Familie Bundschuh - Unter Verschluss (2022)

The story begins with the dress rehearsal for a reading of Hadi’s latest book, which is about the history of their own house. It was built on the foundations of a medieval castle, where the lord of the castle, Roderich, is said to have killed his brother Friedenand and buried him in the courtyard. When Hadi contracts COVID-19, the whole family suddenly has to quarantine. He remains isolated in one room, while the other family members are allowed to leave the house because they tested negative. However, Gundula and Gerald’s first holiday in 25 years of marriage, a trip to the Maldives, has to be cancelled because of the quarantine. Heartbroken that Gerald is only thinking about getting their money refunded, Gundula quickly decides to recreate the holiday atmosphere in their own bedroom with a film projector, cocktails and a flower lei—and to go on a holiday-related household strike. While the rest of the family suffers through Rose’s cooking attempts and Gundula’s strike, Hadi sits alone in his room and watches a strange man walking through their garden at night. Because of his illness and the resulting high fever, he begins to have wild hallucinations and thinks the stranger is the spirit of the deceased Friedenand. He draws a circle of salt around his bed and repeatedly tries to convince his wife that the spirit exists. One night, Gerald hears music and follows it, discovering that two bottles of prosecco and some eggs are missing from the fridge. In the basement, he finds his mother Susanne with a man and recognizes him as Carlo Jonker, an old lover of hers. When Gundula joins them, Gerald admits that he knows Carlo but refuses to comment on their relationship. It also emerges that, after many years without contact, Susanne had run into Carlo by chance while shopping and then arranged for him to stay at the family home. Now that Carlo has been listed as a close contact, he too has to spend several days in quarantine at the Bundschuh home, much to Gerald’s displeasure. Carlo is also the man Hadi saw at night: he had sneaked onto the Bundschuhs’ property to meet Susanne. Over dinner together, Susanne and Carlo tell the family how they met on Ibiza in the 1960s and then lost touch, before meeting again shortly before Gerald’s 15th birthday. During that time, Susanne had several brief affairs, so she has to admit that she does not know for certain who Gerald’s father is. Gundula, however, suspects that Carlo might be his father, so she collects the dinner napkins and has a paternity test done. At the end of the episode, she gives Gerald the result, which he burns without reading: because of his mother’s past and the resulting emotional harm, he does not want an answer to the question. Carlo has since left the family without leaving a message. In a subplot, Matz has fallen in love with the new girl at school, Paula, but the quarantine has so far prevented them from developing a closer relationship.