Vienna Blood - TV Series Quotes

"Vienna Blood" is a captivating British-Austrian procedural drama television series set in Vienna, Austria, in the early 1900s. Based on the Liebermann novels by Frank Tallis, the series stars Matthew Beard as Max Liebermann, a doctor and student of Sigmund Freud, who collaborates with Police Detective Oskar Rheinhardt, played by Juergen Maurer, to solve intricate crimes. The first "Vienna Blood" series premiered on BBC Two on 18 November 2019. Due to its success, it was recommissioned for a second series on 6 July 2020, followed by a third series that began broadcasting on 14 December 2022. The show has been renewed for a fourth series, continuing its gripping narrative and historical intrigue.

SEASON 1

EPISODE 1 - The Last Seance

Max Liebermann

1. There is a shadow self, a secret identity that everyone is struggling to hide.

- Max Liebermann

2. The deeper my journey into other people’s madness, the less I know myself.

- Max Liebermann

3. The Beethoven Frieze.

Gustav Klimt. I wanted you to see it before it’s gone.

It’s …

Extraordinary, don’t you think?

You don’t like it?

- Max Liebermann

I find it frightening, to be honest, Max.

Almost like a nightmare. Yes.

Image of madness.

Forbidden wishes.

- Clara Weiss

4. To every age it’s art.

- Max Liebermann

5. The mind can play tricks on us.

- Max Liebermann

6. Memories can be suppressed, especially painful ones.

- Max Liebermann

7. “She’s bewitching.

But she is dark and oddly dangerous, a deep reservoir of anger.

In truth, I’m desperate to help her.”

- Leah Liebermann

(Quoting from Max Liebermann's Journal)

8. I see desperation.

Lives cut short.

Broken relationships.

Unfinished conversations.

I see the pain of loss.

- Max Liebermann

9. If I told you I could make it stop … all the pain … would you do as I ask?

I … I know you have no reason to trust me.

- Max Liebermann

10. You’re the architect of your own warped mortality.

- Max Liebermann

11. There is a shadow self, a secret identity that everyone is struggling to hide.

The deeper my journey into other people's madness, the less I know myself.

- Max Liebermann

EPISODE 2 - Queen of the Night

1. Christ be my salvation.

They say that a man is never so weak, so defenseless against suffering as when he is in love.

Love is still an enigma to science.

Perhaps it is just a state of madness.

I was told this legend as a child.

Human beings were once double-headed creatures.

The Gods resolved that we should all be humbled.

They devised a punishment – cutting each body in half.

Now, everyone is looking for their missing counterpart.

Everyone one of us has perfect pre-ordained love.

The other self that the Gods took from us.

- Max Liebermann

2. If love is just a state of madness, then perhaps it can be cured.

But where does the madness begin and end?

Where does the border lie between love and obsession?

- Max Liebermann

3. Insane is not a catch-all, inspector.

Even the most disturbed mind has its own kind of logic.

- Max Liebermann

4. I knew it was her.

I knew she was signaling to me.

How did you know the signal was meant for you?

When you meet your true love, Doctor, the power of this attraction is just irresistible.

So you believe you and the Duchess were pre-ordained as lovers?

Everyone has a true love, Doctor.

Surely you believe that?

- Max Liebermann

5. Do you think obsession is the same as love?

- Max Liebermann

6. You and I have had a strange beginning.

Most people when they meet, they stand behind the veil of politeness.

They dance around each other, never saying what they mean.

You and I have never done that, just …

Force of circumstance.

- Amelia Lydgate

7. Expressed emotions do not merely sink without a trace, Professor.

They bubble up to the surface.

- Max Liebermann

EPISODE 3 - The Lost Child

1. Children remind us what we gained but also, what we lost.

They make us come face-to-face with our own mortality.

They are the people that we once were, the land to which can we never return.

- Max Liebermann

2. He was running.

He was trying to escape from someone.

He was being hunted.

- Max Liebermann

3. Silence is our weapon.

- Stephen Wolf

4. You can't kill a rumour.

It's like a

It's like a hydra

You cut off one head, two others grow back in its place.

- Stephen Wolf

5. Can't resist a mystery, can you?

Always drawn to an enigma.

- Clara Weiss

SEASON 2

EPISODE 1 - The Melancholy Countess

1. "There are no mysteries.

Not anymore.

No fairy-tales. No fables.

The giants have been banished.

The dragons have been bled.

Science has found a way

to eradicate them.

Reason has vanquished

the human imagination.

There is only one frontier

that is unexplored by man.

Only one place

where the dragons roam free.

The human brain is the only

uncharted land."

- Max Liebermann

2. "One she said she'd been having

"again and again

and again and again."

I'm in the park. Alone.

The place is shrouded in mist.

A nanny pushes a pram

along the path, just out of reach.

There's a large...

There's a large white building

in the park

like a fairy-tale palace.

I go in.

Animals live wild inside, they're

watching me from the shadows.

There are sweets and candy.

Like in the fairy tale, the witch's house

in Hansel And Gretel.

I find the woman sitting inside.

I hold out my arms

to take care of the little child.

But it turns into a bundle of...

of rags and dust."

- Countess Sophi Nazady

3. "The unconscious mind,

it's like a pool of dark water.

And then, when we dream, images

shoot up and out, like a fountain."

- Max Liebermann

4. "Well, I sense that something

or maybe someone,

has frightened you

and you're trying to find a way

to tell me.

Do you think you can ever

truly know someone?"

- Max Liebermann

5. "What if...

What if somebody you loved

had done something truly

terrible in the past,

a secret so dark, so frightening...

Hm.

What if they appeared so charming ...

... but underneath the mask..."

- Max Liebermann

6. "Whoever

they are, they're in this dream.

This is where our darkest fears

rise to the surface."

- Max Liebermann

7. "At first I thought it was just

a displacement technique,

that the feelings were too painful

so she was ascribing them

to someone else,

to a fantasy character."

- Max Liebermann

8. "I believe we were talking

about deception.

Someone close to you

deceiving you in some way.

Do you harbour feelings of...

anger or betrayal?"

- Max Liebermann

9. "Anyone who's had a broken relationship

some time in their past,

they spend

their days trying to mend it."

- Max Liebermann

10. "My time will come.

There is no greater need for

a child than the love

and acceptance of a parent.

Perhaps that child is

still inside us all,

still craving their approval.

The love of a parent

can be powerful,

sometimes all-consuming.

Some parents will sacrifice

anything for their child,

even themselves."

- Max Liebermann

EPISODE 2 - The Devil's Kiss

1. "A writer once said,

"If the devil did not exist

then man would create him

"In his own image and likeness."

We look at people all around us yet

we don't see them for what they are.

We see instead what

we want them to be.

A projection of our own needs

and desires."

- Max Liebermann

2. "He's no more than a shadow,

a whisper.

They're trying to find a man

that no one has ever laid eyes on."

- Oskar Reinhardt

3. "There's nothing complicated.

I want to be with you and...

... and I think you want to be

with me.

A simple chemical equation."

- Max Liebermann

4. "You were expecting

the devil.

You're disappointed he's just flesh

and blood, that he's real."

- Oskar Reinhardt

5. "It was a hunt and the girl

was the one who left the scent.

She was the fox."

- Max Liebermann

EPISODE 3 - Darkness Rising

1. "How many thousands of years

has man been living an illusion?

We live in a world of dreams,

a powerful hallucination.

We turn our backs

on the sensory world

into which we have been born

and choose, instead, to live

in a fantasy.

A fantasy we call "religion"."

- Max Liebermann

2. "He's a bigot.

A dangerous fanatic.

The only thing that comes

out of his pen is pure poison."

- Max Liebermann

3. "There is no puzzle for you to solve.

At least let me talk to him?

That's usually when things start

to unravel."

- Oskar Reinhardt and Max Liebermann

SEASON 3

EPISODE 1 - Deadly Communion

1. "Welcome to the fairy tale.

Please, sit.

A painter once wrote,

"There is nothing in this world

"that is not beautiful.

"You can take the plainest,

most unprepossessing thing,

"change the light,

"change the perspective,

and voila...

"..it becomes dazzling."

100 year later,

a Viennese doctor wrote

that beauty is redundant.

It has no use...

..and yet it can become

the most dangerous thing

in the world.

It can become the source

of an addiction."

- Max Liebermann

2. "It's not the dead that excites

him, Oskar. It's death itself."

- Max Liebermann

3. "It's like two stars colliding

whenever we come together.

We agreed never to meet again.

It always seems to end

in devastation."

- Max Liebermann

4. "If there is beauty in all things,

then surely death is among them."

"Consider the roses

cut from their stems

at the exact moment of blooming."

"You are looking for me, I know."

"But maybe you have already met me.

Maybe I am closer than you think."

"I am the man who killed her."

"If there is beauty in all things,

then surely death is among them."

It's just as I thought, Oskar.

He finds death sexually alluring."

- Max Liebermann (Reading killer's letter)

5. "I think he wants company

on his journey.

I think his madness

is a lonely place to live."

- Max Liebermann

6. "Some time in his past,

perhaps in his youth,

he's witnessed death close at hand.

He's seen someone die and yet...

It only rendered them more beautiful."

- Max Liebermann

7. "Everyone at some time in their life suffers a bereavement."

- Max Liebermann

8. "Like a hound, a hunting dog

bringing gifts to its master,

begging for his approval."

- Max Liebermann

9. "Women used to paint their faces

in lead white.

Ended up with poison in

their bloodstream.

They put drops of belladonna

in their eyes just to make them

sparkle, and ended up blind.

This mask is just another

one of life's cruel tortures.

The painful price of beauty.

Rich women wore it to shield

their faces from the sun.

Simply to have pale skin."

- Kristina Vogl

EPISODE 2 - The God of Shadow

1. "We are the sum of our experiences,

uniquely defined by our memories.

Sometimes a simple object

can summon up a recollection.

It can be the door to a

secret, forgotten past.

We spend a lifetime gathering

a collection of treasured objects

and symbols, each of them holding

a tiny fragment of our identity -

a key to our emotions."

- Max Liebermann

2. "Once evil has been

released into the world,

it cannot rest until

it has claimed its victim."

- Captain Georg Steiner.

3. "It's like we're dealing

with a ghost.

Someone who can slip

between the shadows."

- Max Liebermann

4. "Someone who already

doubts his sanity,

how easy to drive him into madness."

- Max Liebermann

EPISODE 3 - Death Is Now a Welcome Guest

1. "Humans are storytellers.

All through history, we have been

the authors of legends and fables,

the Greeks and their celestial

beings, the Egyptians

and their mythology of the universe.

Somehow, our stories make

sense of who we are.

But why do we so desperately feel

the need for heroes and idols?

Are they simply a vehicle for our

own hidden feelings and desires?

Perhaps they expose a darkness

in us."

- Max Liebermann

2. "I think something deeply

dangerous is happening here.

A woman stands in front of a camera

and she becomes an empty vessel.

People fill her with their dreams,

their fantasies."

- Max Liebermann

3. "It wasn't love,

whatever we had.

It was toxic.

Twisted.

Perverted.

One moment,

we were consumed by passion,

and the next,

by rage."

- Professor Neumann

4. "The most dangerous

mistake a person can make

is to project their own shadow

onto another human being, to pretend

they are an embodiment

of one's fantasy.

The route to happiness is

to accept people as they are,

not as we wish them to be.

To see them

in the clear light of day...

...and still love them.

That is the mark of a true friend."

- Max Liebermann

SEASON 4

EPISODE 1 - Mephisto's Waltz, Part 1

1. "Freud teaches us that we relive our childhood again and again.

Some of us are stuck in a nursery world, an obsessive need to play games.

An adult addiction to gambling is often a long-buried childhood fixation.

Gambling is not simply a vice.

It's an expression of our humanity.

It is the way we behave toward each other in our relationships.

Play. Win. Lose.

And we sometimes take immense risks.

And in the most devastating circumstances, we can lose everything."

- Max Liebermann

2. "The irony is, we are not so different, you and I.

We both use violence to achieve our ends.

We both understand its power."

- Franz Burgstaller

3. "As every psychoanalyst knows, 

since we haven't gone through the experience of death ourselves, death doesn't exist in our unconscious.

So we can't actually fear death."

- Max Liebermann

4. "What I really need to do is get into the mind of a dead man."

- Oskar Reinhardt

5. "Oh, hurrah! It's Little Freud.

We can all look forward to being analysed again at dinner."

- Leah Liebermann

6. "Here we go again"

- Mendel Liebermann

7. "Oh, dear, has someone died?

Sorry, um ... hello, Oskar."

- Max Liebermann

8. "Sorry for dragging you in here again.

I needed you with me.

I needed you to meet him."

-  Oskar Reinhardt

9. "Welcome to the case, Doctor.

I think it's my turn to say it.

It's definitely my turn."

- Max Liebermann & Oskar Reinhardt

10. "These boots are purgatory.

I can barely walk."

- Oskar Reinhardt

11. "Stroke me like I'm a possession.

That's how powerful men behave."

- Clara Weiss

12. "Oh, don't be such a bore.

Just starting to enjoy myself."

- Max Liebermann

13. "You're meant to be pretending,

not actually getting sucked in."

- Leah Liebermann

14. "I know gamblers.

I know their foibles.

I see every little quirk of nature.

Rather like a neurologist making a diagnosis.

- Hellen Rieger

15. "But everyone's secrets can be uncovered if you know the signals."

- Hellen Rieger

16. "The nobility have a kind of certainty in their manner.

They're comfortable giving orders without seeming embarrassed about doing so."

- Hellen Rieger

17. "Lord Sadler, this is where I slip out of character.

I think I'm done pretending for one evening."

- Clara Weiss

18. "Tell me you feel nothing for me and I promise I won't bring it up again.

One word from you and I'll be silent forever."

- Max Liebermann

19. "Guilt. Freud would say all gamblers harbour some deep residual guilt about something. 

Deep down in the depths of their psyche, they know they're going to lose.

They're seeking punishment."

- Max Liebermann

20. "Every gambler is always looking for the next big thrill.

You need to understand what you're getting into here."

- Hellen Rieger

21. "We are powerless in fate's hands.

That's what makes it so delicious."

- The Actress

22. "We don't talk about our lives here.

Unless we wish to gamble with them"

- The Actress

23. "How much is she worth to you?

Would you care to wager her?

People, possessions, secrets - anything of value.

The thrill is greater than you could imagine.

Why don't you try it?

- The Baron

24. "Well, I sense that somewhere deep in your soul ...you're truly tempted.

You feign disgust ...but the idea is just a little thrilling.

- The Baron

25. "No excitement without the risk, my friend."

- The Actress

26. "I just feed an addiction. 

I don't trade in morals."

- Hellen Rieger

27. "I'm lost ...

... and I'm alone.

Worst thing I've ever faced.

- Oskar Reinhardt

EPISODE 2 - Mephisto's Waltz, Part 1

1. "He was always restless.

Always had an adventurous spirit"

- Mendel Liebermann

2. "Of course, I never imagined that spirit would lead him to such dark places, but ...

you have to let children be themselves."

 - Mendel Liebermann

3. "It was almost like a game for him, you know.

The two of us investigating crimes.

Like schoolboys playing."

- Oskar Reinhardt

4. "It's a puzzle. Total enigma."

- Oskar Reinhardt

5. "It frightens you to have a commoner so close to the seat of power."

- The Actress

6. "Wars are seldom won with novelties and trinkets."

- The Soldier

7. "Our actions betray us."

- Oskar Reinhardt

8. "Everything you said was right.

I do have feelings for you.

I think I've hidden them for so long, 

I barely even acknowledge them anymore.

Funny, me being here makes me just a little braver."

- Clara Weiss

9. "Follow the game.

Interpret the rules."

- Max Liebermann

10. "I need to get close to him ...

... and you may be my passport."

- Oskar Reinhardt

11. "...Patterns of behaviour are always deeply ingrained."

- Clara Weiss

12. "Sometimes your hand is so good, you want to reveal it to the opponent.

- Hellen Rieger

13. "Sometimes we have to accept there are no neat resolutions."

- Max Liebermann

14. "One's own funeral oration.

What a treat."

- Max Liebermann