Created by Marvin Kren, “Crooks” is a new German-language crime thriller series streaming on Netflix. It follows a locksmith who is forced to return to the crime world in the wake of a fight between rival gangs for a priceless coin. Most of the show happens in Germany & Austria, while some parts occur in Marseille, France. The show consists of 8 episodes that are 50-60 minutes long. Starring Frederik Lau (Victoria) in the lead role, the cast includes Christoph Krutzler, Svenja Jung, Jonathan Tittel, Erdal Yildiz, Karl Welunschek, Lukas Watzl, Nima Yaghobim Maya Sara Uner, Virgine Peignien, Kida Khodr Ramadan, and Klara Mucci. Here is a detailed look at Netflix’s “Crooks” (Season 1).
Spoilers ahead.
Crooks (Season 1) ‘Netflix’ Recap:
What is ‘Crooks’ on Netflix about?
“Crooks” on Netflix is about Charly, who suddenly gets sucked into the world of crime and violence. After spending years of peaceful life with his family, he gets pulled back into his criminal past. He is forced to be a part of a robbery attempt, which goes haywire. It puts his family in danger. So, Charly does everything in his power to save them. This crime thriller series is directed by Marvin Kren and Cüneyt Kaya and is based on a screenplay by Marvin Kren, Benjamin Hessler, and Georg Lippert.
What happens in the Netflix series ‘Crooks’?
Episode 1: Panther
Charly (Frederick Lau) is a locksmith who has a knack for opening any kind of lock. In the past, he was a criminal. He also served prison time for his crimes. After getting out of prison, he started a family with Samira (Svenja Jung) and her son, Jonas (Jonathan Tittel). Charly didn’t tell Jonas about his criminal past or his jail time because he didn’t want Jonas to see him through that lens. One day, Charly receives a work call. After inspection, he realizes that his old associates want his expert knowledge to crack a security vault to rob a valuable coin.
Charly refuses to help them. But these criminals force him to be a part of this mission. Meanwhile, we meet Joseph Muckstein (Christopher Krutzler), a driver from Vienna who works for the Bachofner clan. Joseph is often mocked for being the illegitimate son of the Bachofner clan’s patriarch, Karl (Branko Samarovski) – who is soon going to die. Before that happens, Joseph asks Karl whether they are related. Karl doesn’t answer anything specific. But he warns Joseph not to go to Berlin. Moments later, Karl’s brother, Franz aka Red (Karl Welunscheck) tells Joseph to drive Joe Berger (George Friedrich) to Berlin to bring their loot (the coin) to Austria.
Red reluctantly drives to Berlin and joins the mission with Charly’s old acquaintances. They plan to steal the coin that two men from the Al-Walid clan, a Serbian burglar gang, stole from a museum. On the night of the mission, things suddenly go wrong. Right before Charly and his incompetent associate can escape, an Al-Walid clan member enters the room with a security locker. As a result, they get into a fight, and Charly’s partner-in-crime shoots the opposing clan member. Charly immediately runs away to his house.
Episode 2: The Al-Walids
Charly returns home and tells Samira about his connection to the murder of an Al-Walid clan member. He fears the clan will kill him, Samira, and Jonas. So, he tells them to prepare to leave. He calls Rami (Kida Khodr Ramadan), his old friend from Marseille, to help him protect his family. Before they can leave, Joseph and Joe show up at his doorstep. Charly gets Samira & Jonas to leave for the airport. With them gone, he cuts a deal with the Viennese criminals to get some money in exchange for the coin. Joe accepts it. But their mission gets prolonged for one reason or the other.
The crime boss Hassan Al-Walid (Erdal Yildiz) beats up his brother for expecting returns for stealing the coin. Hassan gets him beaten up to teach him a lesson. His partner-in-crime, Tarek (Nima Yaghobi), doesn’t like this. Still, he helps Hassan find people who stole the coin from them. He finds Charly’s old acquaintance, who riles him up. So, Tarek beats him to death. In his absence, Hassan puts Tarek on a mission to find Charly and his family. By then, Samira is forced to fly to Marseille without Charly. After reaching Marseille, Rami brings her and Jonas to his house.
What does Red learn about Karl’s will?
After Karl goes into Coma, Red forces a doctor to bring Karl back to life, hoping Karl signs the deal to leave all his assets to his (Red’s) name. However, because of this hasty attempt, Karl dies. After Karl’s death, Red learns a surprising detail about Karl’s will: Karl left all his assets to his son, Joseph. But in Joseph’s absence, all that property goes to his name. So, Karl calls Joe and orders him to kill Joseph. While on a car ride to Vienna, Charly realizes that Joe wants to kill Joseph. So, Charly kills Joe to save Joseph’s life. Meanwhile, in Marseille, Samira realizes that Rami is a criminal and his life is in danger. So, she leaves his house with Jonas.
Episode 3: Red
Red wants the valuable coin to fulfill his deal with another party. This party puts pressure on him to retrieve the coin at the earliest. Around this time, Joseph drives to Vienna with Charly after Joe’s death. Red’s son, Rio (Lukas Watzl), calls Joe’s phone to find out whether he killed Joseph. Rio & Red realize that Joe is dead. With multiple killers out to kill him, Charly agrees to sell the coin for his safety. He calls Red and lies that Joseph is dead. Then, he agrees to meet Red. While they are away, Charly and Joseph enter the Bachofner residence.
Later, Joseph meets Red at his desired location. Red and Rio are surprised to see Joseph alive. Joseph sees this as an opportunity for payback. Red realizes that Joseph and Charly are working together. Joseph orders Rio to get him money in exchange for the coin. Then, Charly reaches there and takes Rio to their locker. While he takes out the cash, Joseph gives a different coin to Red and fools him. Meanwhile, Charly locks Rio to a table and escapes with money. Suddenly, police officers Nina (Maya Unger) & Robert (Robert Finster) show up in the club to arrest him. By then, Charly and Joseph escape the club with ‘the coin’ and a bag full of money.
What happens to Samira in Marseille?
In Marseille, Samira checks into a hotel and uses a credit card to pay. This helps the Al-Walid clan members determine her location. Charly calls Rami to learn that Samira left his house with Jonas.
Episode 4: The Ambulance
After their encounter with Red, Charly and Joseph flee to Burgenland to Margot’s farmhouse. Suddenly, Hassan calls Charly and threatens to kill Jonas. In Marseille, Rami finds out Samira’s present location and offers help to protect her and Jonas. She rejects it. Soon after, Charly calls her and tells her not to leave her room at any cost. Meanwhile, on the farm, Rio and his men arrive to get hold of the coin. So, they start looking for Charly and Joseph. Eventually, they get into a fight, which takes an ugly turn. Margot protects both Joseph & Charly and helps them flee. Rio calls Red to mention that he couldn’t get the coin, which puts Red in a conundrum.
Meanwhile, Samira gets impatient with Charly’s empty promises. So, she leaves her hotel room against his warning. She decides to inform the police about their situation and seek help. Jonas realizes that it would lead to Charly’s arrest. So, he gets angry and runs away. While Samira roams around the streets, worried, Rami gets hold of Jonas. Eventually, she finds Jonas. By then, Hassan sends Tarek to Marseille to kill Samira and Jonas. He and his men try to locate the pair. Samira and Jonas escape getting caught.
What happens to Joseph in Italy?
Charly and Joseph flee to Italy to seek shelter. Instead, they are put in even more danger. Together, they fight the other men and take back their coin. But all these events take a toll on Joseph’s mind. So, while Charly steals a motorbike and drives away, Joseph returns to the club.
Episode 5: Old Friends
In the Italian club, Joseph gets into a fight with strangers and gets brutally beaten up. While the crowd leaves, Joseph decides to drink his sorrows away. By then, Rio and his crony arrive there to seize the coin. By then, Charly returns to the club, beats Rio, and saves Joseph. Even after that, Joseph tries to end his life. Charly saves him and then learns the truth about his life, his father’s will, and Red’s cruel plans. It makes their bond stronger.
In Vienna, Red kills the members of the coin-buyer’s squad. But right after, Hassan kidnaps Red and shoots him dead. By then, Robert learns Nina’s ulterior motive for passionately following the Bachofner case. In the past, they wronged her father. So, she decides to get hold of the coin to seek revenge. After Red goes AWOL, Nina meets Alina Ionescu (Klara Mucci) to find intel on Joseph. Alina reveals that he is in Marseille.
What happens to Samira & Jonas in Marseille?
In Marseille, Rami tries to take Samira & Jonas to his boss, Griselda Delacroix (Virginie Peignien), aka the most feared woman from their city. He entices Samira with a promise of safety and security. But Samira refuses his deal. So, Rami breaks into her room. Right then, Jonas injects Kentamine into Rami’s body and puts him to sleep. Soon after, the Al-Walids discover Samira & Jonas. Samira speaks with Charly on the phone to plan their escape. The pair escapes from their room window.
After a tiring run, they sneak into a house and stay there for the night, safe from Tarek. The next morning, the homeowner enters the place. Samira tries to explain her situation. But things go out of hand, and she needs to run away immediately. The homeowner calls her a burglar and alerts the police officers. By then, Charly also reaches Marseille to meet Samira & Jonas. But before he can find them, some men kidnap the mother and the son.
Episode 6: Rami
Turns out, Griselda kidnapped Samira & Jonas and brought them back to her island mansion. She keeps them locked up in a room. Charly and Joseph try to find information on the people who kidnapped Samira & Jonas. Right after, Charly pays his old acquaintance to fight the Al-Walid clan’s men. After a call from Rami, Charly deduces Rami’s present location. He plans to rescue Rami to rescue his family. By night, Hassan and Tarek realize that Rami lied to them. Shortly after, Charly and Thomas sneak into their tower block and rescue Rami.
Rami tells Charly about Griselda, who kidnapped his family. They get on a boat to her island. Joseph stays back on the shore and finds a safe spot for the coin. He pays for a telescope view with that valuable coin. Right after, he receives a call from Alina, who asks him to meet her. After reaching the location, Joseph realizes that it is Rio’s ploy to seize the coin. He used Alina as a bait to entice Joseph. Now, he tasers Joseph and expects him to give him the valuable coin.
Episode 7: Madame
Charly reaches Griselda’s island with Rami. That’s when he learns about Griselda’s ulterior motive: to plan a heist to procure cocaine. She makes Rami explain the details and then kills him. So, Charly gets forced into building the plan. Meanwhile, Rio forces Joseph to share the location of the coin. He keeps Joseph and Nina locked inside his van. Soon after, when he takes out the coin from the telescope locker, Nina observes him from a distance. She follows him to his van and kills him. Then, Joseph gets back the coin.
Since Nina wants the coin, Joseph expects her to do some favors in exchange. He wants Nina to help him rescue Charly and his family. In Griselda’s house, Charly gets hold of a phone and calls Joseph. He seeks Joseph’s help in his version of the rescue mission. While that happens, Hassan figures out that Tarek acted against their family because of the injustice his partner-in-robbery faced. So, Hassan kills Tarek.
Episode 8: The Sea
Charly is joined by Griselda’s close associate on their heist mission. He makes Joseph make a replica of Samira’s room’s key. Joseph creates it and hides it inside a football. Inside Griselda’s mansion, Jonas plays football with another ball. He kicks it so hard that the ball goes out of their parameters. Right then, Joseph throws the ball he brought with him. Griselda’s crony mistakenly chooses Joseph’s football and takes it back. That’s how Samira gets the key and escapes her room.
Crooks (Season 1) ‘Netflix’ Ending Explained:
Can Charly save his family from Griselda?
While trying to save Samira & Jonas, Charly returns to Griselda’s mansion. Griselda receives a call about their botched mission. Right after, she realizes that Samira & Jonas have escaped their room. Right when Samira & Jonas are about to escape the mansion, Griselda sends her men to try to kill them. Luckily, Joseph & Nina reach there in time and safely rescue Samira & Jonas. However, Charly gets captured by Griselda’s men and brought back to her house. That’s where he comes face-to-face with Hassan. Griselda thinks it is her moral imperative to tell these two men that their actions were foolish and maybe, they shouldn’t have done them.
Griselda wants them to suffer for her enjoyment. So, she makes them fight each other while everyone else derives sadistic pleasure. She wants them to decide who survives by killing the other person. But, soon after, Charly realizes that neither he nor Hassan should die. After all, he didn’t mean to get Hassan’s brother killed. That death was an accident. So, he and Hassan jump into the water to save themselves from Griselda. At the end of “Crooks,” we see them both at a football match with their respective kids. The show doesn’t make it clear whether they managed to return to Berlin alive or if it is just a figment of their imagination.
Will there be a Season 2 of Crooks on Netflix?
At the end of “Crooks” season one on Netflix, Joseph and Nina decide to trade the coin with the Russians. After all that he had endured and all that his father warned him, Joseph still decides to do this. So, it seems like a thread that showrunners want to explore in their next season. Although there is no official confirmation as of yet, there might be a “Crooks” season 2 on Netflix.
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