A Small Light : Scheißfeld – Season 1 – Episode 5

World War II and the German occupation of Amsterdam is taking the best out of Jan and Miep, it starts to separate them as they try to do their best at keeping friends and family safe but Jan feels that his country needs him.

From the little I know from the book Margo and Anne are big part of it and on this episode we get more about Anne with Miep, how Miep not only keep them safe she also keep the girls hopes and dreams alive but there are stressful moments more now that Jan is getting sucked in into the resistance and this feeling that his country is calling for his service like he has an obligation to stand up against the abusement of the German soldiers against everyone but Miep has a good heart and always find the way to keep things balanced and the right words to give the girls hope that one day things will go back to normal and they will enjoy again their freedom and will have all this opportunities to be independent and in the case of this episode be in love and get married.

Its natural for humans to develop feelings when they are confined to the same space, it can go both ways either love or hate depending on how compatible are, in the case of Anne she is just too young and don’t know what love is same as she doesn’t know what is rejection and failure, things that anyone will experience through life as you get in love with someone until you find the correct match, Anne could be too intense some times and this tip over Miep in a moment of stress and bring her back down to earth in desperation of seen how her husband barely talk to her anymore and just disappear during the day knowing he might be working on dangerous missions for the resistance but to protect her cant give her any details, her worst fear is that one day Jan never comes back home.

Jan proves to the resistance how determine he is and committed this cause to the point that he is willing to kill enemies in cold blood, so is that the resistance members put him to the task and he pass, he is now a valuable asset who not only will do anything to protect his country but has also collected important intel for the resistance.

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Anne has her first crush, her first love, she has a crush on Peter a kid living with them, the Van Pels son, but she is too young to know what is true love so this could mean nothing just that she is spending too much time with him on a very close space problem is that Anne doesn’t have the best communication with her mother Edith not because they cant stand together but Anne is too wild some times and doesn’t want to listen to her mother, she only wants to protect her, Miep gets put in charge by Edith, Anne’s mother, to control and guide Anne on this matter making sure that she doesn’t get crushed by deception when things doesn’t go they way she think love is.

It must be hard, crushing to be that age and not only get in love but everything, stay under lock down for so long, not been able to be a teenager, know more people, develop, expand their minds, live life, because a war they didn’t ask for and have no involvement prevent them from all this, confinement can turn the most fierce lion into a kitten.

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Jan is deep with the resistance now and Miep starts to feel that they don’t share anymore, Jan goes out comes back late and fall asleep, not because he doesn’t love Miep anymore but he has been blind folded by his hate against the German invasion to his country, Jan feels the need to do something important for his country and help defeat them, the problem is that he doesn’t see that this is bigger than him, bigger than a small resistance group and he should evaluate his priorities, without knowing he is moving away from his wife, anyone who is married or has been on a serious relationship knows that this type of conversations most of the time are the tip of the iceberg, this is the signal when your wife tells you “we never spend time or talk about….” red flag and needs attention.

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Miep is a very straight forward women, she doesn’t hide her feelings, she doesn’t hide when she doesn’t like something or some one, she is in your face all times but cant handle Jan’s silence anymore, she is afraid to loosing him and this is one of the many times she comes straight up and ask him to cut the bullshit and talk to her, she wants her husband back.

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Jan and Miep must be the most in love couple during World War II, since Miep is an immigrant to The Netherlands, she was considered undesirable by the Germans and her passport was revoked so her only chance to stay legally was to get married, she was desperate and didn’t want to leave Amsterdam, she ask Mr. Frank for his advice and it was obvious, marry the dutch, marry Jan. In Miep style she runs where Jan is working, fertilizing a field with manure, a shit field, there she ask Jan to marry him and explain him the situation too, they were both on the same plan but she thought he was fooling around with her to a point when she told him she can do better than him, it was all crazy but crazy love for each other. Big problem, they got married after her passport was revoked basically committing fraud but the judge who marry them didn’t notice the seal on her passport as in the last minute Jan distract him so he didn’t notice and get them legally married. This shows how close Miep and Jan are, no wonder why she is desperate to get Jan back and focus on their life and not on the war or the resistance.

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One night after having an argument with Jan after she found a pistol on his underwear drawer, Miep comes back and Anne as usual had an argument with her mother about what she feels for Peter, Miep that night had no patience for Anne and blew up, crushing poor Anne’s dream of love, telling her the truth of why she married Jan so quick and that love could fail her as its failing for her and Jan, latter Anne’s mother Edith talk to Miep and she vents out about whats going on at home. That night during the argument Jan told Miep they were going to execute a plan that was dangerous and he could never come home to that she ask him to don’t go if he loves her, Jan goes out anyway.

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He had enough of the Germans and want to hurt them, Jan cant stand the soldiers on the street and how they treat Jews so he asks Willem the leader of the resistance group is working with to give him a meaningful task, he wants to hurt them, he wants to stop them so Willem comes with this mission to kill a important German soldier but it was a setup to see if Jan was for real willing to do anything for his countrymen.

Going back to the cover image of this picture, the night Anne was arguing with Miep a big explosion, it was the resistance who blew up the Civil Registry Office to get rid of all the records, names, address of their countrymen, Jews and immigrants so it was harder for the Germans to go after them, that night Miep could not find Jan and was desperate, Casmir takes Miep to the bar where the resistance hang out but everyone they ask for Jan said they didn’t know him, news came out that many have been arrested, killed and sentence to death but now news about Jan.

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Next day when Miep came to work, hopeless, desperate, devastated, there was a one word letter on her desk, it was in German, Scheißfeld, she knew it was Jan telling her where he was, when she got there the field was now full of flowers, the same shit field where she/he propose to get married, Jan didn’t go to the mission because she ask him but now has to lay low, many have been arrested that can snitch on him

What a great story, this is one of the best drama tv series I have seen, none of the episodes disappoint so far, the production is exceptional, the actors that do Miep, Anne, Otto, Jan are great, there is nothing I can say I don’t like about this series and this episode certainly is one of the best, from time to time you get this series like the Mandalorian where all episodes are a bomb, on this episode the story diverts more to Jan and Miep instead of the Franks and the war, we get more details about this couple, about their struggle, about how much they willing to risk for their friends and their love, incredible story, anyone who reads the plot might think that there will be a lot of talking about the war and the Germans but its not, this is the story of how a couple who fall in love during war and is willing to do anything to help those who are innocent and persecuted by the Germans.