Berlin – Season 1 Episode 4 “An Aquarium on Your Back” Recap & Review

An Aquarium on Your Back

Episode 4 of Berlin starts with Berlin arriving at the church just in time for the heist. Meanwhile, François is just wrapping up placing the jewels in the vault. As expected, Damián is a bit antsy since he knows Berlin is late because of his affair with Camille. 

Nonetheless, the hustle must go on, and they have 15 hours before the vault is opened again to steal the jewels and clean up after themselves. With everything in place, the gang enters the vault and starts packing the goods. However, Damián is taking his divorce frustrations out on Berlin.

Berlin asks him to stop acting like a jealous girlfriend. Berlin wants to finish the work, head to François’s apartment, and remove the cameras they hid. Damián didn’t have the time to do it as their heist was moved up by two days.

With Keila on the computers, the gang suits up and enters the vault while François finishes signing some papers. The tension between Damián and Berlin heightens and almost turns physical.

Damián believes the affair is worthless and accuses Berlin of ruining François’s marriage. He says Berlin is lying to Camille and is selfish. Words are exchanged, and a  scuffle ensues as Damián pushes Berlin against the wall, creating a sound that François hears. Everyone in the vault freezes.

The guard ignores the sound, saying it is probably metal expanding. The guard explains they can’t open the vault for another fifteen minutes, but François insists on opening the antechamber to see if everything is okay. Keila quickly informs Bruce and Cameron to shut down their operations.

The two immediately take action, locking up everything, and the guard finds nothing suspicious. He reports to François that all is well and asks if he would like to override the vault lock. However, a call distracts François, and he says it won’t be necessary. He leaves the building, confident that his jewels are safe.

The gang quickly picks up where they left off, but Damián informs Berlin that they will never work together again. With the jewels secured, Roi and Berlin return to the hotel while the rest dismantle the set-up. They have 4 hours to leave everything as they found it.  

Roi puts all the jewels in Damián’s room at the hotel before heading out with Berlin to François’s apartment. The plan is to set it up and make François look suspicious.

At the condo, Berlin drugs François with chloroform before removing the cameras and any trace they might have left behind. Roi confronts Berlin about drugging François as it was not part of the plan. Berlin quickly puts him in his place and tells him never to question or judge him again.

After taking out the cameras, Berlin takes François’s car to one of their houses in Chantilly and sets him up by leaving some damning evidence behind. On his way back, he sees the guards trying to reach François.

In the meantime, the rest of the team clean and remove any trace of their presence by making it look like they never entered the vault. They cover up the hole and return everything the way it was. Lastly, they work on their  plan to cause a power outage to buy time to remove the security cam relays.

They take out one of the high-voltage power lines under the auction house for this part of the plan. They create a slight diversion ahead of the power outage by pretending to be from the headquarters and asking for help. The guards leave their post to check on the issue, and the gang finish up on their heist.

The power outage disables the surveillance system at the auction house and the system that opens the vault doors. This forces the guards to call for the technicians. The gang is counting on the technicians from Geneva arriving and the vault being opened within six to seven hours. By then, they will be done removing their traces.

The team leaves after sealing every entrance they used in the successful heist. They return to their hotels in separate groups.

Berlin orders the team to remain in their rooms and thoroughly clean them so as to not leave any evidence behind. He informs them they will check out separately between 9 and 10  in the morning to avoid any suspicion. Damián is tasked with cleaning all the jewels. 

Unfortunately, Bruce has a loose end and recruits Keila’s help to handle it. They pretend they need privacy to sleep together, but Bruce asks Keila to help him delete his passport entry in the bike rental place. He is anxious that if the police look into the bike, they will find his picture, and he will get nabbed. They sneak into the car rental shop and delete Bruce’s passport. 

However, the plan goes awry when they sneak in and some guards are present. Keila pretends she is replacing the sick accountant while Bruce hides under her desk. She is about to make it out, but the computer refuses to delete the passport, and the guard offers to help. Only when he bends over to show her the ‘trick’ he finds himself staring right into Bruce’s eyes.

Back at the hotel, Cameron calls her ex but decides not to leave a message. She is interrupted by Roi, who is pissed after Bruce kicked him out of their room to ‘sleep with Keila’ and Damián lashed out at him.

Roi insists on sleeping in Cameron’s room, and they bond over his tattoo. Cameron is fascinated by the octopus tattoo on Roi’s back. She teases Roi, and he decides he is done following Berlin’s orders.

The Episode Review

It is evident that Damián is tripping after learning about his wife’s alleged affair. It is part of the reason he can’t stand Berlin. Now that the heist is done, maybe he can go home and try to fix his marriage.

On the other hand, Berlin, as always, is letting his emotions get the best of him. His plan for François might come to bite him in the end. He needs to separate his feelings from his work to protect the team. 

The episode ended on a cliffhanger, and we don’t know if Bruce and Keila will manage to get out of the twist they are in. We also don’t know if the gang totally wiped out all evidence and tied up all loose ends. If one of them messed up, then it is endgame for them all… and it will not be the Taylor Swift kind.