As the winter storms set in, and the predatory Elsa sets her sights on more victims, with Sheriff Dan now completely tonto, killing witnesses and cops to cover up the murder of Governor Munk, who is left to protect the town of Fortitude?
Certainly Dan’s story has ricocheted off at a new tangent; up until now, his killings were mainly justifiable and sane; but the deaths of Lars, Myklebust and Torsten are unjustifiable, and testify amply to Dan’s madness (as if cuddling up to Dr Khatri’s incinerated corpse weren’t enough evidence).
We speculated last week that Elsa must be in Fortitude with knowledge of Khatri’s work on regeneration, and now we see she and Boyd searching the wreck of the helicopter for Khatri’s files. Elsa has been directing Khatri’s work all along.
Boyd has Michael in mind as Elsa’s next donor/victim. As they dance to The Bill Evans Trio playing Stairway to the Stars, she reveals that she was in New York when it was recorded – that would be 1962. So that would make her about, what, 80 years old?
How would Elsa feel if she knew that Natalie has kept a sample parasitic wasp, and that Vincent was using it to try to restore her sight? In a cringe-making moment, Vincent induces the wasp to sting Natalie’s eyeball.
Meanwhile, Dan and Petra are indulging in dangerously stabby shamanic sex (don’t try this at home, kids), which demonstrates his seeming invulnerability.
Elsa (revivified and looking about 30) chats up Michael by the simple expedient of buying him booze and flattering him, then Boyd kidnaps him. Would Michael, though, be a very good candidate for spinal fluid donation, seeing as how his blood must be mostly alcohol?
Ingrid lectures the oblivious Eric on his failure to deal with Dan’s transformation and the way he has enthralled Petra; then the bodies of Lars, Myklebust and Torsten are discovered.
Eric, of course, summons Dan, who imagines a conversation with dead Hildur Odegard (so is this how come Sofie Grabol is in the credits? – or is there more to it than that?)
Dan’s set-up appears initially convincing – it looks as if Lars shot the cops, and was killed himself. But Torsten may still be alive. When new governor Markus turns up and tramples all over the crime scene, Petra sees a chance to finish him off.
Elsa returns to the bar to look for Dan, who is treating himself to the raw meat special; maybe he would be a better donor than Michael. But Dan knows perfectly well that Elsa is behind the Schenthal pharmaceutical company, bankrolled Khatri’s experiments, and tried to capture Dan himself. In fact, Elsa admits that she was infected by the wasps 73 years previously – only Elsa and Dan have survived, of the 19 people infected.
Elsa explains that Dan will need spinal fluid from live donors to avoid personality decay, madness, decrepitude and death; well, he’s half-way there already, so none of this should come as news to him. But how and why does Elsa propose to help him?
Michael is tied up ready to be drained, but Boyd foolishly fails to search him, and he cuts himself free with a Swiss army knife (is there a little continuity error here? – he seems to open a file, but finally cuts himself free with a blade).
After a bloody fight, Michael shoots Boyd and escapes – but is Boyd dead? (well, if Torsten could survive being shot point blank in the chest with a hunting rifle, which should have left a hole the size of a fist through his chest, maybe Boyd could also survive being blasted through a window with a shotgun).
So, will Elsa be exposed as the vampire she resembles? Will Dan be accused of the three murders in Lars’ shack? And can Natalie survive the wasp madness and make some sort of recovery? All this and more next week, along with the real possibility that we’ll see a bit more of Hildur – but in the real world or on the spirit plane, who knows?
Chris Jenkins
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Despite its trappings of shamanism, Fortitude is in fact a good old Christian allegory – if you want any more proof than the regular references to a ‘second coming’and ‘miracles’ and Munk’s description of Dan’s actions as ‘a blessing’, you just have to look at Dan’s stigmata. Mind you, the nail-holes in his palms have healed up nicely under the influence of the wasps. But though he’s now in good standing, having brought in the body of Vladek, Dan’s clearly off his rocker, has confessed to Petra that he killed Elena, and was last seen nibbling bits of the dead Hildur. It seems he’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy.
If there’s an unstated theme to this season of Fortitude, it’s communication – or rather the lack of it. Everyone is keeping secrets or avoiding the truth in some way, and no good ever comes of it – only when the full picture is revealed can the evil be halted. 
Now that Munk has been unveiled as a dyed-in-the-wool villain, we can’t help thinking he’s next for the chop – but who will get to him first? The blind hunter, the barmy shaman, or his mysterious (and presumably Russian) masters?
The Killing Times 