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Anna Schudt in the final appearance as Martina Bönisch: Her last word is "Du"
Photo: Thomas Kost / WDR / Bavaria Fiction GmbH
It's called the kiss of death.
When detectives and detectives approach each other tenderly in a difficult, dark criminal case, the end of their joint work is almost always sealed.
That's how it was when, last month, after ten years of working together for the Rostock "Police Call" service, Charly Hübner as Commissioner Bukow kissed König, played by Anneke Kim Sarnau.
And that's how it was when Anna Schudt as Commissioner Bönisch after ten years together at the Dortmund "Tatort" snuggled up to her colleague Faber, played by Jörg Hartmann, for three blinks of an eye.
moment of shock for the audience
Things went relatively well for Hübner's Bukow, he sped away in a pick-up towards Siberia of love, but also away from the misery in Rostock.
Hübner had previously announced his exit from the crime series in the SPIEGEL interview.
Schudts Bönisch did not get out of the game safely.
She ended up being shot dead by the killer's sister.
A moment of shock for the audience, because the actress and the responsible broadcaster WDR had not previously discussed the exit.
TV critics who saw the thriller beforehand were asked not to use spoilers.
"You" was the last word the dying investigator said to Faber.
The two had always used first names, even after coming closer.
It was the end of a thriller in which the melodramatic story of closeness and loss had been integrated into an effective psycho-killer plot.
It was about a murderer with a mother complex who killed women who looked like his hated mother and then buried them in a forest cemetery.
And the 1990s band Boyz II Men languished with their »Song For Mama«.
At the same time, the personal stories of the investigators, which sometimes burst somewhat abruptly into the plot in the previous episodes, were cleverly brought together.
It has come full circle
In our review we wrote: »Suddenly everything falls into place – but nothing for the better.
This is the third Dortmund "crime scene" in three months.
Finally, the narrative threads fluttered loosely through the falls, here they are tied together.
For example the sudden longing for closeness of the cynic Faber, which befell him in the November episode ›Masken‹.
Or the one about Bönisch's fateful affair, which was already a topic in »Greed and Fear«.
Torsten C. Fischer, who also staged the elegant last Cologne crime scene, directed it;
the book comes from Jürgen Werner, who started the Dortmund TV area ten years ago.
This closes the circle, this is how horror is taken to the extreme.«
But what's next at the Ruhrpott "crime scene"?
One thing is certain: Anna Schudt should not be replaced by a prominent colleague.
The responsible WDR editor Frank Tönsmann says: "After the death of Martina Bönisch, Faber, Herzog and Pawlak will investigate together for the time being.
Martina Bönisch (and Anna Schudt) cannot be replaced one-to-one.«
A slow crumbling of the Dortmund area, in which there have already been sad goodbyes with the sometimes stormy departures of great people like Stefan Konarske and Aylin Tezel, is also not to be expected.
Hartmann's departure probably meant the end.
But editor Tönsmann assures: »Jörg Hartmann's commitment is as great as ever.
I can assure you that the character of Peter Faber is and will remain an integral part of 'Tatort' Dortmund.«
In fact, actor Hartmann's commitment will be even greater in the future.
He even wrote the screenplay for the next Dortmund crime scene.
Filming is scheduled to begin in the spring.