Helgoland 513

Okay, come on. And...

And push, push, push, push!

Again.

Breathe. Come on, breathe.

Inhale and exhale. And...

That's it. Come on, push, push.

Breathe, breathe. And push!

Amelie, Amelie, look at me. Look at me. Look at my eyes.

You're doing great. Look at me. Very good, very good.

You're doing great. You can do this.

Look at me, look at me.

That's right.

And again. Yes, that's it. Very good.

And come on. Very good.

Very good. Yes, come on. Again. Push.

Push. Again. Very good. Good.

Look.

Yeah, look here. Your child. Here's your child.

Have a look.

Very good.

It's gorgeous out today, crisp, bright.

Wow! A special day for a special occasion.

And as hard as times can seem for us on this island,

as many challenges we face,

the circle of life never ends.

One new life steps onto the stage, and an old one steps off.

Hakuna Matata.

Raik Kohler, one of us, is sacrificing himself

so that his granddaughter,

so that we all, can live.

There he is, to my right,

the hero of the day about to do his part

for his newborn granddaughter.

Raik Kohler, look at that noble profile.

Raik has a reputation as a real old-school gentleman.

And wow! With the dignity and grace in the face of death

that he is showing today, he is more than living up to his reputation.

I am certain that this welcoming ceremony

will enter the annals of our small island community

and serve us for years as inspiration and precedent.

Marek.

Marek!

It's not over yet.

- What? - Stop, stop, stop, stop!

Stop pushing, Amelie! You've got one more in there.

There's a second child. It's upside down, I have to go in.

I'm going in with my hand now.

I'll help you, I'll help you. It's okay.

I guess in a moment like this I'm supposed to say something meaningful.

And, push. Push with me. Push with me, Amelie!

One more time.

Well, what can I say?

Be kind to one another.

Hey.

We are here for each other.

That is the key to our survival.

Back when we started all this, I said,

"A new era is beginning."

You can never again think only about yourself.

From now on it is not "me," not "you," only "us."

And I promised I'd make the world as close to the world you grew up in as I could.

That one day we would wake up from this nightmare

and have our old lives back.

That was our deal back then, when it all came crashing down.

And I think we've come a long way. We're doing better and better.

We've learned to take responsibility.

We've learned to sacrifice.

Excuse me, but before we throw around more big, noble phrases...

Rather than resorting to the cruelest solution,

what if we allowed this second, unexpected child to join us?

Without sacrificing someone else for it? And we may discover...

This island can't sustain more than 513 lives...

We may discover that one extra person is, in fact, just fine,

that we can actually survive with 514 people.

He's right. It doesn't make a difference.

Okay. Let's say we do it.

We make one exception. Once.

Then everyone's gonna ask, "Why him and not me?"

From then on, everyone will want to be the exception.

And sooner or later, no one will stick to any rules,

and we will be faced with absolute chaos.

Marek, how is it that we didn't know about the second baby?

We have no ultra-sound equipment, as you well know.

Marek, we can't allow ourselves to be tempted by compassion.

All right, time for a vote.

Besides, the number 513 is based on scientific calculations.

Your "scientist" was a retired biology teacher, now dead, so...

I suggest we take more time to think about how we...

Let's vote?

The baby or one of us?

We all have feelings, Marek, but we need to use

our rational judgement when we make such decisions...

And who says this has to be our decision,

- to try and play God? - There is no playing God here.

Somehow you are very sensitive to that charge.

Reason, duty, self-sacrifice.

That's what our community is based on.

Come on, we both know what our community is really based on.

It's not going to do anybody any good to quarrel with the past.

Marek,

we understand you.

You mean well.

After all, it's your job to save lives.

One thing is clear. If we mess this up, there's no do-over.

Let's vote.

Raik loved his schnauzer,

and onion cake was his favorite.

My mother said when she first met Raik,

he looked just like Roger Moore.

Now I see, you don't just have one beautiful little baby here,

but two.

Two new friends.

And this makes for some tough choices.

Beatrice.

- Hello. - Can you comment on the recent events?

Yes, I am sure most of you have already heard,

due to an unforeseen twin birth,

we are currently 514 people on the island.

To correct this, the council will put things to a vote tomorrow.

Yes, so Beatrice, let's get down to brass tacks,

who is at risk of sacrifice tomorrow?

We want names.

Well, this is, as always,

the people's decision,

but if I were at the bottom of the ranking board,

one of the last three spots, let's say,

I'd be getting my things in order.

Okay.

As Beatrice is keen on pointing out...

The ranking, the numbers, are always in flux.

The ever-changing saga of numbers marches on.

But here they are, today's candidates.

- Our man in 511th place... - Do you see that?

I'm 511th. How did I end up at five fucking eleven?

I'm fucking toast!

What do you want? You did total that truck!

What do I want? I want not to die is what.

I'll just refuse to jump.

Yeah, that worked out pretty well for Simon.

Come back here, you bastards! Hey!

They threw him in the sea because he didn't want to jump.

For we 513 are mankind's last hope.

All right, I gotta knock somebody down a peg...

Cool your jets. No dirty tricks. You're gonna move up.

But like nice people move up.

Now for someone consistently ranked at the very bottom of the pile.

Elise Bartels, currently 512th.

We carry the weakest in our society,

but how long can we go on like this?

Grandma, you're on TV! You're on TV!

How long can we support people who have so little to contribute?

And last but not least,

in 513th place, Etienne Wendler,

a criminal who violated all our trust.

Jesus, I can hardly breathe.

Has he paid enough for his crime?

Why me? I work my ass off every day.

Tomorrow will bring clarity.

I'll tell you what story Lola should run with.

"The sacrifice of a mother."

She can only keep one child,

the other has to go.

It's "Sophie's Choice"!

- That movie won Oscars! - Don't be stupid!

We have to think practically.

Morning.

Morning, Marek. Good morning, Linus.

Your mother loved all this business.

- What business? - All the grunt work.

Treating slides, testing samples, even counting cells.

For her this was relaxing.

You take a look at the flu shots we got from the last shipment?

Not yet.

The last few were past expired.

They're fucking with us.

Okay, nobody's perfect, but these are almost rotten.

Everything here is running out.

Maybe there really is no solution, but we definitely won't find one

by pretending we can still get the stuff we need home delivered.

What are you saying?

If there is any chance of getting answers

and beating the virus,

it's not from spinning samples and serums

and injecting a potential vaccine into a rabbit every other week.

Dad.

We need more resources. And those only exist on the mainland.

There is nothing out there but infection and death.

- You know this. - Do I?

Do you? Have you seen what it's really like over there? No.

Because it's too dangerous to go any further.

So we have people for that.

We pay them, so to speak, and they get us what we need.

But that's nothing new.

I don't know why that's so hard to get.

You put all your trust in the mainlanders.

That's what I don't get.

I mean, did they really check all the hospitals

or are they just telling us that?

You want to believe there's some pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,

but that's nonsense.