‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’ Recap: ‘Episode 4’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ -- Episode 104 -- Pictured: (l-r) Harvey Keitel as Lali Sokolov & Melanie Lynskey as Heather Morris in the Melbourne apartment -- (Photo by: Martin Mlaka/Sky UK)

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Four of ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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For the most part, stories about the Holocaust, that present that awful time in human history in a no-holds barred manner… are unapologetic in their approach and rightfully so. Because there’s no need to sugar coat such atrocities, nor is there license to apologize for what we will see. For we need to know what the little mustached man ordered in the hopes of never having such awful acts take place ever again. But make no mistake about it, these stories are hard to sit through and they do have an emotional and psychological impact upon us that should be acknowledged in some form or fashion and that is why the next episode of The Tattooist of Auschwitz on Peacock, is of note.

Simply because the next chapter in this story, took the time to acknowledge those very truths and offered the audience some advice on how best to handle this content, via Lali and Heather in present day. Who, we haven’t discussed all that much because of the show’s hard focus on the past, but let’s take a moment and acknowledge how Harvey Keitel (Lali) and Melanie Lynskey (Heather) have done a phenomenal job here, and have sold the reflective power of this story, and here… they helped us to cope. Because Heather was struggling with the stories she was being told and had a panic attack over them. Which prompted her to speak out about how she needed time to decompress and needed time to write and stay away from this story if it got too overwhelming. 

A move that definitely spoke to the audience and possibly served as a warning. Because it would seem, the story only gets darker from here. So, the show does deserve a round of applause for informing us to process this as best we can, and at a pace that doesn’t leave us overwhelmed and yes… to be prepared for what lie ahead. Because this episode, featured some downright awful darkness. Since we came to learn that Lali was locked away and beaten in an attempt to get names out of him. Because the SS wanted to hold more people accountable for the smuggling that was going on in the camp, giving rise to real suffering for Lali and real panic for Gita. Who was forced to put together who might be able to help her to save her love, to keep that hope alive and well, her plan to free him from such darkness worked and brought a little light back to the camp.

Since their love continued to burn brightly, despite the fact… that things began to fall apart inside of Auschwitz. Because on a consistent basis, strange behaviors from the SS were exhibited in this tale. To the point where forces were consistently shifted about in a panic to various parts of the camp, and of course… there was wholesale slaughter taking place within its horrifying walls. The kind that nearly broke Lali since he watched everyone that lived in his complex disappear one night, never to return. Leaving all of us to wonder why the sudden surge in cruelty took place, and well… the closing moments of this tale hinted at that. Since we saw a bomber in the sky, one that resembled a United States Air Force Flying Fortress. Which may mean, the end of the war is near and more hard times await.

After all, the appearance of those planes accompanied the fall of the Luftwaffe, which brought about massive prisoner shifts via the SS in World War II, as the Nazi regime tried desperately to use those captured as bargaining chips as the Reich crumbled. But while we wait to see if that was just a harbinger of things to come, or the arrival of the Allied Forces, we can revel in the wonder of one honest and brutal tale. One that finally acknowledged how hard this story is to hear and how ugly these actions were, and it was refreshing to see and hear a show acknowledge this at last and help us to prepare for the ugly ahead. Because regardless of the fact that the death of that little idiot and the end of the Reich await, the Nazis didn’t go down without a fight and without imparting more pain upon humanity. Until next time.

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