Detective Forst Season 1 Ending Explained – Who is the Beast of Giewont?

By Jonathon Wilson
Published: January 12, 2024 (Last updated: January 17, 2024)
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Detective Forst Season 1 Ending Explained
Detective Forst | Image via Netflix
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Summary

The season finale isn’t short of drama, but is light on closure, mostly functioning as a tease for Season 2 by living everything unresolved.

As in any good international crime drama, the ending of Detective Forst provides the big confrontation between the maverick detective and the sadistic serial killer. In this case, though, Season 1 Episode 6 leaves things largely unresolved to set up a potential second season, at least if fans take to this bleak wintry thriller enough to be interested in such a thing.

While not short of drama, the finale is light on closure, leaving Forst himself to take the blame for the crimes of the so-called Beast of Giewont.

Who is The Beast of Giewont?

Despite Forst himself being the prime suspect for a good chunk of the series, even ending the season that way, the real Beast of Giewont is Iwo Elijah, otherwise known as the husband of Prosecutor Dominika Waldrys-Hansen. As it turns out, all those flights he was rushing off to catch weren’t business trips.

As is always the case in such things, Iwo has a personal connection to Forst. The two grew up together in the same orphanage operated by Halina Sznajderman. Forst was adopted and Iwo was rejected because of Forst’s actions, driving him mad with a need for revenge. He was further molded into a monster by Halina’s abuse.

Why does Halina want revenge?

It’s established early on that the victims are all connected by their relatives, and Halina is central to this since she’s the daughter – conceived through rape – of former Nazi Leon Lowotarski, who has run a mountaintop brothel since the end of WWII.

As is the way of Nazis, the group, headed by Lowotarski, carved a swathe of tortures, executions, and abuses into the Tatra mountains. Halina’s mother was the only survivor, surviving long enough to give birth, but dying later. Halina ran the orphanage and the Mountain Remembrance Foundation and groomed Iwo into a weapon of vengeance to turn against Lowotarski and his surviving collaborators.

Does Forst stop Iwo?

Iwo is a bit of a freestyler, though, and ends up going after the descendants of those collaborators in very elaborate ways, drawing a lot of attention to himself. Through Lowotarski he learns who Halina really is and kills her too, still desperate for a final showdown with Forst.

After killing Osica’s daughter Agata and Staszek, Iwo gets his wish. The two men fight and are left badly injured. However, by the time the police arrive, he is nowhere to be seen, and Forst remains the prime suspect in the killings.

How does Detective Forst Season 1 end?

At the end of the season, we get a teasing glimpse of Iwo, alive but injured, being driven away by… Olga, of all people.

At this point, it’s unclear whether Olga perhaps took Iwo captive after he killed Nina, or if she has been working with him all along and spirited him to safety. If there’s a deeper connection between the two, it remains unclear for now.

With Dominika trying to protect her family and image by announcing Forst as the serial killer during a press conference, things are left very much unfinished by the end of the season.

What did you think of Detective Forst Season 1 Episode 6 and the ending? Let us know in the comments.


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