In the fourth episode of Amadeus, the year is 1788, and we witness Franz and Constanze growing closer, while their relationship with Amadeus continues to fade. The latter, with a heart full of pride, hides his sadness as Constanze decides to stay with her sisters for a while. Meanwhile, Salieri receives news of Wolfgang's father, Leopold's passing, and he is the one to pay his respects personally to Amadeus, claiming to be a "friendly face." Amadeus is incredulous at Salieri's presence and hastily shows him out the door.
At his father's wake, Amadeus finds solace in the bottle, drowning his sorrows in the knowledge that his life's ambition—his father's admiration and approval—is now a distant memory. Inspired by his father's death, Mozart decides to debut his next opera, Don Giovanni. Constanze is absent once again, but Salieri is present. After the show, he engages in a hushed conversation with the Brotherhood about the Emperor's return from war but poor health.
The focus, however, remains on the opera, and it is clear through the words of Don Giovanni that Amadeus is using it as a form of cathartic therapeutic release, opening himself up to the darkest corners of his psyche. Salieri understands this but, to maintain appearances, he dismisses the play as thin and a waste of time to the rest of the Brotherhood.
After the opera, Salieri once again rubs salt in the wound. Using his influence, he shuts down the play after just five showings. On one of those showings, Emperor Joseph does make an appearance, but his health is clearly failing. In fact, as we soon learn, he passes not long after, and the play marks the last time Salieri ever saw the Emperor. He returned to the front lines and died six months later.
With the Emperor's absence, Mozart's fiercest advocate vanished too, leaving Salieri with even more power in Vienna to cast Mozart aside and condemn him to cheap tricks and thrills. Throughout this time, Mozart lamented the inaudibility of his musical vision to anyone else.
On the closing night of Don Giovanni, Amadeus was approached by a fan named Gregor – ironically the same name as his father's hound. Gregor confessed that he felt like a conduit for divine inspiration, and Mozart tested the young man's mettle by forcing him to play music for him.
Just like Leopold, Wolfgang belittled and humiliated Gregor, eventually spilling a drink on him and calling the kid talentless. When Constanze learned of her husband's actions, it was the final straw for her. In the morning, she slipped away without so much as a goodbye.
Amadeus continued to stew in his misery and grief, relegated to a cheap vaudeville playhouse for his future performances. Unfortunately, he lost Constanze for good too, as she ran off with Franz.
With Mozart's sanity teetering on the edge, he delivered his final opera. The opening night of The Magic Flute brought a standing ovation from everyone except the Brotherhood. Unfortunately, Salieri had earlier encouraged Amadeus to embrace realism and include them in the play – a blunder of epic proportions!
For this mistake, Mozart paid a heavy price. The Brotherhood beat him down for adding them to the play and banished him from the theatre. Not long after, a masked figure arrived and told him he had 7 days to write his requiem. Of course, that masked figure was none other than Salieri himself.
Weak, broken, and alone, Mozart was on the brink of madness. Salieri was delighted to push him over the edge, determined to end Mozart's life no matter the cost.
