This article contains spoilers for Money Heist: Berlin episode 4, "An Aquarium on Your Back".
Berlin is a thrilling prequel to Netflix's popular Money Heist franchise. The eight-episode series delves into Berlin's (Pedro Alonso) past, casting us back in time to a daring Parisian auction house heist mission.
In episode 4, the team finally gets their hands on the jewels. However, thanks to a disagreement inside the vault, the team almost got caught in the act. And the problems didn't stop there, either; despite managing to cover their tracks at the auction house as planned, Bruce's missing motorbike lands some of the team in hot water.
Here's a full recap of how Money Heist: Berlin episode 4 played out.
A near miss
Berlin returns from his romantic getaway and reunites with the team to carry out the heist as the final jewels are deposited. Whilst they're making their way through the tunnel, Damián chides Berlin for disappearing for two full days. Berlin tersely responds by asking if Damián has removed the cameras from Polignac's apartment yet. Since they weren't expecting to have to break in for a couple more days, he hasn't; Berlin says he'll get rid of them even though it wasn't his job.
With Keila playing the pre-recorded footage of the vault over the CCTV monitors, the team is free to carry out the plan and get inside the vault. Whilst she's on overwatch, the rest of the crew begin retrieving the jewels from the deposit boxes, calling out their item numbers so Keila can tick them off.
Whilst inside, Damián (still reeling from the breakdown of his marriage) challenges Berlin about destroying Camille's relationship with Polignac. And when Berlin suggests his affair was more passionate than Damián's marriage, the professor snaps and slams him up against the vault door.
This almost spells disaster for the crew, as the deposit box Berlin was holding tumbles out of his hands... and Polignac overhears the sound outside as he's signing the deposits off at the security desk. Although the guard says he didn't hear or see anything, Polignac has him enter the antechamber (since there's a delay whilst the vault door seals) to check everything's okay. Bruce and Cameron scramble to close the gaps in both the rear wall and the vault's "back door", managing to do so just in time for the guard to see nothing looks to be amiss.
With that near miss out of the way, Polignac heads home, and the crew finishes bagging the remaining jewelry after Damián assures Berlin he won't be coming on another of Berlin's jobs and begins the next phase of the plan: hiding all the evidence they were ever inside Chez Vienot. Roi and Berlin take the jewels back to their hotel, leaving the rest of the crew behind to weld the walls and steel joints they could through, and to brick up their heist equipment inside their tunnels in the catacombs, using antique bricks to make it look like the walls remain undisturbed.
Plotting revenge
At the hotel, Berlin takes Roi with him to Polignac's apartment. He administers the chloroform to Polignac, and the pair set about removing the cameras. Berlin tells Roi he'll deal with the cameras in Polignac's bedroom. Before leaving, Roi tells Berlin he thinks Damián is right, and that his affair threatens to compromise the job (chloroforming Polignac wasn't in the original plan until Berlin felt slighted by the man, after all).
Berlin tells Roi never to judge him and sends the young man packing. However, Berlin retrieves the keys to Polignac's car, and borrows his hat and coat, and speeds off to the cottage he and Camille own in Chantilly. There, Berlin plants one of the individual gems from one of the stolen necklaces; it looks like he's trying to frame his love rival for the entire theft!
Meanwhile, the rest of the crew continues to cover their tracks. A snapshot from their planning meeting sees Keila ask when they plan to remove her CCTV bypass, as this will obviously show the real camera feeds. As you'd expect, Damián and Berlin have planned for this, too.
In the middle of the night, they connect the auction house directly to the high-voltage power cable underneath the streets of Paris, which completely fries the place's electronics. Plus, Keila is put in charge of masquerading as the security team's boss and ordering them to assist elsewhere so they can't detect any foul play.
With the power out, they're free to remove Keila's technical wizardry without anyone noticing any changes to the camera feeds. What's more, the power outage also disables the system that opens the vault doors. And since they plan to do this at 3 am, and the security team won't be able to get hold of the vault technicians (who are based in Geneva), this gives them the necessary time to finish covering their tracks.
Once they've left Chez Vienot behind, everyone's given strict instructions on how they're going to leave. They are sent back to the hotel in separate groups, and are told to thoroughly clean their rooms from top to bottom (to avoid leaving DNA traces behind) and to stay in their rooms all night, before checking out (again, separately) in the following morning.
A loose end
That plan sounds watertight, but there's the small problem of Bruce's missing motorbike, and the fact that he's in the computer system at the rental place. He swings by Keila and Cameron's room and talks Keila into helping him break into the office so she can hack the system and delete his files.
To avoid Berlin's ire Bruce brings Keila back to his and Roi's room, and tells Roi to leave since they're going to hook up as a cover so they can sneak out. This leaves Roi at a loose end; initially, he approaches Damián (who is hard at work sealing the jewels in inconspicuous parcels and packages) and asks if he can stay with him, but Damián refuses. Subsequently, Roi resorts to staying with Cameron, but she talks Roi into celebrating their successful gig with her.
The episode wraps up with Keila and Bruce's misadventure. The pair break in, and Keila hacks into the computer system and starts hunting for the scanned image of Bruce's passport. Unfortunately, Bruce spots that there are several workers sitting downstairs playing poker... and a security worker spots Bruce skulking around.
The security officer comes upstairs to find Keila (who has hurriedly donned a uniform) pretending to be the new girl on the team. She says she came in early to get a head start on her first day, and asks the security guard to make her some coffee, all while Bruce is hiding under the desk.
Although the guard miraculously buys her explanation, things soon get much, much worse for the pair. The rest of the poker players come upstairs and settle in, opening beers and reheating leftovers and quizzing Keila over her commitment to the job. Keila finally finds Bruce's passport scan on the hard drive, but is unable to delete it from the system. Hearing she's having computer problems, the guard helpfully offers to unplug the machine to reboot it. So, he reaches down under the desk... and finds Bruce in his hiding spot.
Money Heist: Berlin is now streaming on Netflix. For even more TV to enjoy, check out our picks of the best Netflix shows we think you should be streaming right now.
