Bridgend: The Bridge Season 2, Episodes 9 and 10

The Bridge Series 2: Episodes 8 and 9

Wow.  Is there a better thing on TV?

Following Martin (Kim Bodnia) and Saga’s (Sofia Helin) appearances on various media outlets this week, the acting of the pair and particularly of Sofia is even more astonishing.  How do the Scandinavians keep coming out with fantastic shows like this?  And with such great actors?

I still think that one of the greatest things about these dramas, like The Killing before it, they don’t do happy endings.  There is no need to go for the incredibly annoying Hollywood ending at the end of everything that the Americans so often do.  Yes it can be bleak and depressing, but it is much more powerful and more realistic.

Red herrings certainly must be a speciality in the Nordic countries, because I think pretty much everyone in the series was under suspicion at some point.  We ended last week finding out that Oliver had been responsible for shooting Laura and that the fake access card used in the pharmacutical company had been found in security head and Borgen Greens leader Peter.  So that was us pretty much knew everything then?  Not a bit of it.

Rasmus reappeared several times in the last two episodes in an attempt to pick up the hero status that many predicted might happen (including me).  He was investigating on his own the case he had been thrown off last week.  Saga’s boss Hans got increasingly irritated at his appearances, although inadvertently, he did eventually stumble across something big.

Lennart Blomgren is found by the police in Thailand (still resplendent in Hawaiian shirt) and a video chat reveals that he had been involved in the trials that killed the 7 people found on the boat, but didn’t know they had died.

Viktoria completely loses it with Oliver and tells him how useless he is and that he should leave his copy of her house keys and go.  He almost does, then decides the sister he has done everything for needs to die – not before confessing to her that he had released the plague, poisoned people, killed Claudio and sunk the boat.  He then begins to suffocate her with a pillow.  Gertrud, his long suffering wife is watching on the CCTV Oliver had set up to perv on his sister and races to the rescue, killing Oliver with a blow to the head with a table lamp.  Saga and Martin arrive in the aftermath.  At least Viktoria’s bucket list is getting a bit more exciting!

Gertrud is able to show Saga the CCTV footage of what Oliver said and what happened so that she and her sister-in-law are in the clear.  He is also unearthed as “mother of 3”.

Jakob ended things with Saga, but by moving all his things out and waiting for Saga to phone to see what was going on.  Beautifully understated moving shot of Saga with tears rolling down her face after this.  Not overdone and not dwelled on.  Fantastic.

Saga and Martin manage to figure out that Oliver’s legacy involved a canister on a plane that was releasing the plague and managed to work it out in time so that disaster was averted.

As it looks as if the case is solved and Martin and Saga say goodbye to each other, Martin has an ill-advised go at speaking to Saga about her childhood and what happened with her sister after he had read the file.  Saga is mad and speeds off in her car.

A wounded Martin returns home to be told by his wife that she doesn’t love him anymore and wants him to move out.  After checking back into a hotel, he starts imagining Jens,  clearly blaming him for how this has panned out.  And not long after he thought he was over the Jens effect.  The penultimate episode ends with Saga realising that Oliver must have had help, so the case is back on!

Martin explains to Saga why he approached her about her sister and she seems to forgive him.  She also says she committed a crime and stitched up her parents for it to get her sister out.  She tells Martin it hurt more what he did than when Jakob left and this was because she realised he was her only friend.  Awwww.  He tells her about him and Mette and she tells him that she is surprised he didn’t see it coming as “you have previous experience with divorce”.

So it was Gertrud who was an evil genius who mainly killed Oliver so Viktoria stayed alive to give her speech at the summit, complete with virus inside her that would kill all the environment ministers in attendance to highlight their lack of results.

Saga and Martin raced to the rescue, and it was Pernille who traced her to one of the toilets in the hotel she was in, but stayed in the toilet too long and was exposed to the virus as Viktoria started to bleed.  After Viktoria had died, Pernille decided to end it quicker by shooting herself before the men in bio suits could get in.

Martin had finally resisted his womanising ways with the offer of whatever he wanted on a plate from Pernille  and then his wife asks him to leave and then Pernille dies.  The moral of the story?  Be a womaniser.

We see Gertrud filming a video explaining why she did it when a mysterious man in the shadows enters the room and tells her it had failed.  And then shoots her.

When we think it all done and dusted, the news breaks that Jens has died in prison and Saga goes and finds the cup Martin had put in the bin earlier.  She confronts him at his hotel and tells him she knows.  The series ends with Martin being taken away by the police and he stares at Saga, who is outside, as he gets taken away in the polis car.  In the rain.

So series 3 is being written, we will, I’m sure, be exploring who the man in the shadows is, but what of Martin?  Will Saga go and visit him in prison to discuss the case?  Will things resume when he gets out?  Will he somehow get off?  Is it just another huge red herring and he didn’t do it?  Will it be too long before it comes back on TV?  I only know the answer to the last question, which is yes.

Thank you BBC4.  Looking forward to Salamander next week, but it has very big shoes to fill.

Issues:

• I thought Rasmus should have been at least suspended last week.  How he was able to carry on an investigation on his own and keep interfering is beyond me.
• Was there anyone who didn’t think Martin had done Jens in when he had gone missing then shiftily put something in the bin?
• I’d put money on it that Martin didn’t say “I’ll be damned” as per the translation.
• Blood appears to translate as “bleuh”.
• Marcus Stenberg said he didn’t recognise Oliver, even though he had dated his sister.  Plot hole? Lie? Changed a lot?
• Finally some proper emotion from Hans!
• The pathologist surely must be an Italian?
• It would seem the Hilton outbid the Radisson this week for featured hotel, although Martin’s budget hotel got a brief appearance.
• Strange how all the banners outside the EU summit were all in English.
• Those Ikea lamps are a lot sturdier than I realised.
• If only it would “go back to the beginning”.
• Will women finally stop going to the toilet in pairs now?
• I took a minute to recognise Jakob.  Whether this was because he had shaved off all his facial hair or because he actually had clothes on is open to debate.
• Will the success of The Bridge mean that they will be able to afford curtains in Season 3?  They might not be able to take the lamp back if it has blood stains on it.