Here’s where episode 8 — the second lowest rated episode in the Dekalog, according to IMDB raters — starts to go off the rails. Recall that as the last segment was coming to an end, there were still many unresolved questions between Zofia and Elżbieta. But it ended on an optimistic note as Zofia invites her to dinner.

But we don’t see Zofia’s car pull up at a restaurant and Elżbieta asks if she has pulled up at her home. She shakes her head — it’s Zofia’s old Warsaw apartment, the site where she turned away Elżbieta. I’m completely puzzled by this plot turn.

The two women have obviously had a long day, they are certainly ready for dinner. And nothing makes you more prepared to eat than the expectation that you’re about to eat. But no, Zofia decides to unilaterally circumvent that expectation by making an unannounced field trip. And as we will soon discover, it’s a stop Elżbieta has no interest in taking.

But as they pull up, Elżbieta gets out to explore. Zofia stays in the car. Elżbieta walks the dark courtyard of the apartment building, which seems like an underworld, but then turns around and comes back towards the car. At this point, she sees Zofia get out of the car and she hides. Zofia calls for her, but she does not answer.

Here, the episode takes on the character of a Kakfa nightmare. Zofia makes her way up to the apartment where she once lived. She rings a doorbell twice, a man angrily comes to the door, telling her that five families live there, make sure to get your doorbell right. She asks him if a dark haired woman has come by and he replies “no lately.”

She tried again with another apartment, but there’s more confusion as they think she’s answered so ad. The woman tries to get her to enter, while a man keeps yelling at Zofia “bullshit, bullshit.” Zofia finally gives up and leaves, but at the apartment a floor below, she talks to another resident and asks him if there is another way out of this apartment complex and if he’s seen a dark haired woman. He again is extremely suspicious, and we again hear the man from the upper apartment yelling bullshit at her.

Zofia, trying to find Elżbieta, is wandering in confusion and fear. She finally decides to go back toward her car, looks in and sees Elżbieta sitting in it.

There, they have a puzzling conversation, where Zofia inquires why she didn’t go up to the apartment or tried to see it before. Elżbieta says something completely obvious — why would I want to return to the place of my humiliation? As the scene ends, they drive off.

All of this stretches on for a good 12 minutes, unusual for Kieslowski. As the scene came to a close, I found myself wondering — why did Zofia torture Elżbieta that way? Was it a form of revenge? And was Elżbieta getting some kind of revenge on her by letting her wander the grounds in the darkness?

The whole thing continues to puzzle me. And unfortunately, the rest of the episode doesn’t get much better.