The Breakthrough has an ending that’s a little like releasing a long-held intake of breath. It isn’t the usual kind of crime drama tension, I’ll grant you that. But the Swedish Netflix series from Lisa Siwe uses Episode 4, “A Lonely Person”, to give its tormented characters a reprieve. It isn’t about catching the killer – although the killer is, finally, caught – but about lifting the weight of grief and responsibility so that closure can be found. And it works, or at least it worked for me.
It is worth mentioning at this stage that while The Breakthrough is based on a true story, the characters in the Netflix series are fictional, or at least fictional interpretations of real people who were involved in the case (still the second-largest investigation in Swedish criminal history). So, yes, there is a little bit of made-for-TV gloss to the finale that is perhaps more neat and tidy than it was in reality. In a broad sense, though, the details match up, especially regarding how the killer was caught. The more personal outcomes are the fiction.
David Nilsson Is Arrested for the Murders Of Adnan and Gunilla
Thanks to Per’s revolutionary genealogical techniques and the almost random DNA swabbing of the journalist, Stina, who almost ruined John’s career when she published his personal conversations with her, the police finally get a breakthrough in the case.
Stina is genetically linked to two men already in the directory – brothers David and Stefan Nilsson. Stina is their cousin. The match helps Per to isolate the potential suspects down to these two brothers, and since Stefan is a happily married family man, John pushes for an arrest warrant for David.
I should note that I don’t exactly understand how Per’s methodology works, but it’s compared multiple times to a game of Hangman, so I suppose the best way of looking at it is by considering the Stina connection to be another letter filled in. It’s still a process of elimination but from a much narrower pool.
David turns out to be guilty. There’s nothing unique or special about him. He is clearly mentally ill and claims that he killed Adnan and Gunilla because a voice in his head told him to, but he spared Karin and claimed no more victims in the intervening years because he only needed two. Fair enough. In reality, the real killer – who had the same justification – was sentenced to psychiatric care indefinitely, but The Breakthrough doesn’t go into much detail about what happens to David after the arrest.
John Finally Moves On
Mattias Nordkvist in The Breakthrough | Image via Netflix
Where I felt the ending of The Breakdown really excelled was in the depiction of how John, Kjell, and Adnan’s family deal with the news of David’s arrest. Towards the end of Episode 4, John visits them in turn to share the news, and it’s a sobering reminder of how long these people have lived with the specters of their loved ones, unable to let them go.
The conversation with Kjell is briefer and more subtle, not far away from wordlessness. Saad, Elena, and Maya are a little more open. They discuss the particulars of the case and Per asks a little about Adnan. The description of the young boy is achingly earnest, as is Saad’s claim that he’ll never quite be able to move on from his loss. The knowledge that his killer has been brought to justice, though, certainly helps. Saad gives John Adnan’s watch as a parting gift, and we also learn that the couple have called their youngest daughter Gunilla, after the woman who lost her life trying to save their son.
John also meets with his son, Henry, and apologizes for how distant he has been throughout much of his life. He’s hoping they can spend some more time together in the future, and Henry suggests they go diving. He also congratulates his father on cracking the case.
Fact and Fiction Come Together
In a nice little meta note, The Breakthrough ends with Stina visiting Per and pitching a book to him. Her connection to David Nilsson – she even has a picture taken of them both during childhood – has made her curious about DNA and how it can be used to solve crimes; she wants to know what went so wrong that the happy child in the photograph grew up to be a killer. And it’ll take more than an article to get to the bottom of it.
Of course, The Breakthrough is based on the same-titled nonfiction book by Anna Bodin and Peter Sjolund. The character of Stina is an analog for Bodin, while Sjolund was the inspiration for Per, so this is a nice little meta flourish that gives the fictional interpretation a closer relationship to its real-life counterpart.
