Bowie
Episode 3 of We Children from Bahnhof Zoo begins with Christiane having her first period. This confirms her age in this drugged up series, and puts all the events that have happened thus far into perspective. That evening Christiane heads over to Axel’s place where they start smoking together. When they do, Benno confirms that David Bowie is coming to town in April, prompting Axel to excitedly play the air guitar and decide they should go together. Heading to work, he asks his boss for an advance on his salary, specifically so he can buy tickets to the concert. In exchange, his boss gives Axel a promotion at work, allowing him to look after the router. Meanwhile, Christiane introduces Benno to her Mother. After dinner, Benno and Christiane head up to the rooftop together. There, she admits that things are good for her right now, despite her parents’ current situation. For Karin, she actually seems to be doing well, although Robert is clearly struggling. Christiane is the one stuck in the middle of this family feud, torn both ways. Meanwhile, Benno struggles to find the motivation to get up and go to work. When he does eventually show at SOUND, he looks completely out of it. He even scores some heroin in the cloakroom too. While he begins tripping, imagining himself in the forest surrounded by snow, the rest of the characters dance the night away. Christiane spies what Benno is doing and heads home in disgust. The next day, Robert sends his friend Milos over to pick up some belongings for him from Karin’s apartment – including Ajax the dog. Christiane eventually heads over to Robert’s place to speak to her Father. He enthusiastically talks about a big idea he has of opening a guesthouse in Thailand but Christiane blocks out what he’s saying. Eventually she walks away. In pain and crying, Christiane speaks to Stella and decides that she’s going to do heroin. Gunther exchanges sexual favours for drugs, which is what Stella suggests she do, but this plan goes completely out the window. Dropping to one knee, Gunther asks Stella to marry him. At work, Axel is spotted doing drugs – which in turn gets back to his boss. He warns Axel about the dangers of this and encourages the boy to stop – for his own sake. This coincides with Christiane too, who runs into Axel at the club and asks about heroin. He decides they should pack the drug in, especially with the Bowie concert coming up. Christiane brushes aside these concerns and continues on. The night of the Bowie concert arrives. When all the kids meet up, it’s revealed that actually they’ve sold their tickets for drugs. The group eventually decide to break in and catch Bowie live. Stella is caught by security almost immediately while the rest of the group manage to sneak in and evade capture. Backstage, Babsi heads up to watch the concert in the stands while Christiane sneaks into a dressing room where she finds heroin. Sitting at the table, she injects herself.
The Episode Review
This German teen drama returns with another dose of hedonistic drug taking with – so far at least – absolutely no repercussions for taking these drugs. It also solidifies that Christiane and the others are young teenagers as well, which is actually quite shocking when you realize what they’re all doing. Seeing Axel and the others absolutely fine after doing heroin and able to go about their lives while taking this recreationally doesn’t exactly ring true. The questionable decision to show drugs as good and uplifting while these kids continue to slip in their own lives does definitely set a dangerous precedent. It’ll be interesting to see if the show actually addresses that in the coming episodes. For now though, We Children From Bahnhof Zoo delivers another visually pleasing but morally questionable episode.
