Summary
A satisfying finale answers every question and ties off every loose end to round out an excellent season of Nordic Noir.
This recap of The Chestnut Man season 1, episode 6 contains spoilers, as well as a discussion of The Chestnut Man’s ending. You can check out our spoiler-free season review by clicking these words.
While Hess makes his way back to Copenhagen, and Nylander leads the rest of the force on a desperate search for evidence that might lead them to Genz, aka Toke Bering, Thulin and Genz himself arrive at what seems to be Genz’s own hideout, having followed the trail of chestnuts back there. The place looks abandoned, except it’s fitted with new security cameras, and contains laptops, police tracking equipment, photographs of the victims… the whole nine. Suddenly, the penny drops. Thulin holds him at gunpoint, but Genz is able to knock her out with chloroform. We have a finale, folks.
The Chestnut Man season 1, episode 6 recap
Rosa remains missing, but we know she’s on her way to the same location Thulin and Genz are at. Steen and Gustav arrive at the station, while Nylander reels off the evidence discovered at Genz’s place to Hess. Most of it is irrelevant, though it strings together a few dots regarding how Genz was able to stay one step ahead of everyone, but the crucial pieces of intel are that he was surveilling someone unknown, and using an old picture of Astrid as a bookmark. German newspapers visible in the camera shot are the only information about who Genz is watching; the photograph prompts Hess to look up the Chestnut Farm, which is the place Genz has been using as his base of operations.
Speaking of which, Rosa arrives there and is greeted by Genz. As she frantically looks around the house, shouting for Kristine, Genz explains how he bought this place right around the time she started popping up on TV, the irony of her being the minister for social affairs being a particularly cruel one for him. He gives her a tour of the place, explaining what his foster family used each room for, including the dining room, which was reserved for special guests. And they have one — Thulin. Genz tries to get Rosa to make chestnut men with him, and then sing the song with him, but eventually, he gets frustrated and stabs her through the hand. Next, we wants to show her where he and Astrid stayed.
When Rosa wakes up, she’s strapped to a table in a basement. Genz is now wearing surgical scrubs and using the circular saw, he begins to cut through one of her hands just as Hess arrives at the farm. Thulin is bound in the bath upstairs, trying to free herself, and Genz is able to get the jump on Hess. Realizing that Hess has tipped off Nylander, Genz prepares to burn the place down while Hess tries to reason with him, but to no avail. Thulin is able to free herself, though, and retrieve Genz’s gun from the car, but as she tries to re-enter the house he knocks her out and drags her away. Genz sets the building on fire as he leaves, with Hess and Rosa still trapped in the basement. All the chestnut men inside begin to burn.
Hess is able to get himself and Rosa out of the basement by sawing through the window bars, but it’s a close call. He sprints into the woods after Genz’s departing car. He catches up just as a fight between Thulin and Genz brings the car to a standstill. Genz races towards Hess, and he futilely puts a few rounds in the car’s direction, but Thulin grabs the wheel, sending it careering off the road and into the trees, where it promptly catches fire. Genz has been impaled on a tree branch in the crash. As he dies, Thulin and Hess beg him to reveal Kristine’s location, but he dies before he can. Luckily, though, his phone rings. Whoever’s on the other end — presumably Astrid — hears the sirens in the background and promptly removes the SIM card from her phone, chopping it up with scissors.
Nylander confirms it’s Astrid in the house, and that’s who Genz was keeping surveillance on, though nobody has seen a child there. Despite that, though, Rosa and Steen are still present, holding out hope for Kristine’s survival. Astrid is quickly arrested, and when Hess asks her where Kristine is, she asks if Toke is dead. He confirms he is, and she tells him to tell Kristine’s parents that she did everything she could. Inside the house, Thulin and Hess find a child’s bedroom, and together, look under the bed. From Rosa and Steen’s perspective, we see them leave the house — with Kristine.
With the case closed, Thulin takes her new job, and Hess prepares to leave for Bucharest. As a parting gift, Le has updated her family tree to include him. And Linus Bekker is not only released but entitled to generous compensation thanks to how much time he served after being wrongly convicted. As he drops the newspaper he’s reading on the ground — Genz has made the front page — he walks out into the world a free man.
You can stream The Chestnut Man season 1, episode 6 exclusively on Netflix. If you have any thoughts on The Chestnut Man’s ending, let us know in the comments.
