Note : Unfortunately our intrepid editor Paul was taken ill this weekend, meaning he couldn’t complete his review on this episode of The Bridge. Whilst he’s currently on the mend, he’s asked me to throw together some of my thoughts about the show. I‘m sure you’ll join me in wishing Paul a speedy recovery. Get well soon!
It was another seriously chunky episode of The Bridge this weekend and now we’re in the final straight with only three (!) episodes left, the plot was thicker than ever with multiple suspects, motives and shenanigans swirling around. Rather than go for the linear approach of a normal recap, I’ve picked out some key scenes and occurrences that stuck in my (admittedly inebriated at the time) memory as we try and piece together what is going on.
The Village (Or, What I Did On My Summer Holidays by Christoffer)
Hands up who had little to no sympathy to see the demise of taxi cab rapist and all-round bad dad Dan Brolund, as he took one straight to the jugular from his own son’s rifle. Accidental or not, the killing was loudly telegraphed toward the end of the previous episode so wasn’t as impactful as maybe the scriptwriters would have hoped. In fact, the scenes preceding this were the more chilling, from the heavy implication of his sexual assault on Sofie to his subsequent attempted kidnapping of her straight after. The tension was absolutely excruciating so thanks to the silver-haired matriarch Harriet for stepping in and dismantling his toxic masculinity with one of her trademark withering gazes and choice words. I even let out a little cheer for her bravery, despite being still ambivalent towards her deeper motives going forward. But it seems to be straight out of the frying pan and into the fire for poor Sofie, as Frank cajoled her into moving in with him after he’d just finished rolling her ex-husband’s corpse into a river with a cold detachment that suggested it wasn’t his first time dealing with such matters. Sofie knows Frank controls not only her continuing existence at the village, but also the narrative around Christoffer’s fate – two reasons to suggest things will not bode well for the mother and son in the future.
The discovery of Dan’s taxi on the periphery of the village gave us our first opportunity to see Henrik interact with its inhabitants, which if you’re following a certain fan theory about where his daughters ended up, was key. Certainly Frank tripped over his surname like it was a metal doorstop before untidily covering it up and adding Saga’s. It was also telling that Astrid was nowhere to be seen during this part of the investigation, having slunk off to console a shaken Christoffer in his moment of need. Comic relief was supplied in abundance by Saga having a philosophical debate with a bemused Harriet about the chances of successfully creating Utopia, but overall the investigation into the village is a dead end – for now.
Horsing Around
Poor Lillian. Despite being Copenhagen’s best-dressed police commissioner, she can’t even have a food truck non-date with her new beau and a quick nibble on a hot sausage before a plot twist lands on her doorstep and she has to elegantly leg it back to police HQ to drop the bombshell – a public prosecutor’s beloved thoroughbred horse was gassed to death and film recovered of the incident indicates it’s the same camera used in the horrific footage of William Ramberg’s daughter being injected. Sure enough, a rummage through Richard Dahlqvist’s spam filter conveniently finds footage from the same camera of his brother Patrik’s hot-tub electrocution, meaning the only murder without film to have appeared is the first – Margrethe Thormod’s stoning.
With gassing as a means of execution struck off the list (it’s safe to assume the firing squad method wasn’t Christoffer’s misplaced shot in the forest), we have three to go – or three victims still in the killer’s sights. But it’s not long before Saga is wrinkling her forehead in concentration and flipping the case once again – showing that each victim wasn’t the actual victim, but a target intended to cause pain and grief to the real victim – those still living. This revelation elicits a rare plaudit from grumpy Jonas (“That’s bloody brilliant!”) but means the case has to take a deeper look into the remaining survivors and it’s starting to shape up nicely in that area – a child psychologist, a journalist, a crime boss and a public prosecutor. Not to be outdone, Henrik spends a feverish night off his knockers on a combination of amphetamines and Google to produce a connecting player – Tommy. Who’s Tommy everyone immediately asks. Well, maybe he’s got something to do with this next bunch…
It’s My Party And I’ll Slap Who I Want To
Despite being dragged in on a fishing expedition by the police off the back of a dodgy photo-fit from everybody’s favourite sister vagrants Julia & Ida, Morgan Sonning was only able to confirm the initial frame of footage found on the horse film was that of him on his bike – but considering the phone was stolen in the first place there wasn’t much to keep him on. Instead he slunk off to ponderously look into the eyes of his brother’s child at his naming day party, and despite the myth of parentage and eye colour pretty much being debunked it didn’t stop him having words with Nicole, who it’s clear has a relatively fruity history with him. In fact, Nicole has a LOT of history behind her, not least in her flagrant abuse of hubby Tobias’s car lot, but when we got not one but two revelations on her past. First up, that creepy Kevin was her son, who was looking a lot perkier since his late night call to Henrik a few days prior to talk him down from taking drugs. We got a little of Kevin’s back story in that scene – which I have to say I don’t believe a word of, mainly because he’s a Manchester United fan – but it intimated his deceased father was a bit of criminal bastard. And his birth father was at the centre of another scene, when fiery grandma Solveig turned up at the party to accuse Nicole of belittling her late son’s memory before delivering a meaty slap to her face. Could Solveig’s son be Tommy? Only time will tell…
Loving You Is A Saga
Bubbling along in the background all episode was the ups and downs of our favourite detective couple. Starting the episode in a state of cohabiting happiness (almost), by the end it was all in tatters. Saga had gone to Malmö for an abortion without telling Henrik, and then in typical Saga fashion advised him of the fact without anticipating the emotional fallout. Maybe in Saga’s methodical mind she saw the arrival of a baby as a threat to their co-existence, or through her own past felt she was not capable to be a mother, but whatever the reason the impact on Henrik was catastrophic – kicking her out of the house despite her earnest protestations of love (which had me blubbing into my beer), and then he was straight back on the hard stuff before cracking the case wide open. Can these two ever be happy? And will it take one of them being in the cross-hairs of a killer to make them realise their love for each other?
Random Thoughts
Saga’s frankness about the pregnancy to the surprise of the psychologist had me laughing – you can imagine the doctor would have enough to write a book on Saga after these sessions.
A loving reference to Martin when Saga talks to Lillian at Hans’s grave. “Most people who’ve meant something to me have either died…or been lost in other ways”. BLUB!
Do we really believe Jonas is the leak? Sure he’s a casual racist, homophobe, objectifier of women and desk hog but he strikes me as being direct if he’s aggrieved. Plus he’s actually been almost civil with Saga these past two episodes. My money is on Linn.
It’s a fair bet that the murders are linked to Tommy and some form of old criminal case. If that’s true, I do wonder if Henrik was one of the participating officers – and therefore might be in the firing line so to speak.
The opening sequence in the aquarium was both beautifully-shot and very amusing as Saga and Henrik debated the breathing prowess of sharks.
Maybe it’s because I was traumatised by Leo in Twin Peaks as a child but I have a strong suspicion Kevin can walk.
Andy D
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