There are fewer chapters in episode 7 on the BluRay and I’m not sure why. The Criterion editors for, whatever reason, decided to have unusually long first and second chapters, so here we are in only the sixth segment and there are only about 10 minutes left in the episode.

We’re very close to the conclusion of this episode — and this segment is all about building tension for the final scene. The phone call between mother and daughter ended in disaster.

Anya has become a pawn in a battle between Ewa and Majka, which is tragic. A young girl of 22 should be breaking free from her enmeshment at this stage in her life. In fact, Dekalog 7 bears some resemblance to Dekalog 4 in that regard — the strange sexual tension of that episode replaced with the battle for Anya’s affections here. But both of those storylines are just plot devices for the larger human story, the need for young people to find their autonomy in life and learn how to become adults.

Having that kind of quarter life crisis is no time to be contemplating becoming a full time single mother, so the quest for Majka to live with Anya seems increasingly hopeless. As soon as Majka hangs up the phone, and Ewa recognizes that her agreement to terms was missed, Wojtek calls up Ewa. She asks if Majka is with him — he replies that she has left recently, but couldn’t have gotten very far.

They have become allies in the effort to find Majka and Anya, raising the specter of what do they fear? They meet in their cars on a roadway to map out their strategy to find them. Ewa makes the strange comment “we haven’t been good luck for you, have we?”

We see Majka on a bridge and wonder if she’s thinking of jumping off. Then we see her take Anya under the bridge, asks her a couple times to kiss her and asks Anya to say that she loves her. She throws a branch into the water. Is she contemplating drowning them both?

Wojtek later arrives at the same bridge, sees that Anya has dropped her teddy bear at the site. He crosses the river to follow their path.

Only one scene remains in this episode and I could easily fit it in here, but I’ll continue onto one last piece. I want to close this piece by saying that even though I don’t like the way Anya is being put in danger, I feel great sympathy for Majka. She clearly has to change her life and get away from her mother.

The final scene will leave her with the moral choice — once again, she will be required to make the adult decision.