Tatort: Unvergänglich with Batic and Leitmayr: A Farewell for the Ages – Review and Verdict

There are moments on TV that feel like a party you've been looking forward to for years, but also like the funeral of your own self from 20 years ago. The farewell of Ivo Batic and Franz Leitmayr is one of those moments. 35 years, 100 cases – who would have thought that these grumpy, adopted Bavarians would grow so dear to our hearts? It finally happened on Easter Sunday and Monday: The two-part film „Unvergänglich“ aired on the small screen, and I watched both parts. With tears in my eyes, yes, but also with a grin, because these two old pros haven't grown up one bit. Here's my detailed review – a kind of guide through this emotional state of emergency.

From a corpse in a bunker to Captagon madness

The first big question was, of course: How the hell do you let a team like this retire? Director Sven Bohse and writers Johanna Thalmann & Moritz Binder had a damn tough job. The plot kicks off with a pretty grim discovery: Deep beneath Munich, in a utility company bunker, the charred body of a woman is found. Classic "Tatort" opening – dark, cold, hopeless. But you quickly realize: The crime story is just the backdrop. The real story is what happens between Batic and Leitmayr on that fine line between colleagues, friends, and an old married couple without the license.

The case leads into the world of shady bed-and-breakfast apartments, a phantom who gets access to other people's keys, and eventually into organized crime involving the stimulant drug Captagon. It's solidly written, but it keeps stalling because the two investigators are constantly getting in their own way. But isn't that exactly what we want to see?

• The plot (Part 1): Investigation of a janitor, a cat-and-mouse game, an arrest – actually, that could be the end. The gentlemen are even officially given a retirement send-off.
• The twist (Part 2): No such luck! The key witness suddenly resurfaces, it turns out much bigger players are involved – and suddenly Batic and Leitmayr are private citizens without their badges, investigating on their own.

A guide to the emotional world of two grumpy old men

How do you actually use „Unvergänglich“ (Imperishable) in everyday life? Ask the ad folks, and they'd apply it to a diamond. But here, with Batic and Leitmayr, it's the friendship that neither can bring themselves to name. In a key scene from the first part, Batic has no place to stay for the night. Leitmayr is panicked that the old man might want to crash on his couch. So he just keeps talking about when he'll finally be able to move his suitcase out of the apartment. It's tragicomic, it's pathetic – and it's so endlessly human.

That's the real value of this two-parter. Not the resolution of the Captagon ring, not the action. But the silence in which the two men of their generation finally realize they love each other – without ever saying it. Leitmayr buys an old Porsche he can't fix. Batic flees to Croatia, flirts with a mature woman, only to find out the grandma would rather go swimming with her grandkids. The world out there isn't for them. Only together, fighting against the younger generation (embodied by Ferdinand Hofer as their annoyed successor, Kalli), do they find their place.

Why the creators kept the ending under wraps (spoiler alert for your feelings)

You know that the people behind the film kept the last five minutes of the second part under wraps. I tell you: That was clever. Because in that final quarter of an hour, it's decided whether we'll be crying or laughing in front of the TV. Without giving too much away: It's not the expected action-packed exit with a heroic death (that would have been a cliché, as Leitmayr dryly notes himself). Instead, it's a quiet, almost humble „goodbye“. The two sit down together one more time, there's one last, wonderfully awkward moment of affection – and then it's over. Full stop. The end. Done.

The many guest appearances by familiar faces (Lisa Wagner as Christine Lerch or Michael Fitz as Carlo Menzinger) are the icing on the cake for die-hard fans. If you don't know these characters, you might miss a bit of the subtext – but for everyone else, „Unvergänglich“ is a worthy, quirky, and surprisingly wise swan song for an era. That's how you say goodbye. A score of 7 out of 10 – but for the heart, a solid 10.