Dekalog 5 is the most famous episode in the series, in part because Kieslowski expanded upon it in his feature film “A Short Film About Killing.” It’s his most distinctive looking episode, shot in a completely unique high-contrast style that looks nothing like anything else in Kieslowski’s body of work. The episode also feels like nothing else in his corpus, because it includes scenes of violence and brutality that are not normally part of his work.

I mentioned as I began writing about The Dekalog that the series is not available streaming — but I just discovered today that this is not the case. There’s an incredible niche streaming service called easterneuropeanfilms.com that has the full Dekalog series online, as well as all kinds of Eastern European gems hard to find anywhere else. (The website has sister sites that feature Russian/Soviet films and Asian films … I could fall down this rabbit hole for years.) I nearly got caught up watching Andrej Wadja’s classic “Man of Marble” from 1976 until I stopped myself, knowing I had an essay to write.

So, as I’m in East Lansing, Michigan, dropping off my son to begin college tomorrow, I’m also keeping up with my Dekalog writing.

If all of this preamble seems like evasion, that’s because it is. I’m not looking forward to writing about episode 5 because it’s dense, dark and has been covered by many writers before me. This isn’t to say I don’t admire the episode, I do, I just wonder if I have anything original to say about it.

This is the only Dekalog episode where we hear dialogue in the opening credits, before we see any faces. It is the voice of Piotr, a law school graduate taking his oral exams to become a lawyer, and he’s speaking abstractly about the law … about how it cannot be a mirror of nature, especially human nature, but rather needs to be a guide for improving individuals and humanity as a whole. This is a commentary not only on the law, but also the Ten Commandments and this series.

Piotr goes on to say that laws that punish people purely as vengeance. And on whose behalf are punishments levied? Do they really protect the innocent? He doesn’t finish the thought — perhaps out of caution — but if laws don’t protect the innocent, they must protect the state.

This episode has three central chracters. In addition to Piotr, there is also Jan, a taxi driver who lives in the apartment complex like most of the other Dekalog main characters. And then there is Miroslaw, a mysterious young man who drifts through the early scenes of the episode. Speaking of drifting, Episode 5 is one of only two in the series that does not include The Watcher.

All three main characters are outsiders, in a sense. Piotr is a new lawyer, a defense lawyer, and an idealist to boot. This makes him an oddball in the Polish legal system. Jan is a character who seems to dwell on the fringes of Warsaw society. In the opening scene, we see someone try to drop a bag of tar on him … so he has enemies. We also see him leer at young women in disturbing ways very soon. And Miroslaw, well, it’s hard to know what to make of him, but he seems to drift between naive innocence and antisocial psychopathy.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. After Piotr’s monologue to start the episode, and then after that bag of tar just misses Jan, Miroslaw wanders into a movie theater and asks the ticket hostess if the movie is any good. She says no, it’s a boring film about love — and it doesn’t matter, the theater is closed now. He asks her direction for where to find a cab. In one of those typically Kieslowskian moment of chance, we have to consider that the entire plot of this movie depended on their being no interesting film for Miroslaw to watch. A good movie might have saved lives.

When I say this episode is dense, it moves quickly from character to character, creating far more plot than is usual for Kieslowski. So we see Piotr preparing for his oral exam, going over with a friend what the questions might be. We then see Miroslaw wander into a scene where three boys are beating up another young man (a scenario that Kieslowski will repeat, differently, in “Three Colours: Blue.” Here, Miroslaw witnesses the violence, but does nothing. Then we arrive at Jan washing his cab. A truck pulls up. An older woman starts to unload some materials, Then a young girl gets out and Jan ogles her disgustingly, trying to catch of peak under her skirt as she works.

We then see Miroslaw wandering in a public square. He happens upon a young girl having her portrait drawn in pencil by an artist. He seems captivated by her picture. The girl just seems very bored. The artist asks if he wants his picture drawn. He says no and asks which way to the cab stand.

Piotr is talking again — we’re not sure who is listening — this time about how the law gives an opportunity to right the wrongs of the juggernaut of state. And he says that he would also find it appealing to come in contact with people he might otherwise never meet. He says this in voice over as we once again return to Miroslaw. He’s bothered by an old, cranky woman who tells him to walk on, he might bother the pigeons, which leads him to chase the pigeons away.

That innocent enough, understandably behavior. But we next see him on an overpass and, seeing some rocks on the ledge, he can’t help himself but to drop some and cause a car crash as a result. He seems amused by this.

While I admire the sentiment Piotr expresses about wanting to meet people like Miroslaw, I cannot say that I share his view. He will take us on a rollercoaster of emotions in the next 7 segments. His complexity is an important part of human nature, but still not a facet I’m eager to see … never mind see again.