Kleo follows an East German secret agent in unified Germany who attempts to uncover a conspiracy that led to her arrest for treason after she executed a top-secret mission in West Germany.
Kleo is a Cold-war era spy thriller that follows an East German Stasi agent named Kleo, played by Jella Haase, after she is arrested in a big conspiracy that involved all the major members of the Communist Party, including her grandfather.
Created by Hanno Hackfort, Bob Konrad, and Richard Kropf, Kleo features Jella Haase as the unofficial Stasi agent Kleo, Dimitrij Schaad as a local West German police investigator, and Vladimir Burlakov as Kleo’s commanding officer, along with Julius Feldmeier, Marta Sroka, Vincent Redetzki, Vladimir Burlakov, and Thandi Sebe. The eight episodes are directed by Viviane Andereggen and Jano Ben Chaabane.
Kleo Story Summary
Kleo Straub (Jella Haase), who also goes by the name Agent Granddaughter, is a top agent of the Stasi, the secret police organization of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), also known as The Firm.
After eliminating a target in the West German club Big Eden in 1987, she meets her comrades Uwe (Vincent Redetzki) and Andi (Vladimir Burlakov), who take her to the Ministry of State Security.
Kleo and Andi are in a romantic relationship, and Kleo reveals that she is pregnant with Andi’s baby.
Meanwhile, Sven Petzold (Dimitrij Schaad), a police officer from the West German Crime Squad becomes a witness to the murder by Kleo. The fact that nobody takes him seriously in the department does not help his cause.
When the sketch made with the help of Sven is intercepted by State Security, they deactivate Agent Granddaughter.
Kleo is arrested on the way back from her grandfather’s birthday and tried for treason. Kleo tries to explain that she’s an unofficial officer of the State but fails as all her witnesses, including her grandfather, testify against her.
As part of the cover-up, Sven is informed that the man at the club was killed by overdose, but Sven refuses to believe it. In the jail, Kleo loses her baby after a scuffle with some of the prisoners.
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, when all political prisoners are provided amnesty by the Communist Party, Kleo is released from prison.
Kleo heads to her grandfather Comrade Otto to confront him for turning her in. He tells her that he had no choice. Offering her a letter to read, Kleo’s grandfather forces her to kill him.
On the other hand, Sven comes across Kleo while handling the files of all the released political prisoners. He starts looking for Kleo using her details in the file and comes to know that Kleo was a Stasi agent.
Kleo visits Andi and his pregnant wife to find the man behind her ordeal. Andi reveals that it was Colonel Wieczorek, who ordered her arrest and died in an accident.
Using the identity of another officer of the government, Kleo infiltrates the office of the dead colonel to find more traces.
Coincidentally, Sven visits the HQ at the same time to talk to a senior in the Ministry of State Security. He comes to know about Colonel Wieczorek from the senior. He also comes across Kleo while exiting the building and tracks her to her home.
After finding out about Communist Party Secretary Blum’s involvement from the Colonel’s office, Kleo kills Blum in his apartment. But Kleo finds a photo of the Colonel there, confirming that the Colonel is very much alive.
When Kleo finds out about Sven’s investigation from her new housemate Thilo (Julius Feldmeier), she gives Kleo a fair warning.
Kleo finds Colonel Wieczorek in Mallorca living under the name of Señor Fritz. Just like before, she keeps Andi informed about her moves.
Kleo crosses paths with Alexander Belov, a KGB officer on the payroll of Colonel Wieczorek. Sven also arrives at Mallorca to find Kleo while Kleo acquaints herself with Señor Fritz and his wife.
Wieczorek or Fritz has been living as a businessman in Mallorca after shedding all his socialist roots.
Meanwhile, Kleo releases Alexander with the promise that he will keep everything a secret, planning to kill the Colonel and his capitalist associates. However, she gets warned by Andi that their former partner Uwe has been assigned by a top authority to keep an eye on her.
After Fritz signs the contract with his business associates, Kleo confronts him about what happened to her. He tells him that she was arrested on the orders of Minister Erich Mielke after she killed the CIA Chief in West Germany at Big Eden.
Moments after she kills Colonel Wieczorek, Uwe arrives and kills Wieczorek’s wife to erase any trace before informing his seniors about Kleo’s troublesome actions.
Alexander Belov informs Min Sun (Yun Huang) from the Federal Intelligence about Kleo. Min Sun’s senior Anne Geike (Alessija Lause) appoints Sun to find more about Kleo as the Federal Intelligence has been instructed by the government to dig into the Stasi’s past actions.
Against Andi’s insistence, Kleo plans to kill the minister, who’s in the prison now. In the meantime, determined to stop Kleo, Sven resigns from the Squad to keep an eye on her.
With Uwe, Sven, and Min Sun tailing Kleo, Min Sun and Sven’s paths cross. Min Sun assigns Sven to gather intelligence on Kleo Straub in exchange for the promise of an official contract.
To kill the minister, Kleo bribes a little girl, having her bring a poisoned cake to the prison. The minister is then taken to the hospital where upon being questioned, Mielke tells Kleo that it was her grandfather who was running the show. Before dying at the hands of Kleo, he also informs her that it was not the CIA Chief who died in Big Eden.
Later, Kleo looks for the letter that her grandfather asked her to read before dying. It seems apparent that it was Kleo’s grandfather who managed to save Kleo from assassination by putting her in jail. In the letter, he stated that Kleo killed somebody who had the potential to destroy the whole West and the rest of the world.
Kleo continues her attempts to know the real identity of the dead man from 1987. Andi pays a visit to Uwe to make him stop Kleo.
Kleo is also visited by Anne Geike who was looking for Otto. She escapes after she gets suspicious about Kleo.
Sven decides to chase the identity of the man who was killed by Kleo and finds out that the man was an East German with a bright red suitcase in his possession.
Sven is tasked by Min Sun to earn Kleo’s trust and find the identity of the man. To his surprise, Kleo comes looking for him to carry on the investigation together.
After multiple failed attempts, Uwe tries to kill Kleo again, but this time, with the help of Andi. Even though Andi fails to take a proper shot at Kleo, in the chase that follows, Uwe shoots Kleo.
Kleo Ending Explained
In an injured state, Kleo goes through a memory flashback from when she was separated from her mother and forced into the Youth Pioneers program through manipulation by Comrade Otto and Comrade Margot Honecker, who pretended to be her grandfather and aunt.
Along with other young kids, Kleo was indoctrinated to defend socialism and walk on the path of Ramona Makarov, a well-trained agent who shot Ronald Reagan.
Her memories take her to the moment when she was being presented an honor at the medal ceremony by Minister Mielke. She sees that the man, who she killed at the club, was the minister’s aide, Comrade Frey, who was carrying the red suitcase at the time.
She also remembers that she had seen the suitcase being carried by Minister Mielke’s former secretary Ms. Lobrecht very recently when she infiltrated the HQ.
When Kleo opens her eyes, she finds out that she was saved by Sven, who killed Uwe.
Following Ms. Lobrecht, Kleo and Sven come across a fake suitcase. Meanwhile, Sven also identifies Andi and tells Kleo that Andi was the one who was helping Uwe before he shot him.
Andi explains to his wife, who’s been suspecting him of having an affair with Kleo, that he’s been protecting some crucial information as part of a mission, which is now being threatened by Kleo.
Kleo confronts Andi who tells her that Mielke’s aid Comrade Frey wanted to hand over the suitcase to the West but before he could do that, a double agent informed Comrade Otto, and Kleo was sent to kill Frey at Big Eden.
The conversation is interrupted when Andi is killed by his pregnant wife, who turned out to be agent Ramona Makarov.
Ramona escapes and Kleo realizes that the double agent was Anne Geike, the Chief of the Federal Intelligence, who paid a visit to her in search of Otto.
As Kleo and Sven look for Anne, Anne asks Min Sun to pause her investigation although Min Sun finds out that Anne Geike was at the Big Eden the day Frey was killed by Kleo.
At Anne’s house, Anne is confronted by Kleo who knows that Anne took the suitcase after she killed Frey. Although Anne gets killed after she gets accidentally torched in a scuffle with Kleo, Kleo finds a clue that links the suitcase to Jorge, a former comrade who’s in Chile.
Kleo and Sven set out for Chile, and Comrade Margot Honecker, Kleo’s aunt and Otto’s partner-in-crime, assigns Ramona to retrieve the suitcase and kill Kleo.
Min Sun continues to chase the case and tries to get information about Kleo out of Sven.
After Jorge dies in a road accident when Sven and Kleo go to his house to find out the whereabouts of the suitcase, Ramona asks Kleo to meet her at a hotel bar. Meanwhile, Kleo tasks Sven with searching Ramona’s room for the suitcase. He finds the address to the location where the suitcase is kept.
What was in the red suitcase?
When Ramona meets Kleo, Kleo is briefly rendered unconscious after she is poisoned by Ramona. Thanks to Sven, Kleo gains consciousness as he injects her with dopamine.
The duo sets out to find the suitcase, hoping it’s not too late. On the way to the location, they come across Ramona.
Ramona makes Kleo and Sven have an accident, but before she could do anything, her water breaks. Kleo decides to help Ramona deliver the baby.
After Ramona’s baby is born, Kleo and Sven head to the statue where the suitcase was hidden and recover the vital documents.
Going through the documents, Kleo and Sven realize that Ronald Reagan and Honecker signed a pact.
At just this moment, Honecker arrives and explains that Ronald Reagan funded East Germany or the German Democratic Republic to keep the enemy alive in order to push his politics through West Germany and retain his influence in Europe.
Honecker convinces Kleo, against Sven’s wishes, to hand over the details in exchange for information about Bigitte, Kleo’s separated mother.
Even though Kleo hands over the suitcase to Honecker, Sven passes on the information to Min Sun, who exchanges the suitcases smartly at the airport with Honecker without Honecker’s knowledge.
Kleo visits her mother. However, Bigitte does not welcome her lost daughter warmly.
Celebrating their journey thus far, Kleo and Sven finally make out although the next morning, Kleo gets angry when she comes to know Sven’s actions have resulted in the suitcase falling out of Honecker’s possession.
In the end, Min Sun hands over the suitcase to the US intelligence in exchange for money while Honecker finds herself a suitcase full of toilet paper.
Far away, Agent Ramona is happy to have a baby boy with her. On the other hand, it is revealed that Uwe has not died.
Kleo is now streaming on Netflix.
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