4 Women and a Funeral Episode 2 - Fog Soup
Yes, Henriette.
Spoiler-free summary: the Funeral Ladies are investigating the death of Karlheinz Gruber, director of the local bank: he had an accident while hiking, but Julie (of course) doesn't believe it. Also, Gruber's untimely passing seems related to a handsome stranger who arrives in Dorf-Ilm, stealing the hearts of all the women in the village.
SPOILER:
Just like in the first episode, the scenes of the Funeral Ladies are intercut with scenes of two people wading through a thick fog on a mountain path.
But one of them slips and, apparently, falls.
The consequences of that slip is that Julie, Henriette, Maria and Sabine are preparing for the funeral of the poor victim, Karlheinz Gruber, director of the local bank. This time they are carpooling with Franzi, who has uncharacteristically accepted to accompaign them to the church. But they are late, since Julie refuses to sit in the back seat because she suffers of motion sickness.
After a lot of cajoling Julie boards the car, but the ride is not easy and they are even more late now because it seems that Franzi doesn't know the neighborhood of his own town.
Between his mother who berates him because he should have turned right, Henriette who asks him to change gear and Julie on the brink of losing her breakfast, Franzi is distracted enough that he risks to run over the funeral procession that is coming, on foot, from the opposite direction. Cue terrorized screams and a (almost unsuccessful) try to stop the car.
(LOL)
The pallbearers leave the casket to save their lives, and Franzi's car hits it sending it down the hill, with the majority of the funeral party chasing it.
(LOL)
The casket then flies over the head of poor, unsuspecting postman Toni,
(LOL) to end its run into a nearby canal.
Firefighters are called to recover the casket, everybody is sadder than before, but Julie and Henriette are always willing to see positive things even into the worst outcomes.
Then the group listens to the widow, Renate, who recounts the accident her husband incurred into: they were taking a walk on one of the mountain paths that circle Dorf-Ilm, and the weather was terrible, a thick fog shrouded everything and it was almost impossible to see where they where going.
Karlheinz slipped and fell down a ravine, and when they found him at the bottom he was so mangled that they recognized him only because of his shoes.
Maria remarks that he had two accidents in one week, that's shit luck. Of course Julie has her opinion about it:
then she proceeds to explain that Karlheinz was too experienced, too knowledgeable to fall to his death in that ridiculous way. Of course she doesn't want to offend Renate, but...
"Are you insinuating that my husband's death is not an accident?"
Of course she is. But she didn't say anything and, oh look, the casket fell into the canal again. Shit luck.
A few days later, the Funeral Ladies decide to take a walk on the same path where Gruber died.
I added this image just to show that Dorf-Ilm is near a lake.
Julie comments that this view may be blessed by the Lord, but weird things are happening here. Of course the widow is the first suspect, and Maria jokes that Julie should be a suspect too, since her husband died in an accident. This is the first mention of what will become a running joke throughout the first season, the death of Gustav, Julie's husband. He fell into a silo full of wheat and died, but in the next episodes we'll learn that he also fell from his tractor, was bitten by a tick and so on.
Anyway, Gruber had a lot of money he had earned with a couple of lucky investments, the main one in some brand of energy drinks, so his wife could have killed him for the inheritance. But that's just speculation, the only sure thing is that the path is so well beaten that it's impossible to lose it and fall into the ravine.
While they are walking they come across a handsome stranger, and they see him a few minutes later descending into the ravine where Gruber fell, as if he's looking for something.
The next day Henriette visits Maria at her bar, announcing that Renate is toasted.
Evidently the Grubers weren't doing so well, since it's impossible they didn't knew their investment in the energy drink company was lost.
Andy, who is there drinking with Franzy, doesn't like the two women's speculations. They ignore him and go immediately to the bank.
They strike a conversation with one of the clerks, saying that Salchegger, the owner of the inn, is seriously ill: a melanoma as big as a melon. It's a lie, of course, but they use it to nonchalantly ask about Gruber's private account. The clerk (ignoring the bank policy about privacy) says that the man, a couple of days before his accident, transferred a lot of money on a Swiss bank account. While they are leaving, Henriette takes a decision about her funds:
In the meantime, the news about Salchegger's misfortune have started to spread around the village, postman Tony is very sad when he learns about his friend's illness, but he swears he won't tell anyone. Even to Salchegger, lol.
Henriette is at the inn to update Julie and Sabine about what she and Maria heard from the clerk. Now the question is: who will take the money that Gruber managed to save? Renate or the creditors of the failed company? Apparently the two millions are blocked, only his wife will be able to touch them. And Julie remarks that he choose a very convenient moment to die: it's just too obvious, Julie is convinced that there's something else going on.
They are interrupted by the new Salchegger's employee: it's the handsome stranger they met during her walk. They're so overwhelmed by his presence that they forget how to talk coherently:
(LOL)
Sabine manages to free herself from his charms, and leaves her friends with him, who manages to convince them to order an apple strudel.
Julie thinks that this new, handsome addition to the staff deserves all her attention, so she calls Salchegger over to question him. Unfortunately, the first thing she does is asking the man how he's doing, and he is VERY displeased.
(LOL)
His mom called him and reprimanded him because he didn't tell her he has cancer. But he's perfectly healthy, and he has no idea why people keep to make so much fuss about a wart (that has been removed, by the way).
Julie then asks about his new waiter, and Salchegger tells her that since that young man is there, his earnings increased by 80%. And female clients all order the apple strudel.
Salchegger tells the two friends that the man is called Ahmet, and he's from Kossovo but he has lived in Austria for years. He arrived a couple of days earlier and asked for a job. He hired him on the spot, because he's very busy: he plans to expand the inn. He can do it because the bank granted him the loan he needed, after Gruber died he has been replaced by somebody that is more 'elastic' about loans. He's also beginning to warm up to Ahmet: not only the young man works hard, he also loves hiking, he takes a walk whenever he has time.
He bids Julie and Henriette goodbye because he has a lot of things to do, but he is interrupted by somebody calling him asking if he has AIDS. He's fuming, who the fuck spread those rumors?
And in that moment Maria arrives and ask Salchegger how he's doing.
That evening, Franzi is educating Rocco about the important things in life: car models.
Also, they're important pieces of a collection, so Rocco can't play with them. Sabine observes that if the kid can't touch them then they're as useless as Franzi, then proceeds to throw him out because his time of visitation has ended.
Franzi asks her if he can stay the night, and she says it's a good idea: she will spend the evening with her friends at Henriette's house, and him will babysit Rocco.
While Julie drives her car to the appointment, she is overtaken by a car driven by Gruber's wife. Ahmet is with her. Now she's sure she has solved the case, and she tells Sabine as soon as she sees her.
Henriette and Maria, who started without them, are already drunk. Maria says the killer is Salchegger, Henriette supports the accident theory, while Julie and Sabine insist that Ahmet killed Gruber on Renate's orders, because evidently Ahmet and the widow have a secret affair.
Maria is sure Salchegger did it. He had money issues, without Gruber he got the loan he desperately wanted, now he can restore and expand the inn. So he hired Ahmet to do the deed. Hearing that, Julie wonders why a man with a couple of months to live would do that. Everybody and their mom know that Valentin Salchegger has a brain tumor. Maria admits the lie, while Henriette is still convinced it was an accident.
Annoyed, Julie announces that they will follow two different investigative paths and leaves with Sabine.
The next day Ahmet enters a seemingly abandoned shack on the mountains, and searches a backpack he found there, finding a couple of items he seems to recognize. He doesn't look happy.
At the village, Franzi is helping Salchegger with the measurements for the new wing of the inn. Maria asks him about Gruber again, and it's evident that Valentin held a pretty big grudge toward the late bank director, he even admits it. He's so incensed that he hits Franzi's hand with the hammer he was using to plant a pegs. Maria is not impressed. While Salchegger and Franzi are busy, she slips a letter inside the cash register of the inn.
Maria joins Henriette at her house. Poor Henriette is so hangover that he took refuge in her cellar, where it's dark and silent, trying to ignore all the bottles around her. She's pretty annoyed because Maria is as fresh as a rose.
Maria announces that she found the assassin: it's Salchegger, he basically confessed. She left him a letter that says they know everything, and that he is invited in the shack of Gruber's garden. If he goes, it means that he is the killer. Maria asks Henriette to help her, but her friend is just too hangover.
Julie is on the same wavelenght, because that night she enters the Grubers' property to investigate, hoping she will be able to catch Renate and Achmed red-handed. She is so focused on her mission that she falls into the pond in the middle of the garden.
(LOL)
And thank god for that because Renate, who is crossing the lawn with a wine bottle and in an excellent mood, can't see her while she passes. Singing, she enters the shack.
Julie sees two shadows embracing, this is evidently the place where the two lovers use to consummate their adulterous relationship, so she tries to leave the pond to catch them.
At the inn, Ahmet is closing, and he finds Maria's letter in the cash register.
"We know everything. Come at Gruber's shack at midnight."
In the same moment Julie is preparing to surprise the two lovers,
but she hears a noise. The noise is heard by Renate too, and she exits the shack to check, so Julie runs to hide. She listens to Renate talking with the person inside the shack calling them 'love', that's a pretty damning evidence. Renate goes back into the house, and now Julie is burning with curiosity to see who the mystery man is...even though she has already a pretty good idea of his identity.
The noise was made by Maria and Henriette who are trying to climb over the Grubers' fence. Henriette, who's still hangover, curses the moment when she decided that following Maria was a good idea.
But her friend is sure that they will catch the killer, aka Salchegger.
And in that moment Ahmet enters the Grubers' garden, silently followed by Sabine who noticed his circumspect attitude and decided to stalk him. The stage is ready for beautiful scene of chaos.
I can only imagine Julie's surprise when she sees him walking towards the shack when she was convinced he was inside it.
On the other hand, Maria believes that Salchegger is so coward that he sent his killer. Ahmet enters the shack and sound of fighting and a scream are heard. A man dressed in dark clothes rund away, and when the funeral ladies enter the shack they find Ahmet dead.
Julie retrieve's Ahmet's passport and a couple of other documents, then they decide to call the police saying they were taking a walk and heard a noise, so they decided to investigate. Even though it isn't plausible, Sabine is convinced that Andi will believe their story.
At the same time, the mysterious man with dark clothes is still running, hiking on the mountains around Dorf-Ilm.
So the Funeral Ladies called the police, and Andi's stomach doesn't handle the crime scene very well: he's so disgusted that he starts to puke in a flowerbed.
While he tries to do the first examination of the crime scene, the four friends understand that they have to rethink their theories: somebody was lovey-dovey with Renate in the shack and poor Ahmet, who wasn't Renate's lover, was killed when he learned that person's identity.
But something doesn't add up: Maria left an anonymous letter to Salchegger, not Ahmet. Why did that young man come at Gruber's at the agreed time? Evidently he found the letter and came because he wanted informations, but what he wanted to know is still a mystery. Also, Renate lied, because she said she woke up because of the noise.
Since Andi doesn't know what he's doing, the Funeral Ladies will take the case.
The next day Dalina, Henriette's Kosovian maid, translates the documents Julie took from Ahmet's corpse: they are two letters from Rahim, Ahmet's brother.
Rahim ran to Austria because he killed a man in a car accident, and feared that the family of the man he accidentally killed would take revenge on him.
But he was negated asylum, so he began to live in hiding and wrote to his brother, who lived in Austria for years, to help him. He revealed that he was hiding in a shack on the Dorf-Ilm mountains, that's why Ahmet hiked so much, he was looking for his brother. But now, where's Rahim?
Sabine is stalking Renate, and the best place to do it is her aunt Martha's home: with the excuse to visit her, she surveils Renate's house until she sees her leaving the building in full hiking gear. She alerts the group and goes. So Henriette, Julie and Maria thank Dalina for her help and hurry toward the mountains hoping to catch Renate.
Sadly, the weather is complicating the chase, a thick fog is covering the mountain and they risk to get lost, morover, they aren't ready for a difficult hike.
They arrive at an old, abandoned shack that had been used as a refuge, and Julie insist to enter, armed with her old signal gun. But when the door of the shack opens, she panics and shoots. The interior of the refuge begins to burn and who does exit it?
The Grubers. Karlheinz is alive and well, and he and his wife have a lot of things to explain.
So, they heard Rahim's scream of terror in the fog, and they found him at the bottom of a ravine, he was completely disfigured because of the damages he took. Since he had been dead for a few minutes, they decided to use his corpse to simulate Karlheinz's death, take the money he managed to save and leave the country, solving their money issues.
But what was Renate doing with Ahmet? Well, she just gave him a ride to the village, because his car didn't work. And when Karlheinz saw him entering the shack he hit him on the head and ran away. He didn't want to kill him.
So the Gruber begin to follow the funeral ladies towards Dorf-Ilm, to explain everything to the police. But of course they don't want to go to jail, so they run for it.
The Ladies call them, to no avail. Tired and discouraged, the four friends decide to go back home.
Another day, another funeral: now the two brothers are resting together in Dorf-Ilm cemetery.
The Funeral Ladies payed for the ceremony and the tomb, because it was the right thing to do. The Grubers are still on the run, who knows where they are or if they will be caught. Truth is, everybody receive what they deserve and greed is a hungry beast, incredibly difficult to tame.
This time the funeral banquet is offered by Salchegger. And what will the participants eat? Apple strudel, of course.











