Lore season 2, episode 4 recap: Prague Clock: The Curse of the Orloj

Lore’s latest episode is based on the legend of the curse of the world-renowned astronomical clock in Prague.

In 1470 Prague, two brothers Dirvick and Jan Mirandesh have been hired to attempt to fix the city’s prized clock which hasn’t worked in 60 years.

Ever since the clock stopped working in 1410, Prague is said to have been cursed, a belief not helped by the city being located in the middle of suffering an outbreak of the Black Plague (the bodies are literally piling up) and that many have already tried and failed to fix the clock.

Dr. Kristoff Brehovy meets up with the two brothers and expresses concerns about the brothers being Turks but lets it go since Prague is low on options.

Dirvick quickly shows himself to be the brains and enthusiasm of the operation while Jan is mostly content to let his brother do the work while he negotiates their payment.

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Dirvick starts some early work on the clock but winds up with a nasty wound on his hand from one of the gears.  Jan shows some concern for the wound and thinks a surgeon should take a look at it soon.

Kristoff arranges for a foreman to bring a crew of workers to help out but none of them are particularly happy to be there because of the curse.

Things don’t get off to a promising start as some of the gears spontaneously start moving and Dirvick suffers a fall into them.

Though Dirvick is unharmed, the foreman’s arm gets mangled trying to stop the machinery. While waiting to be rescued Dirvick picks up a mysterious ring hidden inside the gears.

Unsurprisingly, the crew immediately quits and Jan is ready to cut his and Dirvick’s losses but Kristoff offers for them to be paid double to stick around but the downside is they now have to finish the clock without a crew.

Dirvick’s health and sanity begin to deteriorate.  Not only does his hand show no signs of healing but he’s now bleeding out of his eyes.  He starts raving about the curse and insists the ring he found is an important piece of the clock’s repair.  He then almost strangles Jan to death before collapsing from his illness.

Kristoff examines Dirvick and tells Jan that his brother is not being afflicted by the plague but is actually falling victim to the curse.  Kristoff says the only way to save Dirvick is the repair the clock and break the curse.

Kristoff then explains what brought the clock and the city to be cursed 60 years ago.  When the clock had first been built by Hanus Carolinum, the masters of the city decided they didn’t want the work to ever be duplicated so they had Hanus blinded.  Hanus then made his way back to the clock, cursed the city of Prague and hurled himself into the machinery prompting the clock stop working.

The good news is that Dirvick was able to design some plans for the clock before falling ill.  Jan is able to persuade the foreman to come back and they make the repairs to the specifications made by Dirvick’s plans.  At first, it appears to be a failure until Jan decides to use the ring Dirvick found to start the lever which proves to be a success.

Jan goes to tell Dirvick the good news only to find his brother dead.  Jan naturally asks Kristoff why fixing the clock didn’t save Dirvick and the doctor admits to basically making up the diagnosis to motivate Jan into fixing the clock and lifting the curse.

Jan in a fit of grief and rage makes his way back up the clock in hurls himself into the machinery and clock stops working once more.

What did you think of Lore’s latest episode on Amazon Prime Video?  Give us your thoughts in the comments.