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| Berlin and the Lady With an Ermine: The Real Reason Sierra and Raquel Never Appear. (Credits: Netflix) |
‘Berlin and the Lady With an Ermine’ wastes absolutely no time throwing viewers back into stylish criminal chaos, except this time the biggest surprise is not the robbery itself. It is the complete absence of Raquel Murillo and Alicia Sierra, the two investigators sharp enough to make even Berlin sweat a little.
Considering how close they came to exposing him during the Paris jewel robbery, many viewers expected the pair to return and wreck everyone’s plans within three episodes. Instead, Netflix quietly keeps them off the board entirely. And honestly, that absence says more about Berlin’s growth than any dramatic speech ever could.
The previous chapter of Berlin revolved around the extravagant Paris jewellery heist, where the crew pulled off one of their flashiest operations yet. But as always with Berlin, things became messy the moment emotions entered the equation.
The man treats danger like a personality trait, which meant the robbery left behind enough loose ends for experienced investigators to start connecting dots almost immediately. That is where Sierra and Raquel entered the story and instantly made every thief in the room look slightly less confident.
Unlike the local authorities, who were busy admiring the scale of the robbery while missing obvious clues sitting directly in front of them, Sierra and Raquel recognised almost instantly that something was wrong with the official narrative.
Berlin’s attempt to frame Camile’s husband may have fooled everyone else, but not them. The two investigators quickly realised the evidence looked far too convenient, which in crime fiction basically translates to, “someone clever is showing off again”.
Fans loved watching Sierra and Raquel work together because the pair brought a completely different energy compared to the thieves. While Berlin’s crew thrived on chaos, improvisation and emotional instability disguised as confidence, the investigators operated with patience and ruthless logic.
Even when Berlin believed he had outplayed everyone, the women kept inching dangerously close to the truth. At one point, viewers genuinely thought the entire gang was about to get caught because someone forgot the basic rule of crime dramas: never underestimate the woman quietly analysing evidence in the corner.
Still, luck stayed firmly on Berlin’s side. Camile’s emotional conflict complicated the investigation, key evidence dried up, and eventually Sierra and Raquel were forced to admit temporary defeat. Importantly though, neither investigator actually believed Berlin was finished.
They openly acknowledged that thieves like him never stop after one successful robbery. Eventually, they assumed, he would become overconfident and make a fatal mistake. It is practically the universal law of stylish television criminals.
Except Berlin and the Lady With an Ermine flips that expectation completely.
This time Berlin does not merely focus on escaping the authorities. He designs the entire operation around one genius principle: if nobody reports the crime, then the investigators never enter the story in the first place. It is ridiculous, arrogant and somehow terrifyingly smart.
The new heist involving the legendary Lady With an Ermine painting works because Berlin replaces the original artwork with a forgery convincing enough to delay suspicion. Instead of creating a dramatic international emergency, the theft appears to be a failed attempt. As far as the authorities know, the painting is still safe and sitting exactly where it belongs.
Which means no Europol. No emergency investigation. No Sierra walking into a room already annoyed at everyone’s incompetence.
The same logic applies to the Duke’s hidden fortune. Berlin and his crew steal millions from a secret vault filled with wealth that was never supposed to exist publicly anyway. Reporting the theft would force the Duke to explain where the money came from, which would create problems infinitely worse than losing it.
The stolen paintings create the exact same issue. Since many of the artworks were illegally acquired in the first place, going to the police would basically require the Duke to incriminate himself first. Awkward.
So for perhaps the first time in the franchise, Berlin executes robberies that technically never become official cases. No public scandal means no major investigation, and no investigation means Sierra and Raquel stay completely outside the narrative.
It is less about the investigators being forgotten and more about Berlin finally understanding how to remove the board entirely before the game even starts.
That decision has sparked wildly divided reactions online. Some viewers praised the writing for showing Berlin evolving into a far more calculated strategist instead of simply repeating old heist formulas.
Others were far less impressed and argued that removing Sierra and Raquel also removed some of the franchise’s best tension. Across social media, fans joked that Netflix essentially locked the smartest characters outside the building because otherwise the season would have lasted twenty minutes.
Many viewers especially missed Alicia Sierra’s chaotic interrogation energy, which often felt like watching someone weaponise sarcasm professionally. Others argued that Raquel Murillo brought emotional complexity that balanced Berlin’s increasingly theatrical behaviour.
Without them, some fans felt the story leaned more heavily into style and spectacle rather than psychological pressure. One viral reaction summed it up perfectly: “Berlin survives because the only people capable of stopping him apparently had the week off.”
At the same time, plenty of audiences admitted the absence also made the heist feel refreshingly different. Instead of another cops-versus-thieves chase, the series becomes more focused on deception, manipulation and silent control.
Berlin is no longer simply outrunning investigators. He is actively designing robberies so cleanly that the system does not even realise it should start looking.
Ironically, that might make this version of Berlin even more dangerous than before. In Paris, his ego nearly exposed the entire operation. In The Lady With an Ermine, he finally learns restraint, and somehow that is far more unsettling than all the explosions and dramatic speeches combined.
Still, fans are already debating whether Sierra and Raquel could return in a future instalment, especially now that Berlin’s operations are becoming increasingly ambitious. Because let’s be honest, in a franchise built around elaborate robberies and emotional chaos, nobody truly believes those two investigators will stay away forever.
The real question is whether Berlin can stay one step ahead once they finally walk back into the room. So what do you think — did the series become smarter without Sierra and Raquel, or did Netflix remove the very people capable of keeping Berlin interesting?