Kryzsztof approaches the pond, but he is still looking for Pawel. He has taken a walkie-talkie and tries to connect with Pawel that way. He gets no response.

We hear helicopters in the distance ... he is still avoiding the dread. It is very human to avoid the dread. People put off doctor's visits for years in anticipation of bad news, to their own detriment. Couples avoid serious conversations with one another, knowing that something is deeply wrong. I sometimes avoid people I’m very fond of because I sense that the relationship has altered and it’s just too painful to experience the same relationship in a diminished state.

Kryzsztof avoided the pond as long as he could. When he arrived, dozens of people from the community were there, anticipating something. It's a fair question to ask: is it better to avoid the dread or to approach it, but then wait helplessly? A rescue crew has now arrived with boats and other equipment to navigate the ice.

There's some stir among the gathered crowd as they begin to work. Another couple stands nervously at the side. One worker approaches the hole in the ice with a long pole -- as he reached down into the pond, it looks like it's a fairly shallow body of water, no more than 10 feet deep. Then, a young boy talks to the couple -- it is their son Jacek, who they feared might be in the pond. They are joyous. Then, a young girl speaks to Kryzsztof. She says that Pawel was supposed to call her that afternoon and the boy who just went away -- Jacek -- might know something about where Pawel is.

Kryzsztof races after the family, but they move at a rapid pace. He finally nearly catches up to them at the apartment building, but they slip into an elevator first. He runs up two flights of stairs to finally catch them. As Jacek is entering his apartment, being carried by his father, he tells Kryzsztof that Pawel did not join them to play, he was going to skate on the pond. So now Kryzsztof has lost his final illusion and knows the painful truth.

He must descend the staircase and head back to the pond to receive the final confirmation. But even this he cannot do quickly. He stops and sits on the stairs for a minute as the grief begins to hit him.

We are back at the pond now, the workers are still looking for bodies within the ice. Kryzsztof's sister is in the crowd and now sees him. She approaches from behind and puts her shoulders on him ... peering over his shoulder, clearly afraid to look. We see a body pulled from the icy water. Everyone in the crowd drops to their knees, Kryzsztof's sister included, but he does not. He remains standing, looking.

We see a second body pulled from the pond. The camera then trains on Kryzsztof's face, bathed in a green light, staring ahead blankly. We think he's still at the pond waiting in horrible anticipation. But then we see that he is back at his apartment and the green light is coming from his computer.

He approaches the computer. On the screen, the computer has written I am ready _ ... the cursor blinking at him. He stares at the screen for 10 seconds.

We next see him in that makeshift, cathedral like church he visited a few scenes before, bathed in dramatic interior light. It is clearly very late at night/early in the morning and Kryzsztof is there alone. There is a picture of the Virgin Mother, surrounded by candles, on the altar. He approaches it. He turns over a table holding some of the candles.

The candles spill over ... some of the candle wax hits the painting and runs down it, making the appearance of Mary crying. Kryzsztof bows his head, but never sees the crying face. He reaches down into a bucket sitting at the foot of the altar and pulls out a disc shaped piece of ice. He takes the ice and applies it to his forehead, as if sanctifying himself with frozen holy water. He holds the disc to his face.

The film then jumps to still pictures of Pawel from the TV segment at his school, a big smile on his face. The face then begins to distort, looking similar to the Edward Munsch painting The Scream. This shot of Pawel's distorted face is where episode one ends. Footnote: While The Dekalog is not available to stream on any U.S. service -- and I bought the Criterion Collection BluRays to rewatch it -- you can stream the entire series for free on the Internet Archive.