Our dear lady
She wanted to go walking
She walked
On a green heath
Yes, our dear lady
Came to the green heath
She met
Yes, she met
A poor boatman
Oh, dear boatman
Take me to sea...
PAGAN PEAK
This girl was full of ideas, full of vitality.
And her life was ended completely indiscriminately.
I find it hard to comprehend.
Mr. Hässmann, who do you think would do something like this?
Listen, I'm no expert. We have our wonderful police force for that,
who are showing their full commitment,
but clearly this must be a madman.
Someone crazy, who kills innocent people. A psychopath.
And I'll be honest with you, and I don't want to play the blame game,
but if I were to become governor, then this wouldn't even...
Have you got something to do with that, Gedi?
No.
It's terrible that they can't find him.
- They're incapable and corrupt. - I'm sure they are.
I'm so pleased you came, Gedi.
You're welcome to come more often.
But you're busy with work, aren't you?
The state doesn't free you from its stranglehold?
Yes. Exactly.
I only move about the house now.
I sometimes go into the garden.
Nowadays, you can have everything brought to your door.
I keep up to date on what's happening in the world by watching television.
Sounds exciting, your life.
Don't talk like that.
What's good is that I can go wherever I want in the house.
In every corner...
there are fantastic memories.
The place is full of them.
There. On the sofa.
That's where Brus did his drawings.
Otto Muehl. Schwarzkogler.
And the things they'd get up to sometimes...
It's...
It's remarkable, Mom...
that you remember all that...
given how canned you were.
That's...
That's some achievement.
It's very nice, Gedi...
that you came.
In his blog, Brunner repeatedly refers to the wild man myth.
The king of the woods.
He wanders between civilization and nature
and he has the right to punish people.
And when we examine our perp's audio messages,
they indicate he reads Brunner's blog.
It is not uncommon for perpetrators to be inspired by others.
For our perpetrator, Brunner's ideology
is the perfect justification for his sadistic, narcissistic behavior.
If society is collapsing anyway,
and the wicked have to be punished,
then for someone like him, everything is allowed.
This connection is our chance to get in contact with the perp.
We'll get Brunner to write about the Krampus murders in his blog.
Here's the text.
"And in the end, time will tell whether these murders are crimes or heroic deeds."
You want to publish that under my name?
Put it in your own words, but you need to give him that kind of recognition.
The words in red are important. They're spelt incorrectly.
MURDERER OR FREEDOM FIGHTER?
This is a man who's playing a game with us.
He believes he's invincible and a genius.
But beyond that, he is impudent and a perfectionist.
And so we are going to deliberately include spelling mistakes in the blog,
missing letters that when put together form a message.
And hopefully...
someone with OCD like him will respond to something like that.
...WHERE THE KRAMPUS KILLER BROUGHT THEM TO JUSTICE...
And if he sees through it?
If you'd rather go to prison...
There's no need to worry, Mr. Brunner.
We will have your farm watched from now on.
You'll have personal security and be tagged so we'll know where you are.
We won't leave you on your own.
SIX BROTHERS THE KRAMPUS KILLER
I hate waiting.
It really makes the waiting fly by.
No, thanks.
For the best.
It's the beginning of the end.
Hey, I've been thinking...
about us meeting up.
And?
I'd suggest,
once he's got in touch again,
the two of us should go to my local for a drink.
Whatever that means, yes, I'm in.
Great.
I hate it too.
This waiting around.
Very nice. Very nice.
I have to say, ladies and gentlemen,
you play almost as many wrong notes as I did in my musical heyday.
No, seriously, in my youth I was a highly gifted...
You know what? Give me that trumpet.
For my irreplaceable assistant, no embarrassment is too great.
Right.
My dear Mara, the devil's right and left hand.
My minder.
My Girl Friday.
And...
my best friend.
This is for you.
Happy birthday!
Thank you.
So, thanks a lot.
So now Thomas can finally cut the cake,
and do it just as carefully as he handles our election coffers.
Could you take this?
The gentleman's from the Munich Newspaper.
I don't talk to your paper anymore.
It reduced me to being an extreme right-winger.
I'm an independent journalist. Charles Turek.
In our political world, no one is independent anymore.
I write human interest stories.
Human interest? I don't have any vices, no affairs. I don't even have a dog.
My hobby is politics.
I'm interested in you as a person.
You want to use me to leave those human interest stories behind.
I won't be your stepping stone. Goodbye.
Current polls don't indicate you're on your way up.
I saw your statement on the Krampus killer on TV.
Pfister, could you wait outside, please?
I'll be totally honest with you.
I'm no fan of your politics. All that homeland stuff.
I come from the Ruhr. We love our home, but don't talk about it.
And what would we talk about? Traffic on the A40?
But you move the people here. Whether positively or negatively.
What you lack is a suitably emotional subject.
I'd like to interview you.
May I show you something?
This has been online since this morning.
This evening, millions of people will have heard it.
People who could vote for you.
I blinded people with my vanity and superficiality.
My punishment will be your salvation.
Everything changes. This era will end with me.
A better world...
The red time of year is coming.
Please, no. No!
Children in the playground are listening to this.
The parents of the dead girl.
It needs to be deleted immediately.
That's not our job.
Who would upload this?
That Turek.
He withheld evidence and is using it for his own ends.
You didn't want to cooperate. He's found another way to write his stories.
Makes sense.
He took the bait.
A comment on Brunner's blog.
Sender "anonymous."
The author took over our system
and created a text with missing letters.
Joined together, you get a combination of letters that appear to mean nothing.
I tried it as an internet address, an anagram,
I put the words together...
Get to the point, man.
There's a chat program that can't be tracked. Hack.chat.
No one knows who programed it.
You just need a browser. Anyone can use it.
The letter combination from the message
is like the key to a room.
A room that nobody knows exists.
It's the safest way to communicate.
Terrorists use it, spies, hackers.
And people smugglers.
That's why we didn't find anything on Slowejko's cell.
That's how they communicated.
Enter your chat name first.
Tell him you're pleased to get to know him.
I'M GLAD WE'LL BE ABLE TO TALK.
- What now? - We wait for him.
It might take a while.
Could I have a green tea?
And you need to air this room. It's musty in here.
With milk and honey.
WHAT DO YOU WANT?
He's replied.
"Ruprecht. What do you want?"
Flatter him.
To him, you're a kindred spirit. Praise his courage.
Believably. In your own words.
Imagine we're not here.
I'M FOLLOWING YOUR WORK
WITH GREAT INTEREST AND ADMIRATION.
WHAT DOES THE MAN OF THE WOODS WANT?
He's testing you. Answer quickly.
ORDER BETWEEN PEOPLE AND NATURE.
WHAT DOES HE CALL THIS ORDER?
THE RED TIME OF YEAR.
I LONG FOR IT.
"I long for it."
IT WILL COME. YOU JUST NEED TO BE PATIENT.
THAT IS YOUR BIGGEST MISTAKE. YOU TALK TOO MUCH.
"Your biggest mistake..."?
He's going on the attack. Don't let him provoke you.
Praise his courage. His actions were audacious.
"Audacious"?
I would never put it like that.
I ADMIT IT.
YOUR ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN MY WORDS.
THAT WAS JUST THE START. I AM THE RED TIME OF YEAR.
"I am the red time of year."
What are you?
Agree with him.
No.
That's not on.
The man hasn't understood my message at all. Just like all of you.
I'm not destroying. I'm creating.
Yes, that's really tough. Now, carry on being nice to him.
I know that for you denying your convictions isn't an issue,
because you don't have any.
You gave them up long ago.
But don't assume the same of others.
I'm no charlatan. No figure of fear. I want to help.
Then help us and just write something.
You know what, write this shit yourself.
Mr. Brunner, none of us are able to.
We need you. Please.
THEN LET ME BE YOUR PARTNER.
"I'll think about it."
- That's good. - That's good?
And when are we going to ask who's next?
We can't pressurize him. He needs to betray himself of his own free will.
YOU'LL HEAR FROM ME!
Well, that was a very fluid conversation. What more could we expect?
Now we need to have patience. He'll get back in touch.
And when?
In two hours. In two days.
Think about it. Power and control. That's what it's about for him.
I'll be in my hotel.
I'm afraid.
Afraid for our values.
Our country. Our soil.
Our children.
But you're not afraid of the killer with the Krampus mask?
Listen, for some people, the Krampus is a figure of fear.
For me, coming from Salzburg, the Krampus means home.
I've grown up with the tradition of Krampus groups,
who will soon be walking our unique Salzburg land once more.
This isn't some quaint tradition, but...
a series of murders, the like of which this area has never seen.
That's very true,
but let me be completely honest with you, Mr. Turek, it doesn't surprise me.
We're living in a time in which people feel deeply insecure.
They're confused, lost. We're living in a time of destruction.
Isn't the world getting more complex, anyway?
That's exactly what the sham is.
It's precisely this insecurity that politics today benefits from.
Is it clever? I say no. The world isn't that complicated.
Those in charge deceive us into thinking the world is turning too fast.
Please forgive me for swearing, but that's a load of shit.
You need to reduce things back to basics.
How can it be that here in my wonderful Salzburg,
I can only buy jam from Macedonia,
which then needs to be spread onto a Polish roll,
even though we have the best jam in the world?
What does this have to do with the Krampus Killer?
You need to ask the question:
Why has this spate of murders happened at this time?
Why, under the current government, is a mentally ill person
able to roam freely through the region,
killing innocent people?
We're living in a time, and I'll come back to the Krampus theme,
in which the wicked ones have the say.
The elite set the tone.
Corrupt lobbyists, investors,
unscrupulous politicians, rich thieves.
The wicked ones, who need to be punished?
I'm talking about people who have created a world
in which monsters like this can arise.
That must have been a shock for your mother.
In my defense...
My father, middle-class,
smuggled cocaine on a large scale to Vienna in the 70s.
Went to prison for two years and then disappeared to America when I was five.
The first thing we have in common. My mother disappeared when I was small.
And your father?
Did he like his daughter joining the criminal investigation police?
He liked everything I did.
Because his good little girl always did everything right.
Come on, you're not half as bad as you make out.
I wouldn't be so sure.
Really?
Go on, then.
Tell me.
OK, then.
Listen up.
I gave the information to the journalist.
Turek. Munich Newspaper.
I had a difficult case like this once before and did the same thing.
Feed the press with the right information and then when needed,
deliberately release an incorrect message.
- It works. - Right. Really?
They started an internal investigation procedure against you.
That was something else.
No. It's exactly the same thing.
You do what you want. You don't care about anyone. What's up with you?
I thought we were working together.
- How can you be such a knob? - You know what?
Why don't you take a photo of yourself for a change?
What?
Don't just go. You can't walk away from your problems.
Says the great problem solver.
You think you've got it all in hand?
No. But at least I try to find the right way.
By sleeping with your married boss?
Don't get me wrong, girl. I really don't give a shit.
But don't talk about the "right way." There isn't one.
No rules, no justice.
The only way is not to give a shit.
But you still come to work every day.
"Your words are empty. You have achieved nothing."
He makes contact in the middle of the night.
That's in keeping with his character too. Makes him feel superior.
He determines the time.
What should I reply?
Put up some resistance.
WHAT HAVE YOU ACHIEVED THEN?
I AM FEARED. THEY LISTEN TO ME.
Ask him why he kills innocent people, too?
I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING. I KILL THOSE WHO HAVE INCURRED GUILT.
"I'm not a madman, not crazy..."
NOT A PSYCHOPATH.
"Whoever tells this lie to the world..."
"...will be the first to fall."
Tell him he isn't feared enough.
THAT'S WHY THE NEXT VICTIM WILL BE HIGH PROFILE AND POWERFUL.
EVERYTHING IS PREPARED.
Ask to meet him.
No, that's too concrete. That would be a mistake.
It's too soon.
He wants to finally talk to someone about his plans.
We don't know that.
Not yet.
"I'm not a madman, not crazy."
I'm one of you. Please, please listen to me.
He talks of a new time of year,
but he wants recognition now, to be part of a community.
Maybe he does, but he can't achieve it.
He's socially inept.
- He doesn't trust enough yet. - He's about to carry out the next murder.
We won't get a chance like this again.
What? What now?
You've got no plan at all.
Mr. Brunner, offer to help him. Ask if you can meet.
I WANT TO HELP. CAN WE MEET?
KILL A PERSON. ONLY THEN ARE YOU WORTHY.
Now you've got your male bonding.
I warned you.
What you did was negligent.
You analysts are good at talking, but then you withdraw,
and we deal with the mess.
Who'll pull the next body out of the snow? You or me?
If it was down to me, people wouldn't die.
Your lack of professionalism is ruining everything again!
- Like in Breitensee. - Shut your mouth, you bastard!
Who didn't realize for two years that it was the father?
I'm an analyst, not a psychic.
It was my decision. We have to work with what we have.
Sorry.
You know where to find me.
During the chat, he sounded as if someone had irritated him.
He's justifying himself.
"I'm not a madman."
"Whoever tells this lie to the world, will be the first to fall."
Shit.
About the press business...
I'll say it was me.
It's for the best.
So they'd withdraw you from the case? What would that achieve?
No.
Morning.
Ellie, I tried to get hold of you.
- I know. We were in contact with him. - I heard.
Did you work through the night?
It doesn't achieve anything. Really.
- Go home and get some sleep. - It might be too late then.
We won't find him if you two can't think straight.
- Claas... - Ellie, go home.
Get at least four hours' sleep. You too.
- Thomas will take over. - Thanks.
I'll call. And don't you dare work from home.
Dad.
- Hey. - Hello, darling.
This is a surprise.
I just wanted to put this in your fridge. I thought you'd be at work.
- Venison? - Yes. A saddle joint.
That's a lot. Thanks.
Do you want to come in?
No, I don't want to bother you.
You're not bothering me.
You look tired.
Yes, got a lot on.
But it was my choice.
Everything's okay, Dad.
You're always like this.
No matter how stressed you were at school,
the next morning you woke up smiling.
That's not true.
I didn't always smile.
It doesn't matter. It was a long time ago. Dad, I have to work.
Thanks. I'll call you.
JUST CHECKING. ARE YOU ASLEEP YET?
YES, OF COURSE. DREAMING OF YOU.
THE MURDERS DO NOT SURPRISE ME
You need to ask the question:
Why has this spate of murders happened at this time?
Why, under the current government, is a mentally ill person
able to roam freely through the region,
killing innocent people?
We're living in a time, and I'll come back to the Krampus theme,
in which the wicked ones have the say.
The elite set the tone.
Corrupt lobbyists, investors,
unscrupulous politicians, rich thieves.
The wicked ones, who need to be punished?
I'm not talking about punishment.
My thoughts are with the victims' families.
Sorry to get emotional, but this is really terrible.
This girl was full of ideas, full of vitality.
And her life was ended completely indiscriminately.
I find it hard to comprehend.
Listen, I'm no expert. We have our wonderful police force for that,
who are showing their full commitment.
But clearly this must be a madman.
Someone crazy, who kills innocent people. A psychopath.
- Yes? - Have you got the chat transcript?
Yes.
What exactly did the Krampus say in the chat?
He's not crazy...
And what else?
"I'm not a madman, not crazy. Not a psychopath."
But clearly this must be a madman.
Someone crazy, who kills innocent people. A psychopath.
"Whoever tells this lie to the world..."
"...will be the first to fall."
Timon, what? I can't hear you.
What is it?
What?
Oh, please.
- The Mitterhofer group requests entry. - Go ahead.
When the nights start to draw in
When cold encircles the houses
When it's quiet, cold, and frozen
And on the mountain, the snow wind blows
When it is cozy...
I'll tell him, but I can't get him out now.
We can't let this get to people. The mood right now is so good.
This year, too, we're on our way My flock and I
To visit you, that is our goal
I bring you a blessing And will reward those who are good
But those who are bad...
The police rang. There's a serious terror threat.
This is my home game. It's absolutely crucial.
The Lord God bless you the whole year through...
What do you mean you can't reach him?
I'll explain this to him. We have a lead. Tell him there is a threat to his life.
I would say, out of 116 days I was only bad once
Krampus, I'm not lying I'll be better next year
Krampus, please put the switch away
I really liked that poem.
And seeing your eyes shine made me enjoy it even more.
But our future governor of Salzburg needs to mend his ways,
pull himself together a bit next year.
So he doesn't forget straightaway,
the Krampus will now scare him a little.
Call his assistant again, then.
Hässmann refuses to cancel his event.
Damn tourists. Man.
That way.
So, has everyone got one? Everyone?
The distillery owner went to school with my grandfather.
Look. What have we got here?
Thank you!
Get out of the way! Police!
- The police rang again. - Oh, please.
It's definitely a ruse by the opposition.
- Has anything happened? - No.
He's probably on his own. We're nearly at Hässmann's house.
- You're staying at your sister's? - Yes, it's not far.
Number one rule. Family is most important. Off you go. Take care.
What's going on?
Come on.
Shit.
It's somewhere here...
What now?
- Yes? - Mr. Hässmann, police.
- Yes. - How long have you been home?
Why? About ten minutes.
We believe an attempt on your life is planned.
- Noticed anything unusual? - The lights have gone out.
- Stay down here. - Yes.
Dad?
Sorry. I know it's early. Yes.
Good. How are you?
That's good.
I'm on duty.
I should get going.
I just wanted to...
say hello quickly.
Yes.
I love you too, Dad.
Ciao.
- It's our only chance to get to the perp. - That's exactly what you said before.
Did you see that woman?
Did you see what he did to her?
I was there. I was close to her. I should have known he'd still be there.
It was my responsibility.
I understand.
We'll do everything in our power to finally stop this asshole.
But we can't do what you're suggesting. We're the police!
- Why not? - Because there are rules.
- Rules we have to abide by. - Fuck the rules, Claas.
If this gets out,
they'll shut us down.
We won't have achieved anything.
We'll all lose our jobs.
We have to risk it.
We need to find another way.
And?
It's time for you to meet the journalist.
Mr. Turek, you're somewhat of a specialist in this case.
You came up with the term Krampus Killer, and have written articles.
Yes, that's right. But I'm no specialist. I just want to get to the truth.
You have information that there is another missing person.
Is that true?
A person has been missing for a few days.
A member of a local sect. The Six Brothers.
But it hasn't been confirmed that this is the Krampus Killer's next victim.
So he made contact? Just like that?
Early this morning. He sent coordinates through the program.
Just like that?
Claas...
If this ever gets out,
you knew nothing about it.
Shit.
Contact person on the bleachers.
Target person in position.
AHU is ready. Control center ready.
Team two, stand by.
Team five, stand by. Team four, stand by.
L54 approaching from the north.
I repeat: L54 approaching through the north entrance.
White VW Golf. Do you have visual on the license plate?
B-G-L, space, Paula, Zeppelin, seven, nine.
Vehicle check running.
Distance to target person less than 100 meters.
Person is at the trunk. Can you see what he's getting out?
Shit. He's got something.
Red alert. I repeat: red alert.
I've got a clear shot. Standing by.
Hold position.
Shit. It's an angler.
Repeat: it's just an angler.
All teams stand by.