Saga’s recovering in hospital after being stabbed by Elsa (Linda Kunze) following her acquittal; as Henrik explains, her erstwhile ‘friend’ thought doing so would somehow make her stay. Henrik doesn’t think Saga should go back to work immediately, but – inevitably – she disagrees, and is soon up and about again. Long-time viewers will love the scene in which Saga ditches her iconic Porsche’s dust covers and takes it for its first post-release spin, with a smile of pure joy on her face. There are telltale signs that she’s struggling, but it isn’t until later in the episode that the repressed panic and fear comes bubbling to the surface. Helin is, as always, absolutely superb in her portrayal of Saga’s multifaceted personality. The investigation into the brutal stoning to death of Margrethe Thormod continues, but matters are complicated with the revelation that prime suspect Taariq Shirazi (Alexander Behrang Keshtkar) – the Iranian refugee fleeing persecution – is, as the detectives learn during his interrogation, a decent man who was, he claims, being secretly assisted by Margrethe. Her suppressed resentment at having to make what she felt to be cruel decisions as head of the Danish immigration service was assuaged in private by acts of kindness to those whose deportation she’d ordered; before her death, she was engaged in finding a new identity for the unfortunate Taariq. His encounter with two teenage girls who gave him a stolen mobile phone as thanks for rescuing them from a beating does him no favours initially when the phone reveals an incriminating link to the Thormod case, but when forensics discover two sets of small prints on the device, a whole new line of inquiry opens up. As always with The Bridge, the complicated multi-plotting technique favoured by Rosenfeldt and Ahlgren is really starting to work its compelling magic. The house recommended to desperate mother and son Sofie and Christoffer (Lisa Linnertorp and Erik Lönngren) by her distinctly sinister colleague Frank (Anders Mossling) turns out to be in a rather forbidding village. Something tells me that this place won’t turn out to be the refuge they so desperately need. We’re lulled into a false sense of security early on by the revelation that Richard Dahlqvist’s beating was at the hands of the disgruntled boyfriend of the woman his twin Patrik (played, like his brother, by the excellent Pontus T. Pagler) picked up while pretending to be him on a night out. A detour into Patrik’s work as a children’s entertainer at a hospital is played for laughs when he inadvertently upsets a young patient with chronic coulrophobia (God, I’ll miss this show). The luckless clown makes his excuses and leaves, but it’s another of his assumed identities that proves to be his undoing when a shadowy figure – a member of the terrorist group Red October, perhaps – electrocutes him in his brother’s outdoor hot tub in what appears to be a case of mistaken identity. In previous series, this has always been the point in The Bridge’s rich narrative web at which red herrings and misdirection started to build up into a satisfying knot, ready to be pulled apart with characteristic decisiveness by our favourite duo. Our new mystery looks set to be no exception, and it’s a treat to watch. Read Gem’s review of the previous episode here.
