There are plenty of dark comedies out there that either work brilliantly or don’t. Murder Mindfully, the German Netflix original had the potential to become a great show but unfortunately it fails to touch the mark. The eight-episode show is about a criminal defense lawyer who finds himself using mindfulness techniques to escape the consequences of a crime he committed. Whether he will get caught is what Murder Mindfully is all about.

Why was Bjorn a workaholic?

Björn Diemel was a workaholic criminal defense lawyer, whose firm assigned him to take care of the legal matters of the mafia ganglord Dragan Sergowicz. Since Dragan was a dreaded criminal, his problems kept Björn stressed, leaving him with no work-life balance. Björn skipped the fourth birthday of his daughter Emily, which ticked off his wife who requested him to bring some normalcy into his life.

Did Björn take up the mindfulness class?

Björn’s wife, Katharina Diemel, suggested he check out a ‘mindfulness’ expert, Joschka Brietner, a renowned life coach who might help him find peace in his extremely chaotic work life. With a lot of hesitation, Björn approached Joschka and was impressed with his techniques to help him remain in the present, which would eliminate stress. As Björn began to use these techniques, he seemed to have found time for his daughter and purposely kept his work as a secondary priority. He also moved out of his home and checked into a hotel to make more time for himself.

Why was Dragan asked to leave the city?

As a part of Björn’s newfound zeal for his personal life and spending time with Emily, he was taking a break at his client Dragan’s riverside lake house. Dragan put the man’s plans on hold when he confessed to having killed his rival’s right-hand man, Igor, of which there was video footage taken by children in a school bus. Since Dragan was a criminal now with video evidence to prove it, Björn offered to take him to the lake house in the trunk of his car. Both had decided it would be better if Dragan went under the radar for some time, stayed at a safe house, and communicated through Björn.

What happened at the lake house?

Emily, Björn’s daughter, was blissfully unaware of her father’s professional life. On reaching the lake house, Björn ignored his client in the trunk as his mindfulness class asked him to do what was right for him, and he chose to spend time with his daughter. Dragan died in the trunk because of the lack of oxygen. Björn, after spending an amazing weekend with his daughter, had to find ways to get rid of Dragan’s body without any one of his henchmen suspecting his role in the death. Björn chopped Dragan’s body up and left both the thumbs for a peculiar mark on it would be required to send messages from the safe house. He threw his belt buckle into the river while a crow flew away with one of the thumbs he had saved.

Did Toni and Sascha sense something was wrong?

Björn was certain he had covered all his tracks so far, and none of Dragan’s henchmen would find out what happened to their boss. However, Toni was suspicious of Björn and the way he was forced to communicate with his boss through him. Sascha, on the other hand, let him know it was Toni who had lured Dragan to the parking lot where he killed Igor, while the initial plan was to kill his boss and Sascha himself and blame Boris for it.

How did Björn convince everyone that Dragan was alive?

Björn was pretending to give Dragan’s orders by highlighting words in the newspapers along with his signature thumb impression. He initially refused to share the location of Dragan’s safe house. Since Björn was now aware Toni wanted to kill Dragan, he shared false details of Dragan’s location. As expected, the apartment where Björn claimed to have kept Dragan was attacked, and Toni found nothing.

What did the police find?

Police officer Nicola was obsessed with finding Dragan and arresting him. Since the video of Dragan killing Igor had gone viral, Nicola and her team began to tail Björn to get the details of Dragan’s whereabouts. Nicola and Björn were old friends and had briefly dated in the past. Nicola approached Björn in the hope he would accidentally divulge something. Björn was constantly using mindfulness techniques, which helped him keep a lot of stress at bay and handle matters with the police and Dragan’s men. Nicola let Björn know she had pictures of him from the lake house and might search the property to look for Dragan. Nicola and her team were informed about a thumb that was found at a restaurant that was situated near Dragan’s lake house. She was quick to suspect Björn again and wondered if the mafia lord had been killed.

What did Björn do to Malte?

Toni began to suspect Björn as he kept stalling his request to meet Dragan, stating it was important for his client to remain discreet to avoid any possible arrest. Sascha and Björn found Malte, who was with Toni and Dragan on the night Igor was killed. He confirmed Sascha’s suspicion about Toni masterminding Dragan and Igor’s deaths while planning on blaming it on Boris, the rival ganglord. Toni wanted to become the leader, and for that to happen, Boris and Dragan had to be taken out of the picture. Björn held Malte hostage in a basement as his punishment. This was Björn’s way of getting the support and trust of the rest of Dragan’s men, including Sascha.

Why was Boris adamant on meeting Dragan?

Boris was forcing Björn to fix a meeting with Dragan, as he had been adamant about meeting his rival ever since Igor’s murder. Björn, just like before, kept stalling the meeting, but after a point, he could not find excuses anymore since Boris was as dangerous as Dragan. His mindfulness techniques were not working to keep Boris at bay, who was hell-bent on getting his revenge on Dragan for killing Igor.

How did Björn catch Toni?

Toni was hellbent on proving Björn was slowly planning to take over, something Sascha and the other men were refusing to believe. Toni came by the basement where Malte was kept hostage and killed him. Björn had installed CCTV in the basement for this exact purpose. He and Sascha were witnesses to the fact that Toni was indeed the traitor. Both captured Toni in no time and were preparing him to be delivered to Boris.

Did Björn kill Boris?

Sascha and Björn, in no time, delivered Toni to Boris. Björn let everyone know that since Dragan was aware of Toni’s role in eliminating him, he was offering his right-hand man to Boris. This was Dragan’s way of letting Boris have the win since his right-hand man had been killed by Björn’s client. Boris found this to be a fair deal and placed Toni on a wooden cross, put him behind an empty home, and surrounded it with explosives. Boris killed Toni, which was his way of taking revenge for almost exposing the mafia network. This was a win-win situation for Björn, as he was able to eliminate the one man who could prove that he had killed Dragan.

Toni had his own reasons for exposing Björn, because the lawyer was an obstacle to his ambition to become a powerful mafia lord once Boris and Dragan were out of the picture. Dragan’s death played a huge role in keeping Björn afloat, and he used his position of power very well by making sure he got people on his side to support his plan to eliminate Toni. Toni began to behave like a headless chicken when Dragan did not die at the parking lot as planned, and as a result his hiding place was a crucial detail. Unbeknownst to anybody, Dragan was dead, and Björn covered up the situation almost perfectly, and he was confident about not getting caught since most of his client’s henchmen and Boris had believed his well-concocted lies.

Soon after Toni was killed in the blast, all of them saw a drone capturing the footage of the brutal murder. The drone was controlled by Sascha, who was on Björn’s side and followed his plan to scare Boris and Dragan’s other henchmen. Sascha was becoming loyal to Björn and believed in his methods to control the power. Björn convinced everyone that the drone belonged to the police, and they most likely had the footage of Toni’s murder in their system. He convinced Boris to escape just like he did to Dragan. Boris, who was desperate to not get caught, agreed to Björn’s plans in haste and hid himself in the lawyer’s car. It was obvious that this was going to be a repeat show of what happened to Dragan. Björn had to get rid of Boris, and killing him was the only way to be his own boss and attain freedom from the cycle of crime that had stressed him out all these years. Sascha was also in on the plan to kill Boris. Björn may have convinced him to eliminate Boris, which would help them to establish their power. However, only Björn knew why Boris and Toni needed to be gotten rid of.

Björn was enjoying the freedom he got by killing Dragan. Boris may have been happy if he had learned Björn killed his rival and forced the lawyer to work with him. He was in no mood to cater to Boris and his demands after having experienced Nirvana. This was a classic case of a murder that snowballed and went out of control. Björn’s mindfulness techniques helped him to stay calm in the most distressing situations, even after eliminating Toni. Björn took Boris to the lake house, and it was understood what he might have done to Dragan’s rival. Boris and Dragan were portrayed as the dumb mafia lords who fell for Björn’s words. With Boris dead, Björn was now the leader, and he liked the freedom that came with it.

Did Nicola arrest Björn?

Nicola, who was after Björn, searched his wife’s home and questioned Emily, claiming it was part of the investigation. Björn was livid at her for pulling this stunt and again used his mindfulness technique to divert the topic of investigation to questioning her personal life. Björn was basically gaslighting and being condescending to Nicola by stating she shouldn’t be ignoring her personal life. He did not forget to mention Nicole overstepping her boundaries by involving Emily in her investigation. Unbeknownst to him, she had taken her daughter’s toy as evidence.

Nicola mentioned the thumb and the belt buckle found near the lake house, but a confident Björn let her know it could not prove he was guilty or if Dragan was dead. As a lawyer, he claimed he was forced to maintain confidentiality, and that was the reason he wouldn’t share Dragan’s location. Nicola was helpless as well and was on the verge of giving up when Emily’s toy started repeating the last sound it recorded. The show ended with the toy letting out a distorted voice, which sounded like someone enjoying the freedom of killing someone. This came as a shock to Nicola, as she was aware the evidence belonged to Björn’s daughter Emily. She finally had a lead that could prove Björn was guilty if the voice recording from the toy was recovered. Björn indeed did not commit a perfect crime, as he left crucial evidence behind, and it would come after him like a shark after a bloodied piece of flesh in the water. Murder Mindfully Season 2 will discuss how Nicola will drag Dragan and Boris’ deaths at the hands of Björn. Björn will be enjoying his freedom until then.