"Tatort: Unvergänglich" with Batic and Leitmayr: A Farewell for Eternity – Review and Verdict

There are moments on telly 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 to Ivo Batic and Franz Leitmayr is such a moment. 35 years, 100 cases – who would have thought that a couple of grumpy, honorary Bavarians from Munich would grow so close to our hearts? Finally, on Easter Sunday and Monday, the two-part film „Unvergänglich“ aired, and I watched both parts. With tears in my eyes, yes, but also with a grin, because these two old warhorses haven't matured one bit. Here's my detailed review – a sort of guide to this emotional state of emergency.

From a body in a bunker to Captagon madness

The first big question, of course, was: How on earth do you let a team like this retire? Director Sven Bohse and writers Johanna Thalmann & Moritz Binder had a bloody difficult job. Plot-wise, it starts with a rather grim discovery: deep beneath Munich, in a municipal utility bunker, the charred body of a woman is found. Classic "Tatort" opening – gloomy, cold, hopeless. But you soon realise: 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 certificate.

The case leads into the world of dodgy bed-and-breakfast flats, a phantom who gains access to other people's keys, and finally into organised crime involving the stimulant Captagon. It's solidly written, but keeps stalling because the two detectives are constantly getting in their own way. But that's exactly what we want to see, right?

• The plot (Part 1): Investigations into a caretaker, a cat-and-mouse game, an arrest – really, it could end there. The gentlemen are even officially sent off into retirement.
• The twist (Part 2): Not a chance! The main witness suddenly reappears, it turns out there are much bigger fish 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 gits

How do you actually use unvergänglich in everyday life? Ask the ad men, 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 nowhere to stay for the night. Leitmayr is terrified that the old man might want to crash on his sofa. So he just keeps going on about when he can finally move his suitcase out of the flat. It's tragicomic, it's pathetic – and it's so endlessly human.

That's the true value of this two-part episode. Not the resolution of the Captagon ring, not the action. But the silence in which the two men of their generation finally realise 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 lady, only to find that the grandmother would rather go swimming with her grandchildren. Life out there isn't for them. Only together, in the fight against the young (embodied by Ferdinand Hofer as their exasperated successor Kalli), do they find their place.

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

You'll know that the people behind the film kept the last five minutes of the second part under lock and key. I tell you: that was clever. Because in that final quarter of an hour, it's decided whether we're sitting in front of the telly crying or laughing. Without giving too much away: it's not the expected action-packed exit with a heroic death (which would have been a tired cliché, as Leitmayr himself drily notes). Instead, it's a quiet, almost humble "cheerio". 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. Gone.

The many guest appearances from 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 swansong to an era. That's how you do a farewell. 7 out of 10 points – but for the heart, a solid 10.