The old woman's distant relations had come foraging out of the woodwork.” Gustave and Zero go into a large hall, where dozens of relatives are sitting, hoping to get a piece of the woman’s fortune. Uncles, nephews, cousins, in-laws of increasingly tenuous connection. Moustafa narrates, “When the destiny of a great fortune is at stake, men's greed spreads like a poison in the bloodstream. Gustave and Serge are brought into a butler’s pantry, when suddenly a servant enters wearing a panicked expression. Gustave is delighted to see that the countess looks wonderful and says to her body, “I don’t know what kind of cream they’ve put on you down at the morgue, but I want some.” Before fetching Gustave some water, Clotilde informs Gustave that Monsieur Serge wants to see Gustave in his office. She leads Gustave and Zero through a giant mansion and into a large hall where the countess is in a coffin. When they come in the front door, Gustave asks Clotilde, a maid, to take him to the countess. We see a taxi speeding down a snowy street and arriving at the estate of the countess. Noting that Zero is “stateless” Henckels hands Zero a temporary card letting him travel “free and unmolested.”

Henckels recognizes Gustave from childhood and introduces himself, before ordering the military men to release Gustave and Zero. He hasn’t done anything wrong.” The military men try and take Zero away, but Gustave tries to prevent them, yelling, “Take your hands off my lobby boy!” An inspector named Henckels blows a whistle and comes down the hall to see what’s going on. Gustave comes immediately to Zero’s defense, alleging that he has had Zero’s papers approved and saying, “You can’t arrest just because he’s a bloody immigrant. The corporal examines Zero’s documents and asks him to come into the hall. “It’s not a very flattering portrait I’m afraid, I was once considered a great beauty,” Gustave says as he hands the corporal his documents. A title reads, “October 19, Closing of the Frontier.” The door of their car opens and a military man demands to see their documents. Gustave then wonders if the countess left him any money, and clarifies to Zero, “She was dynamite in the sack, by the way.” Suddenly the train stops, and as Gustave and Zero look out the window, they see a number of military men outside.

“All of Lutz will be dressed in black, except her own ghastly deceitful children whom she loathed and couldn’t bear to kiss hello,” he tells Zero. Gustave is sad that he didn’t listen to the countess’s premonition earlier. “We must go to her,” Gustave says, and instructs Zero to go pack for the journey. When Gustave answers and asks what he wants, Zero shows him the headline that caught his attention: “Dowager Countess Found Dead in Boudoir” along with a picture of the old woman to whom Gustave lovingly bid farewell at the start of the film. He goes to a hotel room where Gustave is in the middle of an affair with a guest, and knocks. He runs to the funicular and rides it up the mountain and into the hotel. A title card reads “Madame C.V.D.u.T.” Zero carries newspapers through a square, and his eyes widen as he reads a headline.