Signs Of The Times
Episode 2 of Oktoberfest: Beer and Blood begins with a brief flash of the past as we see more context to the scenes at the first Oktoberfest. A scarred man arrives and greets a young Prank. As he holds the child back, Prank’s father is beaten with a hammer while carrying a barrel. This catches us up to the present as Clara returns home after a very eventful evening with Roman. While Colina tries her best to hide what’s happened, Roman heads back to the brewery and receives quite the shock. Ignatz has been murdered. As we soon see, Grogauer’s client happens to be Prank and this could cause a big war to brew between these two families if the truth of what’s happened gets out. The distraught Hoflinger family receive word that the Samoans just outside town have the body and may be involved. Inspektor Eder however, remains convinced that something is afoul here and he plans to check irregularities with this story. As the family mourn, Maria speaks to the people and reminds them that Ignatz is family. Roman remains fixated on the cannibals though and rallies the people to his cause – convinced that they’re to blame. With torches in hand, the mob descends on the cannibals while Inspektor Eder acts as the peace-keeper. One of the girls steps forward and confirms they’re not murderers or to blame for what’s happened. Getting nowhere, the boys head back the brewery where Maria tasks Ludwig with taking charge of the operation. Roman is not happy though and immediately takes offence to this. His big ideas to expand the business are precisely why he’s not given the gig. At the funeral, Curt Prang arrives with Clara to offer their condolences. Clara and Roman lock eyes though and immediately notice each other from the night before. As they catch up together at the wake, Roman and Clara finally get a chance to talk in private. As she embraces him, things take yet another turn for the worst for the Hoflinger family. The Hoflingers find their lot auctioned off and all the family have to their name is beer. On the back of this, Prank meets back up with Urban who requests the address for his boy. Urban also congratulates him for the plan coming together at just the right time – insinuating that he had some part of the murder. As we know, he most definitely does but Prank plays poker-face and remains tight-lipped. Maria is wise to what’s going on though. As Curt’s plan comes to fruition and his tent’s construction green-lit, Maria suspects that Prank is the one responsible for killing Ignatz. As she lusts for blood, things are complicated further by the fact Clara appears to be pregnant. Oh no…
The Episode Review
With deeper characterization this time, the bubbling conflict between Prank and the Hoflinger family continues to grow. This is only made more interesting by the Romeo and Juliet love angle between Clara and Roman. This keeps things tense and engaging as this romance could implode completely. For now though the gritty tone continues, albeit with a slightly slower episode compared to the previous one. This allows the characters to be fleshed out further while keeping things interesting for the episodes ahead. Quite what will happen next though, remains to be seen.
