As I understand the Yiddish terms, a Schlemiel is a bumbler, someone who creates his own bad luck, while a Schlimazel is someone who has bad luck dumped upon him regularly (perhaps by the Schlemiel.) In this scene, Karol reveals himself as a Schlemiel.

Instead of taking the visual evidence of Dominique’s sexual attention and moving on, he rushes back into the Metro station and calls her. She tells him, good, you’ve called right on time … and then puts down the phone so he can hear her enjoying what he couldn’t provide.

Roughly 15 seconds into it, Karol blurts out that he loves her, which only seems to heighten Dominique’s arousal. At this point, you really have to wonder if Karol has a perverse attraction to rejection, that he needs to feel the direct pain of Dominique’s scorn to propel him to make changes in his life and stop being dominated (not just by her, but all of French culture.)

He has a little more than 2 Francs left after the call ends, but the phone doesn’t give him a refund. He angrily goes to the ticket counter and demands his 2 Francs (worth roughly a U.S. quarter at that time) — Karol’s rage at France is finally coming out. The ticket clerk eventually just slips him a 5 franc coin to make him go away.

As he slumps back towards Mikolaj, Karol has made a decision. “You are going to take me to Poland,” he says. Mikolaj asks him how … and Karol then demonstrates. He tosses out the diplomas from his crates and then gets inside. He cuts out a small air hole and Mikolaj asks him if he will last for four hours. Karol says yes, but he needs to steal something first.

The next thing we see is the culmination of that flash forward from the opening credits — the crate is traversing the baggage system at CDG airport. The scenes that follow are pretty funny — a baggage handler struggling with the heavy bag, the case tettering at the top of luggage on the way to the cargo hold. There are so many ways this plot could go wrong … but Karol has made it on to the flight to Warsaw.

But, of course things don’t work to plan for the Schlemiel … and we get to see Mikolaj now in the role of the Schlimazel, waiting for the bag … seeing everyone walk off with their luggage, seeing the carousel stop … asking the luggage clerk if that’s the last bag. So many familiar moments for travelers.

He next goes to the baggage claim desk and inquires about his bag. The clerk asks for his ticket … then asks the contents of the bag. He tells her, oh, personal items … clothing, grooming supplies. She asks “165 pounds worth?” He pauses and finally says … “actually, my friend was inside.”