The Downfall

S2 E6: The final episode explores Hitler's mental and physical decline as he is forced to confront his endgame of inevitable defeat. Never-before-seen photographs reveal the development of the secret weapons Hitler is convinced can turn the tide of the war. But his own army officers are plotting against him. The Führer miraculously survives an assassination attempt, convincing him of his divine status as the saviour of the German people. Then, driven by a lust for vengeance against the plotters, he launches an unequalled reign of terror. Leading Hitler experts investigate his mindset during the defining moments of his subsequent downfall - starting with his final military gamble, the disastrous Ardennes Offensive. Not for the first time, faced with a devastating reality, he threatens to take his own life. With the Allies advancing from east and west, Hitler is forced to accept he has no cards left to play. As he descends into a specially built Führer bunker in Berlin, private photographs reveal his escape into a fantasy world. Overwhelmed by feelings of betrayal, he turns the full force of his anger onto the German people, ordering that the nation should burn before it is captured. When he learns the 3rd SS Panzer Corps has not carried out the counterattack he ordered and that even his closest allies have turned against him, Hitler finally accepts the inevitable. He rewards his hidden mistress of 13 years with marriage then less than forty hours later asks his valet for his gun and pulls the trigger.