Nordic Noir TV Review // The Bridge, Series 2 – Episodes 7 + 8
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Starring Sofia Helin as Saga
Noren and Kim Bodnia as Martin Rhodes
If you’ve been following
closely from the very beginning of the series a lot of answers are either given
or hinted at with pointy lecturer sticks in this week’s penultimate double
bill. As ever, it’s always a pleasure to watch The Bridge.
Following the cliff hanger
of last week’s episodes, we find out that the less than slightly disgruntled
(or just opportunistic) sailor who sank the boat containing seven corpses is
after money. 100,000 kroner in fact from its owner, who claims no knowledge of
the seven corpses it contained. Perhaps it’s all a ruse, perhaps it’s a red
herring to keep us from the truth – but it does begin the seventh part in an
entertaining manner.
Said sailor, Ramon Balski
is soon found dead a barrel of potassium hydroxide. Can you see the pattern?
Barrels of chemical substance, guns, sex, CCTV and murder are all dominant
themes of recent episodes, with CCTV in particular adding a few scenes of
interest here. I’ve said previously that Viktoria’s plotline seems distant from
the narrative at hand but this week it comes firmly into play as we finally
discover she is CEO and majority stake holder of Medisonus, the company where
the substances so far used in attacks has been sourced from, possibly…
With that knowledge in
hand, and the rather creepy discovery that her brother Oliver has rigged up her
house with CCTV and one point masturbates as she undresses, unaware she is
being watched from across the street by
her brother. Oliver certainly isn’t looking to get into anyone’s good books it
seems, and after eves dropping on Viktoria’s conversations with Bodil and
catching the two of them having sex calls off the planned book in a fit of
jealous (?) rage. Coincidently, that bucket list of hers isn’t getting any more
interesting, sleeping with a woman being ticked off with aplomb tonight.
Bodil, meanwhile is
disowned by her sister Caroline when she discovers one of her husband’s phones
and restores the texts that reveal their affair. All is certainly not well in
love and war here! But did you expect sunshine in The Bridge? No. Relationship
wise, Saga is still over thinking things suggesting to her very patient
boyfriend Jakob that she gets a room of her own where she alone can enter to
get space. (Something akin to a Mind Palace perhaps?!) Quite correctly, his response
to this early morning declaration from Saga is incredulous. One prediction is
that this is not going to end well, Jakob may well love her but is Saga really
the kind of person who would let herself get caught up in relationships for too
long?
Her conversation with
Jakob’s mother went predictably ( and bitter-sweet funnily) badly and it would
be a shame if the writers did the predictable thing with this storyline. Martin’s
discovery that Saga’s mother had the previously mentioned Munchausen by proxy
certainly adds fuel to Saga’s claim that her parents were “no good for her” and
when Martin later questions her about her past she is very cagey. Perhaps not without
reason?
Rasmus, the slightly
annoying one, gets reassigned after his doctoring of evidence documents a few
episodes back and he’s not happy. But that’s what you get for changing evidence
isn’t it? His loss doesn’t phase Saga, but the rest of the team are visibly
shaken by the loss of a team member – to her confusion, of course. It’s seems
that Saga’s personality can’t be pushed much further in it’s out spoken and
emotionally unfeeling – what will she decide to do about the realisation that
is dawning on her face rather obviously next week? I can’t wait to find out!
Martin is back where the décor
is more aesthetically pleasing now he’s moved back in with Mette, and Nikolaj
is back home. The surface feeling looks good – but what did those shots of
Mette going to the smoking room and staring outside mean?
But the case development
is also first rate, with the mysterious Lennart Blomgren discovered to be
living in Thailand and not as dead as his wife would have everyone believe.
Meanwhile, after so much happening to her, poor Laura wakes from her unconsciousness
and gives the sketch artist a very good likeness of Oliver…
Thus far this series has
been just as excellent as its predecessor and in many ways much more plausible.
With the golden touch of developing the leads’ characters expertly, series
writer Hans Rosenfeldt is creating another classic in Nordic Noir television.
Next week is the big finale and with the big question of just who Mother Of
Three is and why the nasty looking experiments we see fleetingly are going on
it looks set to be a gripping moment of true event television…
Oh,
and doesn’t Salamander look good?
Reviewed by Sebastian
Gahan. Image ©BBC
