'Hunters' Episode 4: Jonah begins to comprehend the magnitude of Holocaust after Meyer's Zurich Bank mission
Spoiler alert for 'Hunters' Episode 4
Love blooms in the time of war, it makes a space for itself despite the horrors of death and mayhem and brings with it a ray of light -- hope. In 'Hunters', we see this love meet a hopeless end, even as it builds up to seem like the lovers are ready to ride into the sunset soon. It serves as a slap that wakes us up to the reality of living through the Holocaust. Sure, some of them might have succeeded in escaping the horror, but the resulting trauma of such experiences would have had an irreparable influence over their lives.
In 'Hunters' Episode 4 we see how a love story between Jacob and Helen who lived as prisoners in Nazi camps can influence the life of a kid who has recently experienced heartbreaking losses. This love story with an unhappy ending symbolically gives Jonah Heidelbaum the push he needs to understand the difference between wanting revenge and wanting justice.
The episode begins with a male prisoner who is an engineer and a female prisoner who is a tailor glancing at each other from across different rooms. Then the lady places a piece of cloth with her name embroidered on it, and the man draws the lady a portrait of her with his name under it. This is Jacob and Helen and their love story unfolds in bits and pieces as the episode progresses.
In the present, we see Jonah and his friend get questioned by the same detective who investigated Ruth's (Jeannie Berlin) murder. This is after Jonah (Logan Lerman) arrived at the comic book store to find his friend Arthur (Caleb Emery) shot twice. Somehow, Jonah realizes that if it weren't for him, Arthur would still be alive and the guilt is ripping him apart. He sees the only way out of this is to exact revenge from the man who shot Arthur. He did tell the detective that he could remember details about the man who shot Arthur despite arriving just seconds after he was shot and seeing the man walk out of the store.
However, he expects Meyer (Al Pacino) to help him exact his revenge. Not surprisingly, Meyer doesn't agree. This is because he feels that Jonah is a lot more driven by his personal anger and has no understanding of the cause. He tells Jonah that seeking justice for the millions who died should come before seeking revenge. Jonah is only seething with anger and initially doesn't even understand what Meyer is talking about. When Jonah tells Meyer that he is going after the man who killed Arthur with or without his help, Meyer is conflicted and for now, convinces Jonah to help them find a secret vault in a Zurich bank which can lead them to the truth of what the evil Colonel has planned.
In the process of fulfilling this assignment, Jonah learns a little bit more about his grandma from her time as a prisoner and how she too had been filled with guilt for having been the cause of a friend getting hurt. He also learns that there is more to Meyer, the Bruce Wayne-like rich guy, than he is letting on. The biggest lesson Jonah learned, however, is the importance of treating the events of the Holocaust not like a lesson from his history book, but to let it register that it was an experience that encompassed various attempts to erase the identity of an entire section of world's population based on religion.
It is important to understand the weight of this, and by weaving in a tale of lost love from the past; the episode captures this heavy feeling brilliantly. It is a ring that Jacob had wanted to give Helen which as a moment has us catching our breath. In the past, Jacob had got the ring from his mother as it was an heirloom passed down for generations. He had snuggled it through many layers of security in the camp. After having fallen in love with Helen, Jacob planned the perfect escape so that he can propose and the two could live happily ever after. On the day of escape, Jacob gets shot and the ring that he had wanted to put on Helen's finger never got a chance to shine.
In the present, Jonah finds this ring among other treasures that the Nazis had stolen from the Jewish people. All of it -- expensive china, silverware, painting, jewelry -- has been hidden in a secret vault at the Zurich bank that the Hunters were chasing. When the others lose their calm after finding so many life stories hidden in a vault, Jonah finally understands the magnitude of how horrible it must have been for his grandmother Ruth, Meyer, and the others who lived during Adolf Hitler's reign of terror.
The dawn of this understanding is the golden moment of the show so far.
Watch 'Hunters' Episode 4 on Amazon Prime Video from February 21.