Based on IMDB viewer rankings, episode 6 is the second most popular Dekalog episode. It is rated 8.7 on IMDB, topped only by episode one’s 9.1 rating. Surprisingly, “A Short Film About Love,” the movie that grew out of this episode, only gets an 8.1. Perhaps The Dekalog only attracts the hardcore Kieslowski fans who are inclined to give his work higher ratings.

We next see Tomek in a grocery store, picking up a bottle of some drink and shaking it, as if this will tell him something meaningful about the contents (and here I have to wonder whether I’m projecting my own dislike of young men onto Kieslowski.) He sees Magda at the checkout stand, buying milk, declaring she’s always forgetting to buy it and runs out.

The grocery clerk asks if she wants to start milk deliveries, but Magda is in a hurry and she says she doesn’t have time for this either. Tomek overhears her and the next thing we see, he’s asking about the job of making milk deliveries. He’s warned that he’ll have to wake up at 5 a.m. daily to make the deliveries — he smiles and says he’s an early riser.

Next we see Tomek looking through someone’s mail (we assume it’s Magda’s) and talking out one of the pieces, putting it in his jacket pocket. Charming! Here I have to cop to a personal bias. In the 1994 Wong-Kar Wai film “Chungking Express,” a young woman named Faye becomes so enamored of a Hong Kong police offer that she finds out where he lives, breaks in and subtly rearranges his apartment. And I have to admit that when a young woman does something like this in a film, I find it cute and charming, but when a young man does it I find it extremely creepy. End of self own.

But not only is Tomek an early riser, he also sets an alarm clock so he’s awake for any extracurricular activities Magda might have any evening. This evening she has over someone who has a stereotypical 80s artist look about him — black leather jacket, long frizzy hair. They seem to be engaged in something that’s a hybrid of art admiration and seduction. When it veers toward the latter, Tomek grabs a phone and calls the gas company.

Tomek calls in a gas leak at Magda’s apartment — oh the things that were possible before caller id and the Internet. He lights an unfiltered cigarette as he waits for something to happen. A few minutes later (the one Polish service we’ve seen that’s efficient in The Dekalog) the gas company employees arrive at her apartment, interrupting something happening with Art Dude on the floor, which leads the couple to scurry and Tomek to giggle as he spies it all in.

One amusing detail: the gas employees check her oven when they arrive, but she’s just using it to store things, she’s clearly never turned it on.

Art guy tries to start something up with Magda after the gas company employees leave, but she’s clearly too annoyed with what has just happened and she snubs him. This makes Tomek so happy that he punches a wall.

If he hadn’t interfered in her life enough, we next see Tomek at Magda’s door to make a milk delivery. He knocks on her door, which has certainly woken her up. Tomek says she forgot to leave out the milk bottle, so she retrieves a bottle, leaves in on the floor of the hallway, then closes and locks the door. Tomek leaves the full milk bottle at her door. It should be noted that she has already had a face to face encounter with Tomek at the post office, so he apparently made so little impression on her that she did not recognize him when he appeared early in the morning at her front door.

The segment ends with a sweet moment. Tomek is getting some water (from the bathtub — this apartment complex’s plumbing is a disaster.) The elderly woman who lives with him stops to ask if he has anyone. Tomek says no. She tells him that while women might act free and kiss many boys, they like those who are gentle (apparently the assumption being that he’s that way.) She tells him it’s ok if he wants to bring a girl over. He repeats that he doesn’t have anyone.

I could append another judgment to Tomek here — the old woman clearly sees innocence where there’s some silent menace — but this is not his mother or grandmother, it’s the mother of a friend. We’ll learn more about this later. What’s important to know now is that Tomek is an orphan and she’s the only parental figure he has. She shows loving care towards him and that matters.

Tomek, without realizing it, is digging a hole for himself and the more he acts to manipulate and control, the more attached he becomes to an impossible situation.