Before jumping into the conclusion of episode 2 of The Dekalog, I need to return to a matter of controversy. The second commandment is about the worshipping of false idols -- graven images. But if you do a Google search about the topic of episode two, everyone concludes that this episode is about bearing false witness, so I just assumed that these analyses were correct.

But today, I received the English translations of the original screenplays for The Dekalog, and in this book, they clearly list commandment 2 as being about graven images. So, put aside all of those thoughts about the diagnosis being the most important element in this story. Perhaps, instead, we should focus on the samples that were looked at under the microscope in the last scene and our cultural reliance on image reading to determine fates.

One other matter that I wanted to clear up from the last scene: did the filmmakers intend for the doctor to be framed in that red light, casting off a demonic image? While there are many details from the original screenplays that did not make their way into the final films, that was one imagine that was intentional -- it was written as the doctor being bathed in red light from the warming lamps inside the greenhouse. Interpret that as you wish.

There are only two scenes in the final segment. In the first, we see Dorota as part of the string section in the philharmonic. There is nothing exceptional to note here, other than the fact that she seems to be the only woman in the orchestra. The doctor is seen in the audience, moved by the music. One way of interpreting episode two is that the doctor needed a way to re-experience the trauma of his family's wartime death in a cathartic way, and his actions to save this family, plus the music, give him that emotional release.

The episode ends with Andrzej stopping by the doctor's office to thank him for saving his life -- something he takes no credit for achieving. He then tells the doctor that Dorota will be having a child, and the doctor receives this information as if it is new -- but you can sense that he might wish to take credit for this. Andrzej then asks if the doctor knows what it is like to have a child, and he answers that he does. Roll credits.

Dekalog 2 leaves viewers with many questions. While episode one had a very clear point of view about other gods taking up space that should be left for God, episode two is far less didactic about its commandment. And even though I have put forward the theory that medical imagery stands in for graven imagery here, it's possible that the filmmakers intended something else.

Perhaps the idol, in this case, was the doctor himself -- the one who claimed his own personal god and became the decision-maker in Dorota's life. He resisted taking this role, but eventually couldn't avoid saving a child, even if it meant assuming an evil position of power. In this sense, he was like The Grand Inquisitor in Dostoyevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov,” the man of action who had to reject Jesus to uphold Christianity.

One final thought: Kieslowski touches on other commandments throughout his series. One could argue that this episode was also about killing because of the abortion subplot and, obviously, about adultery. While the assumption that the episode was about false witness appears to be wrong, it's not unreasonable to say that the doctor's prognosis -- and the fact that he was willing to swear to God about its accuracy -- was a clear violation of that commandment too.