‘The Dead of Lake Constance’: ZDF detective investigates while in a coma

Wooden chess pieces appear without explanation, a deserted former children’s home hides restraints and coded combinations, and a detective continues investigating after falling into a coma. Those elements drive the latest episode of ZDF’s “The Dead of Lake Constance.”

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I only understand it rudimentarily.

The episode, titled “In the Shadow Realm,” centers on the former Sonnenhof Bregenz, once a children’s home for difficult-to-control young people and now an abandoned site in the woods. Detective Micha Oberländer, played by Matthias Koeberlin, searches the building with a flashlight. He finds a bed fitted with restraints and combinations of letters and numbers written on a wall.

The case involves the murders of a priest and a tourist. One victim was beaten to death with a cross, while the other was killed with a sword. The mystery also includes chess pieces that suddenly turn up, including a knight and a bishop.

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You know in the evening what you have done.

The series has attracted audiences of 6.4 million to 8.2 million for the first broadcasts of its 24 earlier episodes, according to ZDF. Its streaming videos also continue to receive consistently high use, a broadcaster’s spokeswoman said. The new episode is less overtly mystical than some previous installments. Its killer’s motive is described as earthly rather than occult.

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I am not that vain.

Its unusual turn comes after Oberländer is stabbed and hospitalized. In the coma, he finds himself back inside the children’s home, where a young person sits at a table playing chess. Koeberlin said he only understands chess “rudimentarily.” He also spent a day filming underwater scenes at a diving school in Vienna. The hospital scenes brought a different challenge, he said, because remaining in bed for extended filming proved demanding.

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I realized that it is quite demanding.