Netflix’s Tore Season 1 is a striking Swedish dramedy that plays the usual expected beats of the genre but also provides an unusually wrenching examination of grief and loss. Billed as a rival to something like Sex Education, it’s really a deeper series than that, which is exemplified by an ending that settles for the title character, taking merely the first step on a long road to healing.
The plot revolves around the titular Tore, a young man who is very dependent on his father and is left utterly adrift when an accident with a garbage truck wrests his role model away. But it ends with Tore, after six episodes of debauchery and uncertainty, finally taking a positive step to regain some control of his life and allowing his grief for his father to healthily manifest in freeing torrents of tears.
It takes Tore a long while to get to this point, and the path there is very winding. He is introduced through Viggo to sex, drugs, and partying, and through Erik to the notion of real romantic companionship. Tore’s relationship with Erik forms one of the series’ most essential questions.
Do Tore and Erik end up together?
Tore is immediately besotted by Erik, a florist who wants to start a family with an unwilling partner. They bond over their shared confusion in convenient driving lessons that may not be intended as a metaphor for being at a crossroads in their lives but can certainly be interpreted as such.
But there’s the old saying, “Hurt people, hurt people,” to consider. Tore and Erik are at very different stages of their lives; they understand themselves to varying degrees. Erik implicitly understands that what he’s getting from Tore is essentially a distraction; a less kind way of putting it would be that he’s a rebound.
This is somewhat selfish but hardly makes Erik a villain. Tore is a part of his own personal journey, a means by which he can realize where he is in his own life. And he’s able to recognize that continuing the relationship wouldn’t be fair on Tore.
So, no, Erik and Tore do not end up together, but their separation is ultimately good for both of them.
Why does Linn fake her death?
Tore’s youth and naivete make him essentially incapable of processing his grief. So, he does the natural thing and flees from it. He tries to lose himself to drugs and sex. More crucially, he pushes away anyone or anything that might become a source of more trauma. He hands his faithful dog MJ to another family and continuously rejects his supportive best friend, Linn.
Linn tries to make a point about how Tore’s self-destruction is not confined to the self by feigning her death. This is, we can all be honest here, a terrible idea. But, again, it’s not Linn being a villain, but a desperate hero, a true friend who feels she has reached a point where nothing else she can do will work.
Tore, predictably, takes the deception terribly, leading him to make even more bad, deceptive decisions. It is only through the unexpected support of Shady Meat that Tore can resolve to repair the relationships he has damaged.
Does Tore get MJ back?
Reconciling with Linn, Tore enlists her help in stealing MJ from the family who subsequently refused to give him back. She makes for a nice distraction, but the real purpose is to remind Tore that there are people he loves who will love him in return; and that he needs this love to cope with the loss of his father.
Tore ends with the title character finally entering his father’s room and letting the grief flow as freely as his tears. He knows he has support around him, love in his life, and more of that life to live. And, perhaps most important of all, he has his dog back.
