Meyer Offerman

Meyer Offerman is one of the main characters in Hunters. He is portrayed by Al Pacino.

Biography
Wilhelm Zuchs, known throughout the series as Meyer Offerman, is the overarching antagonist of the Amazon Prime original TV series Hunters. He is a former Nazi doctor who stole the identity of a jew, Meyer Offerman, and formed the titular Hunters team that sought to bring down the Nazis that escaped to America. He is presented as a flashback antagonist until he's revealed in the finale.

Season One
In the Belly of the Whale

A bitter and angry Jonah sits through the funeral for his Grandmother before sitting outside on the porch at the wake and stewing in his emotions. Meyer Offerman arrives and they talk about the man he claimed to have seen leave, mentioning how he and Jonah’s Grandmother were originally in the camps together. “Living well is the best revenge”, he utters before handing Jonah his number and driving away.

Inside, Jonah looks over his Grandmother’s possessions, including several hand-written letters. As he reads them, we cut back in time to the camps as we see the devastation first-hand. Meyer saved her life and that’s how these two knew each other.

Jonah heads up to Meyer’s house and they sit together, playing chess as we cut to a surreal, nightmarish segment involving human chess pieces, going on to mention how he managed to slice an X into one of the officer’s neck. After their conversation, Jonah finds a hidden compartment in the bookshelf and proceeds to open it. Inside, he finds pictures and a number of investigative pieces surrounding the Nazis – including a picture of the car belonging to his Grandmother’s killer. However, Meyer arrives and tells him to leave, warning that this is too dangerous for him to pursue.

Jonah goes after the owner of the car from his picture but bites off more than he can chew. The man tasers him, proceeding to tie him down and interrogating him over his Grandmother and who sent him. After piercing his chest with several darts, a knock at the door saves him, giving Jonah enough time to blind-side the shop owner, leading to a nasty skirmish between them. Thankfully, Meyer arrives and stabs the Nazi through the neck, proceeding to divulge everything he knows about the Nazis and how they aren’t actually all gone – they’re operating in America in secret.

As the episode closes out, Meyer introduces his group to Jonah, and they toast to his arrival.

The Mourner's Kaddish

Jonah deciphers a written message and realizes it’s in relation to one of the Nazi’s, Karl Holstedder.

After being introduced to the gang, Jonah gets to work with the others. Its here we learn that Holstedder used to host his own singing horror show inside the holocaust camp called The Star Of Buchenwald.

With a plan in action, the hunters circle Holstedder’s house before converging in the main atrium, proceeding to tie him down and give him what the Jews never had – a fair trial. With witness statements from Buchenwald, Lonny stumbles upon a hidden room and after picking the lock, he and Rox head in and find a homegrown radio set-up, one that appears to be broadcasting a message.

When they ask Karl, he refuses to engage, leading them to torture him through a grueling sound endurance test. Eventually Jonah convinces Geyer and the others to stop, and it’s here Holstedder announces that he was just following orders in playing tapes.

With the group preoccupied with the broadcast, Jonah heads into the room and gives the man a glass of water. Unfortunately, this is just the distraction he needs, proceeding to smash the glass and hold Jonah up with a shard of glass to his throat. Although Joe saves him from his fate, the ensuing blast also kills the broadcast, forcing the Hunters to leave.

While Visions of Safta Danced in His Head

Back at headquarters the next day, the group discuss the 74 different nazis on the wall they are aware of. Meyer rallies the troops, tasking them with watching Holstedder’s house.

Back at HQ, Sister Harriet feeds back what the group have found regarding their next target while Jonah himself visits Murray and Mindy, discussing Meyer and in particular whether there were any romantic feelings between them.

The Pious Thieves

Meyer meets Frederic at the Swiss Bank and they discuss his money.

Jonah himself marches back into Meyer’s operation and demands to be part of their group. Meyer takes him aside though and tells him his impulsive behaviour could put them all in jeopardy. After some back and forth, he agrees to put Jonah on surveillance duties with Sister Harriet, who talks to him about Ruth and recounts a tale from the camps involving a notorious German known as The Wolf (real name Wilheim Zuchs) who was obsessed with her.

After a miss-step from Mindy inside the bank, Sister Harriet hustles for information with one of her contacts. Back at HQ they look over schematics of the bank and discuss a plan of action to break into the bank. Before they can continue, Millie arrives and talks to Jonah about Ruth in private but not before noting down the name of Danny Rohr. This man wrote several New York Times articles on Meyer and may prove to be a valuable asset for her going forward.

Sitting down to a game of chess, Millie tells Jonah her theory and goes on to hound him about where he’s been over the past few days. However, Meyer interjects before Jonah can reveal anything incriminating about their operation and stops the questioning.

With Millie gone, the gang put their plan into action and break into the bank. With the hostage situation working perfectly as a distraction for the others to break into the vault, Jonah arrives and manages to stop Joe from being killed by a rogue officer. Mindy opens the safety deposit box but finds nothing there. However, there’s a secret compartment behind the wall that leads down to a hidden basement. Once there, they find a whole stash of Nazi loot, which they quickly take photos of for evidence.

Upon seeing these fortunes, Meyer shows Frederic what he and his team have found, going on to tell him he’s going to a war tribunal for what he’s done. Before Meyer leaves, he does manage to get a name from the Nazi – Oskar Hauptman; a notorious man known within the camps. Back at HQ, Meyer talks to Jonah about Oskar and officially invites him onboard as one of their own.

As the episode closes out, Frederic shoots himself in the head while Millie heads up to Danny Rohr’s and directs her questioning toward Meyer, where the episode ends.

At Night, All Birds are Black

Meyer, who speaks to Jonah and tells him to channel his anger, while interjecting this speech with shots of him practicing self-defence moves with Joe. We also cut back to the past as well, learning more about The Wolf inside the holocaust camp, in particular showing a nasty torture scene involving Meyer refusing to scream. It’s here Meyer tells Jonah the one mistake he made in his life was hesitating, warning Jonah against doing just this.

The group then reconvene, proceeding to look over a photo of The Wolf and his associates, deciding to set their attention on a political activist known as Tilda Sauer

The trio of hunters (Roxy, Meyer and Lonny) converge on Tilda Sauer’s location, tasering her and holding her hostage. When she awakens, the entire group circle and torture her, asking for information surrounding Oskar but she remains incredulous and refusing to engage. Meyer manages to get through to her eventually and upon realizing she knows nothing, shoots her square in the head.

As Meyer and the others head out of Tauer’s house their car suddenly explodes, leading to a shootout as Travis reveals himself and grabs a shotgun, circling Meyer while Roxy lies passed out on the ground. As sirens wail overhead, the shootout is left to be continued, as Travis growls in frustration and leaves the house.

(Ruth 1:16)

The fractured remnants of the group discuss Harriet’s betrayal and what it means for them while Meyer stitches up Jonah following his run-in with Dieter in the previous episode. Before they can go after new targets, the group prepare for the upcoming wedding.

The festivities get underway with Murray and Mindy beginning their wedding celebrations.

Jonah speaks to the other hunters about the upcoming plan, where they learn through scattered bits of intel that the Nazis are planning to create a fourth reich in America. Before they can continue, Sister Harriet arrives, leading Joe to march up and grab her. She shows them Moritz in the trunk of her car; a wedding gift for Murray and Mindy. While the others head back inside, Meyer talks privately to her about their code. She sneers at the concept, telling him it’s just a smokescreen to hide the fact that they’re as much the monster as the Nazis are, given what they’re doing.

Meyer returns home and immediately notices something afoul as both Travis and Tobias break into his house through the skyline. Following the faint smell of burning, Meyer opens the secret room in his house and finds all the records and information lost in the midst of an inferno raging around him.

Shalom Motherf***er

Back at Meyer’s, Jonah presents the music box and together the group begin to decipher what it all means. Given the morse code only revealed dates, the music box is much more exact, showing coordinates to several different areas across the city, including Grand Central Station. With this information, they deduce that they could be looking at a biological weapon being released, which matches up to what they found at The Ghost’s house.

Before they can act on this intel, Millie and other FBI agents arrive with a warrant to search the house. Within one of the rooms Millie finds the remnants of the fire that broke out earlier in the show. Sensing he’s not being wholly truthful, Millie arrests Meyer for the murder of Heinz Richter.

Millie begins interrogating Meyer. Eventually she breaks her own facade and shows him Operation Paperclip, going on to tell him she’s building a case and wants his help. This is when Meyer opens up and tells her that the Nazis are communicating with one another and they plan to attack New York.

The Jewish Question

Millie immediately heads in to see an irate Meyer telling her he’ll tell her everything he knows about the Fourth Reich if she lets him go. Eventually she agrees to his terms and follows him back to his house again

Lonny returns alive to HQ while Meyer introduces the group to Millie, who joins them in their base of operations. This leads them to a beautiful funeral where they say goodbye to Murray. Afterward, Jonah and Meyer come to blows surrounding how he feels and the guilt consuming him inside.

As the group start closing in on those who are pulling the strings, they set their sights on a man called Von Braun. After speaking to Simon, who berates what they’re doing and tells them they need to stop hunting for the sake of their own heritage, Jonah begins questioning what they’re doing too. It’s here Meyer admits to killing 11 men the night in the camp, in a bid to save Ruth, and admitting he hasn’t been the same since.

At the same time, Meyer, Joe and Jonah descend on Von Braun and question him over his morality and the Fourth Reich. When he fails to talk, Jonah looks set to torture him with electrical cables until he finally reveals what’s going on and who’s pulling the strings – it’s The Colonel. He was the one who helped create “The Solution” – a weapon that’s in absolutely everything and happens to be corn syrup. However, Jonah doesn’t believe him and begins shocking the man until Joe cuts the power and forces him back into the car.

The Great Ole Nazi Cookout of '77

The Colonel finds herself chauffeured by Meyer but she has the last laugh when she uses her cunning wits to outsmart him with a hidden gun, seemingly shooting him in the back of the head and sending both of them careering off a bridge into the water below.

Eilu v' Eilu

Meyer’s car plunges over the edge of the cliff as Sister Harriet dives into the water and drags Meyer to safety. The Colonel however, is nowhere to be seen. Jonah arrives and sees that Meyer is shook up from his encounter. He turns to Jonah and tells him it was his birthright to lead the Hunters but letting Travis go free has changed his mind.

Jonah brings The Wolf to Meyer’s house.

Meyer plunges the knife in The Wolf’s skull but he doesn’t say a prayer beforehand, which immediately rings alarm bells for Jonah. As he thinks back to the letters, his blood runs cold as he realizes the horrifying truth – Meyer is actually The Wolf. As Meyer sits down with a glass of whiskey, he tells Jonah about his ordeal and how he managed to get away from the camp.

The man he killed isn’t The Wolf, he’s actually the SS Surgeon who changed his face and turned him into Meyer after killing the real Meyer in cold blood back in the Holocaust Camp. His reasons for hunting come down to a blood lust but Jonah stands his ground and tells him it’s not his fight, it’s the Jew’s fight.

Jonah grabs the gun in his back pocket and fires a bullet into the fake Meyer’s chest, following it up with a knife to the lung.

Appearance & Personality
Wilhelm, unlike most other villains in Hunters, is not motivated by Nazism or evil, and is even in spite of his crimes, one of the least vile of the other antagonists. According to him, he wasn't a devotee of Nazism or the master race ideology, and only joined with the Nazis for the power they would give him. It was this power that would corrupt him and turn him into the monster known as The Wolf.

When speaking with Ruth, Wilhelm maintains a kind demeanor, but is noticeably upset when she rejects his offer. This demeanor is not faux affability, and he genuinely is nice to others. He only gives up on being the nice guy when he is upset or angered, which he shows he is easily. He's also very determined, doing whatever he could to destroy Meyer's light, learning every detail he could about him. Even Wilhelm has his limits however, giving up on torturing Meyer after nine hours, and even drinking while doing so, so as to alleviate the pain of inflicting pain, which indicates that he's not a sadist, but is still tenacious and would go to extreme lengths to get what he wanted.

After taking on Meyer's identity, Wilhelm would, in his words "awake from the coma of hatred", as living life as a Jew opened his eyes to his heinousness, and he came to realize that he was the bad guy. Wilhelm developed a black and white view of the world, believing the Nazis he would eventually hunt, as well as himself, were truly monsters, without redeeming qualities. He claims to Wiesenthal that his methods of punishment are righteous, and it is actually Wiesenthal who is in the wrong, because his process is not immediate and does not provide true justice. Wilhelm believed that the killing was necessary, even though it is admittedly difficult. He scolds Jonah for not doing "what is necessary", even claiming he's not fit to lead because of his inaction.

Overall, Wilhelm Zuchs is not evil. At heart he is not totally hateful, and is perhaps the only Nazi in the series portrayed as having some redeeming qualities. However, he is a man with a short temper who doesn't take "no" for an answer, and his actions as a result of this behavior ensure that he's still a villain.

Notes & Trivia

 * There were several hints throughout the episodes as to Meyer's true identity as Wilhelm Zuchs, some of which Jonah recalls as he figures it out for himself.
 * Tilda Sauer calls Meyer "the biggest charlatan of them all", as well as the "great pretender". Before she can elaborate further, Meyer shoots and kills her, a move which shocks Lonny and Roxy.
 * As Meyer looks at Oskar Hauptman's prescription, the shot lingers on the bottle, which bears Friedrich Mann's name. The Ghost, similarly to Meyer, had undergone plastic surgery by Mann to not be recognized.
 * Murray tell Jonah that "you can never really know a person", and that "we wear different faces", alluding to Meyer not being who he says he his, and his literal change of face.
 * When regaining consciousness after his encounter with the Colonel, he mumbles "Meyer".
 * In a flashback sequence, Ruth tells Meyer that he looks different than what she remembers of him.
 * Friedrich Mann notes how the stitches on Jonah's wound are expertly done. Since Wilhelm Zuchs was a surgeon, he was an expert in mending wounds.
 * Friedrich Mann exclaims "It's you!" before Meyer kills him, recognizing him as the man he performed surgery on.
 * Al Pacino himself is not Jewish, unlike the other actors who portray Jews, which makes Meyer's reveal as a "pretender" somewhat justified.
 * Wilhelm is one of the only Nazis in the series not brought to the United States via Operation Paperclip.
 * He's also the only Nazi to take on the identity of a Jew.
 * Though Wilhelm claimed he didn't seek absolution, his philanthropic actions indicate otherwise, having donated to several Jewish charities.