Summary
Oktoberfest begins and things go very wrong very quickly in “First Tapping”, as multiple plotlines threaten to converge on the way to the finale.
This recap of Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood Season 1 Episode 4, “First Tapping“, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
Check out our spoiler-free season review.
While it wasn’t totally clear in the cliffhanger ending of the previous episode, “First Tapping” reveals that Roman survived his beating at the hands of Prank. It opens with him in quite a state, though, and with his mother tearfully surveying his bloody body in the hospital. She already wanted revenge. Now, well… the prospect of her remaining stable is increasingly unlikely.
Oktoberfest is here, though – all attention is occupied by it, and everyone has an agenda relating to it, including Stifter, who hasn’t come off well in any scenario thus far. With Clara still missing, Prank tasks Golgauer with finding her, though why he trusts this man to accomplish anything at this point is anyone’s guess. As for taking out Maria Hoflinger, well… even Golgauer isn’t that daft.
But tensions are very much rising. During a testy exchange with Stifter, Prank fingers his brass knuckles, presumably believing that now he has used them to solve one of his problems, he can use them to solve more. But the Roman problem isn’t solved, by any means – Maria is more incensed than ever to incite rebellion against Prank and his beer tent, and the proposed prosperity this expansion was supposed to bring to Munich isn’t being widely felt, especially by Colina, who returns to waitressing work in a brothel, where a client invites her back to his home for artistic purposes. (This drawing later makes for good marketing, to Colina’s benefit.)
Speaking of Roman, he eventually leaves the hospital and hurries back home to confront Ludwig, who he understandably believes leaked the information about Clara’s pregnancy, since he was the only person he told. But Maria eventually admits it was her, and far from feeling contrite about this, she’s disgusted by her sons and kicks Roman out.
While Roman looks for Clara, Prank is called away to a council meeting and makes more use of those brass knuckles after all, but it can hardly be seen as a long-term solution to any of his many problems, which come to include extreme pain, hallucinations, collapse, a pulled tooth, and the beer completely running out – the solution to that last problem costs more money, which is another problem. Oktoberfest is, to put things mildly, not going well.
At least Clara and Roman finally reunite, though admittedly after Clara goes looking for a job at the brothel with Colina. It’s all a big mess, and with multiple plotlines threatening to converge and the dwindling days of Oktoberfest – not to mention the eroding beer supplies – making for a useful ticking-clock device, “First Tapping” really feels as though the show is moving towards a climax now.
Thanks for reading our recap of Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood episode 4, “First Tapping”. For more recaps, reviews, and original features covering the world of entertainment, why not follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page?
