Schweppenstette and his hawkish superior arguing that the West is no real threat and giving agents in the field attacks to execute against the Pershing II program despite other officials’ reservations.

Wolfgang Edel receives word Stamm’s been injured in a bike accident and filed for a week’s sick leave. He also learns his son hasn’t reported for duty since their argument and tells his aide not to give Alex special treatment. Edel calls his wife at home, but she declines to pick up. While he leaves a furious voicemail warning Alex could be imprisoned for going AWOL, Ursula removes his favorite fish from the aquarium and drops it onto the floor.

The young female spy, Nina, meets Stamm on the train to the East and gives him a backpack full of coffee canisters to distribute to contacts in West and East Berlin. The KGB superior tells Schweppenstette to make sure the intelligence his men are currently decoding supports their plan to go on the offensive. A security check opens Stamm’s bags, but believes him when says the canisters are full of coffee. Alex shows up at Yvonne’s ashram. She lets him crash, but warns him he’ll have to participate in ashram life if he stays long.

Ursula Edel shows up at the base, telling her husband’s secretary Alex is sick with an illness so contagious he must remain at home. The secretary disinfects her hands frantically when Ursula leaves, paranoid because of the nascent AIDS panic.

Stamm hands the “coffee” off to another operative in West Berlin and goes on his way. Moments later a blast rocks the square, killing and injuring bystanders. Stamm chases the other spy into a subway tunnel, where the older man overpowers him and takes his backpack. Stamm manages to get back up and chokes the other spy to death, leaving his body on the tracks and destroying the contents of the remaining canisters: a pair of detonators for dynamite.

Alex’s fervor reaches new height as he butts heads with Yvonne’s friend over the ineffectiveness of passive nonviolence. He storms out, alone yet again. Meanwhile, General Edel comes home from work. His wife pretends to bring Alex soup in his room and listens with satisfaction as her husband screams in horror, having discovered the dead fish.

Thomas corners Annett, who’s continued to avoid him, and asks if Ingrid’s alright. She tells him she’s not sure and breaks down and confesses she is pregnant with Stamm’s child. Thomas tells her he doesn’t care and confesses the reason he was using Ingrid’s car: to run a mobile library distributing banned books. Annett is shocked at the rebellion.

Schweppenstette and his superior congratulate themselves on the bombing in the west, content that the world will blame notorious terrorist Carlos the Jackal and West Germany won’t be able to prove that they were involved. Stamm is picked up from the train by security officers and makes it to the hospital just in time to help his mother. He is shuttled off into surgery.

Annett turns some of Thomas’s books in to Schweppenstette, telling him she knows where he can find more.  Alex shows up at the East German installment in Berlin and offers his services as a spy.

## Gallery

*The image gallery for **Cold Fire** can be found here.*

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