Summary
Wallander finally reaches the suspect, but much more is afoot than anyone realized, and the case doesn’t end there.
This recap of Young Wallander season 1, episode 3 contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
Check out our spoiler-free season review.
Wallander is a little worse for wear as Young Wallander episode 3 opens. He’s cut up and unconscious following the beating he received at the end of the previous episode, having little flashbacks to all he’s experienced so far. Naturally, he goes to see Mona, now presumably his personal medic, and she can’t turn him away because it’d defeat the purpose of running a refuge. That refuge, by the way, is run by Gustav Munck, though are we really expected to believe that this show, in particular, is going to cast a billionaire as an altruistic savior? I think not.
Wallander tells Hemberg that he thinks the grenadier was living at the refuge. Naturally, he’s worried about the optics if the press gets hold of it. Wallander’s next job is to contact the Munck Foundation and find out the new location of the asylum seekers, to see if he can meet someone who knew the suspect.
Loyalty is emerging as a theme in Young Wallander episode 3 since Ibra refuses to give up Bash in the same way that Mona refuses to give up any asylum seekers. Wallander’s teaming up with Rask to meet with Munck while Hemberg — who told Rask about Wallander getting stabbed by the suspect, not a random during the march — deals with the prosecutor. Time is rapidly running out for Ibra.
Gustav Munck plays a convincing part. He’s worried about the project being put in jeopardy by negative press, but his brother, Karl-Axel (Jacob Collins-Levy), is a bit more forthcoming with information. Gustav promises to give them the address, but he does make a point of warning Wallander away from Mona. Wonder what’s going on there?
It’s Mona who shows them around the temporary shelter. “You’d think this country wouldn’t need handouts from a billionaire to help these people,” says Wallander, a beacon of subtlety. Wallander interviews various immigrants, but none have anything worth hearing to say. Rask eventually pulls him away to tell him that Rickard Lundgren, Hugo’s father, is threatening the boy’s football coach. She wants Wallander to handle that since Rickard knows him and they can’t be seen strong-arming a grieving father. Rickard thinks Hugo picked up all his bad habits from his coach, and he wants him to pay for it as some kind of justice since he isn’t going to get it the conventional way. “You can’t prosecute them. People will think we’re discriminatory. There is no justice anymore.” Wallander convinces him to return home to his wife, whose eyes are bloodshot and face is bruised. When he asks if there’s anything he can do to help her, she says no. I’ve got a few ideas.
When Wallander returns to the station, Bash is there giving Ibra an alibi. Hemberg isn’t thrilled since they’re losing a suspect, but I think everyone involved knew Ibra wasn’t guilty — not of killing Hugo, anyway.
Wallander enjoys a rainy date with Mona, with whom he discusses the maddening, circuitous nature of the job, but the little moments — such as Ibra getting off — that make it all worthwhile. Another one that probably qualifies is Reza beginning to wake up, which a doctor tells Jasmine while Wallander just happens to be present. Next news, the Nazi who stomped Reza is in the station — he’s a seemingly normal, married family man, an estate agent, but disgustingly smug. Let’s hope something awful happens to him.
Wallander looks into the Norse Protection League to which this man belongs and finds a message board on which a user named “WhiteWash” seems to be organizing and planning everything; Wallander suspects it might be an attack on the Muncks since both the estate and the church were overseen by the Foundation.
Speaking of which, Yara, the pregnant immigrant Wallander interviewed the day before, has failed to attend a hospital appointment, which is out of the ordinary since the immigrants lose their healthcare as a consequence. Wallander immediately suspects the child’s father. In her belongings, he finds a receipt for medication for acid reflux. The shop it’s from is miles away, so that’s where Wallander heads next. As he’s on the way, Hemberg calls to let him know that she used her phone and her location has been traced, so he sends Wallander the coordinates. He’s led into the middle of a dense woodland where he finds Yara near a little campfire. He hides behind a nearby tree as she’s reunited with her baby father, who just so happens to be the grenadier, Zemar. Panicking, he pulls a gun. Wallander lets him know — through Yara, who’s translating — that he got his message. He knows he had no choice, and that whatever he did he did for his family. Zemar finally confesses that a man “with power” blackmailed him into doing it under threat of deportation. “We go h-h-home, we d-die,” Zemar stammers, as subtle as ever. Eventually, he drops the gun and surrenders.
But things don’t go well for him. As he’s being escorted into the station, he’s shot by a sniper. Fair play to the show here — at least that whistle-crack sound effect sounded cool.
Thanks for reading our recap of Young Wallander season 1, episode 3.
